This is why I subscribed to your channel. You don't only fix electronics, you also try and "fix" lives by being upfront, facts-based no BS, harsh realities which people tend to ignore and not address. KUDOS Alex and thank you!
Hello Alex, I just passed the Electrical Engineering Licensure Examination here in the Philippines (Sept. 3-4). Just like a other person I've celebrated and told my self that i will be rich. Fast forward I was applying for a job on a company and got rejected so many times and I suddenly got an interview on a internet provider here on the Philippines and out of 100 jobs that I've applied only one got interested on me. Fast forward again, one of the questions in the interview they asked me "what is your expected salary?" And since I'm a Licensed I've told them that I've done research about the position of the company and I expect my salary to be 30k php (516 USD) every month. But they have told me that in the real world that 30k php Salary that I want was too absurd and they said that newly passed Electrical Engineers paid for only 18k php (310 USD). And deep in my head someone told me that being in the real world is not easy. Just sharing and sorry for bad English.
I went to IT college, learned a lot, had a strong theory basis, but, when I had my 1st crisis at the job, a database that started deadlocking with itself and a client just stopped working, that was when I really learned how things works in the real world, and no school prepared me for that
This is exactly what I keep saying! Schools should focus more on *actually doing* stuff that is relevant to you *outside* of school, not just writing on a page for 6-8 hours a day for an absurd amount of years. It's really unfortunate that regardless of all the criticism, the people managing the school system are as stubborn as a mountain.
Before watching this, I thought it could only happen in Asia or Vietnam. Thank you for telling me that it's the same old story everywhere. My brother knows exactly how to calculate the resistance of components inside a super complex unreal circuit to pass the physics exam in the 11th grade. And he doesn't know how to check the broken wires on the charging cable with a multimeter.
Hi Alex, I always watch your videos, totally agree with you. That is why I like your Channel, you're not just sharing your skills but also you're life experiences. I myself graduated two Bachelor's Degree in Electronics in the Philippines (1st degree: Bachelor in Electronics Technology and 2nd degree: Bachelor in Electronics Engineering) but I wasn't getting the defining moments that I want. Even when I was just a 12yrs old kid, I repair and builds stuffs that I want. Fast forward after my first bachelor's degree in college, my first job is an Electronics Technician doing a Professional repair of cellphone, laptop, computers and board repairs for 3years. Since the salary wasn't that good here in the Philippines, I switched to an Equipment Technician job from a big company doing big machinery repairs for 2years. Since the salary is too small also, I switch to I.T field, doing technical support for 2years, same thing. After that, that's when I realizes that I want to be an Electronics Engineer, and so, I get back to school while I'm working and eventually I graduated my Bachelors degree in Electronics Engineering. After that, I got hired from a big company as an Electronics Engineer. I'm very happy, "finally" at last", I could get bigger salary and can work my dream job. At start, It was fun, building circuits, building small/big machines, programming robots and many more that I really love. But suddenly the fun wasn't fun anymore, i stayed there for 5years. It became too evident to me that whatever work I do into that company, the salary is just too small to feed my family. It was a great experience, I've got to work what I love but the salary was mediocre. Today I'm 32yrs old, still young (by the way I'm 18yrs old when I finish my 1st bachelor's degree in college, that's a 4year course) Now, I'm still finding other opportunities related to Electronics Engineering maybe abroad or seaman engr. while doing online jobs and repairs just to pay the bills..
In my elementary school years I was struggling to understand basic Physics and Chemistry. I was always stressed and frightened thinking that the teacher could ask me anything. This was until I found a book in the small school library that was titled "Experimenting with Physics and Chemistry at home". This book completely changed my view and understanding of Physics and Chemistry. It was so fun to read and apply laws of Physics in my home using everyday materials or building simple electric circuits. This helped me to love and understand the way that our physical world works. To make the long story, short, I fully agree that Schooling the way it works, destroys creativity and critical thinking in generations of people and I bet this was done NOT by mistake. Applied science should be the fundamental knowledge that people should be taught in School and College. Of course history and language are also very important in order to understand the former and improve your critical thinking but even those as you said is requested to be memorized, not to be understood.
School, no matter what form, teaches you how to think, how to apply logic in an specific domain, for example engeneering school teaches you how do certain things are design or work, you know by looking at something what part does what and how that works with the rest of the components.It helps form your brain and how to aproach a problem.For exaple solving ecuations helps you follow a certain parth of formulas to get to the end result, so it helps you understand the meaning of following certain rules to get to the desire outcome.
I took the jump and went into the real world instead of going to college, and I can say after the first year alone, I learned more useful information than I did from 12 years of school. In this day and age, everything they teach in school is free and available online. If you’d want to learn about something, you can probably teach yourself if you have access to the internet. And this is why I love your channel so much. I’m not only interested in the godly soldering work you do, but your values and principles are something to look up to. =
If everyone was an entrepreneur, we wouldn't have a workforce. If everyone was an employee, we wouldn't have businesses. It's a balance of things. Education is important. Finding a job in your field is not a guarantee. A high paying job is not a guarantee. Not everyone has the initiative or capability to run a business. What difference will the practical aspects make? If everyone has the practical skills in the degree they choose, then what changes? At what point is the University the educator Vs the employer?
Well put... I am an EE as well. I went to University in the 80's and didn't retain much from most of the courses I took, with a few exceptions. In hind sight, the best thing that I learned in University that stuck, was that I learned how to learn.
You are absolutely right. Even my wife studied for 6 years in the university and said that only 5% of the information was useful. The gap between academics and reality is undeniable and it is massive. Three months of working as an apprentice will give more than college. Learning to pass an exam is useless.
The education system went from a collaborative endeavour to help everyone reach their maximum potential for the betterment of society, to shackles for the enslavement of all.
hello, from Ohio in the US i just wanted to say i happened upon one of your videos randomly and could tell you knew what you were talking about. So i went to the channel and seen this video and watched it. i 100% agree with you and it refreshing to see there are other people out there that understand this concept. thank you for being awesome i hope the best for you and your loved ones. Keep up the awesome work!!!!!
Yes, there is too much pressure put on children in school. Let children be children and learn within their capability. Don't rush them. I think teachers, in general, are taught a specific way to teach, leaving out how students learn. Yes, learning from someone who has experience in repairing mobiles, computers, etc is the way to go. Thanks Alex.
@@temyraverdana6421 , don't worry. The theory is good to give you a solid foundation to form practical experience on. This greater depth to your knowledge will help you better use the practical experience you gain later. With that said, I think a lot of students make the mistake of not gaining practical experience while in school. Depending on your major, do personal projects related to your area of study. After schooling, it is rare for any particular job to be entirely static, learning is a life long thing. As such, you will be teaching yourself and keeping your knowledge and skills up to date after schooling is done, so might as well start that now.
Hi!i just open a repair shop..i have every day more customers..i learn everything from practice…i broke a lot devices until to understand how repairing works…i pay a lot from my pocket to learn..when you broke its teach you to not make same mistake again..i learn from your videos a lot and i learn that every technician learn every day something different…you just cant know everything but every device its a new class of learning..thanks you from Cyprus you helped me a lot with your videos!!
I'm from Italy and I think exactly the same Alex. You have to go to school to have a sort of "generic" knowledge, but the real world is completely another story. If you want to learn a job, you have to go outside and start working (maybe for free at the beginning) from somebody that is already doing it, or maybe looking tons of YT videos. It worked from my with electronics: I started reading magazines about C64 in 1985. Now I can fix lot of devices just looking into youtube or searching on Google. I started doing photography with my Reflex just as an hobby, and I'm sure that I could open a photographer career if I would like to. If you want everybody can quite easily transform a simple hobby in a real career. The key it the passion and the practical real life you apply to it. Thanks for this video. I totally agree on your words.
Alex I learned everything by myself in repairing TVs, mobile phones, computers, making micro soldering in electronic boards, recognizing the classic electronic problems in various electronic boards. At school I loved physics, when I went to the laboratory to do physics experiments after learning the equation it was the most fun I could do. The push to become an electrical technician was given to me by school .. The point however is as you said, in school I never learned the technical side of repairing computer motherboards, graphics cards, mobile phones, TVs, CRT TVs.. I would say that if you like being an electro technician you have to study first as an industrial electrician, you don't have to go to university.. Then you can study electronics on your own by buying books, experimenting and watching brilliant teachers like you on UA-cam. Curiosity is the key to learn electronics.
So much wasted time, so much lost opportunity and so many lives needlessly ruined. My partner is a teacher, I hear every day how the students simply have no idea. It is the fault of the system that allows yearly progression through the education system without PROPERLY checking on the students understanding. What is the point of teaching years 3,4 and 5 when the student hasn't grasped year 1?. Here in France the pass figures are 'massaged' to fit the required pass rate so the people in charge get their bonuses, it is, in my opinion, criminal. No employers accept pass diplomas as proof of anything anymore, so what is the point? Bring back teaching the basics and then vocational training for all those that are not considered to be in the top 10% academically, I would have been better served to have done that and so would the other 90% who are never going to benefit from a university diploma.
I am electrical engineer from Serbia. I enjoy watching these videos. I maybe do not know how to microsolder and I almost never use flux, but I understand how components work. For example, when you fix HDMI or USB C with pad strips, I know that it is solid connection, but it ruins wave guide and may induce a lot of electrical noise. So console that could output 4K 60fps, TV may start loosing signal at random, but 1080p at 30fps would work just fine. Btw, I can make more money fixing phones, TVs, ACs, than doing my own job, but at my job I work 8-16 5 days per week, I have lunch at the office and can work from home any time I do not need to be at the office.
Human beings are different and letting kids skip a class too quickly isnt always the smartest move indeed. I had two classmates that advanced to other schools early - just to come back to the old school rather disappointed and failing from there on- one even had to repeat twice later. School is means for a purpose. Most important thing is to write and read well plus basic maths up to algebra, procentual and geometrics because these are the things you will need in future a lot. With a good writing and reading paired with a degree you will land so many more jobs as people will judge you better in first sight. But school stuffs people's brains with too much useless bs. Most things I learned about languages, economics, geography, biology and history was after school- when I got interested and felt it was the right moment.
You can be fully literate and yet not understand anything, because you were never trained properly to use the main head muscle. Even having a degree does not mean you understand, what you learned. Most people end up doing something different anyway (the guess is, only about 3% of world population ends up doing, what they studied for. The case often is that people figure out their dream job later in life. Learning should be an enjoyable experience, kids must literally like going to school. Instead, it´s mostly just a stupid torture.
University used to be about finding the right people to become Dr's, engineer's etc. Now it's about keeping people there as long as possible to make as much money out of them as possible and keeping unemployment figures down as long as possible. It's much like the military. Name one job or occupation where you learn it before you start and never need to learn anything else in the whole time you do it.. you can't, you have to constantly hone your skills and learn new methods and techniques. If you are able to do that while working the job why the hell do you need university. Drs and engineer's don't go back to college after a year or two for three more years to learn new stuff, they learn while working!!!
