[SBE] In Need of Mentoring

[R.V.Zeigler]

I would like to interject a few things from personal experience into 
this very interesting thread.
I serve on the electronics department advisory committee for a community 
college. The committee is made up of about 25 or 30 people in various 
electronics related industries that would hire the students graduating 
from this institution. At the first meeting I attended the advisers were 
split up into groups of 5 or so and participated in Q&A sessions with 
different groups of students on a rotating basis. The students 
predominant questions were about compensation packages followed by job 
locations. All of the other advisers entry level positions were well 
above starting salary and benefits for any broadcast organization that I 
am aware of. Along with that, the far majority of other advisers had 
current openings that they needed to fill immediately. The school was 
bemoaning the fact that they did not have enough students in the 
graduating class to fill the vacancies. I did my best to paint the 
broadcast industry in a good light but some of the jobs offered even 
piqued my interest for a few seconds!

We have one young man that does some part time IT work for us. He sat in 
my office for an hour after work one day discussing his future with me. 
I was honest with him about the broadcast industry in general and 
broadcast engineering in particular. He is most probably going to go 
back to school to finish his IT degree and find a position in that field.

I am also trying to "guide" one of my sons towards our profession. I 
doubt that I will get it done. He has helped me quite a bit on a number 
of projects over the years and could probably install a transmitter by 
himself, but he tells me "You work too hard and too long". He wants to 
follow one of his older brothers into law enforcement.

I really do love my current position and hope to retire from here 
sometime in the future. I do feel that you almost (emphasis on almost) 
have to "love" broadcast engineering to the exclusion of all else to 
stay in it now, at least in the far majority of positions that are still 
filled.

sigh....................

-- 
R. V. Zeigler, Dir. of Eng.
Nebraska Rural Radio Assn.
KRVN-KTIC-KNEB
rzeigler at krvn.com