THe NAC Lots-O-BFG KO2 Thread

[H8PVMT]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

Depending on how much tuition is and your bank account I'd do day classes to finish sooner, get a better job sooner

 

[ktm racer 419]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

I think I'd be able to focus more on school if I took day classes too

 

[H8PVMT]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

In the turf industry school name is everything, when I was in school the only people getting offers went to penn st or umass Amherst (like I did) but also never underestimate the power of where you do your internship if necessary

I got an associates and bachelors in five years and lived all across the country destroying up to 700 acres of pristine hills and building golf courses from the ground up, then I got tired of working 80 hour weeks and took my current job for considerably less money but a way better quality of life, which to me is more important than money

 

[XJLI]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

I've got my BSME. My goal was to design things. I was looking for summer work my freshman year and ended up working doing odd jobs on computers for a school, I never planned on staying. Well the job market was so bad when I graduated college (that was the time they were laying off anything that breathed heavy) I couldn't find much. Long story short, that school gig ended up lasting and I worked my way up the ladder to my, now official, title of District Director of Technology. Which is why my post per day ratio has fast slowed down. Things weren't easy on the beginning with no funding and dumb politics, but if you keep at it you'll get somewhere. We've made leaps and bounds of far this place has come in tech world and next years is going to be insane with the new stuff. My biggest hurdle is unfounded state mandates, but that's another topic.

i'm still beyond jealous. schools around here suck anyway as far as job security.. but only if you're good at what you do. if you're a union guy who takes the whole day to install a door knob you'll be a shoe in.

 

[squashman702]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

Free Sox tickets for tonight kehd dudeguy!

 

[vetteboy]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

Maybe it's because we're a smaller company, but we couldn't give a shit less what school someone went to. We had about 6-7 candidates come through for the opening we filled in January and we barely gave that a passing glance on the resume. I understand if it's a monster company with hundreds of applicants for any one position that you gotta filter it somehow, but I wouldn't want to work for a company with that shortsighted of a view anyway.

Spending a shit-ton more on tuition and loans to maybe land a job that might pay $5-$10k/yr more seems dumb to me.

edit: When I say 'we' I mean our little division here in the US, but nationally in our other divisions and in this industry as a whole, school means nothing. You either know your shit or you don't, and those that don't, don't last very long at all. With the timetables these projects run on and the amount of money and resources that go into them (our new guy just had an order for $200k+ last week) we can't afford to do otherwise.

 

[chedisme]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

Ugh my boss wants me to restore his girlfriends Jk that she rolled. Ill post up the pic he sent me later when i get a chance. Dont think im going to do it. The thing looks totaled.

 

[RCman]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

i'm still beyond jealous. schools around here suck anyway as far as job security.. but only if you're good at what you do. if you're a union guy who takes the whole day to install a door knob you'll be a shoe in.

I'm not union, and won't be. I got lucky, but it wasn't easy getting here. Politics win with schools/towns and I don't do politics.

Up until a short while ago "I" was the "department." It'll be nice delegating the crap work and focusing on the cool stuff like Office 365 migration (which I'm pulling off next week and bringing our email into this decade), VOIP, finish the enterprise WLAN, tablets, fiber, etc. There is a whole ton of cool stuff I'm implementing these days.

 

[squashman702]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

Maybe it's because we're a smaller company, but we couldn't give a shit less what school someone went to. We had about 6-7 candidates come through for the opening we filled in January and we barely gave that a passing glance on the resume. I understand if it's a monster company with hundreds of applicants for any one position that you gotta filter it somehow, but I wouldn't want to work for a company with that shortsighted of a view anyway.

Spending a shit-ton more on tuition and loans to maybe land a job that might pay $5-$10k/yr more seems dumb to me.

edit: When I say 'we' I mean our little division here in the US, but nationally in our other divisions and in this industry as a whole, school means nothing. You either know your shit or you don't, and those that don't, don't last very long at all. With the timetables these projects run on and the amount of money and resources that go into them (our new guy just had an order for $200k+ last week) we can't afford to do otherwise.