I've been saying this for a while. The entire education system needs to be revamped after a certain grade. Teach the basics, but then as the child gets older (possibly even highschool level), start applying them into aptitude systems. What do they excel at, find that out and steer them in that direction. If they know they're good at something, I'd imagine that'd boost their drive to do something. As well add or bring back practical lessons in schools (home economy and other real world classes). I personally loved woodshop when we had it. Working with your hands and building something was fun :)
its unfortunate because ultimately education is a business. we already have tons of data about how to make education more effective. this will continue and it has already harmed the future education.
That's it ,I'm subscribing. Hearing you share your knowledge and experience and spending the time to tell us this is very valuable. It's down to earth and real. Every word makes sense and is true. You're a champion Alex, deepest respects.
Wow you have echoed my feelings and thoughts. I too was a car salesman and I too would sit in maths class and wonder why I was being taught calculus without telling me how to apply it to everyday life. Thank you!
Very interesting and important topic. I studied chemistry in Barcelona and after many years I ended as a middle school chemistry and physics teacher in Germany. While I was getting my teacher's certification (2 year long process), it was taught to us that one of the most important things when you plan a lesson is to make it real-life relatable. Sometimes is quite easy, some times is not. But we try every day and it's a very hard work. I always try to relate my lessons to things kids can relate, like video games. You just need a good starting point, and you get their attention for the rest of the lesson. Regarding your other point about college education and high degrees, I have always thought the same as you think. If I was to take a test a couple of weeks after I passed, I would have performed very badly. Imagine now, 20 years later. However, with time and life experience I realized something. I see higher education in universities and colleges as a proof that someone is motivated and able to start and finish something. You could call it reliability, maybe. For me, as a chemist with even a PhD who has been out of the academia and research for a long time, I realized that the university did not teach me chemistry (I learned it by myself as you very well pointed out, with guidance of the professors). They thought me how to think. How to see life before me, how to rationally think and analyze situations. Chemistry related or not. As a father myself and as a teacher, I would advise against your daughter changing schools and skipping a grade. The emotional toll it can take on her could be substantial. Imagine having to say goodbye to all her classmates and being seen "different" on a class with older kids.
Hi Alex ! I’m born and grown in Romania, now on age 33 I’m in Germany working as courier,short story, learn English from movies, learn German language working with people, learn building hole Hause (meaning everything practical from ground to key handed )working , repairing cars and motors working, now I’m fixing devices that people are throwing away on my free time thanks to you just to make some more money, I’m learning from you practical way and I fixed a few tv’s, subwoofers, monitors, now working on a gpu for myself, all of this thanks to you . Life it’s the one who make you learn , some will tell the hard way ,me telling is the easy way, all you got to do is try … have a nice day and keep it up 👍
10/10 back in school i had no idea about math. i was the worst one in class. and today 15 years later. i love math and programing. things i never understood in school
Well said. As a graduate majoring in computer engineering, I can absolutely say that the only job that cared about my degree was my first job... and they only cared because it was an HR requirement. I was hired for my ability to answer questions in an interview to their satisfaction, not because of a piece of paper. I have applied minimal knowledge from my degree in any job I've had despite being fortunate enough to be involved in the computer engineering/science field for my whole career. Flip side: University was difficult, but the classes I got the most out of were the classes with the teachers who went out of their way to put practical examples into the projects we built. I learned more from 3 classes than out of the other 40 classes combined and can STILL recall things learned in those classes today. A large part of that recollection is that I WANTED to learn those things and I enjoyed the journey those professors took us on. That said, you're absolutely right. Follow the things you find exciting and become an expert at those things. University may or may not be a part of that journey. I was encouraged by my parents and I will encourage my children in the same way.
For me I certainly do not remember many specifics from university. But the things I did learn were how to learn and solve problems. So many people I run into as an adult can not figure things out for themselves. So while I do not use the facts I learnt, I think I use the tools I developed at university everyday. That’s just me though, others can do it on their own.
@@cwilliams6884 , with that said, I am a proponent of vocational schools for jobs and career paths that are more direct application and less problem solving/thinking. Or, even no schooling for purely practical jobs (E.g. labor). However, as technology is introduced into various fields, I think the pool of pure labor jobs is shrinking, and at the very least vocational is needed.
I actually came from a welding background and this is something the skilled trades industry never really cares about. Never once in my entire career did anyone care about where I went to school or what certifications I had, it didn't matter if I was welding jet turbine engines or nuclear reactors. You just show up, weld a test piece and get the job depending on the skills you demonstrate, and it's same for every other field in the trades. Many of the trades have people in them that are educated through apprenticeship and not very much formal education at all. I understand the argument of needing formal education for certain fields as a safety concern however you'd be surprised how many planes, buildings, bridges, ect. are constructed by people with little to no "formal" education. I was thinking about this the other day actually. Becoming a lawyer takes 7 years of education. If you had one student out of high school go down the traditional path, and the other become an "apprentice" of sorts working directly with a mentor at a law firm for 7 years, who would be the better lawyer after those 7 years?
The best advice I received when I was in HS was to drop out, get a GED, and start working. Unfortunately, I had to help support my family when I was a sophomore. I had to grind in my career and I worked for a company for nearly 11 years. I went from entry level to upper regional management. I left that job for a completely different career path and I'm more successful now, than I was at my last job. When I was a hiring manager, work ethic and eagerness to learn were more important to me than education and experience. Your education and experience may not apply to what this company needs, being coachable is more important.
I went to a technical school (2 year diploma) and in my course we were taught analog and digital electronics, programming, soldering, pcb design / building, math, technical writing and a few others. It was very directed at doing hands on technical jobs that would allow you to pick a path of design, implementation, troubleshooting or documentation. (or any combination). It was very compact timeframe with no optional classes or electives. If i had gone to a traditional college or university, I would have dropped out for sure.
Hey Alex! I'm 100% agree with every words you said in this video. During my school years, I constantly felt bad about having to learn things that have no use in everyday life. Every day I spent at school felt horrible and useless, and I knew even then that I would never be able to use most of the acquired knowledge in real life. Of course, I am not referring here to the basic mathematical operations or spelling that are essential to life. Finally, while I was working in three shifts as a team leader, I built a repair shop by myself, and I also have a family. Currently, this is the only way I support my family, but during the period when I was also working for the company and building the store, I only went home to say hello, I worked 18-19 hours a day for roughly 3 years at that time. I saw in one of your videos that you got to where you are now in a similar way, and it wouldn't have been possible if you didn't like what you were doing or were very interested in it. Keep up the good work!
Wow you really nailed it. I owned a service engineering business for 35 years and had youngsters come in they just graduated with a four-year degree and wanted top pay. I told him that what you learned in university was the basics and now in your adult life You need to learn what the real world is about and how to service. They did not like that. Not everyone can be a business owner nor do they want to responsibility. The best advice I can give is that do not clutter your brain with facts and formulas that you can easily look up somewhere.
You’re absolutely right. People are conditioned to be slaves of the system. Our education system here in Germany is the same. But you couldn’t apply for some jobs without having a degree, even if you got tens of years of experience.
In the employers defense, I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "I've been doing it this way for X years," and yet it was wrong or inefficient. Years of experience is a single indicator, but not the golden standard on its own for whether or not someone is good at their job. Having a degree means they likely have a more solid foundation for which their years of experience was built upon. It's still not a guarantee, but it is a higher likelihood. So, the years of experience combined with the degree requirement tend to filter out a large portion of people that would fail at the job from the start. Unfortunately, this does have the possibility of filtering out the rarer but still possible individual who is a rock star but self taught. However, if the job market is competitive enough, this has no impact on the employer as they will find a suitable candidate regardless.
Man, you have better education system than most people of the world. What should I say? Go in Germany and work as slave while here you are even worse than slave....
I took a lot from this video, thank you Alex. One thing that stands out though is how well your daughter is doing. Good parenting is key to a child’s success, it’s clear the Apple does not fall far from the tree here ❤
I am a Pharmacist but I love to fix devices. as a hobby I used to play with lights and batteries in summer when I was a kid. My father used to buy me small kits of radio, he is an electrical engineer and genius one, had his own room with all devices and electronics in the past.
Spot-On commentary about our schools and universities. They are 'the elephants in the room' in our societies. Practical knowledge always trumps theory or nebulous curriculum that doesn't relate to a practical outcome. "Success does not depend on Education." Many years ago a work-group of industry leaders said that young people will need to diversify their skill-sets and become entrepreneurs, including knowing how to program computers, and NOT to depend on getting employment in a company. They will need to create their own opportunities and to create their own jobs. Become Entrepreneurs.!! That was the main message. You are a brilliant example of that principle.!!
I have the same opinion about school since I was 16, i decided joining the trades and I'm better off, now i am a Mechanical Technician, schools are not what they used to be, they don't teach the things people should know and they charge insane amounts of money, not to mention time wasted. My wife has the Masters degree and after school she tried getting a job, she had to work as a waitress for over 2 years while applying for jobs in her field, one of the replies she was getting is " You are over qualified" among other ridiculous replies.
My uncle had a similar conversation with me 30 years ago. He said the diploma gets you in the door and shows that you are able to work towards and follow thru with commitments. You will need to learn for real as you go.
Even as a European, I completely agree with everything you said in this video. My personal experience was that I was always pressured by my parents to finish school with the best possible grades and then go to university to get a degree. I finally decided to drop out of university because I could no longer do what my parents wanted - even though it meant their disapproval and refusal to help me build a life on my own path. Now I am 25 years old and I have built my own electronics repair business, where I do chip level phone and computer repairs, including other electronic devices - and I love this job. The business is running great for over a year now. I have hired a friend to work with me as a partner, and we plan to expand even more in near future! Watching your videos I find a lot of similarities and sometimes I get to know something I did not know before - this is my personal university I can say. My friends who have continued their studies have just received their diplomas and are currently at the stage where they no longer know what they want to do in life. The conclusion is that if you don't know your goal - you don't need to go somewhere blindly just to do "something", especially if it's someone else's wishes or visions of you. It's your own life after all. After school, after acquiring basic knowledge - in my opinion you should discover yourself, your field, and only then choose certain studies in order to improve in what you like to do!
@@mrmarr8308 Practice practice and practice. I was working in different repair shops before, breaking customers phones and computers (paid for the damage out of my pocket of course). Skills comes hard way. Until today I learn new things everyday. You have to be patient and never give up, do the same job 100 times if necessary
@@DunoCZ Interesting, we also have schools "for dumb", it's like a profession university, where you can study as mechanic, electrician, builder and so on - but the qualification you get there is significantly lower than a university degree. For me to be able to hire people in such business I just had to listen to a few hours of safety at work environment courses, that's all. And when I was working alone there was no requirements at all :)
My uncle who died last month, was someone who started out in electronics in the 1950s and went on to travel the world setting up science labs, training industry and developing tech solutions for them, designing and making countless projects that we all use to this day (shame he did not patent them!), could program computers in binary / machine code and many more, had all the knowledge and experience and never bluffed his way through anything, and his soldering was very high level and flawless with some components the size of a grain of sugar. He was definitely an engineer in the true sense, as he knew how to create something new from nothing and understand FULLY how it worked. He once went for a job as the head of a College / Uni electronics department in a big city, and was up against someone who was loaded to the eyeballs with qualifications. However my uncle got the job, and those who hired him said, "we can teach you the qualifications, but we can not give the other guy your experience" which was approx 30 years at the time in the early 1980s.
