I've been reading That Used to Be Us and it's incredibly thought provoking. I'm not finished with it, but I came across something on page 85 that reminded me of one of my acquaintances, Alvin Chen. He works for Siemens and is exactly what Thomas Friedman says our future looks like.
1) Alvin is American-Taiwanese.
He's fluent in Mandarin and has studied at Tsinghua University in Beijing, but he grew up in Colorado. His dad was one of the engineers that came to the US back in the 70s and recently retired from IBM. Part of our future is made of talented immigrants and their kids.
2) Alvin is an engineer.
Vivek Wadhwa, Thomas Friedman, and others like Senator Lugar are interested in STEM students. Why? These people create jobs. I have more than my fair share of engineers in my family, but Alvin stands out because he's part of my generation, not a Boomer or a Gen Xer. Alvin is part of an increasingly rare breed, because few of us (including myself) are too intimidated by the rigorous coursework in engineering.
3) Alvin is an energy engineer.
That would mean nothing to me, a non-science person, if I couldn't talk to him about what he actually does. When he was in college, he put together a house that would use only wind, solar, and geothermal energy. Now, Alvin is a sustainability professional, which means that he works towards cutting waste and monitoring energy usage in large places. When Alvin was in Kentucky, he did work with the University of Kentucky in Lexington to cut energy waste. He is well positioned in a growing part of the economy.
4) Alvin is going back to school.
Now, a bachelor's degree is par for the course. A master's degree is the new bachelor's. Alvin is going to choose between a normal MBA and an MS in global sustainability. That's what it takes to be competitive today, when we have college-educated kids in my generation totally unable to find jobs as white-collar jobs disappear or are farmed out overseas.
Higher education in a growth segment of the economy will ensure that Alvin will have some security in the future.
5) Alvin is a creative creator.
Friedman says there there are two kinds of workers: creators and servers. Alvin is a creator. He gained company-wide recognition when he put together some programs in MATLAB to do his job, energy analysis. Though it wasn't his job, he did it on his own. He was actually told not to do it by his boss, because his boss was concerned that it would detract from Alvin's actual job, which was the analysis itself. His programs are now saving the company literally uncountable sums of money, because he's made analyzing energy usage very efficient.
1) Alvin is American-Taiwanese.
He's fluent in Mandarin and has studied at Tsinghua University in Beijing, but he grew up in Colorado. His dad was one of the engineers that came to the US back in the 70s and recently retired from IBM. Part of our future is made of talented immigrants and their kids.
2) Alvin is an engineer.
Vivek Wadhwa, Thomas Friedman, and others like Senator Lugar are interested in STEM students. Why? These people create jobs. I have more than my fair share of engineers in my family, but Alvin stands out because he's part of my generation, not a Boomer or a Gen Xer. Alvin is part of an increasingly rare breed, because few of us (including myself) are too intimidated by the rigorous coursework in engineering.
3) Alvin is an energy engineer.
That would mean nothing to me, a non-science person, if I couldn't talk to him about what he actually does. When he was in college, he put together a house that would use only wind, solar, and geothermal energy. Now, Alvin is a sustainability professional, which means that he works towards cutting waste and monitoring energy usage in large places. When Alvin was in Kentucky, he did work with the University of Kentucky in Lexington to cut energy waste. He is well positioned in a growing part of the economy.
4) Alvin is going back to school.
Now, a bachelor's degree is par for the course. A master's degree is the new bachelor's. Alvin is going to choose between a normal MBA and an MS in global sustainability. That's what it takes to be competitive today, when we have college-educated kids in my generation totally unable to find jobs as white-collar jobs disappear or are farmed out overseas.
Higher education in a growth segment of the economy will ensure that Alvin will have some security in the future.
5) Alvin is a creative creator.
Friedman says there there are two kinds of workers: creators and servers. Alvin is a creator. He gained company-wide recognition when he put together some programs in MATLAB to do his job, energy analysis. Though it wasn't his job, he did it on his own. He was actually told not to do it by his boss, because his boss was concerned that it would detract from Alvin's actual job, which was the analysis itself. His programs are now saving the company literally uncountable sums of money, because he's made analyzing energy usage very efficient.
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