If you're not looking for a candidate for an entry level opening, then I think the school plays a smaller role, but it could still be the foot in the door that you need to get the interview.

Hundreds of applicants could just be a bigger company- not sure why that makes the view short sighted? They have to be filtered somehow. You can't expect everyone to be given a shot. If you know a school has a more challenging/higher rated program, why wouldn't you give preference to that applicant? Again, referring mostly to entry level here. My company added a huge customer at the beginning of the year and there were openings for 60-70 managers. A couple of people do the intial screens and phone interviews for this area of the country- I doubt all applicants got a call back. Perfect example of when the well known school may help you get the interview.

I'm not advocating going into huge debt to get a better name on your degree. There are multiple ways around footing the full bill for a big name school. Again, have to look at the cost versus benefit by asking about average salaries, etc, but I wouldn't rule out the option based on cost alone.

 

[dukie564]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

Anyone here replaced valve seals? Tired of my truck puffing smoke out the back on upshifts and smelling like crap. Doesn't look too hard...

 

[ktm racer 419]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

the 1.5 year associates and 3 year bachelor program starting in July is enticing. I don't need to move out or anything either. its about a 35 minute commute. I wasted enough of my life on trying to make automotive work and now its just the same old shit almost every day. I just want to get something started sooner than later.

not having to move closer to school is a big plus. which rules out most big name schools. I'm not sure if you guys get the TV ads for porter and chester or Lincoln tech but I read reviews on them and every single one says they are in the business of robbing you. neit is pretty good across the board.

haven't even looked into ric or uri though...

 

[cmelo]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

If you're not looking for a candidate for an entry level opening, then I think the school plays a smaller role, but it could still be the foot in the door that you need to get the interview.

Hundreds of applicants could just be a bigger company- not sure why that makes the view short sighted? They have to be filtered somehow. You can't expect everyone to be given a shot. If you know a school has a more challenging/higher rated program, why wouldn't you give preference to that applicant? Again, referring mostly to entry level here. My company added a huge customer at the beginning of the year and there were openings for 60-70 managers. A couple of people do the intial screens and phone interviews for this area of the country- I doubt all applicants got a call back. Perfect example of when the well known school may help you get the interview.

I'm not advocating going into huge debt to get a better name on your degree. There are multiple ways around footing the full bill for a big name school. Again, have to look at the cost versus benefit by asking about average salaries, etc, but I wouldn't rule out the option based on cost alone.

Around here I've heard from multiple people that a lot of the jobs go to Northeastern kids almost exclusively. Top of their class kids get the best jobs and the rest kind of trickle down. Their program is huge and extremely well respected. My teacher is still involved with Northeastern and judges all the capstones every year, I guess their's like over a thousand kids are in it? Mark would know better. But the school also has a lot of co-op opportunity that gets you in the door a lot better to, companies(or at least one guy I talked to) uses their relationship with the school to get new smart kids in to their company.

 

[vetteboy]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

If you're not looking for a candidate for an entry level opening, then I think the school plays a smaller role, but it could still be the foot in the door that you need to get the interview.

Hundreds of applicants could just be a bigger company- not sure why that makes the view short sighted? They have to be filtered somehow. You can't expect everyone to be given a shot. If you know a school has a more challenging/higher rated program, why wouldn't you give preference to that applicant?

Actually it was an entry-level position we were filling.

And that's pretty much what I said; I understand how that process works. For me anyway (and I think probably Sam as well, but I could be wrong) I really have no interest in working for a large company. I don't do office politics well, nor do I deal well with middle management or big corporate structure. YMMV.

Our resume filtering was based on a lot of different criteria, moreso based on the type of projects & research that was done, as well as hobbies or interests. As I mentioned before, an engineering background helps a TON in this job and is a good starting point for looking at applicants, but it's by no means a strict engineering job and just being a very good engineer with a good GPA from a good school means very little on its own in this industry. The guy we ended up with did not have the best GPA in the applicant pool by far but just the overall feel from interviewing him is basically what got him the job, and he's done extremely well with it so far.