I agree with you on this one, I'm in the UK but my memory of education is largely the same as what you've described. Academic style education is unbelievably limited. Everyone learns differently, and forcing every child to learn in the same way is ridiculous. There shouldn't be deadlines on learning, kids are forced to be at a certain level at a certain time. Also, the make or break nature of education is ludicrous, pass the exam or you're a failure, it's a joke.
schoolsystem in germany is a Hiroshima too... they can do nothing after 13years + 3years job education. the best thing would be to erase everything after school and professional training and do practical work to learn something. when i see the boys and girls coming from school its the next Hiroshima. want all to do nothing 90% when a 17-year-old does an internship to look for training, he can't even handle tools, let alone change a bicycle tire or peel an apple I think your attitude towards your children is great, why skip a class and then have stress.
Precisely Brother Alex. I appreciate not only your tutorials on fixing electrical stuff but this particular tutorial on fixing life as well. Thanking you from Myanmar.
Brilliant Alex. The bottom line is to enjoy the subject that you are learning. If you are not interested in the subject matter you are wasting your time. 10 years ago i watched a UA-cam video on woodturning. I'm now quite accomplished. At the start of this year, unable to stand in my workshop, I decided to look into electronics to be more like my elder brothers. I wanted like you, to make a flashing LED. I've not done that yet, but I've made lots of radios and clocks from Chinese kits! I've also done quite a few tablet and phone repairs thanks to UA-cam! I love it, so I'm learning! Soon I'll be offering you a job with a salary and perks you won't be able to refuse! Thank you for your help and uplifting videos. Kind regards from the UK.
Well said Brother. I also hold electrical degree here in India but same problem exists here. I changed my profession as teacher 6 years ago. But due to my intrest in electronics i am learning it by watching your videos. Thanks to you and UA-cam for that.🙏
Wow! Got that beef off your chest. I agree with you. At 62yo I entered the market in the days of the 80286 MP and it was a brave new world, my degree in engineering was essentially useless, mostly because it was out of date, based on 8088 architecture or even older tech. I now work IT in a University and thoroughly enjoy your videos. We have a fleet management contract and I rarely get the chance to repair a laptop and when I do I first say to myself 'What would Alex do?' And it's worked for me. Keep making.. the great videos
Interesting. What kind of engineering? In my opinion, in any field, schooling gives you the foundation, but it is up to you to keep up to date. Schooling doesn't replace the need for life long learning. Engineers don't just get their knowledge outdated and are screwed, they have to keep updating their knowledge as time passes. At the rate of technology advances we have today, all engineers would be useless after a couple years if they didn't do this, haha.
I started when I was 11, I used to go to car boot sales with my dad,I'd get tvs vcrs and hi-fi equipment that didn't work realy cheap, I Iearnt how to take stuff apart and see how they worked. At school I studied Electronics in my final year and already knew most of what the teacher was showing us. I went to college to study electronic/electrical/mechanical engineering, I did 3 years and got fed up with the equations, not enough practical teaching. I've been a avoincs technician for 20 years and I'm starting my own little business as a side line focusing on graphic cards/computers and laptop repairs, I've learned alot from your channel, thanks 🙏🙂
Alex, you are right on many of the points! While I value my college education in Electronic Engineering, it is nothing compared to my on-hands and real world experience! I have worked in engineering, designing circuits to reverse engineering to repair and modification to IT related jobs. While college helped some with the theory, it did not with all the rest of the things that I learned by getting my "hands dirty". I worked as a bench tech as well repairing consumer electronics and now that troubleshooting experience comes in hand repairing industrial electronics. It's unfortunate that so many employers out there require or prefer someone with a college degree which is just a piece of paper that says nothing about your experience. I think a potential employer should value those with years of on-hands experience more then someone just coming out of college with a $80K debt. If I was hiring someone, I would weigh higher on their experience rather then the overpriced education which for the most part, as you said, is non-practical!
This is the real truth Alex. Not everybody learns in the same way, but the system is set up for a specific type of learners. Practical usage is king. All you can do is pass on this methodology to your daughter and to your subscribers through your instructional videos here on UA-cam. You're truly a natural teacher who excels at teaching by example in a practical and easy to understand way. Keep it up and other will follow. Thank you for another informative video.
I have been repairing electronics for a long time, but thanks to your videos I have expanded my knowledge and learned better soldering techniques. Thanks for the videos and look forward to each one
College doesn't teach you anything practical. But what it does is teach you how to look the solutions and research. Believe it or not, the ability to research information is a skill that determines success in certain fields.
And looking at the internet today, you can see that a large portion of people never learned how to learn, or differentiate good vs bad information, or give any sort of critical analysis. These are things that are taught in school indirectly. I've literally had people try to win debates by giving me links to research papers... that actually disagree with them. They never got their foundation.
Yeah Alex, completely spot on. I've been self employed since 1997 and not looked back. No qualifications for what I do for a living but still doing it. Not easy sometimes but not too hard if you make the right decisions. Lots of happy customers!
Thanks for the video, it's a common practice here you must get a degree and then start working for someone that's only has a college certificate. I get so tired of explaining the difference between an Engineer and a Technician. Much Love to your family the teachers should allow the children enjoys their life.
Hey man, I have a bs in electronics engineering technology so I'm neither an engineer nor technician but a technologist. Try to explain the difference between an engineer, technician, and technologist!
Love your work and the channel. One point about getting a college degree that is not touched on in this video is your starting base salary. When I graduated (Bachelors in Computer Engineering) my base salary was $58K / yr and that was in 2007 and it's finally broke 6 digits after 11 years and transferring from the first company to my current one. Without a college degree your base salary will be way less, so it will take many more years to catch up - unless you are lucky or hop from one company to another to increase your salary. College is a way to prove you can learn and be thought difficult tasks and problems even though it goes out the toilet a couple months later; you just prove you can remember and spit it back out to the exams / professors. Some of it sticks but most does not. What I do for a living now I learned on the job, online and not in school; but college molded me to think differently about certain things. For my kids, college will be an option, but if they choose not to go they will be going to a trade school to start early so by their mid 20's they will have experience to at least have the same base salary as someone with a college degree.
I was too smart for school. I was put into enriched classes but they did nothing for me except make me feel like I was different. I ended up dropping out of high school because I saw no point in being in school with people who were not learning as fast as I was. My parents begged for them to skip a grade for me when I was younger, but they said "We stopped doing that last year". Now I have no formal education and I wish so badly that I was given the opportunity to skip a grade because I wasn't being challenged. Now my whole life is an unnecessary challenge. Luckily, I know I'm extremely smart and learn quickly, so I have been relatively successful in business and am currently starting my second business while my original one as a DJ thrives.
I've studied at university and I've learned things on my own. you absolutely have to do this, universities dont always teach up to date things. what they are good at is giving you a foundation. during this time, you need to go out and explore possibilities yourself. what you like and what you dont like, will you continue with your studies or will you drop out early to pursue something you have interest in. also, learning doesnt stop after class. this is something both parents and students need to understand.
The only thing I can say is THANK YOU! You are so helpful. The college system needs to change. Only reason you need to take general education classes such as English, History, Music, etc when going for an electronic engineering degree is so those professors have a career and get money. It's not for your benefit, never has been. Then the core classes don't have real world examples in the class.
The most important schools teach us is the way to think. You may no longer remember every math equations you learn in the future, but when you encounter a problem in your life, you know how to approach it, because you have been trained how to do so. For example, when you see a misleading advertisement, you know it's fishy because you have learned statistics, logic, etc, so the trap is obvious. When you're tasked with a difficult job, you have the courage and ability to learn and highten your ability to accomplish it, instead of just give up or botch it. Your thinking method can lead your life path, and how you think depends on the training and the information you have received. Yes, not all subjects we learned are useful, some of them are even harmful. But education is very, very important. Sometimes it have to aim high, the society need someone to build rockets. But for others, a good education can change their perspective, and consequently, their life, and the whole society, for the better.
Troubleshooting is what makes you money. The end result is the same but if you know basic circuit architecture and can NASA grade solder, you can become a great bench technician but Troubleshooting is what will be your best tool. Alex you are a true professional in electronics repair. Kudos to you.
Preach, its exactly as you said Wanting to learn something and having to learn something is 2 completely different things I can say from experience. If you want to learn it you will put in the effort
I'm a computer technician and i finished my course only talking in class about how to troubleshoot a PC that isn't working, I never touched a pc nor did my collegues, i was probably the only one who knows what i was doing because i, on my own, opened my computer to see the the components myself and learn, but i mostly don't use use what i learned in school, i did have one or two classes on very basic photoshop but thats something i learned on my own, im currently a video editor for a youtube channel and i never learned how to edit a video file in class, the most powerful tool to learn is willpower, if you want to learn, and you like a certain field, im sure you will do great, and school ends up wasting a lot of time teaching us "nothing" while there are other things they could teach us to prepare us for the real world. I do not agree 100% with what you said but i mostly agree with your view, it was nice to hear your thoughts on the topic
I remember not really mastering anything in school. After graduating school I started working. Afterwards I learned so much from doing my own research, the internet, books in the library and meeting new people at work. That's where I learned most of the stuff that school didn't teach me! I learned to file taxes not from schools but from family. I also learned independence from living by myself not from school.
This video is so true, here in Brazil I had a little similiar situation in some aspects, my father had a business fixing tvs and sound systems, begans in early 70's, I grew up inside the shop, playing with solder irons, desassembling wasted pcb. I started oficially in my 13 work for real, I my father dream always was I graduated as electrical engineer. So, the time pass, I graduated, work now for a big companie ( WEG) as a PCB designer on the electronic product development deparment, now with 20 years of experience. What was the thing that helped more? My degree? Absolutelly no, was the time I worked with my father on the shop, so much experience how to fix, how to made, how to adapt, how to do the job... So, I love your channel, watch basically every video, always learning, I hope you manage to keep the very hard job :) . Greatings from Brazil.
Apprentice and Master! Just like the good old days! God Bless. I really enjoy your videos. I'm a Luthier and have no experience (Other than Electric Guitar wiring) with soldering. It amazes me to watch you repair such tiny electronics and it's quite addicting to watch.
