Prof. Appleby's Blog

I’m blogging a lot tonight, I know. I suppose it’s because I’m very much preoccupied with the problem of how to open up job and career and professional opportunities for young people (I’m talking about the 18-30 year range). I’ve asked this before – how did we get into a situation where bright, talented, hardworking people can’t find work? But it’s more than that. I’ve had a lot of conversations with people this week which have shown me just how stacked the deck is against some folks.

I couldn’t be more serious.

I was talking the other day with an extraordinary young man who was telling me how certain educational requirements in a certain graduate program are actually causing people to just abandon the program and give up on their professional goals. Now, you might say, well, that’s as it should be – if they can’t cut it, then they should get weeded out. But that’s not what’s happening. The requirements are tangential, at best, to the point of the program – and being able to attain them (I’m just going to be blunt here and take my lumps, if I must) seems linked more to being on “the fast track” or being in “the in crowd.” But, even if this harsh evaluation on my part is wrong, even if the requirements were established with the best of intentions – they are terribly misguided.

When you design a curriculum, you ought to ask yourself if any of the requirements are “unnecessary parts” and discard them. Focus on what’s important. Strip away what’s unnecessary.

But, I’ve gotten off track.

Here’s what I’m thinking. As I said in my last post, I think that young people should focus on starting their own businesses. We need to stop paying lip service to small businesses and get serious about opening up opportunities for people to get started. Now, politically, that means we need to do things that facilitate and encourage small business development – not frustrate it. But I’m not going to delve into the politics.

My thinking is that our IEM Program, with it’s already considerable focus on entrepreneurship, should either expand its scope or spin off a similar program that is designed to move people from point A to point B in 20 months. We should look for clients who have a serious interest in starting a small business and, hopefully, some ideas of the kind of business they want to start, and then, work with them to develop a plan and take them through a process that leads to their being in business when they leave the program.

We could do this within IEM; we’re already doing it in part, but with a technical focus. Why not broaden the scope? Our UAB School of Engineering is full of talented, innovative people. If a person, or a group of people, entered our program and said “we want to get started in the X business,” we could certainly develop a process to get them from A to B. We could be a conduit – an enabler – for small businesses throughout this region.

Want to start a software company? A consulting firm? Get into construction? Start a new fast food chain? Design and market something new in electronics? Start a financial firm or an insurance company? Why can’t we teach and guide and mentor people toward these goals?

We ought to consider how to use our knowledge and experience to help young people get established in business. It’s no longer enough to prepare them to work for somebody else – that ship is rapidly sailing away for so many of them. We have to help them get started on their own. We can’t afford a lost generation.

I have decided to merge my old blog (profappleby.wordpress.com) into my newer blog.  I’ve carried across some of the old posts, including my recent foray into mainframes for project managers, and will bid farewell to the old blog at the end of this month.

I need to get something off my chest.

I’m worried about the average guy.  I’m worried about young people looking for jobs, let alone careers.  I’m worried about people I talk with every day who no longer have dreams and aspirations, people who once loved their jobs, but don’t any more, people who have little or no time for family or friends or hobbies or life-outside-of-work.  I’m worried about people who are looking for third jobs to make ends meet, or people who can’t find their first job.

And I’m not linking this to the current recession.  This has been building for quite some time.  Financial pressures grew incrementally for most of us over many, many years; you began to wonder how you could continue to make ends meet.  Then, you realized you couldn’t… and so you scaled back year after year.  These were the first cracks in the financial structure.

I have seen “low inflation” erode away the standard of living of people for nearly two decades.  A friend of mine worked for a company that, at one time, gave cost of living adjustments so as to keep employees level in terms of what they could afford to buy with their paycheck.  That adjustment went away so that “the company could remain competitive.”  And, after all, inflation was only running at perhaps 2.5% (especially if you threw out the “volatile” food and energy prices – as though we didn’t need to buy food or gas).

Losing 2.5% a year doesn’t sound like much, does it?  What’s 2.5% of 40?  Yes, it’s one.  So, if my friend had said, you know, since I’m going to lose 2.5% of my purchasing power (pay), I’m going to work only 39 hours per week this year.  Next year, 38.  Why, in 10 years – even without compounding – he would be down to 30 hours a week.  How well do you think that would have gone over with his company?  Well, not at all – in fact, he actually began working much longer hours to take up the slack for those who had been “resourced.”

He died at the age of 55.

This is not a rant against Capitalism.  Not at all.  I believe in free markets – truly free markets – because they are an inseparable component of human freedom.  They are right and they are fair and, if they are not perfect, they are surely the next best alternative.

But this post isn’t about economics.  It’s about people working under high stress in unfulfilling jobs who desperately want something better for themselves or for their children.

You probably wonder where the title of this post originated.  It’s from some discussions with my friend as I saw him working himself… well, I’ll just say working very, very hard, putting in the kind of hours that can break your spirit.  So, we would take a few breaks and laugh about things.

I once told him that there was a new managerial school of thought called “lightbulb management.”  What’s that, he asked?  You know, I said, each worker is like a lightbulb and, if one starts to flicker, the manager either screws it in more tightly or replaces it!  LOL.

Another time, we were talking about job fulfillment.  Was something missing?  What had changed?  Ah, said I, it’s like we were cowboys and every day was unique.  Sometimes we’d mend fences, sometimes we’d brand cattle, sometimes we’d drive the herd, sometimes we’d break horses, and so on.  Every day was different in some respect and you felt like you could do so many valuable things!  Then, one day – the day when everyone was told to find a space, i.e., stake out the one thing you do to contribute – it’s as though we had to say, well, I’ll mend this 100 foot length of barbed-wire fence. And that was your job.  And if the day came when that fence went away, so did you.  We’re not cowboys now, I said, we’re fence-menders.  LOL again.

Why am I writing this tonight?  Because one of the most enjoyable and rewarding things that I do is try to help people develop personal and professional skills to advance their careers.  That sounds so nice and neat, doesn’t it?  But, increasingly, I’m trying to help people find their way out of a snare and give them some insight, some clue, some hope that aspiration hasn’t become a meaningless word for the average guy.