PhD graduate can't find work

silkenphoenixx said:
Water treatment. Most of the chem engineers that I knew from varsity ended up working in that kind of environment. A few went to mines and chemical plants, some to SAB, some to P&G, but water treatment is a big place for them to go.
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Right, hope he doesn't end up working sewage. The only chemical engineer I know went and specialized in brandy related research and is coining it in the states.
 
Adrianax said:
This is only the beginning of what's to come. He was lucky to have her reading around. Things may have been different, if not. Unfortunately, municipalities and government can't keep employing every person who obtained a degree and can't find a job. Just simply not possible. A new government is required to turn around the economy and get private businesses flourishing who can create employment, even if it means Western investors becoming billionaires while South Africans suffers. Even if it means more white people are employed in key positions to assist in growing companies and others not. Even if it means more white people will have more money than black people. Whatever the case may be.

Fact is, as long as the ANC continues on this trend, BEEE, AA, the end result will be the same. If South Africans cannot and will not accept this, then so be it. You cannot compensate, there is no middle ground, especially when it comes to running a country and its economy.
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Isn't this exactly what has happened in the last 100 years, where only white people are involved actively in the economy while the rest of the population held minimal paying jobs? You cannot keep 30 million people out of the economy and then think you can grow the economy. We need Inclusive Economy Participation, that's the only way you can grow the economy.
 
rza said:
Isn't this exactly what has happened in the last 100 years, where only white people are involved actively in the economy while the rest of the population held minimal paying jobs? You cannot keep 30 million people out of the economy and then think you can grow the economy. We need Inclusive Economy Participation, that's the only way you can grow the economy.
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Did not work so back then either. Many, many white people were poor living off mediocre income. Unfortunately, not everyone in any country can have a job. Not everyone in any country can get a good salary. Not everyone in any country can be rich. It is only a handful who fall into certain levels. Problem is, South Africans do not want to face this. Everyone wants in on the economy. They do not want to work at the bottom, they want to start off on managerial level and up, sharing in company profits. This has never worked in any country, ever before.

So, good luck with that.
 
silkenphoenixx said:
Water treatment. Most of the chem engineers that I knew from varsity ended up working in that kind of environment. A few went to mines and chemical plants, some to SAB, some to P&G, but water treatment is a big place for them to go.
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An interesting side note. At UCT, Chem Eng students use to be quite aggrieved at the fact that us Civil Engineering Students studied Waste Water Treatment and Water Treatment. UCT Civil Engineering Department is well known world wide for its Waste Water Treatment research. Many Treatment plants are designed around what is called the UCT PHO system. Prof George Ekama in the Civil Engineering Department is a world expert on this subject.

The Civil Eng department also did a lot of good research on Acid Mine Drainage treatment as well.

Most Chem Eng students that I knew went to Mining Houses (Anglo etc), SASOL and SAB.
 
rza said:
We need Inclusive Economy Participation, that's the only way you can grow the economy.
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Absolute Horse$hit.

Actual economic growth only happens under free market conditions. This is because voluntary transactions are mutually beneficial. If you start mandating that one party has to suffer at the expense of another, it ceases to be mutually beneficial, thus you don't create wealth.
This is why when you don't employ people based on merit, the person doing the employing loses out on the benefit of having the best person for the job, thus you have no wealth creation and your economy doesn't grow.

This is why the best thing for black South Africans in poverty right now is to let the best person for the job work where they can. If Eskom and the other SOE actually had merit as the reason why they employ people instead of their skin colour, we would have far better services from them. Instead we have an "inclusive economy" at Eskom with load shedding and tariff hikes.
 
God. PhDs are the thorn in my fekking side.

Enter the working world with the grandest of egos, get cut down to size very fast, end up with a chip on the shoulder the size and shape of what the ego used to be.

Oke, if you like school so much then why not just stay in academia? You've been at it so long that's where your experience capital lies anyway...
 
konfab said:
Absolute Horse$hit.

Actual economic growth only happens under free market conditions. This is because voluntary transactions are mutually beneficial. If you start mandating that one party has to suffer at the expense of another, it ceases to be mutually beneficial, thus you don't create wealth.
This is why when you don't employ people based on merit, the person doing the employing loses out on the benefit of having the best person for the job, thus you have no wealth creation and your economy doesn't grow.

This is why the best thing for black South Africans in poverty right now is to let the best person for the job work where they can. If Eskom and the other SOE actually had merit as the reason why they employ people instead of their skin colour, we would have far better services from them. Instead we have an "inclusive economy" at Eskom with load shedding and tariff hikes.
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Inclusive doesn't mean preference to other groups, it means exactly what the term means. You cannot have 6 million South Africans carrying the economy as we have now when you can have 25 million. It really is logical.
 
SlinkyMike said:
God. PhDs are the thorn in my fekking side.

Enter the working world with the grandest of egos, get cut down to size very fast, end up with a chip on the shoulder the size and shape of what the ego used to be.

Oke, if you like school so much then why not just stay in academia? You've been at it so long that's where your experience capital lies anyway...
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The poor guy just got bad advice, it happens sometimes.
 
konfab said:
Absolute Horse$hit.

Actual economic growth....
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you need to stop right there, the major critique of economists, and I'm speaking as an economist myself, is that they think economic growth can remain positive for years on end if a set of conditions they created in a black box hold

this simply is not physically possible
 
SlinkyMike said:
God. PhDs are the thorn in my fekking side.

Enter the working world with the grandest of egos, get cut down to size very fast, end up with a chip on the shoulder the size and shape of what the ego used to be.

Oke, if you like school so much then why not just stay in academia? You've been at it so long that's where your experience capital lies anyway...
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Geez dude, generalize much? :wtf:
 
saturnz said:
you need to stop right there, the major critique of economists, and I'm speaking as an economist myself, is that they think economic growth can remain positive for years on end if a set of conditions they created in a black box hold
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He was advocating free market conditions though i.e. the complete opposite of an economist's black box, the absence of meddling.

saturnz said:
this simply is not physically possible
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Perpetual positive growth isn't, but an average growth rate exceeding the new South Africa's paltry 2.84% certainly is possible if the ANC just stops shooting itself and all of us in the foot all the time ...
 
Question for the engineers on this thread. How is a BTech perceived in the industry vs. BIng?
 
vic777 said:
Question for the engineers on this thread. How is a BTech perceived in the industry vs. BIng?
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Can't say for the whole South Africa, but where I work: BIng > Btech.

Know of a few work colleagues that started working as Btech, then 'upgraded' to BIng later trough external study.
 
MightyQuin said:
Moans about not getting a job...nevertheless INSISTS that he wants it HIS way:

Mekuto said that there have been postdoctoral position offers from countries like Turkey and Finland, however he is disappointed that there has been no offers from South Africa.

View attachment 464641
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I get the impression he wants to stay in SA to use his skills to make a difference. One should not be too quick to deride that patriotism, even if it is misplaced.
 
NarrowBandFtw said:
He was advocating free market conditions though i.e. the complete opposite of an economist's black box, the absence of meddling.


Perpetual positive growth isn't, but an average growth rate exceeding the new South Africa's paltry 2.84% certainly is possible if the ANC just stops shooting itself and all of us in the foot all the time ...
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we must be careful, what do you see as the growth rate?

to me growth is generating GDP beyond your potential, the stats that STATSSA release and that we all look to is filled with noise.
 
Okty said:
Can't say for the whole South Africa, but where I work: BIng > Btech.

Know of a few work colleagues that started working as Btech, then 'upgraded' to BIng later trough external study.
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Interesting, I didn't know you could change the BTech into a BIng
 
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