Omg Alex this is probably the best video out there, I am an educated electrician I did finish my degree back in 2019 just before covid. And what you are talking about is exactly how I saw school they do not teach you about the most important things, and that is practical and in order for me to get my workers degree as an electrician I had to study Religion, History, Society Knowledge and Nature knowledge. I remember in class with the male teacher I had in Nature Knowledge, we should learn how to clean sour water like what chemicals used and crap. I told him seriously do I need this as an electrician? And he just as me shaked his head and said MADNESS, like with Religion should one cable be Christian the next Buddhism and so on... All I am feeling is that the Politicians that decides what should be needed in a workers degree, it would be one thing if I would continue studying then I can see the point. I wasted two years on this for NOTHING I learnt more by my self in electrics and electronics, then I ever did in school we need more practical education this goes for the entire world. I am from Sweden and we have the same crap going on here too people wasting to much time on useless knowledge that they forget as soon as they pass the tests, I think if we included more theory and could do the things in daily life then writing it in a stupid test. That we would have better schools that can educate students for the real world, such hands on knowledge to use the current method to find the shorts?! In school we should measure it lol! Much better to have the knowledge about the circuit in question, and to know the expected voltage then you can troubleshoot things much better. So thankful for your channel it is amazing how the internet can bring all of us together, and sometimes we all screw up that my old friend that is a tv repair guy for the last 60 years that it is a part of learning he calls it "learning money" learnt so much from his knowledge and these days I help him with IT. Have a great day Alex!
I thought I was the only person in the world who felt that way about school... I enjoyed electronics since i was 10! When i started studying phisics, i couldn't wait to find out the practical use in electronics! To my disapointment it wasn't that straight forward! I finished high school and got my degree in accountancy! Guess what I work now for 3 times the sallary of an accountant? In a farm, on a half a million $ vehicle! What I learned? Life is as good as you make it, and how much are you willing to learn from it! The electronics, for me have expanded, with time and experience, from fixing a dead iphone all the way to building a tube amp with own built transformers, but only as a hobby and when I have time for it! As you said: my family is here! Hope you read this! This is my way of letting you know that i appreciate you and the work you do! Keep up the good work and be well with your wonderful family! Best regards from Romania!
I had one teacher that made Calculus fun. Yes, Calculus. At the start of each class you would take a blank piece of paper and make a tic-tac-toe # and put one of 9 random numbers in each square from the 10 numbers 0-9 available. Then he would show 10 equations on the board, each equation when solved equaled one of the numbers 0-9. The equations were based off of that days homework. You would quickly solve the equations and place a coin on the appropriate number's square. The first student that got, 3 across or 3 down or 3 diagonal, would yell "BINGO!" and the teacher would verify their answers and award that student an extra 10 points on the next test. This class was so popular that the students would rush into the classroom when the bell rang for the end of the previous class before any of the other students could get out of the room!
I agree to your overall summary, but I went to a technical college where hands on was a big part of your grades. This was in the mid to late 90’s. Funny enough I went in for electronics and really enjoyed the first few semesters, but my buddies convinced me to switch off into the computer networking and servicing track. Probably the best move I ever made , because lots of those electronic engineering jobs are gone now. Now I’m in computer security and doing very well. Work / life balance is great and in the end that is what matters to me.
greetings, I want to point something, the NORIA (Spanish word for waterwheel ) is a fantastic invention , hundreds of years ago made by someone who didn't studied nothing at all, not even had a degree in engineering , my point is, education serves as a LEVEL way to make people measure itself. You are so right in something, we all need we all, together. There are doctors who fear giving wrong prescription and, therefore, start teaching. Good subject today, very strong and directed to young humans. Big hugs to all!
in switzerland there are training courses of 2, 3 or 4 years, e.g. 4 years as electronics technician. you go to school 1.5 to 2 days a week and do practical work 3 days. learn how to use all the tools. the company where you learn even pays a small salary. the companies here know that well-trained employees are important. I think your videos are great and also this speech.
Hello Alex! I have had the same experience, my daughter is very smart and they wanted to ‘upgrade’ her 2 classes. Psychologist said, “let children be children, dont rush things’ children can’t handle the stress. Good luck!
Hi Alex, I also went to Poly but later than you did - 2009 right when it merged with NYU - and I can tell you are spot on especially with the math courses
Hey Alex, I'm an Egyptian and when I left Egypt 7 years ago the plan was to get a degree so that I can "start" working. I have 2 master's in biomedical engineering and I agree with what you say here to a very large extent and appreciate your input from your great experience. I'm working on creating my own business after 3 years of working in companies. It is definitely very challenging, but its a path that opens up the world so much and I aspire to get to a point where I can make my own money. Love your advise, and wish that I had heard that knowledge long ago, before I moved through europe to settle down and provide for myself in those hard years. The university knowledge would have been very easily caught up in a year of work experience as an apprentice.
I totally agree with you. I've studied electronics until age of 21 and when I got a job as a measurement and control technology technician (calibrating sensors and repairing broken electrical stuff), I didn't know capacitors can dry out and lose their capacity and that they have a leakage value to indicate there is current leaking inside and it drains itself without external load. Nobody at school told me that, I had to figure it out on the job. Also, alot of sensors use a 4-20mA signal to indicate it's measurement between 0% and 100%, whatever the sensor measures (pressure, temperature, volume, ...). Also this simple thing wasn't tought at school. You learn that while doing your job. In school, you learn theoretical stuff (they did say that capacitors and resistors deviate somewhat and won't have the exact value as written on them but they get close, and they assume those components to be perfect in the calculations). You don't learn practical stuff like really designing something and building it yourself, to see how it works. We had some classes do such things though, where I built a 40W amplifier and a power supply to power it (we had to design the circuit board as well and etch/solder it ourselves), but just not enough to fully grasp everything they wanna teach you. In case of math, they told us math is tought at school to train your brain, nothing more. But they didn't give practical examples where you can use the stuff. Same as IT. Lesson 1: "Hello world", lesson 2 "constructors and destructors of objects". I didn't even know what an object was. Years later, when I bought BlitzBasic3D (a programming language using the BASIC language but compiled into machinecode), it was in that language that I learned what an object was. I still think school is required though, just being more practical and not simply focus on teaching theoretical stuff without practical usage.
Those are true words. I can only agree. I got interested in electronics when I was 7 years old. There were electronics experiment kits from Kosmos, Philips, etc. I bought both and learned electronics independently. I have read, inserted components, analyzed and understood. For example, I was able to quickly build an astable multivibrator without books. I even built radios myself. I knew very quickly what a transistor is, how it works and what subtypes there are. I also quickly understood the purpose of resistors, capacitors, diodes, coils, etc. For many years I have even been able to work with power electronics too. So I like to work with MOSFETs, Triacs, IGBTs, Shottky rectifiers, sometimes also with mains voltage. I built my own PWM speed controller, I also built PWM dimmers for my custom built LED strips. For my staircase lighting I built a fully electronic timer with the NE555 timer chip, which is controlled by a radar motion detector. All my self-made circuits have been working for 13 years and more. And that without a failure. I even use electronic components from old, defective devices. I remove whole circuit boards, store them and if I need certain components, I solder them down and use them again. That is sustainability. I was trained as an electrician and the experience I gained through my hobby is often very useful in my job. At my trade school, I knew more about electronics and formulas than anyone else in my class. Even my training company was amazed at how I knew so much about the technical field. But most of my electronics knowledge i didn't learn at school, but by myself. Yes, I've also been able to repair a few devices myself: car hi-fi power amplifiers, home cinema integrated amplifiers, portable CD radios, televisions, etc. I once built a conventional 12V power supply for a work colleague, with which he can operate an old car radio in his garage at home. He couldn't have built it himself because he had no idea about the electronic components and didn't know what to connect where and how. He is only familiar with the field of electrical installation.
I feel like Northridgefix did a great job explaining but he did not explain deeper why schools are useless and why they are and where they are. Schools teach you task orientated work. Do the assignment, memorize facts, but it no way explains the lessons and philosophy behind it. Because we demonized philosophy and the reasons what we do, and why do it, and how we know we know what we know. Rather, schools rather teach slaves and drones for the system. This is why people that have PhD's are not geniuses. Most of them are slightly above IQ but they are no way 160 to 180 IQ. Schools are only meant to give you the appearance of intelligence. But it teaches you all books but no common sense. Therefore that person is more easily influenced and manipulated. Experience and wisdom allow us to see through lies. That is the last thing they would want to teach. This is why I went into a trade. I will have a great union job, have less schooling and debt. Make almost double than most people. With less indoctrination.
You are absolutely right ! Here, where I live, the only criterion is "Do you know how to do a job", if you don't know you go to learn to do job or to learn how to fix things. If you don't want to or don't know how, nobody cares about yours school, high school, college, university, etc. Here practical people call school "DEBILANA" . There is no appropriate word in English, at least I don't know it, because English is not my native language, but something like "Stupid house" or "Moron House". You get a degree and you don't know anything about the job for which you got the degree. For example, I graduated as a car mechanic and I have no idea about mechanics. I do work that has nothing to do with mechanics. I do painting and facade work. I don't have a degree for it, but I know how to do it. I have a degree there, but I don't know how to do mechanics. I can just wipe my ass with a degree 😂.
Totally agree with you mate! Lucky i had found that "electronics" are my passion. Lucky because i start working on electronics since i was 13 years old. Nothing is like practice! Nothing!!! They did not teach me in school how a transistor behave in circuit, how a diode behaves how a capacitor... i lear by burning 🔥 components and then, that was a lesson to remember. Today it become my job in the last 20 years and i can provide for my family, and like you said, being a bussines owner is hard man... but it provides me flexibility, make my own plans everyday.... how i like to say, best asset nowdays is "free time". I still learn allot from your videous! I'm starting my channel shortly and hopefully i will learn others about electronic work!
This guy was absent the day they told the kids specifically that this would all be for practical use in the future. Lol Also, I have travelled several countries and can tell you "engineer" is used loosely and is not as we define it in the USA, that's why they call themselves engineers.
Now that I own my own business, I discuss school and what I think it's worth with my kids and family as well. I encourage my kids (teenagers) to persue something they will like to do, obviously that includes making a living, and not to be conducted solely by the system we live in. I had a lot of issues with this system during the years I went to my schools and colleges, and now concluded I never needed most of it to make a good living. It depended a lot more on perserverance, creativity and getting some accountants that let you know your responsibilities on financial stuff. Yes, being an entrepreneur, building a succesful business yourself, is not for everyone. But sticking with the system makes people mad or at least sad.
This is why I subscribed to your channel. You don't only fix electronics, you also try and "fix" lives by being upfront, facts-based no BS, harsh realities which people tend to ignore and not address. KUDOS Alex and thank you!
