esselgruntfuttock – Member
Well Freightliner also operate in Australia so when he’s ‘trained’ (as long as he’s successful with that) he could transfer over there. Either way he’ll be on 43K as opposed to the 16.5K that he’s been on for the past year doing some boring stocks & shares crap on a computer.

Well that’s depressing knowing that truck drivers are on almost twice as much as me

Looks like that HNC in Civil Engineering paid off too 😕

Well that’s depressing knowing that truck drivers are on almost twice as much as me

You should see what they pay dump truck drivers over here in Oz…

Chose the wrong trade tbh, the credit crunch made everyone realise that economics was as much a science as reading entrails and it makes no difference whether you employ someone with a masters, or someone with a pair of dice.

I have friends who have good degrees from Oxbridge who complain about not being able to find jobs. I find this quite hilarious,

You sound like a real good friend

Also good on him for taking a job that many graduates would turn their noses up at.

You think? Nearly all the new trainee drivers (assuming we are taking Freightliner Rail and not road) coming through at our place are either ex Police/Military or straight out of Uni.

Anyway nothing wrong with it and well done to him, if he enjoys it he will have a decent career with a decent pension (again assuming Rail not Raod, can’t comment on road) and the option to move abroad with the new european driving license and should the freight go down the pan (don’t see that anytime soon with the amount of work going on and increased traffic I’ve seen) he won’t have too much trouble coming over to passenger work.

oh, I don’t know about training / degrees – of the folk I was at school with, that I’m aware of, many of them – good majority I’d say – studied something and now work in that field – be it broadcast, oil&gas engineering, medicine, architecture.

I’m in IT and that’s what I studied. Of my former colleagues though, they came from a variety of fields, clear highlight would be my boss of many years with a near PhD in astrophysics..

clear highlight would be my boss of many years with a near PhD in astrophysics

You work for Brian May?

Chose the wrong trade tbh, the credit crunch made everyone realise that economics was as much a science as reading entrails and it makes no difference whether you employ someone with a masters, or someone with a pair of dice

Mmmmm….don’t know about that. Trade deficits and inflation still exist, and while arriving at a solution is not an exact science, it’s hardly random either.

Also, accountancy (where a fair number of economic grads go in my experience) is pretty exacting – double entry (quiet at the back), is the same wherever you are in the world.

I hear that new mining projects in Australia are using driverless trucks and trains.

over zealous and bitter graduates in HR who realise that 3 years of hard drinking has left them as a pen pusher in a cubicle.

it took me six years…

Northwind – Member
Chose the wrong trade tbh, the credit crunch made everyone realise that economics was as much a science as reading entrails and it makes no difference whether you employ someone with a masters, or someone with a pair of dice.

Odd, how many economists made a lot of money understanding the build up to the crisis and then profiting from it. Don’t forget even the economists at the BOE were talking about the risk well before the peak. That fact people still a wanted to gorge on debt in the meantime was a different issue altogether. I am mightily glad that my training allowed me to prepare properly and even to take advantage of events.

I am mightily glad that my training allowed me to prepare properly

You weren’t on NatGeo Channel’s Doomsday Preppers by any chance?

Chose the wrong trade tbh, the credit crunch made everyone realise that economics was as much a science as reading entrails and it makes no difference whether you employ someone with a masters, or someone with a pair of dice.

To be fair economists do much more that just forecast macro-economic performance for government and business – as a degree there are a lot of direct and indirect career options.

There is an ongoing debate about whether economics at UG level is too narrow though…