Like trying to diagnose a problem over the phone or talking to someone?
I’ve tried to do it literally hundreds of times.
I used to have to talk to the actual Automotive Engineers at Ford Motor Co. who designed their parts and electrical systems trying to fix crap over the phone that their service manuals couldn’t resolve.
This little story hits that nail right on the head.
Experience comes at a price.
It’s taken 55 years and dozens of jobs to get to where I am at now.
Most knowledge comes from the school of hard knocks, not a book.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
I get that in nursing, people want me to diagnose and treat them, they figure that with my experience and training I should be able to do that. I have to explain I do not have an MD, DO or a PA, FNP after my name. At best they give vague symptoms, not specific feelings of pain or discomfort and can’t seem to understand that tests and experience and far more years of education can provide a better diagnoses. Even then with todays training of doctors and nurse good luck with that. I was a good diagnostic nurse, when I was in my prime and made suggestions to docs and I was batting better than .750…
Spent a short stint receiving calls for technical assistance (I am not at liberty to reveal the company, suffice to say they paid handsomely,) and I found a noticeable number of techs were looking for guidance in their diagnostics without first going through the basics….. even though the manual actually laid out the steps to begin with. Had a few examples which really made me dig deep and a few where I would have to get a couple others and we would knock our heads together before we arrived at the correct diagnosis.
The guys who called and didn’t do the prerequisites were usually the ones who argued with you, despite not knowing the answer in the first place, were the ones who helped me decide to move on.
Middle Management was good, the upper ones, not so much. (What a surprise.)
I had a customer show up at the shop a couple of days ago having bent the hinges on the clean out door on the grain cart auger. He was sure I’d have to cut off the existing tabs and weld on new ones. I took out the two hinge bolts, took the door to the welding table, heated the tabs and straightened them. Meanwhile I gave him a four pound hammer and told him to go straighten the two tabs on the machine. When the door was installed, he turned to his son and said “we could have done that at home”. The kid just looked at me and smiled.
The people like you with those kind of skills are dying off daily and they’re not being replaced. Pretty soon the world will be starting over, from scratch.
Management doesn’t think that knowledge is important enough to pass along to someone else.
I always defer to experience and have no problem paying for it.
I wake up with a smile on my face every morning knowing that those poor little rich kids who forcibly retired me in March have no clue how to do what I did. Oh well. They’ll learn. I guess.
More like they’ll learn, MAYBE…
That’s why they say, “karma is a bitch” WWW. I leave a note for some of them sometimes, “you will be starving soon”. No reply’s yet.
Same old story, old buddy. 1st generation builds the company. 2nd gen maintains the standards, maybe even builds on 1st gen’s work. 3rd gen, never having seen the work that went into all that, wrecks it. But that’s Karma, may her name be praised!
You should one day “let them know” there is a bug in the system you discovered years ago which requires periodic attention or else everything crashes.
Permanent part-time employment whenever you feel like getting a few extra bucks.
Yep. I’ve been flying CAD workstations since their inception. I’m NOT qualified for anything posted because I have no “Certification” nor an Associates Degree in “CAD Science”,”
The first system I ever ran, HP Draft was written in BASIC.
I am TRAINING a fellow currently (with a CERTIFICATE) to be my replacement when I retire end of October. The amount of stuff he does NOT know (not his fault) is STAGGERING.
I guess I’ll have myself a fairly lucrative consultancy for a bit of a time afterwards.
The logic is still faulty here. No, we do not owe for the years. We owe for the result. The customer needs to understand that they are paying for the result that they need. Doesn’t matter if it took the engineer 20 years or 20 days to learn how to fix it. If he fixes it in 2 minutes, then he is paid for the result that he achieves, not how long it took him to get the result.
Actually they owe for the opportunity cost if not fixed but they would never pay us that much
40 or so years ago I was living in a rented house with two other guys. The parents of one them came to visit one Sat. in practically brand new Ford LTD. When they were getting ready to leave, the car started up, went in gear and would not move. The brake pedal was being depressed by vacuum assist system.
An older mechanic from the only service station in town came out after we called and looked at the problem. After he witnessed the brake pedal being depressed by the vacuum system on start up, he got his 16 ounce ball peen hammer from his tool box and tapped gently on the outer rim of the brakes vacuum assist module. The brake pedal returned to its standard position and the parents drove away. The mechanic charged $20.00 for the house call.
At the time,. I thought that was one of the most amazing things I’d ever seen. Still do.
About two weeks ago I was contacted by a young lady that was representing a company that wanted information about an industry I had 32 years of experience. I said to her that what I could tell the client would save them 5 years of finding out for themselves. She offered to compensate me $150 for an hour of time. I told her it was not enough time or money. What they needed to know would take a month for them to hear and digest and then questions the next month.
She didn’t quite grasp the concept that really knowing what to do and what not to do could not be done in a Ted Talk. She upped the offer to $1000 for the hour. I countered with $250,000 for answers to the questions that they would have in the second month. She was upset and disconnected the call.
Called back 5 minutes later and said that it would only be an hour of my time and too reconsider. Still said no. I told her to tell her client that when they get upside down into their new venture they can call me for directions on how to unfuck themselves but it was still going to cost $250,000. She hung up again.
Spin
I was very fortunate to have worked with 3 guys (different jobs) with these types of skill sets before I retired. I always made it a point to watch, listen and learn whenever possible. It never hurts to ask questions either b/c these guys are so knowledgeable they’re not afraid to share.
Yep, that sounds familiar, as does everyone else’s comments.
0100 with a problem at 97.1 FM. I had no clue. Continental 816R series. After an hour with the book and schematic, I called “The Man” at Continental. I wish I remember his name. He asked me what a couple meters did when I attempted to start the transmitter. What he said next was amazing, “Your ‘Lower Power’ remote control wire is grounded.” Then he hung up. Less than 5 mins… And he was spot on.
I used to work at a manufacturing shop… Others in my field in simular shops in the area were making almost twice an hour than I was doing the same job. I asked for a raise to be closer (but still not as high pay) in pay to them. I was flat out told that all I did all day was walk around doing nothing… I quit, and they ended up hiring 3 guys to replace me to keep up the same level of output I did alone… THEN they hired me back as a part time contractor making more than I had asked in the first place to do just 1 part of the job I used to do… So, I was doing less work for more $ (total per week) in 1/4 of the time I used to put in, and I was my own boss…