I have noticed a trend and it is in the embryonic or "proto" stages of becoming a post. A post along the lines of how I've seen our Latin American counterparts have a genuine hatred of socialism, and a more-than-anecdotal statistically significant readership/commentaryship on the part of Latino/Hispanic men of the "Capitalist Faith."
Of course there is no doubt selection bias on this blog, but I have noticed a lot of Latin men voice conservative ideals and thoughts.
Regardless, a guest post from a Spanish speaking capitalist who I believe hates communism even more than me.
However, this does also behoove the question, "Where is Lieutenant Latino?" He occasionally drops in, haven't heard from him in a while! Regardless, enjoy.
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"No jobs in the US? No jobs for graduates? Ha!
If someone graduates with a degree in engineering or geology, there are lots of jobs (not IT or computer science, too many of them out there... and -at least in Canada- employers have figured out they can employ Wan Chang and Kumar Patel for 12-hour days at $40k, which is a pittance for a network engineer, if you ask me).
As long as you are willing to eat and crap snow and/or sand, at least at the initial years of your career, engineering/geology is pretty good money. I wish I had known about the amazing job opportunities in Canada when I was 18, back in the mid 90s. I probably would not have a mortgage now (instead, I spent 98-04 working for faceless -I'd say bastard- corporations paying peanuts for 50-60 hour weeks).
Trust me when I say this: I have employed fresh, out of university geology and mining engineering graduates, for projects up north (e.g. Labrador, also in Chile). They were costing the project $350-$400/day. People with experience (they could use MapInfo and had 2 or 3 summer seasons) were $500+/day, plus onerous conditions (for them, not me). Drillers and miners (and good cooks) earn even more (rumour has it good drillers -i.e. >7 years experience- earn $1000/day, particularly when working abroad, but I have not been able to verify this). If I wanted to make lots of money and have a life consisting of hard work periods followed by several weeks off, for 10 years, I'd rather be a driller than a medicine student between ages 20 and 30: you would have a lot more to show at age 30 -assuming a counting coppers mind- and probably earn more than a doctor. Should a driller be careful with his money (and fingers, too many 40+ drillers with an odd number of fingers, including the number 7) he should be able to retire at 40 (there are some famous drillers who retired or half-retired to Thailand or Costa Rica age 40). I have met Canadian drillers who had a ranch or something similar by age 40, no mortgage, and worked in drilling for 3-5 months a year in order to support ranch life.
If a young lad (or lady) were to take one of the mineral exploration assignments for a couple of years and not blow it all on bars and the meat market (like 70% of men do), they would definitely have no student debt within a few months, and a nice 20% downpayment on a Toronto or Montreal home within two or three years of graduation.
This is absolutely true. In northern BC where I live there are dozens of exploration drilling companies that send workers around the world for big bucks. They are crying for men who will live in a shack on the side of a mountain for weeks at a time, drilling for core samples. Not a job for an old fart like me though. No metrosexuals need apply either.
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked with BP here in Colombia the company man earned 1000 dollars per day, but a freshen out easily earns 4000 dollars per month. Now the interesting part: while you're at the field you dont have to pay for accomodations, food, clothing, entertainment, etc, so I guess you end up earning more than just the nominal salary.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds much better than doing PivotTables for 50 hours a week. Where do I apply?
ReplyDeleteI can confirm that there is a ton of money to be made in the Canadian backwoods, tree-planting, drilling, mining, surveying, etc. Nice to know my resource-based-economy home and native land will likely weather the coming storm at least marginally better than some others...
ReplyDeleteThey're dangerous jobs though, and you'll get worked to the bone. Also, you need to resist blowing every paycheck on coke, booze, hookers, and the ponies, something that I've heard 90% of rig guys fail to do.
...and a nice 20% downpayment on a Toronto or Montreal home within two or three years of graduation.
ReplyDeleteWhy the hell would anybody buy a house in Toronto if they could live anywhere? That's just kooky! That's like paying $25 for a half-eaten hotdog, and then fully expecting to turn around and sell it to someone else for $30.
PONIES????
ReplyDeletePonies
ReplyDeleteThat is an expression for going to the race track, and betting on the horse race.