Any College drop outs on ES? Care to narrate?

[hydro-one]

WoW ! I dont have time to study anything but ES, if I want to get anything built !! A great thread, some real talented writers here, Im so suprised.... All i can say is, i was tested to 99.99 percentile for reading an math in grade 5, mostly because of dedicated effort by my loving teacher parents, had alot of problems with boredom in school. University , liked it, college liked it, teachers like them , manual labor, ok, jobs, dont like much. Ive got most of the education and experiance i need . Ive got no interest in working for petrochemical, drugs, medical (unless herbal), dont like civil, nuclear power, or automotive(coffins), hydro bores me , just a bunch of humming wires,,,,,,im waiting for manitoba hydro to open up an ev division......


Im looking for work , my ideal job is : professional ebike rider /developer.....cant take that at college!!!

Mabye we could start an ebike school??

 

[Philistine]

Sounds like I need to get involved with booze and pot at some point. (I am alcohol free at 20.5 years)

My advice - maintain the straighty 180 on the booze, don't touch it ever (I genuinely mean that), it is a nasty bitch of a mistress that will almost exclusively deliver pain and loss (but you will come back to her hateful abusive arms no matter what she does to you).

Friends always quote me the Churchill quote "I got a lot more out of drinking than drinking got out of me", I tell those people that his auditors should come work my books, and they will leave crying in despair. Booze is the shittest most evil drug in the world (I should know, I have multiple honorary PHDs in it).

Definately get onto the weed and the psychedelics though, that is where worthwhile mind expansion occurs. Drugs aren't necessary for mind expansion, you can get to the same places all on your own, but then again that is true of electric motors and bikes....

 

[hillzofvalp]

My drugs are designing and manufacturing. Need to get projects off the back of my head and onto school (like emergency). Hard to do when you've never had this much access to CNC lab... Computer aided machining will stay with me a long time.

I consider myself more of a creator with exuberant distractibility. Regardless of my academic performance, I'm coming to accept that my thought process is different and quite possibly valued for some companies.. It's just a matter of distracting them from poor grades on resume (it's not that i am incapable of understanding the material, just overloaded in creative and procedural area of head).

Right now my friend and I are trying to get what I think to be a genius concept skateboard drive on kickstarter. Been spending a lot of time on manufacturing and design.. I want to get started on a low cost, compact 4S bms. I hope that I can fill in the knowledge void on some of the things I missed in class by working on a practical application. If this project is successful, I will be extremely thrilled.

Just so happens I have deep interest in EV applications and lots of hands on experience manufacturing... What I think is the reason TESLA interviewed me out of 10 chosen 150 people that were in line at the job fair... Interestingly, the guy they chose for an internship worked in my lab. Hopefully next round with skateboard and detail oriented battery pack complete, they will hire me on. They told me they've hired sub 2.5 GPAs before, and purdue is known for not conforming to grade inflation (everyone in engineering between 2 and 3.5 basically).

I'm very stubborn. Need to change the way I operate. I decided to turn in a jimmy johns application today... I can put my bike to use, relieve some financial stressors, and get more tips than anyone else. ive never had a Job other than for purdue. This should be a good experience and ad some structure to my life

 

[Dauntless]

Has anyone considered changing majors between an engineering degree and a technology degree?

... don't do it if you are capable financially and academically of getting the 4 year BS. Back when I hired and promoted people (aerospace industry) the HR departments would not recognize the technology degree as a "real" BS degree. Some of these people were as good or better than the BSers... I had to get them accepted into a Masters program, then work towards that degree. When they got the MS they were then "OK." ... a long road, that would have been easier to get the BS in the first place. The larger the employing company, the less flexible they are on this.

So I knew the one guy who found himself out of work after the recent mess. Went back to school because he had an AA in "General Technology." The way he put it was that he had thought of it being sort of like an Engineering degree. In his early 20's he didn't understand that 'Sort of like' is a bad thing. His career didn't founder after he'd graduated, he just didn't get anywhere. He was very easy to let go 3-4 years ago.

Back in school at the community college level he learned to use Solidworks, studied some material science, made up his mind he was getting a 4 year Engineering degree. If he decides to be a material engineer Chemistry becomes an Engineering degree. Just this year he found a job using Solidworks. The house is gone, but the future is there. He'll be working and sort of going to school, but remember no matter how long it takes that time will pass anyway. Do you want to turn 40/50/60 with or without that degree?

