At the risk of being mildly racist, I'd take that 10 times out of 10 over Chinese engineers, solely on the communication front. I've worked with a lot of Indian/Pakistani engineers, and it's basically the same as working with a US Southerner or an Irishman in terms of communication. Solid English with a mild, even pleasant, accent. Chinese however I have to strain to understand, and at times even trick them into repeating themselves in writing so I can figure out what they were trying to say. Basically just give me anywhere the Brits colonized at one point. The US, Canada, Australia, Ireland, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Nigeria, etc.
I needed you to suggest this idea to 21-year-old-me. Also during that same time, a vice president, who was married with a couple of kids, snuck into the cafeteria kitchen and took a phone number off the white board that belonged to the high school girl who worked a few hours after school doing dishes. He proceeded to call her and try to convince her to meet up with him. She rebuffed him a few times and he showed up at her school at least once. I left in the middle of this drama but I'm pretty sure there was a quiet payment involved because the VP was given the opportunity to resign without spectacle and the girl, who was from a very poor family and used to get dropped off by her mom, subsequently starting coming to work in a late model SUV.
Yeah, kinda. I hire onshore Operations teams. The Dev managers hire the onshore/offshore development teams. They are the main FE developers. The former spend all their time cleaning up the code from the latter.
My workplace is all scientists and engineers. In addition to being mostly male, finding an attractive younger woman among that group is rare indeed. It happens, but it’s rare. We recently hired a young (male) engineer who can’t carry anything heavier than a couple of pounds and has his mommy drive him to job sites. If you’re an average guy like myself who wants to seem rugged and manly, consulting/engineering is the industry for you.
How old is he? I am blown away by the number of >25 year olds that don't have a license and no desire to get one.
Word. I lost my license once for a mere week and it was incredible how much it blew up my life. The network of shit I had to set up just get around and not lose my job for five days….. never again. I can’t even imagine ALWAYS living that way.
He’s about 23-24 years old. There’s more to it than a reluctance to drive though- the 4’11” Indian woman who worked with him on my project described him as “fragile “. I know what you mean about the apathy about driving - I know many kids who were in no hurry to get their licenses. Oddly it’s mostly the boys. I can’t quite figure it out.
I just had another flat tire and it killed me finding a ride for a day and a half. I get the living at home thing, even on the parent level as it’s not a huge imposition, but depending on others for rides for everything you do? Jesus. We chided our friends to death that balked at being the DD less frequently than the rest of us. Usually a cheapskate thing where they didn’t want to spend the gas money. Do the kids without licenses just pay gas money more often now?
I wonder if internet communication is a strong driver of this lack of need to get a license? My high school experience was mostly prior to cell phones being in widespread use and dial-up internet was slow. So I definitely talked to friends from home, but having a decent social experience was basically impossible without a ride. I've seen a fair number of friends whose kids will regularly spend a "social" night at home texting, video chatting and gaming (with voice chat). That just flat out was not an option for me so I was desperate to get a car as soon as possible.
Probably. My first car was used to visit my friends who didn't have one yet. With cell phones and shit, I can't imagine the need is still there when you can just connect virtually. I probably wouldn't have hauled my tower and CRT monitor to their houses for LAN parties if online gaming was what it is today.
I got my license right away at 16, but I always had some sort of messenger (ICQ/MSN.. at that time). I really think it has to do with the cost of vehicles. A civic(base 28k), a CRV(base if 36K), escape(base 33k) maverick(base 31k), ranger(base 38k) and people aren't making much more then when I got my license. The average price is 61k, fuck me that is a lot of money for something that isn't going to last that long.
It can definitely be a consequence of costs being high as fuck. My first car cost $800, a 1981 Toyota tercel. My second car cost $800, 1987 Subaru GL with terrible body rust. My third car cost $5,000, 1991 Acura Integra, it was only 7 years old when I got it. You can barely buy anything road worthy for under $5k now. People that buy kids brand new cars are silly. We only had one dude in school that got a brand new f150 when he turned 16. They were rich as hell, huge guardrail company with DOT contracts all over the southeast. It ended up being a good move for them, he was careful, smart and responsible enough that he never wrecked it. The younger brother got a brand new Mustang GT, he was even more responsible, if you can imagine it.
I thought you were going to have me on the first half, and his brother got a GT ... And this is also going to be a problem with pushing of the electric cars. There are going to be no cheap cars, you can limp a pos civic/corola along for a long time. A cheap electric car is still going to be expensive plus requiring 10 to 20k in batteries.
I think I have the oldest car at work. it's a 99 Toyota Camry my dead grandfather gave me. few more years, and I can just call it a "classic", correct?
My '05 civic died during covid. It had a new transmission in it, too. The new car market, and I'd almost argue even the newer used market, has become a luxury market. Wages aren't going up a ton, houses and cars are obscene. Plus, socializing via internet makes it possible to fill that void a little without a car. The quality of the socialization is not as good as in person stuff, but eh. We even did g chat hangouts on this board for awhile. I had moved to Hawaii at that time and couldn't find a job. The "hangouts" were amusing and I'm glad y'all were around to say hi during that time in my life.