Thread regarding General Motors layoffs

Jealousy is unbecoming.

Very nice reply. I can relate to the degree glorification and it's emphasis, and those whom manage that haven't a clue.

I use to run a small company of about two dozen individuals as a general manager. In my time, we achieved a near ten fold fold increase in revenue, and increased global participants to about the same. Now, of those within my team, few came with degrees, and most did not. Not following the outline of corporate America, I brought on people with a passion and a talent, with a specific skill set not offered from piece of paper. It was wildly successful. To this day, what I recall among this specific experience was that those whom challenged me the most, those that contributed the least, in my own little world, were the degreed candidates. That's not to say that's how it is in the real world, or in my other life experiences, just in this specific experience which could have been a one off. I believe that managers decisions will always make or break the department/company. If you are dull at the top, you will acquire dull talent. I was a general manager, without a degree, which raised company revenue ten fold.

My single issue within GM and other like companies, is that there is not a system inside to expose and utilize a rare gem, that might identify to the talent caliber of perhaps a Steve Jobs, a Bill Gates, etc, working among their ranks, before they actually leave to do their own monumental things in life.

As for GM, they do have the knowledge center. I was asked from my colleagues why I don't teach there. I'm not qualified because I lack a piece of paper. They do offer coursework, but it's not in the manner in which applies to an actual degree. It's a skilled trades type of learning, meaning what you do there, applies to what you do within GM in real life, you know, real world stuff and not college fluff in which hiring managers actually hire. The problem is not the knowledge center itself. The problem is that if it's not online and readily available, your manager will likely tell you that if it isn't relevant to your specific job function, it's not needed. You don't have the time to go and sit over there an learn.

In my time at GM, the sole reason I was able to help train and mentor hundreds of people within my sphere, was because of my diverse exposure to real world experiences spanning so many years. I come with no degree, yet I trained hundreds of individuals with associates, bachelors, masters, and dual degrees. I trained these people, yet I have no degree. What I do have, are more friends and acquaintances, more recommendations and recognition than anyone else I've worked with. Let that sink in for the future managers of the world. Find these kinds of people if you really want a successful group.

As an analogy FYI. When my vehicle breaks, I don't want the engineer whom designed the part. I want the automotive mechanic that has the technical skillset to keep ALL aspects of the vehicle running. They are much more important to me. If you step up to become a manager, hire all the engineers you want, but you would do yourself a great service, to have a few mechanics on hand, to keep everyone else going.

The 2015 Economist cover is one of my all time favorites. A classic. There is so much information conveyed.

The degree glorification does irk me. My grandparents and parents were products of country schools and had more intelligence and life success than most people. I have found that people who continually tell others of their credentials (certificates, degrees) are empty vessels.

Most people at work have no idea of my educational background. I have two Masters degrees CS and EE. Once a manager told me that we should change a spec based on the recommendation of a new employee. I studied the change and determined it was a bad idea to make the change; scheduled a meeting with the manager and new employee to discuss. In the meeting the new employees entire argument for why he was right was he has a Masters degree. The manager said we should believe him after all he has a Masters degree. I said you should believe me I have two Masters degrees and actual experience. The manager all but called me a liar. Two days later he apologized after reviewing my credentials. All of the sudden this manager started treating me as a genius. Not because of my work, which has always been exemplary, but because I have two Masters degrees.

The other irksome thing is the patent game. I have observed people applying for and receiving patents for basic things that even my children know. The patent office for the most part doesn’t understand technology so they grant patents for silly things. Every time I hear oh GM has more patents than XYZ, I cringe.

I always thought GM should have an on-site college where employees could stay one hour after work and take a technical class towards a degree. Senior GM employees could teach. If done correctly it would give the company a method to discern the intelligent and capable from the clock punchers — and capable GM employees would get a free degree that was actually useful to GM.

I know they have tried flavors of this in the past but they always seemed to devolve to a favoritism game.

You are right the F**K on about conspiracy theorist my friend. The critical thinkers of the world.

Why do you think they promote degrees? So the everyone else's, can think they are intellectually aware. To give a status, when in fact it doesn't define intellect nor capability in the least. It's to put the 95% of them, against the 5% of those superior in intellect. A piece of paper will never define intellectually capability.

However, if we say that that 90% of our student graduated with a masters degree, it sounds great. What also sounds great, is that most fantastically wealthy entrepreneurs of the world, lack a college education. Logic, versus propaganda, you tell me which sounds legit.

You do make some valid points, you should look into the 2015 economist cover featuring Mary Barra and other worldly figures. Black and white, not random tells, pawns in a game of global chess if you hold the intellectual capability to figure it out. Mary is the puppet, controlled by the various puppet masters. It's VERY obvious who's eyes are open.

People say, don't think conspiracy. I say, everything is a conspiracy. Everything is decided behind closed doors, usually among more than a group of two, in which you are not party to.

A conspiracy theorist is a deragatory term used to define an analytical thinker or intellectual, a person whom can figure things out, when most others either will not, or sinply can not. At the end of the day, a degree does not define IQ nor intellectual capability.

There is no career at GM, move along, stop try to prop it up. If you are parked at GM, ask yourself why. If you are there to milk the benefits then you have made your bargain and should keep a stiff upper lip. Every school boy knows GM’s life expectancy is at most 10-15 years. Anything left after that will be consumed by Tata. The GM execs will get a sweet bonus for engineering the sale. GM has been foolish enough to let their Intellectual property be continually siphoned off to China and India, they have nothing left. GM has an unsustainable US and Europe business model; they can’t figure out how to build cars people want. They have inflated the truck and suv prices to levels where people cannot buy them. They have a mobility scheme that is a pipe dream. Profitability from the schemes could only be realized upon wide scale consumer adoption. Anyone not high on the corporate koolaid can see the roadway littered with the carcasses of all the so called disruptive ideas and technologies that no one really wants. The only thing they will disrupt is the lives of employees.

The auto technology will supplant the iPhone? yeah right, just stop already .remove all the GM navigation, stereo and other onboard experiences and put a recessed tablet/phone holder in the dash and we will snap out iPad/iPhone into the dash. Let the true innovators write the software then it will actually work and be affordable.

Sure a healthy company investigates new technology. But a healthy company does not siphon off the majority of its resources from its core business to place multi-billion dollar bets in a space that they do not understand nor have the capability to excel and succeed in. At the end of the fool’s errand there will be another financial reckoning and GM will cease to exist.