If you can't stay in school 'For Real,' find the community college near you and work on an AA in Math. ALL these technical majors will have math requirements, you can work out the rest of the details later. Nearly 40% of our high school math teachers have no college education in math, if you wound up a high school teacher there'd be some job security there.

My drugs are designing and manufacturing.

So now if only all the junk to tinker on would become a chick magnet, life would be like such a trip, man!

 

[hillzofvalp]

Haha, I think it is becoming a chick magnet... Like who has the guts to wear a DOT approved helmet on a mountain bike with traffic? (idiot). I want to take my time with school and not push it with mood extremes... but I want to be done before 25. I want to get some experience with some of the EV conversion shops in california.. seems interesting. It'd be cool to do some sort of ebike study in SF as well.

 

[The fingers]

Get an ABSC from an accredited school and say "Welcome to Wal-Mart" and draw smiley faces for little kids for the rest of your life.

 

[MikeFairbanks]

I almost dropped out of high school, and quit college a couple times before finally finishing. I have pretty severe ADHD and never was formally diagnosed or treated until one year ago (I'm 44), so school was really hard for me.

By the end of first grade it was obvious I wasn't going to learn to read, so they asked my parents to hold me back a year. My mother said no and taught me to read over the summer. She could do what two teachers weren't able to to: Get me to pay attention to something. My mother put words on everything in the house and made me read them, spell them, read them over and over to get me up to grade-level.

By the fourth grade I started failing classes, even though I developed a love of reading (thank goodness for that....it's what saved me). I continued to get poor grades all the way through the eleventh grade and had to go to summer school and night school to catch up on units. I then didn't graduate high school on time and had to go to summer school again.

I entered community college about half a year later and dropped out after a week. Just didn't have the attention span. I didn't go back for another three years and quit after one semester. It took me until age 24 to finish two years of school. I then transferred to a four-year university and finally finished at 26. But it still is a day-to-day struggle. I start (or think of starting) a lot of projects, but most I don't begin.


I've learned that nobody should ever feel bad about quitting college, but should instead pursue what makes him or her happy, provided it's not a burden on others.

 

[hillzofvalp]

Thanks for that mike. I believe I'm fairly hard on myself and fail to realize the big picture sometimes.

 

[arkmundi]

I've learned that nobody should ever feel bad about quitting college, but should instead pursue what makes him or her happy, provided it's not a burden on others.

So true. We unfortunately lead double lives, the one to make money and the one because of we're human and pursue happiness, no matter how elusive. Sometimes the two coincide and that can be good. I'm reading many stories of success at http://www.kickstarter.com/ where people are starting new enterprises based on passion and commitment to doing good. If I were of college age today, what with the vast resources for self education on the internet and the many web enabling sites like kickstarter, I'd bypass higher ed all together. It was once the case that part of the reason you entered a school was for the opportunity of networking, the "who you know" part of the forumula of success. That's less necessary in today's highly wired world.

 

[hillzofvalp]

I am excited about our kickstarter project. I will be sure to post a support/launch thread here hopefully in next couple months.

 

[tostino]

A little late to the party, but I wanted to share my experiences.

I started taking a few classes at the local community college when I was 17. I was wanting to get a comp-sci degree. I took classes for a couple years, but my part time job did not afford me enough money to take more than a couple classes a semester. My parents had recently lost almost everything in the real estate downturn in 2008 (they were heavily into real estate in FL...), so they couldn't help pay any of my tuition, and their taxes from the previous year still showed they made too much money for me to get any type of aid.

I then got a full time job doing helpdesk work, and had to put school on hold, because I had no time with my commute + work to fit any classes in. During my time working helpdesk, they needed some sql reports written for our ticketing system to show productivity, tickets closed, etc... I had some experience with sql in the past, so I wrote those reports. About a month later, one of our database administrators got an opportunity to contract for NASA, and he suggested rather than hiring someone new, to move me into that position. The company I worked for was not known to pay well. They didn't disappoint in that respect. I worked for a while at the same pay I was making on helpdesk, but I didn't care because I was getting first hand experience, and I had a title next to my name I would eventually be able to take somewhere else.

