"Being a coal miner is more honest than a digital nomad"

[NancyL]

5 hours ago, lkn said:

Working for free is nothing new. Musicians, comedians, chefs, people in the movie industry, etc. has done that for as long as I can remember.

 

Though working for free in the more hard sciences (like mechanical engineering) is definitely unusual (also today).

 

Architect (like your niece) probably a little more likely because you have “rock stars” who everyone wants to work for, so famous architect firms can get away with paying their “interns” little to no money.

 

But I think your niece is making a very conscious choice about working for free for someone “famous” (to build up her C.V.) rather than take a paid architect job that might not look as good on her C.V. or be as interesting/exciting.

I think you may be right, because when I look at the firms she's worked for, or rather the buildings and projects they've done and she's worked on, I'm in awe.  They're probably the "rock stars" of that industry.   But, when I was a lowly M.E. student I also worked for some pretty impressive firms in my summer jobs and got paid about 80% of the starting salary for a new graduate.  Each summer, I earned enough to pay my tuition for the following year.  

 

My brother, who didn't major in the sciences, thought that's the way it would be for his daughter, who "inherited" the science skills of his father and sister.  My brother majored in Hotel & Restaurant management and he ALWAYS had a paying job anywhere he went.  He just figured his really smart daughter should be earning her way by now.   

 

This is something that's happened to our world in the past 30 years, part of the "rich get richer and the poor get poorer" phenomenon.  

[BuddyDean]

11 minutes ago, NancyL said:

I think you may be right, because when I look at the firms she's worked for, or rather the buildings and projects they've done and she's worked on, I'm in awe.  They're probably the "rock stars" of that industry.   But, when I was a lowly M.E. student I also worked for some pretty impressive firms in my summer jobs and got paid about 80% of the starting salary for a new graduate.  Each summer, I earned enough to pay my tuition for the following year.  

 

My brother, who didn't major in the sciences, thought that's the way it would be for his daughter, who "inherited" the science skills of his father and sister.  My brother majored in Hotel & Restaurant management and he ALWAYS had a paying job anywhere he went.  He just figured his really smart daughter should be earning her way by now.   

 

This is something that's happened to our world in the past 30 years, part of the "rich get richer and the poor get poorer" phenomenon.  

More like entitled kids think they get to start out on top...it was the same way with the law and accounting firms.  Be a go fer at a big prestigious firm and kiss butt enough to maybe be a partner in 20 years...or simply go into your own practice and build your own reputation.  Skyscrapers are mostly prefab, nowadays.  Especially in Asia, which accounts for most of them.  Architects were dealt big blows by CAD, before the internet became popular, and that was another nail.  I remember sitting next to some disgruntled aerospace engineers on a casino junket out of San Jose.  The advent of CAD was the end of the world for them.  But hey, my niece is an architect sounds good in the all important social circles.  She'll still never make more than a good plumber or electrician.

[NancyL]

3 minutes ago, BuddyDean said:

More like entitled kids think they get to start out on top...it was the same way with the law and accounting firms.  Be a go fer at a big prestigious firm and kiss butt enough to maybe be a partner in 20 years...or simply go into your own practice and build your own reputation.  Skyscrapers are mostly prefab, nowadays.  Especially in Asia, which accounts for most of them.  Architects were dealt big blows by CAD, before the internet became popular, and that was another nail.  I remember sitting next to some disgruntled aerospace engineers on a casino junket out of San Jose.  The advent of CAD was the end of the world for them.  But hey, my niece is an architect sounds good in the all important social circles.  She'll still never make more than a good plumber or electrician.

Yeah, you may be right with something like law, accounting, architecture.  A little different than mechanical engineering where you usually work for a big company and don't hang out a single for yourself.  

 

Actually, my niece is a whiz with CAD.  Somehow got into a CAD class when she was in middle school.  Maybe because they live in a university town.  Perhaps one of the neighbors got her into it.  Anyway, she was earning money doing CAD when she was 13.  Probably should have stuck with that. 

 

Incidentally, my grandfather was a plumber.  He never earned more than 25 cents an hour until WWII came along and then there were gov't contracts at a nearby airforce base and he got $1 an hour.  My ME specialty was in fluid flow and piping design.  Niece is good in design of bathrooms, although she had a fancier name for it.  Runs in the family.

[BuddyDean]

Most Korean kids can use CAD, and Lowes, HD trains its employees on the bathroom and kitchen designs..they are making a fraction of what the people make, who actually set the fixtures.  It has just been done to death.  There are about 40,000 toilets in Thailand that need to be properly refitted...maybe she should consider.  A friend ius an architect and her specialty is model trees...as in little one inch high pine tree replicas they use for the landscaping of the building model.  Highly specialized, and took her 40 years to get where she's at.  She was the one who had actually given me insight on the architecture profession.  I had asked her about a plan for some land I owned...she said you would have to be crazy to pay an architect to draw you a custom house plan when there are so many, so cheap in public domain.  There is even software, where you show a photo, it gives you the plan.  Even carpentry has been mostly fazed out.  The big home builders use pre fab walls and trusses...no need for them.