Hello Alex, I just passed the Electrical Engineering Licensure Examination here in the Philippines (Sept. 3-4). Just like a other person I've celebrated and told my self that i will be rich. Fast forward I was applying for a job on a company and got rejected so many times and I suddenly got an interview on a internet provider here on the Philippines and out of 100 jobs that I've applied only one got interested on me. Fast forward again, one of the questions in the interview they asked me "what is your expected salary?" And since I'm a Licensed I've told them that I've done research about the position of the company and I expect my salary to be 30k php (516 USD) every month. But they have told me that in the real world that 30k php Salary that I want was too absurd and they said that newly passed Electrical Engineers paid for only 18k php (310 USD). And deep in my head someone told me that being in the real world is not easy. Just sharing and sorry for bad English.
Real story brother
This sounds like Cameroon
Ganyan talaga lagi sir kompetesyon kung sa gobyerno palakasan naman.
I'm in the philippines and i got a part time job with 16k php working for 3 hours per day. It's just excel, word and javascript.
@@tyrellwreleck4226 sana all HAHAHA
I went to IT college, learned a lot, had a strong theory basis, but, when I had my 1st crisis at the job, a database that started deadlocking with itself and a client just stopped working, that was when I really learned how things works in the real world, and no school prepared me for that
This is exactly what I keep saying! Schools should focus more on *actually doing* stuff that is relevant to you *outside* of school, not just writing on a page for 6-8 hours a day for an absurd amount of years. It's really unfortunate that regardless of all the criticism, the people managing the school system are as stubborn as a mountain.
Before watching this, I thought it could only happen in Asia or Vietnam. Thank you for telling me that it's the same old story everywhere. My brother knows exactly how to calculate the resistance of components inside a super complex unreal circuit to pass the physics exam in the 11th grade. And he doesn't know how to check the broken wires on the charging cable with a multimeter.
😂😂😂😂😂
Vietnam has some impressive technology in renewable energy. Get a job at Csb or Ritar or Vision and u become a reseller
you must be obviously from states, cause asia got way better education and actual practice outside the books.
Hi Alex, I always watch your videos, totally agree with you. That is why I like your Channel, you're not just sharing your skills but also you're life experiences.
I myself graduated two Bachelor's Degree in Electronics in the Philippines (1st degree: Bachelor in Electronics Technology and 2nd degree: Bachelor in Electronics Engineering) but I wasn't getting the defining moments that I want.
Even when I was just a 12yrs old kid, I repair and builds stuffs that I want. Fast forward after my first bachelor's degree in college, my first job is an Electronics Technician doing a Professional repair of cellphone, laptop, computers and board repairs for 3years. Since the salary wasn't that good here in the Philippines, I switched to an Equipment Technician job from a big company doing big machinery repairs for 2years. Since the salary is too small also, I switch to I.T field, doing technical support for 2years, same thing. After that, that's when I realizes that I want to be an Electronics Engineer, and so, I get back to school while I'm working and eventually I graduated my Bachelors degree in Electronics Engineering.
After that, I got hired from a big company as an Electronics Engineer. I'm very happy, "finally" at last", I could get bigger salary and can work my dream job. At start, It was fun, building circuits, building small/big machines, programming robots and many more that I really love. But suddenly the fun wasn't fun anymore, i stayed there for 5years. It became too evident to me that whatever work I do into that company, the salary is just too small to feed my family.
It was a great experience, I've got to work what I love but the salary was mediocre.
Today I'm 32yrs old, still young (by the way I'm 18yrs old when I finish my 1st bachelor's degree in college, that's a 4year course)
Now, I'm still finding other opportunities related to Electronics Engineering maybe abroad or seaman engr. while doing online jobs and repairs just to pay the bills..
In my elementary school years I was struggling to understand basic Physics and Chemistry. I was always stressed and frightened thinking that the teacher could ask me anything. This was until I found a book in the small school library that was titled "Experimenting with Physics and Chemistry at home". This book completely changed my view and understanding of Physics and Chemistry. It was so fun to read and apply laws of Physics in my home using everyday materials or building simple electric circuits. This helped me to love and understand the way that our physical world works. To make the long story, short, I fully agree that Schooling the way it works, destroys creativity and critical thinking in generations of people and I bet this was done NOT by mistake. Applied science should be the fundamental knowledge that people should be taught in School and College. Of course history and language are also very important in order to understand the former and improve your critical thinking but even those as you said is requested to be memorized, not to be understood.
School, no matter what form, teaches you how to think, how to apply logic in an specific domain, for example engeneering school teaches you how do certain things are design or work, you know by looking at something what part does what and how that works with the rest of the components.It helps form your brain and how to aproach a problem.For exaple solving ecuations helps you follow a certain parth of formulas to get to the end result, so it helps you understand the meaning of following certain rules to get to the desire outcome.
I took the jump and went into the real world instead of going to college, and I can say after the first year alone, I learned more useful information than I did from 12 years of school. In this day and age, everything they teach in school is free and available online. If you’d want to learn about something, you can probably teach yourself if you have access to the internet. And this is why I love your channel so much. I’m not only interested in the godly soldering work you do, but your values and principles are something to look up to. =
If everyone was an entrepreneur, we wouldn't have a workforce. If everyone was an employee, we wouldn't have businesses. It's a balance of things.
Education is important. Finding a job in your field is not a guarantee. A high paying job is not a guarantee.
Not everyone has the initiative or capability to run a business.
What difference will the practical aspects make? If everyone has the practical skills in the degree they choose, then what changes?
At what point is the University the educator Vs the employer?
Well put... I am an EE as well. I went to University in the 80's and didn't retain much from most of the courses I took, with a few exceptions. In hind sight, the best thing that I learned in University that stuck, was that I learned how to learn.
You are absolutely right. Even my wife studied for 6 years in the university and said that only 5% of the information was useful. The gap between academics and reality is undeniable and it is massive. Three months of working as an apprentice will give more than college. Learning to pass an exam is useless.
The education system went from a collaborative endeavour to help everyone reach their maximum potential for the betterment of society, to shackles for the enslavement of all.
hello, from Ohio in the US i just wanted to say i happened upon one of your videos randomly and could tell you knew what you were talking about. So i went to the channel and seen this video and watched it. i 100% agree with you and it refreshing to see there are other people out there that understand this concept. thank you for being awesome i hope the best for you and your loved ones. Keep up the awesome work!!!!!
Yes, there is too much pressure put on children in school. Let children be children and learn within their capability. Don't rush them. I think teachers, in general, are taught a specific way to teach, leaving out how students learn.
Yes, learning from someone who has experience in repairing mobiles, computers, etc is the way to go. Thanks Alex.
They all learn at different rate to so how are they supposed to teach a class of 30 kids the same thing over a year.
I'm student too and I've the same problem a lot of theory, good, but no idea how to use solder or other tools
@@temyraverdana6421 , don't worry. The theory is good to give you a solid foundation to form practical experience on. This greater depth to your knowledge will help you better use the practical experience you gain later. With that said, I think a lot of students make the mistake of not gaining practical experience while in school. Depending on your major, do personal projects related to your area of study. After schooling, it is rare for any particular job to be entirely static, learning is a life long thing. As such, you will be teaching yourself and keeping your knowledge and skills up to date after schooling is done, so might as well start that now.
Hi!i just open a repair shop..i have every day more customers..i learn everything from practice…i broke a lot devices until to understand how repairing works…i pay a lot from my pocket to learn..when you broke its teach you to not make same mistake again..i learn from your videos a lot and i learn that every technician learn every day something different…you just cant know everything but every device its a new class of learning..thanks you from Cyprus you helped me a lot with your videos!!
Its not about solving that specific problem you have to learn, its about learning how to solve problems in general.
school is a place to create slave for company, with low sallary ahhahahah
I'm from Italy and I think exactly the same Alex. You have to go to school to have a sort of "generic" knowledge, but the real world is completely another story. If you want to learn a job, you have to go outside and start working (maybe for free at the beginning) from somebody that is already doing it, or maybe looking tons of YT videos. It worked from my with electronics: I started reading magazines about C64 in 1985. Now I can fix lot of devices just looking into youtube or searching on Google. I started doing photography with my Reflex just as an hobby, and I'm sure that I could open a photographer career if I would like to. If you want everybody can quite easily transform a simple hobby in a real career. The key it the passion and the practical real life you apply to it. Thanks for this video. I totally agree on your words.
Alex I learned everything by myself in repairing TVs, mobile phones, computers, making micro soldering in electronic boards, recognizing the classic electronic problems in various electronic boards.
At school I loved physics, when I went to the laboratory to do physics experiments after learning the equation it was the most fun I could do.
The push to become an electrical technician was given to me by school .. The point however is as you said, in school I never learned the technical side of repairing computer motherboards, graphics cards, mobile phones, TVs, CRT TVs..
I would say that if you like being an electro technician you have to study first as an industrial electrician, you don't have to go to university.. Then you can study electronics on your own by buying books, experimenting and watching brilliant teachers like you on UA-cam. Curiosity is the key to learn electronics.
Accepted and approved, even I do the same
So much wasted time, so much lost opportunity and so many lives needlessly ruined. My partner is a teacher, I hear every day how the students simply have no idea. It is the fault of the system that allows yearly progression through the education system without PROPERLY checking on the students understanding. What is the point of teaching years 3,4 and 5 when the student hasn't grasped year 1?. Here in France the pass figures are 'massaged' to fit the required pass rate so the people in charge get their bonuses, it is, in my opinion, criminal. No employers accept pass diplomas as proof of anything anymore, so what is the point? Bring back teaching the basics and then vocational training for all those that are not considered to be in the top 10% academically, I would have been better served to have done that and so would the other 90% who are never going to benefit from a university diploma.
I’m student in the UK. Since the first class of the module started, we concentrate how to pass the exam. 😊
I am electrical engineer from Serbia.
I enjoy watching these videos.
I maybe do not know how to microsolder and I almost never use flux, but I understand how components work.
For example, when you fix HDMI or USB C with pad strips, I know that it is solid connection, but it ruins wave guide and may induce a lot of electrical noise. So console that could output 4K 60fps, TV may start loosing signal at random, but 1080p at 30fps would work just fine.
Btw, I can make more money fixing phones, TVs, ACs, than doing my own job, but at my job I work 8-16 5 days per week, I have lunch at the office and can work from home any time I do not need to be at the office.
Human beings are different and letting kids skip a class too quickly isnt always the smartest move indeed. I had two classmates that advanced to other schools early - just to come back to the old school rather disappointed and failing from there on- one even had to repeat twice later. School is means for a purpose. Most important thing is to write and read well plus basic maths up to algebra, procentual and geometrics because these are the things you will need in future a lot. With a good writing and reading paired with a degree you will land so many more jobs as people will judge you better in first sight. But school stuffs people's brains with too much useless bs. Most things I learned about languages, economics, geography, biology and history was after school- when I got interested and felt it was the right moment.
You can be fully literate and yet not understand anything, because you were never trained properly to use the main head muscle.
Even having a degree does not mean you understand, what you learned. Most people end up doing something different anyway (the guess is, only about 3% of world population ends up doing, what they studied for. The case often is that people figure out their dream job later in life.
Learning should be an enjoyable experience, kids must literally like going to school. Instead, it´s mostly just a stupid torture.