I was about to start taking classes again this previous spring semester, but then things started going wrong with the company I was at, and I could tell I needed to get out of there and get a new job before they folded. So school was put on hold again.
I put my name in at a recruiter, and had an interview within a month. I got an offer, and started working where I am at now back in April.

I'd say that not getting a full college education may in the end hurt my earning potential, but as of right now, I am working as an equal with 8 other people who have college degrees on my team doing database development and analysis. I am making quite a bit more than most college grads would right out of school, and already have a good bit of practical experience under my belt.

 

[Kingfish]

Any education and skill that you can acquire and document, especially if it is unique and has high visibility will propel you forward far faster than a degree sans Lawyers & Doctors, and not too bad for Stock Brokers either. The only other angle that plays well without a serious degree is coming from deep pockets and having friends in the right places. Nepotism predominates:

I’ve seen absolute dipshits with MBAs from Stanford, Yale, Harvard, whatever… drive a team to the dirt cos they suffer from intracranial sphincter squeeze and can’t communicate trust; their money buys them a seat at the table but they can’t fiddle with sticks. Some people are born with natural talent and leadership qualities; they exude it – like being love-struck on a fresh spring day. There are managers I’d gladly follow to the ends of the world if they could keep a job or roll the team forward to the next project. These people have simple practical backgrounds – they are natural communicators. And really that’s what it’s about: Being able to converse, to build trust, form a network of pals, leverage each other’s talents to create a community of opportunity. It goes without saying that strangers have a more difficult time unless they can charm.

So I think the most valuable skills to learn or exploit is how to sell yourself, and how to create need for your skills - on top of perfecting them. And – knowing when to leave a sinking ship so the muck doesn’t stick to you. Make friends. Cajole. Be happy inside and out. Radiate confidence, and have a cracken’ resume/portfolio/references. :wink:

It's easier said than done. Work at it.
Good hunting, KF

 

[hillzofvalp]

I need to learn to make titles up on my resume related to my interests:

Electric Vehicle Extraordinaire
Battery Doctor
Freelance EV Rapid Prototyper

Kinda hard to get any sort of title. Wish I could freelance more doing CAD and CAM work or designing simple battery management systems or pack replacements for existing off the shelf EVs (like golf carts).

 

[MikeFairbanks]

My best friend out in California was a party guy, but really smart. His dad worked on the weapons systems of the Apache Helicopters (German-born engineer) and his son (my buddy) was math-minded as well. He had a great attention span and was almost as logical as Spock (but could have a good time).

He went to Utah to ski after high school (was taking time off of school) and brought some marijuana with him to sell in order to pay for the trip. I tried to warn him not to do it, but he went ahead. I said, "listen, don't speed. Utah is the only state in which alcohol isn't the leading cause of traffic deaths. They monitor speeding like it's a religion."

Sure enough, he got caught for speeding and they searched his car and found about a quarter of a pound (if I remember correctly), and he admitted to intending to distribute. They locked him up for a couple weeks, took his brand new car (that his parents gave him) and never got it back. He left Utah a few weeks later and never went back. I don't know what became of his case but I think he pretty much bought his way out of it with the car and fees (along with a couple weeks in the slammer).

So you think he would have learned a lesson? Nope. He got back to CA and had a friend call him to set something up that was big. My buddy went down to the border of Mexico to make a huge transfer, intending to make thousands of dollars within a few short hours. He was set up by a friend who was on the hook with the police. That guy told the cops that my friend was the big fish (which was a lie), and he was able to get an easy deal for it. The whole purchase was staked out and the cops moved in. My buddy was not going to tell on his supplier (Mexican drug cartel), so they tried to throw the book at him. They charged him with several felonies, sent him to fight forest fires in the mountains for three months (which he actually enjoyed), and then he spent years paying back his parents for all the lawyer fees and such.

I'd see him once in a while and chat, hoping he was doing better. He learned his lesson and was broke and struggling in his late twenties. I felt bad for him.

Then he tried to get a job for a major company that is on the cutting edge of technology in a certain field (don't want to name the company) and told them his story and how he was a convicted felon. They gave him a chance and now (about ten years later) he's making six figures and doing great. He makes a lot more than I do and is living clean and legal. He's still a convicted felon, however, so that's not good. But he isn't a trouble maker either. He's a regular dad and worker-dude.

 

[Toorbough ULL-Zeveigh]

RIP
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