Tuesday, January 17, 2012

CEOs hiring us?


Hmm, apparently international CEOs love graduates of my Alma Mater. I looked at the result of the survey conducted by the New York Times and for once, my university out does Melbourne Uni. This is unexpected because Melbourne Uni leads all Australian universities. My missus works for them as a Research Fellow.

Melbourne Uni ranked, last time I looked 31st around the world according to QS rankings; but my Monash ranked only 60th around the world. In 2010 it was 45th, now it even dropped back.

I spoke to a fellow graduate whose specialty is in Philosophy of Maths, he said "Man, there is no hope in me getting any tenured or fixed term position, ever. I think I will be forever doing sessional teaching here or there, doing adjunct work all the time".

I am happy for those who got hired, but that does not work for my philosopher friend and for me a maths logician. Last time I spoke to a CEO (of a very well established insurance company) was when I was a manager just prior to starting my studies. I asked him (through my boss) if he would give me just 1 day a week to study with no pay, he said," we have no need for PhDs here". Anyway, he was not an international CEO, maybe that is why.

8 comments:

said...

For decades I've heard it said by boffins that getting a university degree - and the more advanced the better - would provide secure employment. Of course, university graduates do normally earn more than non-graduates, when they can get a job in their field, that is, but it now seems that there is no escape anywhere from the "casualization" of the work force unless one can get into the "closed shop" of the medical specialties, for e.g.
How are young people supposed to build a life for themselves under these circumstances? Try getting a mortgage in this climate without permanent, full time employment. Can't understand why it's not a bigger political issue, Lito

LPC said...

I am glad we are having this talk, I wish a greater community join in.

What the government is doing is a joke. On the one hand they know they have to re-skill Australia, on the other hand they do not promote education in the industry. So their desire to educate the people are being undermined by their own dyslexic mind. They are not doing it holistically, they are doing it out of knee jerk and not out of thorough understanding.

For example, in IT, you practically do not have to get a degree in this area, because if one looks at jobs in Seek, they look only for experience. So the degree earners are being undermined. It may look good short term but in the long term Australia losses the respect of its neighbors because their neighbors are more educated than them.

It is only in Australia that none graduates are able to get a job. Look at how our trades people behave, how much they charge us, have you ever asked a trades person do some work for you? Do you realize how he gets paid more than you? This is the over kill. Eventually Australia will be left behind in the world stage because its people are not educated enough.

It can not sustain itself that way. Eventually it will be an inferior group of people. Look at how Singapore and China are buying our companies. Look at the per capita education of Singapore compared to Australia.

Actually I think they find it odd that we consider our sporting champions as heroes!!!

They really find this rather misplaced and funny. Well, we can ask, how did the gold medals or the tennis championship benefit you, the citizen of Australia. The Chinese for example do not value this stuff because at the end of the day, it does not bring food on the table.

Watch China, in 2019 she will dominate and the Chinese love education. I get emails from China often asking for mentoring and supervision. I look at their credentials and I say, heck, this guy has more publications than me, how dare he want me to coach him.

Who is studying in Australian unis? Not Australians! It is the non-Australians.

In Europe this is not the case. What should happen is that we should not degrade people with low education, of course not; but what should happen is that people with high education should be used and elevated! This is why Europeans are the only ones who will hire people like me. They got a different mindset.

I actually do not need a PhD to get the same money as my professor, in fact there was a time I was earning more than my masteral thesis supervisor and I did not even have a masters nor a professorial title.

However, Melboure Uni predicts in 20 years we will be like the US where a degree is necessary to get a job, this is the reason why Melbourne Uni is now following the USA system and ditching the UK model. Monash is about to do the same.

It is no longer possible for a young couple to have the wife stay at home and mind the kids. Those days are now gone, the reality is that both will have to work and work hard. The few brave ones who will have benefits to their kids but you can count them with your fingers. So yes, the government should be placing more emphasis on the future of our children. I said to a Singaporean, you may not like Lee Kwan Yeu, but look at where he brought your country. He had a patriarchal vision for his people, I wish that was true for the Philippines.

cont...

LPC said...

The further problem Pr. Mark is that some vital professions are paid low. Child care people and nurses are the ones paid low yet the service they provide have important impact to our citizenry. Try comparing the pay of a say a painter to a child care worker. It is sick. Further does the painter give you a receipt when you pay him? Not a chance.

More... the government supports our kids who do not make the ATAR score. They pay a couple of hundred and the rest of the tab the government pays for a certificate or diploma, ie TAFE college. But do they take this opportunity? Nope. They turn in for a few days and then back again to partying and loafing around.

I teach at Monash some semesters and I can tell you that the population of my students is that I get 2 out of 15 from the local population on the post graduate level! Half of my students are from China!


We should stop being anti-intellectuals because our neighbors are certainly not that way.

LPC

said...

I'm absolutely in agreement with you Lito. Anti-intellectualism is the bane of Australian life. We are doing ourselves long-term harm with it.

Steve Martin said...

You think it's bad in Australia?

Here in the U.S., we are churning out functional illiterates by the millions.

But we are creating good little leftists who desire the path of the broken socialist systems of Europe. And the government is doing all it can to chase off business to other countries.

Come Lord Jesus, come.

LPC said...

Pr. Mark,

In addition to anti-intellectualism, we are also being short changed by our short sighted pragmatism.

All of our best scientists are in the USA, then in UK. Our best astronomers and computer scientists who head US laboratories are of course no longer in Australia.

A few years ago, the abc-fm interviewed an Australian astrophysicist living in the USA and he discussed why he left Australia.

LPC

LPC said...

Steve M,

And the government is doing all it can to chase off business to other countries

The outsourcing philosophy only benefits the company, it does not benefit the citizenry of the country where it operates.

This is the reason why China is now going to be bigger than the rest of the world, because all outsourcing is being done there.

First you give away the technical know how and manufacturing expertise. Your own country gets drained of knowledge.


The consumer mentality that we have today is modern, i.e. post-reformation and mainly taking its cue from Calvinistic Protestantism.

In the middle ages in Europe and in the rest of the world, people were content to only consume what they needed. They were not into amassing lots and lots of wealth, as a general rule.

This type of economy we are in, will not work, and it does not work. One can not always aim to be bigger and fake the notion of being better.


LPC

LPC said...

Pr. Mark,

Ohh I wanted to add. In the unis of Australia there are more non-Australian academics in the area of science and engineering. They out number the locals.

So, we are now into an ironic situation, who is teaching the Australian kids? Not the Australians but their non-Australian lecturers and professors!

Tell someone and talk about this.

LPC