University used to be about finding the right people to become Dr's, engineer's etc. Now it's about keeping people there as long as possible to make as much money out of them as possible and keeping unemployment figures down as long as possible. It's much like the military.
Name one job or occupation where you learn it before you start and never need to learn anything else in the whole time you do it.. you can't, you have to constantly hone your skills and learn new methods and techniques. If you are able to do that while working the job why the hell do you need university. Drs and engineer's don't go back to college after a year or two for three more years to learn new stuff, they learn while working!!!
So anyone can become anything you said something about military what did you mean.
I've been saying this for a while. The entire education system needs to be revamped after a certain grade. Teach the basics, but then as the child gets older (possibly even highschool level), start applying them into aptitude systems. What do they excel at, find that out and steer them in that direction. If they know they're good at something, I'd imagine that'd boost their drive to do something.
As well add or bring back practical lessons in schools (home economy and other real world classes). I personally loved woodshop when we had it. Working with your hands and building something was fun :)
its unfortunate because ultimately education is a business. we already have tons of data about how to make education more effective. this will continue and it has already harmed the future education.
Thanks!
That's it ,I'm subscribing. Hearing you share your knowledge and experience and spending the time to tell us this is very valuable. It's down to earth and real. Every word makes sense and is true. You're a champion Alex, deepest respects.
Wow you have echoed my feelings and thoughts. I too was a car salesman and I too would sit in maths class and wonder why I was being taught calculus without telling me how to apply it to everyday life. Thank you!
Very interesting and important topic. I studied chemistry in Barcelona and after many years I ended as a middle school chemistry and physics teacher in Germany. While I was getting my teacher's certification (2 year long process), it was taught to us that one of the most important things when you plan a lesson is to make it real-life relatable. Sometimes is quite easy, some times is not. But we try every day and it's a very hard work. I always try to relate my lessons to things kids can relate, like video games. You just need a good starting point, and you get their attention for the rest of the lesson. Regarding your other point about college education and high degrees, I have always thought the same as you think. If I was to take a test a couple of weeks after I passed, I would have performed very badly. Imagine now, 20 years later. However, with time and life experience I realized something. I see higher education in universities and colleges as a proof that someone is motivated and able to start and finish something. You could call it reliability, maybe. For me, as a chemist with even a PhD who has been out of the academia and research for a long time, I realized that the university did not teach me chemistry (I learned it by myself as you very well pointed out, with guidance of the professors). They thought me how to think. How to see life before me, how to rationally think and analyze situations. Chemistry related or not. As a father myself and as a teacher, I would advise against your daughter changing schools and skipping a grade. The emotional toll it can take on her could be substantial. Imagine having to say goodbye to all her classmates and being seen "different" on a class with older kids.
Hi Alex ! I’m born and grown in Romania, now on age 33 I’m in Germany working as courier,short story, learn English from movies, learn German language working with people, learn building hole Hause (meaning everything practical from ground to key handed )working , repairing cars and motors working, now I’m fixing devices that people are throwing away on my free time thanks to you just to make some more money, I’m learning from you practical way and I fixed a few tv’s, subwoofers, monitors, now working on a gpu for myself, all of this thanks to you . Life it’s the one who make you learn , some will tell the hard way ,me telling is the easy way, all you got to do is try … have a nice day and keep it up 👍
10/10 back in school i had no idea about math. i was the worst one in class. and today 15 years later. i love math and programing. things i never understood in school
Well said.
As a graduate majoring in computer engineering, I can absolutely say that the only job that cared about my degree was my first job... and they only cared because it was an HR requirement. I was hired for my ability to answer questions in an interview to their satisfaction, not because of a piece of paper. I have applied minimal knowledge from my degree in any job I've had despite being fortunate enough to be involved in the computer engineering/science field for my whole career.
Flip side: University was difficult, but the classes I got the most out of were the classes with the teachers who went out of their way to put practical examples into the projects we built. I learned more from 3 classes than out of the other 40 classes combined and can STILL recall things learned in those classes today. A large part of that recollection is that I WANTED to learn those things and I enjoyed the journey those professors took us on.
That said, you're absolutely right. Follow the things you find exciting and become an expert at those things. University may or may not be a part of that journey. I was encouraged by my parents and I will encourage my children in the same way.
For me I certainly do not remember many specifics from university. But the things I did learn were how to learn and solve problems. So many people I run into as an adult can not figure things out for themselves. So while I do not use the facts I learnt, I think I use the tools I developed at university everyday. That’s just me though, others can do it on their own.
ok but that’s like 1-2 classes max not 4 years worth of pointless classes
@@cwilliams6884 , with that said, I am a proponent of vocational schools for jobs and career paths that are more direct application and less problem solving/thinking. Or, even no schooling for purely practical jobs (E.g. labor). However, as technology is introduced into various fields, I think the pool of pure labor jobs is shrinking, and at the very least vocational is needed.
In germany the same, you learn lot and the thing is Analyze problems and find solutions.
I actually came from a welding background and this is something the skilled trades industry never really cares about. Never once in my entire career did anyone care about where I went to school or what certifications I had, it didn't matter if I was welding jet turbine engines or nuclear reactors. You just show up, weld a test piece and get the job depending on the skills you demonstrate, and it's same for every other field in the trades. Many of the trades have people in them that are educated through apprenticeship and not very much formal education at all. I understand the argument of needing formal education for certain fields as a safety concern however you'd be surprised how many planes, buildings, bridges, ect. are constructed by people with little to no "formal" education.
I was thinking about this the other day actually. Becoming a lawyer takes 7 years of education. If you had one student out of high school go down the traditional path, and the other become an "apprentice" of sorts working directly with a mentor at a law firm for 7 years, who would be the better lawyer after those 7 years?
The best advice I received when I was in HS was to drop out, get a GED, and start working. Unfortunately, I had to help support my family when I was a sophomore. I had to grind in my career and I worked for a company for nearly 11 years. I went from entry level to upper regional management. I left that job for a completely different career path and I'm more successful now, than I was at my last job.
When I was a hiring manager, work ethic and eagerness to learn were more important to me than education and experience. Your education and experience may not apply to what this company needs, being coachable is more important.
I went to a technical school (2 year diploma) and in my course we were taught analog and digital electronics, programming, soldering, pcb design / building, math, technical writing and a few others. It was very directed at doing hands on technical jobs that would allow you to pick a path of design, implementation, troubleshooting or documentation. (or any combination). It was very compact timeframe with no optional classes or electives. If i had gone to a traditional college or university, I would have dropped out for sure.
Hey Alex! I'm 100% agree with every words you said in this video.
During my school years, I constantly felt bad about having to learn things that have no use in everyday life. Every day I spent at school felt horrible and useless, and I knew even then that I would never be able to use most of the acquired knowledge in real life.
Of course, I am not referring here to the basic mathematical operations or spelling that are essential to life.
Finally, while I was working in three shifts as a team leader, I built a repair shop by myself, and I also have a family.
Currently, this is the only way I support my family, but during the period when I was also working for the company and building the store, I only went home to say hello, I worked 18-19 hours a day for roughly 3 years at that time. I saw in one of your videos that you got to where you are now in a similar way, and it wouldn't have been possible if you didn't like what you were doing or were very interested in it.
Keep up the good work!
Wow you really nailed it. I owned a service engineering business for 35 years and had youngsters come in they just graduated with a four-year degree and wanted top pay. I told him that what you learned in university was the basics and now in your adult life You need to learn what the real world is about and how to service. They did not like that. Not everyone can be a business owner nor do they want to responsibility. The best advice I can give is that do not clutter your brain with facts and formulas that you can easily look up somewhere.
You’re absolutely right. People are conditioned to be slaves of the system. Our education system here in Germany is the same.
But you couldn’t apply for some jobs without having a degree, even if you got tens of years of experience.
In the employers defense, I can't tell you how many times I've heard, "I've been doing it this way for X years," and yet it was wrong or inefficient. Years of experience is a single indicator, but not the golden standard on its own for whether or not someone is good at their job. Having a degree means they likely have a more solid foundation for which their years of experience was built upon. It's still not a guarantee, but it is a higher likelihood. So, the years of experience combined with the degree requirement tend to filter out a large portion of people that would fail at the job from the start. Unfortunately, this does have the possibility of filtering out the rarer but still possible individual who is a rock star but self taught. However, if the job market is competitive enough, this has no impact on the employer as they will find a suitable candidate regardless.
Man, you have better education system than most people of the world. What should I say? Go in Germany and work as slave while here you are even worse than slave....
@@JimBob1937good take
You absolutely hit the nail on the head. I've been saying this for years and years nobody listens to me. I hope they listen to you.
I took a lot from this video, thank you Alex. One thing that stands out though is how well your daughter is doing. Good parenting is key to a child’s success, it’s clear the Apple does not fall far from the tree here ❤
I am a Pharmacist but I love to fix devices. as a hobby I used to play with lights and batteries in summer when I was a kid. My father used to buy me small kits of radio, he is an electrical engineer and genius one, had his own room with all devices and electronics in the past.
Spot-On commentary about our schools and universities. They are 'the elephants in the room' in our societies. Practical knowledge always trumps theory or nebulous curriculum that doesn't relate to a practical outcome. "Success does not depend on Education." Many years ago a work-group of industry leaders said that young people will need to diversify their skill-sets and become entrepreneurs, including knowing how to program computers, and NOT to depend on getting employment in a company. They will need to create their own opportunities and to create their own jobs. Become Entrepreneurs.!! That was the main message. You are a brilliant example of that principle.!!
I have the same opinion about school since I was 16, i decided joining the trades and I'm better off, now i am a Mechanical Technician, schools are not what they used to be, they don't teach the things people should know and they charge insane amounts of money, not to mention time wasted. My wife has the Masters degree and after school she tried getting a job, she had to work as a waitress for over 2 years while applying for jobs in her field, one of the replies she was getting is " You are over qualified" among other ridiculous replies.
My uncle had a similar conversation with me 30 years ago. He said the diploma gets you in the door and shows that you are able to work towards and follow thru with commitments. You will need to learn for real as you go.
Even as a European, I completely agree with everything you said in this video. My personal experience was that I was always pressured by my parents to finish school with the best possible grades and then go to university to get a degree. I finally decided to drop out of university because I could no longer do what my parents wanted - even though it meant their disapproval and refusal to help me build a life on my own path.
Now I am 25 years old and I have built my own electronics repair business, where I do chip level phone and computer repairs, including other electronic devices - and I love this job.
The business is running great for over a year now. I have hired a friend to work with me as a partner, and we plan to expand even more in near future!
Watching your videos I find a lot of similarities and sometimes I get to know something I did not know before - this is my personal university I can say.
My friends who have continued their studies have just received their diplomas and are currently at the stage where they no longer know what they want to do in life.
The conclusion is that if you don't know your goal - you don't need to go somewhere blindly just to do "something", especially if it's someone else's wishes or visions of you.