Just saying that if you're not afraid of landing outside the box a little, there are other opportunities out there. I was very different from most of my co-graduates in the way that I approached things, and I'm very glad that I did not end up at many of the jobs they wound up taking.

 

[sheepjeep]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

If you're not looking for a candidate for an entry level opening, then I think the school plays a smaller role, but it could still be the foot in the door that you need to get the interview.

Hundreds of applicants could just be a bigger company- not sure why that makes the view short sighted? They have to be filtered somehow. You can't expect everyone to be given a shot. If you know a school has a more challenging/higher rated program, why wouldn't you give preference to that applicant? Again, referring mostly to entry level here. My company added a huge customer at the beginning of the year and there were openings for 60-70 managers. A couple of people do the intial screens and phone interviews for this area of the country- I doubt all applicants got a call back. Perfect example of when the well known school may help you get the interview.

I'm not advocating going into huge debt to get a better name on your degree. There are multiple ways around footing the full bill for a big name school. Again, have to look at the cost versus benefit by asking about average salaries, etc, but I wouldn't rule out the option based on cost alone.

the only time i have seen people all happy for a schools name is for MIT, but their rep is as good as everyone says plus we spun out of MIT media labs, and for northeastern because one of the directors went there just nut slings it to everything northeaster. the interns we have hired from NE suck big time. other than that we could care less where you went as long as you go a degree in what we need and know your shit in the field we need

the 1.5 year associates and 3 year bachelor program starting in July is enticing. I don't need to move out or anything either. its about a 35 minute commute. I wasted enough of my life on trying to make automotive work and now its just the same old shit almost every day. I just want to get something started sooner than later.

not having to move closer to school is a big plus. which rules out most big name schools. I'm not sure if you guys get the TV ads for porter and chester or Lincoln tech but I read reviews on them and every single one says they are in the business of robbing you. neit is pretty good across the board.

haven't even looked into ric or uri though...

rule of thumb if you see an ad for it more than once a week and it is a for profit school do not go. we hired a bunch of people from ITT for a production ramp up, they all high huge debts and give you half assed education. from what i could tell from the skills of these people everything they learned was either because they self taught or they were smart but though they were too dumb to go to a real school or a 4 year program

 

[squashman702]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

Actually it was an entry-level position we were filling.

And that's pretty much what I said; I understand how that process works. For me anyway (and I think probably Sam as well, but I could be wrong) I really have no interest in working for a large company. I don't do office politics well, nor do I deal well with middle management or big corporate structure. YMMV.

Large company does not neccesarily mean office politics.

I work for a huge company (10k trucks on the road, plus the support system behind it) but the biggest office I've worked in so far with my company had 6 people in it, which was at my first location. My other offices were just me at three of the locations, and I managed a supervisor and an admin at the fourth. Each account operates like it's own business. My division is very much in the field and based around customer interaction and accessibilty. Like I mentioned earlier, I see my boss maybe once a month, and hear from him once every other week or so. The corporate environment exists as well, just not as much in the Northeast (headquarters are in AR). Point being is that big company does not neccesarily equal corporate environment.

Overall, going to school is just as much about appealing to employers as it is about learning. Personally, I'd do whatever broadened that appeal so as to limit myself as little as possible.

 

[cmelo]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

I wish I could go to school to learn how to be as cool as DBDave.

 

[squashman702]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

I wish I could go to school to learn how to be as cool as DBDave.

I wish I had a 79 J10 Honcho- Locked and Bobbed on 35's.

 

[cmelo]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

I wish I had a 79 J10 Honcho- Locked and Bobbed on 35's.

Eh, it's not what it's all cracked up to be. I wish I had $40 to buy a starter, and a gas tank not filled with cottage cheese and leaves.

 

[squashman702]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

Eh, it's not what it's all cracked up to be. I wish I had $40 to buy a starter, and a gas tank not filled with cottage cheese and leaves.

If I buy you a starter and some gas, can I borrow it for like a year and a half?

 

[cmelo]

Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread

If I buy you a starter and some gas, can I borrow it for like a year and a half?

How does one "buy gas"?