Tony Iannelli - Special to The Morning Call
I'm gonna tell it like it is: I was a bad student.
In my high school era, you started with College prep courses and if you found those difficult, you shifted to business curriculum. Neither of those two options motivated me. I crawled toward graduation in the rather lightweight “general” curriculum. Don't get me wrong, I loved high school. I just had zero idea why I was there, other than to have fun. Not a good legacy.
The good news is that I met a lot of friends from a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds. Rich kids, poor kids, brilliant kids, troubled kids, but mostly pretty happy kids who were content with having a lot less than people have today.
So while all my friends were off to college, I was working to save a failing family business. That didn't end well and, thankfully, I found myself mounting tires on the Mack Trucks assembly line. It was the jump-start I needed, and it got me a car and a house in short order. I was living the life on a whopping $8 an hour (real money in the early 1970s) and working overtime whenever I could. I was a full partner in the country’s greasy hands, factory-working, labor union, softball after work, middle America, industrial revolution crowd.
One day, my chain-smoking supervisor suggested I get a Job using my mouth instead of my hands. While I had to mount about 200 truck tires a day, I still found time to gab with all my co-workers. It humored him and drove him crazy at the same time. I knew I wasn't a very mechanical guy, but I knew I liked humans. I liked them for all of their varied backgrounds, nuisances and idiosyncrasies. After a lot of thinking, I took his advice and walked out of the absolute secure world of that plant to begin a great run of working his suggested approach — more mouth, less hands.
So here's my point. Everyone has differing talents and it takes time to find them. You can't give up on yourself. You're a work in progress, and in due time you'll discover your talents. If your eyes are wide open, they'll take you to good places. Enjoy the moment while keeping your eyes on the prize. But work and work relentlessly.
News flash, not everyone is college material for a variety of reasons. The one thing I hear most from employers is, "I can't find the right people to fill the jobs." Some of the top “in-demand jobs” for the Lehigh Valley prove you don’t need a four-year college degree to get a good-paying job. We are in great need of health care workers, auto techs, truck drivers, equipment/machine repair types, plumbers, electricians and the list keeps going.
During the past year, the Valley’s trade, transportation and utility industries offered more than 3,200 jobs and the leisure, and the hospitality industry had 2,000 available jobs. Talk about the Lehigh Valley being a desirable place to live, work and play.
On national TV last month, the good people at Lehigh Career & Technical Institute in Schnecksville were featured. They’re doing great work in preparing our workforce for the jobs that our local employers need to fill tomorrow. Like LCTI, Career Institute of Technology in Easton and Bethlehem Area Vocational School are ready, willing and able to get our future workforce ready for great-paying jobs. Speaking of great-paying jobs, my friends at The Lehigh Valley Building Trades are purchasing buildings and developing them into local training centers. They need people willing to commit to the training in order to get and maintain family-sustaining jobs.
Did you know that for every five older workers that retire, only one stands ready to fill that slot? It's sad, yet telling. There's a good job waiting for you if you're willing to jump in with both feet.
Here's the message: College is fantastic not only for the education but also for the experience. Very few people have nothing but great memories of their college days and the lifelong friends they've made. Not to mention the serious money they're making as a result of that degree.
But if college doesn't look like it's in the cards, the game is not even close to being over for you. Pursue a trade. Parents, consider all the options for your child and let them pursue their dream, not yours. But most importantly, don't get stuck in neutral. Learn a skill, commit to a serious work ethic, seek lifelong learning opportunities and be thankful for a job. If you do that, I'll guarantee you’re on the path to living a good life.
Tony Iannelli is president and CEO of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce. He can be reached at [email protected].
This post first appeared on The Voice Of Business - The Chamber Blog - Greater, please read the originial post: here