It's your own life after all.
After school, after acquiring basic knowledge - in my opinion you should discover yourself, your field, and only then choose certain studies in order to improve in what you like to do!
Where did u learn to fix electronics?
@@mrmarr8308 Practice practice and practice. I was working in different repair shops before, breaking customers phones and computers (paid for the damage out of my pocket of course). Skills comes hard way. Until today I learn new things everyday. You have to be patient and never give up, do the same job 100 times if necessary
@@DunoCZ Lithuania
@@DunoCZ Interesting, we also have schools "for dumb", it's like a profession university, where you can study as mechanic, electrician, builder and so on - but the qualification you get there is significantly lower than a university degree.
For me to be able to hire people in such business I just had to listen to a few hours of safety at work environment courses, that's all. And when I was working alone there was no requirements at all :)
My uncle who died last month, was someone who started out in electronics in the 1950s and went on to travel the world setting up science labs, training industry and developing tech solutions for them, designing and making countless projects that we all use to this day (shame he did not patent them!), could program computers in binary / machine code and many more, had all the knowledge and experience and never bluffed his way through anything, and his soldering was very high level and flawless with some components the size of a grain of sugar. He was definitely an engineer in the true sense, as he knew how to create something new from nothing and understand FULLY how it worked.
He once went for a job as the head of a College / Uni electronics department in a big city, and was up against someone who was loaded to the eyeballs with qualifications. However my uncle got the job, and those who hired him said, "we can teach you the qualifications, but we can not give the other guy your experience" which was approx 30 years at the time in the early 1980s.
I agree with you on this one, I'm in the UK but my memory of education is largely the same as what you've described. Academic style education is unbelievably limited. Everyone learns differently, and forcing every child to learn in the same way is ridiculous. There shouldn't be deadlines on learning, kids are forced to be at a certain level at a certain time. Also, the make or break nature of education is ludicrous, pass the exam or you're a failure, it's a joke.
agree. Schools are a joke for this reason.
no pass no fail era kids?
schoolsystem in germany is a Hiroshima too...
they can do nothing after 13years + 3years job education.
the best thing would be to erase everything after school and professional training and do practical work to learn something.
when i see the boys and girls coming from school its the next Hiroshima.
want all to do nothing 90%
when a 17-year-old does an internship to look for training, he can't even handle tools, let alone change a bicycle tire or peel an apple
I think your attitude towards your children is great, why skip a class and then have stress.
How many schools teach you how to make and handle money!
Precisely Brother Alex. I appreciate not only your tutorials on fixing electrical stuff but this particular tutorial on fixing life as well. Thanking you from Myanmar.
Thank you Alex - I feel exactly the same way about education as you
Brilliant Alex. The bottom line is to enjoy the subject that you are learning. If you are not interested in the subject matter you are wasting your time. 10 years ago i watched a UA-cam video on woodturning. I'm now quite accomplished. At the start of this year, unable to stand in my workshop, I decided to look into electronics to be more like my elder brothers. I wanted like you, to make a flashing LED. I've not done that yet, but I've made lots of radios and clocks from Chinese kits! I've also done quite a few tablet and phone repairs thanks to UA-cam! I love it, so I'm learning! Soon I'll be offering you a job with a salary and perks you won't be able to refuse! Thank you for your help and uplifting videos. Kind regards from the UK.
Well said Brother.
I also hold electrical degree here in India but same problem exists here. I changed my profession as teacher 6 years ago. But due to my intrest in electronics i am learning it by watching your videos. Thanks to you and UA-cam for that.🙏
Wow! Got that beef off your chest. I agree with you. At 62yo I entered the market in the days of the 80286 MP and it was a brave new world, my degree in engineering was essentially useless, mostly because it was out of date, based on 8088 architecture or even older tech. I now work IT in a University and thoroughly enjoy your videos. We have a fleet management contract and I rarely get the chance to repair a laptop and when I do I first say to myself 'What would Alex do?' And it's worked for me. Keep making.. the great videos
Interesting. What kind of engineering? In my opinion, in any field, schooling gives you the foundation, but it is up to you to keep up to date. Schooling doesn't replace the need for life long learning. Engineers don't just get their knowledge outdated and are screwed, they have to keep updating their knowledge as time passes. At the rate of technology advances we have today, all engineers would be useless after a couple years if they didn't do this, haha.
You just shared deep knowledge. Thank you for explaining to many the difference between an engineer and a technician.
I started when I was 11, I used to go to car boot sales with my dad,I'd get tvs vcrs and hi-fi equipment that didn't work realy cheap, I Iearnt how to take stuff apart and see how they worked. At school I studied Electronics in my final year and already knew most of what the teacher was showing us. I went to college to study electronic/electrical/mechanical engineering, I did 3 years and got fed up with the equations, not enough practical teaching. I've been a avoincs technician for 20 years and I'm starting my own little business as a side line focusing on graphic cards/computers and laptop repairs, I've learned alot from your channel, thanks 🙏🙂
Thank you for the upload
Alex, you are right on many of the points! While I value my college education in Electronic Engineering, it is nothing compared to my on-hands and real world experience! I have worked in engineering, designing circuits to reverse engineering to repair and modification to IT related jobs. While college helped some with the theory, it did not with all the rest of the things that I learned by getting my "hands dirty". I worked as a bench tech as well repairing consumer electronics and now that troubleshooting experience comes in hand repairing industrial electronics. It's unfortunate that so many employers out there require or prefer someone with a college degree which is just a piece of paper that says nothing about your experience. I think a potential employer should value those with years of on-hands experience more then someone just coming out of college with a $80K debt. If I was hiring someone, I would weigh higher on their experience rather then the overpriced education which for the most part, as you said, is non-practical!
This is the real truth Alex. Not everybody learns in the same way, but the system is set up for a specific type of learners. Practical usage is king. All you can do is pass on this methodology to your daughter and to your subscribers through your instructional videos here on UA-cam. You're truly a natural teacher who excels at teaching by example in a practical and easy to understand way. Keep it up and other will follow. Thank you for another informative video.
I have been repairing electronics for a long time, but thanks to your videos I have expanded my knowledge and learned better soldering techniques.
Thanks for the videos and look forward to each one
College doesn't teach you anything practical. But what it does is teach you how to look the solutions and research. Believe it or not, the ability to research information is a skill that determines success in certain fields.
However, it apparently does not teach one how to form sentences!
And looking at the internet today, you can see that a large portion of people never learned how to learn, or differentiate good vs bad information, or give any sort of critical analysis. These are things that are taught in school indirectly. I've literally had people try to win debates by giving me links to research papers... that actually disagree with them. They never got their foundation.
Yeah Alex, completely spot on. I've been self employed since 1997 and not looked back. No qualifications for what I do for a living but still doing it. Not easy sometimes but not too hard if you make the right decisions. Lots of happy customers!
Thanks for the video, it's a common practice here you must get a degree and then start working for someone that's only has a college certificate. I get so tired of explaining the difference between an Engineer and a Technician. Much Love to your family the teachers should allow the children enjoys their life.
Hey man, I have a bs in electronics engineering technology so I'm neither an engineer nor technician but a technologist. Try to explain the difference between an engineer, technician, and technologist!
May i ask who are designing the motherboards? Not Engineers? If not who are they?
Many people actually think like you (including me) but all depends on the eduction system in each country.
Double edge sword , you need degree but you are not gonna find jobs after graduated but if you have no degree they will ask for it it's real world
Love your work and the channel. One point about getting a college degree that is not touched on in this video is your starting base salary. When I graduated (Bachelors in Computer Engineering) my base salary was $58K / yr and that was in 2007 and it's finally broke 6 digits after 11 years and transferring from the first company to my current one. Without a college degree your base salary will be way less, so it will take many more years to catch up - unless you are lucky or hop from one company to another to increase your salary.
College is a way to prove you can learn and be thought difficult tasks and problems even though it goes out the toilet a couple months later; you just prove you can remember and spit it back out to the exams / professors. Some of it sticks but most does not. What I do for a living now I learned on the job, online and not in school; but college molded me to think differently about certain things. For my kids, college will be an option, but if they choose not to go they will be going to a trade school to start early so by their mid 20's they will have experience to at least have the same base salary as someone with a college degree.
I was too smart for school. I was put into enriched classes but they did nothing for me except make me feel like I was different. I ended up dropping out of high school because I saw no point in being in school with people who were not learning as fast as I was. My parents begged for them to skip a grade for me when I was younger, but they said "We stopped doing that last year". Now I have no formal education and I wish so badly that I was given the opportunity to skip a grade because I wasn't being challenged. Now my whole life is an unnecessary challenge. Luckily, I know I'm extremely smart and learn quickly, so I have been relatively successful in business and am currently starting my second business while my original one as a DJ thrives.
I've studied at university and I've learned things on my own. you absolutely have to do this, universities dont always teach up to date things. what they are good at is giving you a foundation. during this time, you need to go out and explore possibilities yourself. what you like and what you dont like, will you continue with your studies or will you drop out early to pursue something you have interest in.
also, learning doesnt stop after class. this is something both parents and students need to understand.
The only thing I can say is THANK YOU! You are so helpful. The college system needs to change. Only reason you need to take general education classes such as English, History, Music, etc when going for an electronic engineering degree is so those professors have a career and get money. It's not for your benefit, never has been. Then the core classes don't have real world examples in the class.
The most important schools teach us is the way to think. You may no longer remember every math equations you learn in the future, but when you encounter a problem in your life, you know how to approach it, because you have been trained how to do so. For example, when you see a misleading advertisement, you know it's fishy because you have learned statistics, logic, etc, so the trap is obvious. When you're tasked with a difficult job, you have the courage and ability to learn and highten your ability to accomplish it, instead of just give up or botch it. Your thinking method can lead your life path, and how you think depends on the training and the information you have received.
Yes, not all subjects we learned are useful, some of them are even harmful. But education is very, very important. Sometimes it have to aim high, the society need someone to build rockets. But for others, a good education can change their perspective, and consequently, their life, and the whole society, for the better.
Troubleshooting is what makes you money. The end result is the same but if you know basic circuit architecture and can NASA grade solder, you can become a great bench technician but Troubleshooting is what will be your best tool. Alex you are a true professional in electronics repair. Kudos to you.
Preach, its exactly as you said
Wanting to learn something and having to learn something is 2 completely different things I can say from experience. If you want to learn it you will put in the effort
Great video and wisdom ❤ thanks for all you do!!
I'm a computer technician and i finished my course only talking in class about how to troubleshoot a PC that isn't working, I never touched a pc nor did my collegues, i was probably the only one who knows what i was doing because i, on my own, opened my computer to see the the components myself and learn, but i mostly don't use use what i learned in school, i did have one or two classes on very basic photoshop but thats something i learned on my own, im currently a video editor for a youtube channel and i never learned how to edit a video file in class, the most powerful tool to learn is willpower, if you want to learn, and you like a certain field, im sure you will do great, and school ends up wasting a lot of time teaching us "nothing" while there are other things they could teach us to prepare us for the real world.
