Thank you.  I'm a bit concerned about the job market there also ... as more and more manufacturing goes overseas.

I had thought about auto manufacturing or being an electrician or something, since you can't really send those overseas.  You're not going to ship a car or house for repair.  Plus, those require skill sets that you can't easily get from immigrants.

Thank you.  I'm a bit concerned about the job market there also ... as more and more manufacturing goes overseas.

I had thought about auto manufacturing or being an electrician or something, since you can't really send those overseas.  You're not going to ship a car or house for repair.  Plus, those require skill sets that you can't easily get from immigrants.

I forget where I saw it recently, but Ford in particular cannot fill $160,000 a year mechanic line jobs.

Yes. Please feel free to share it, post it, whatever you want. If there was anything I didn't want "out there", I wouldn't have posted it to Youtube. hahaha

I realize that but I still wanted your permission

I'm looking into Auto Mechanic classes ... Toyota and GM have some partnerships around the country, though auto mechanic work can be physically demanding depending on your role, and also at paramedic, or radiology, and possibly therapy, such as a respiratory therapist (as I have some personal experience in the area, given my own asthmatic condition).  I've been in a couple situations now where people were severely injured, including one with a traumatic head injury, and for whatever reason I was incredibly calm and doing what needed to be done without any sense of panic, just keeping focused on God and the task at hand.  So I think I do have a certain talent for calm under pressure.  I do, however, experience great pain in watching other people suffer, so that might wear me down fairly quickly.

So, when my mother was passing away, at one point she was making some strange gurgling noises, and my sister, an RN, decided that this was that well-known "death rattle" sound, and I insisted, "no, I know that sound ... she's got mucous in her upper airway and she can't breathe".  So at my insistence we grabbed the albuterol inhaler, and just as we got it over there, she woke up (despite my sister having concluded that she was minutes from passing away) and she had this look of panic, almost terror on her face, and I told my sister that she can't breathe (as I had said), and we at once gave her the inhaler, and within just a few seconds, she coughed, cleared everything out, and could breath again.  She never had anything like that again until she finally passed away, since we would occasionally give her albuterol, and she passed away peacefully.  When I came over to help my sister out for that week, one of the very first things I told her was that the one thing I don't want was to see her suffocate to death ... and I repeated it multiple times, almost as if I had some kind of premonition that this type of thing would happen.  I thank God I was there and had received that insight.  I just know and can "relate to" different sounds people make when breathing, since I have struggled with it myself for most of my life.

   
I’m experiencing the same situation and completely agree with your perspective. This isn’t merely an engineering issue, and it’s not as though things have gotten better. I continue to apply for jobs, but haven’t received any callbacks. The market is saturated. Companies are taking advantage of this by offering extremely low wages and treating employees like slaves.  ... I’m about Matthew's age, and honestly, there have been times when I felt like giving up. I’ve considered some of the fields Lads has suggested, but none appeal to me. Overall, I feel quite discouraged. ...

Same here. People make helpful suggestions, but either they are "way off" for me personally, for someone in my geographical area, for someone my age, someone with my family situation, someone with my skills and temperament, etc.
I want to underline how long I've been a software dev, how long I've identified and worked successfully as a software dev, and how long (zero) I've ever considered other lines of work.
It's crazy to me that this line of work isn't working anymore.

It's like running out of food for the first time in your life, and someone lists off your possible courses of action: "we could go to the KFC dumpster, we could go forage for food in the woods, we could beg on the street for food" and you just throw up your hands, silently walk to your bedroom, and close the door -- because who could make such a decision? They all seem equally insane to you. If you indeed have to do one of those things, it's going to have to be later, because I can't right now.

CNC lathes -- I first saw that term reading the classifieds in my hometown's newspaper. Rockford, IL. A manufacturing town, or at least it used to be. I don't know how much MFG we have in this part of Texas.

One thing for sure -- moving is 100% out of the question. I have a large family, and a very complicated homestead we've built up for years. We have WAY too many roots here to uproot now. Just for starters, Texas is where I want to raise my kids. Money isn't everything. I'll find something eventually, that I can do online, or some other random field. But we have to stay here, that's one thing I've decided.

I definitely understand. We aren’t interested in moving out of this area either. 
My husband has always worked manual labor but is very technically minded. He wouldn’t consider himself intelligent (but he IS wildly intelligent). When he was offered this job he took it because of the increase in pay but it was a huuuge learning curve for him. For the first month he kept telling me he was in over his head and that he was going to quit because he didn’t want to have a heart attack from the stress. But he kept at it and now makes the most critical parts for the company and has learned to write programs. Now that he has that skill we could move and make a lot more money with a different company but leaving the area (at least right now) is out of the question for a number of reasons.
I agree, money isn’t everything. 

Same here. People make helpful suggestions, but either they are "way off" for me personally, for someone in my geographical area, for someone my age, someone with my family situation, someone with my skills and temperament, etc.
I want to underline how long I've been a software dev, how long I've identified and worked successfully as a software dev, and how long (zero) I've ever considered other lines of work.
It's crazy to me that this line of work isn't working anymore.

It's like running out of food for the first time in your life, and someone lists off your possible courses of action: "we could go to the KFC dumpster, we could go forage for food in the woods, we could beg on the street for food" and you just throw up your hands, silently walk to your bedroom, and close the door -- because who could make such a decision? They all seem equally insane to you. If you indeed have to do one of those things, it's going to have to be later, because I can't right now.

It's funny cause there are many websites by big websites with issues in their user interface being buggy/broken or it's not efficient in the way it works. Cheap labour don't mean good quality programming. And it don't help with all these immigrants gaming the system and hiring their own kind. However, it's incredibly difficult to immigrate to the States so most people just keep renewing their work visas (H1B, TN) and they're at the mercy of the company that they work for. And that company can pay them lower wages.