I do not agree 100% with what you said but i mostly agree with your view, it was nice to hear your thoughts on the topic
I think you are " better than my factory teacher "!. I am speechless. 🙏🙏🏾👌👌🏽🥺🥺
I remember not really mastering anything in school. After graduating school I started working. Afterwards I learned so much from doing my own research, the internet, books in the library and meeting new people at work. That's where I learned most of the stuff that school didn't teach me! I learned to file taxes not from schools but from family. I also learned independence from living by myself not from school.
you took the words right out of my head, it felt like. very good video!
This video is so true, here in Brazil I had a little similiar situation in some aspects, my father had a business fixing tvs and sound systems, begans in early 70's, I grew up inside the shop, playing with solder irons, desassembling wasted pcb. I started oficially in my 13 work for real, I my father dream always was I graduated as electrical engineer. So, the time pass, I graduated, work now for a big companie ( WEG) as a PCB designer on the electronic product development deparment, now with 20 years of experience. What was the thing that helped more? My degree? Absolutelly no, was the time I worked with my father on the shop, so much experience how to fix, how to made, how to adapt, how to do the job... So, I love your channel, watch basically every video, always learning, I hope you manage to keep the very hard job :) . Greatings from Brazil.
Apprentice and Master! Just like the good old days! God Bless. I really enjoy your videos. I'm a Luthier and have no experience (Other than Electric Guitar wiring) with soldering. It amazes me to watch you repair such tiny electronics and it's quite addicting to watch.
Omg Alex this is probably the best video out there, I am an educated electrician I did finish my degree back in 2019 just before covid. And what you are talking about is exactly how I saw school they do not teach you about the most important things, and that is practical and in order for me to get my workers degree as an electrician I had to study Religion, History, Society Knowledge and Nature knowledge. I remember in class with the male teacher I had in Nature Knowledge, we should learn how to clean sour water like what chemicals used and crap. I told him seriously do I need this as an electrician? And he just as me shaked his head and said MADNESS, like with Religion should one cable be Christian the next Buddhism and so on... All I am feeling is that the Politicians that decides what should be needed in a workers degree, it would be one thing if I would continue studying then I can see the point. I wasted two years on this for NOTHING I learnt more by my self in electrics and electronics, then I ever did in school we need more practical education this goes for the entire world. I am from Sweden and we have the same crap going on here too people wasting to much time on useless knowledge that they forget as soon as they pass the tests, I think if we included more theory and could do the things in daily life then writing it in a stupid test. That we would have better schools that can educate students for the real world, such hands on knowledge to use the current method to find the shorts?! In school we should measure it lol! Much better to have the knowledge about the circuit in question, and to know the expected voltage then you can troubleshoot things much better. So thankful for your channel it is amazing how the internet can bring all of us together, and sometimes we all screw up that my old friend that is a tv repair guy for the last 60 years that it is a part of learning he calls it "learning money" learnt so much from his knowledge and these days I help him with IT. Have a great day Alex!
I thought I was the only person in the world who felt that way about school... I enjoyed electronics since i was 10! When i started studying phisics, i couldn't wait to find out the practical use in electronics! To my disapointment it wasn't that straight forward! I finished high school and got my degree in accountancy! Guess what I work now for 3 times the sallary of an accountant? In a farm, on a half a million $ vehicle! What I learned? Life is as good as you make it, and how much are you willing to learn from it! The electronics, for me have expanded, with time and experience, from fixing a dead iphone all the way to building a tube amp with own built transformers, but only as a hobby and when I have time for it! As you said: my family is here!
Hope you read this! This is my way of letting you know that i appreciate you and the work you do! Keep up the good work and be well with your wonderful family! Best regards from Romania!
I had one teacher that made Calculus fun. Yes, Calculus. At the start of each class you would take a blank piece of paper and make a tic-tac-toe # and put one of 9 random numbers in each square from the 10 numbers 0-9 available. Then he would show 10 equations on the board, each equation when solved equaled one of the numbers 0-9. The equations were based off of that days homework. You would quickly solve the equations and place a coin on the appropriate number's square. The first student that got, 3 across or 3 down or 3 diagonal, would yell "BINGO!" and the teacher would verify their answers and award that student an extra 10 points on the next test. This class was so popular that the students would rush into the classroom when the bell rang for the end of the previous class before any of the other students could get out of the room!
I agree to your overall summary, but I went to a technical college where hands on was a big part of your grades. This was in the mid to late 90’s. Funny enough I went in for electronics and really enjoyed the first few semesters, but my buddies convinced me to switch off into the computer networking and servicing track. Probably the best move I ever made , because lots of those electronic engineering jobs are gone now. Now I’m in computer security and doing very well. Work / life balance is great and in the end that is what matters to me.
greetings, I want to point something, the NORIA (Spanish word for waterwheel ) is a fantastic invention , hundreds of years ago made by someone who didn't studied nothing at all, not even had a degree in engineering , my point is, education serves as a LEVEL way to make people measure itself. You are so right in something, we all need we all, together. There are doctors who fear giving wrong prescription and, therefore, start teaching. Good subject today, very strong and directed to young humans. Big hugs to all!
in switzerland there are training courses of 2, 3 or 4 years, e.g. 4 years as electronics technician. you go to school 1.5 to 2 days a week and do practical work 3 days. learn how to use all the tools. the company where you learn even pays a small salary. the companies here know that well-trained employees are important. I think your videos are great and also this speech.
Hello Alex! I have had the same experience, my daughter is very smart and they wanted to ‘upgrade’ her 2 classes. Psychologist said, “let children be children, dont rush things’ children can’t handle the stress. Good luck!
Hi Alex, I also went to Poly but later than you did - 2009 right when it merged with NYU - and I can tell you are spot on especially with the math courses
Hey Alex, I'm an Egyptian and when I left Egypt 7 years ago the plan was to get a degree so that I can "start" working. I have 2 master's in biomedical engineering and I agree with what you say here to a very large extent and appreciate your input from your great experience.
I'm working on creating my own business after 3 years of working in companies. It is definitely very challenging, but its a path that opens up the world so much and I aspire to get to a point where I can make my own money.
Love your advise, and wish that I had heard that knowledge long ago, before I moved through europe to settle down and provide for myself in those hard years. The university knowledge would have been very easily caught up in a year of work experience as an apprentice.
I totally agree with you. I've studied electronics until age of 21 and when I got a job as a measurement and control technology technician (calibrating sensors and repairing broken electrical stuff), I didn't know capacitors can dry out and lose their capacity and that they have a leakage value to indicate there is current leaking inside and it drains itself without external load. Nobody at school told me that, I had to figure it out on the job. Also, alot of sensors use a 4-20mA signal to indicate it's measurement between 0% and 100%, whatever the sensor measures (pressure, temperature, volume, ...). Also this simple thing wasn't tought at school. You learn that while doing your job. In school, you learn theoretical stuff (they did say that capacitors and resistors deviate somewhat and won't have the exact value as written on them but they get close, and they assume those components to be perfect in the calculations). You don't learn practical stuff like really designing something and building it yourself, to see how it works. We had some classes do such things though, where I built a 40W amplifier and a power supply to power it (we had to design the circuit board as well and etch/solder it ourselves), but just not enough to fully grasp everything they wanna teach you. In case of math, they told us math is tought at school to train your brain, nothing more. But they didn't give practical examples where you can use the stuff. Same as IT. Lesson 1: "Hello world", lesson 2 "constructors and destructors of objects". I didn't even know what an object was. Years later, when I bought BlitzBasic3D (a programming language using the BASIC language but compiled into machinecode), it was in that language that I learned what an object was. I still think school is required though, just being more practical and not simply focus on teaching theoretical stuff without practical usage.
I used to teach technicians how to repair specific models of TV's back in the early 90's for a major electronics manufacturer. I miss that job.
Those are true words. I can only agree.
I got interested in electronics when I was 7 years old. There were electronics experiment kits from Kosmos, Philips, etc. I bought both and learned electronics independently. I have read, inserted components, analyzed and understood. For example, I was able to quickly build an astable multivibrator without books. I even built radios myself. I knew very quickly what a transistor is, how it works and what subtypes there are. I also quickly understood the purpose of resistors, capacitors, diodes, coils, etc. For many years I have even been able to work with power electronics too. So I like to work with MOSFETs, Triacs, IGBTs, Shottky rectifiers, sometimes also with mains voltage.
I built my own PWM speed controller, I also built PWM dimmers for my custom built LED strips. For my staircase lighting I built a fully electronic timer with the NE555 timer chip, which is controlled by a radar motion detector. All my self-made circuits have been working for 13 years and more. And that without a failure. I even use electronic components from old, defective devices. I remove whole circuit boards, store them and if I need certain components, I solder them down and use them again. That is sustainability.
I was trained as an electrician and the experience I gained through my hobby is often very useful in my job. At my trade school, I knew more about electronics and formulas than anyone else in my class. Even my training company was amazed at how I knew so much about the technical field.
But most of my electronics knowledge i didn't learn at school, but by myself.
Yes, I've also been able to repair a few devices myself: car hi-fi power amplifiers, home cinema integrated amplifiers, portable CD radios, televisions, etc.
I once built a conventional 12V power supply for a work colleague, with which he can operate an old car radio in his garage at home. He couldn't have built it himself because he had no idea about the electronic components and didn't know what to connect where and how. He is only familiar with the field of electrical installation.
Dave Ramsey has a video called Borrowed Future which covers a lot of these points.
Very well spoken
I feel like Northridgefix did a great job explaining but he did not explain deeper why schools are useless and why they are and where they are. Schools teach you task orientated work. Do the assignment, memorize facts, but it no way explains the lessons and philosophy behind it. Because we demonized philosophy and the reasons what we do, and why do it, and how we know we know what we know. Rather, schools rather teach slaves and drones for the system. This is why people that have PhD's are not geniuses. Most of them are slightly above IQ but they are no way 160 to 180 IQ. Schools are only meant to give you the appearance of intelligence. But it teaches you all books but no common sense. Therefore that person is more easily influenced and manipulated. Experience and wisdom allow us to see through lies. That is the last thing they would want to teach.
This is why I went into a trade. I will have a great union job, have less schooling and debt. Make almost double than most people. With less indoctrination.
nice
You are absolutely right !
Here, where I live, the only criterion is "Do you know how to do a job", if you don't know you go to learn to do job or to learn how to fix things.
If you don't want to or don't know how, nobody cares about yours school, high school, college, university, etc.
Here practical people call school "DEBILANA" .
There is no appropriate word in English, at least I don't know it, because English is not my native language, but something like "Stupid house" or "Moron House".
You get a degree and you don't know anything about the job for which you got the degree.
For example, I graduated as a car mechanic and I have no idea about mechanics.
I do work that has nothing to do with mechanics.
I do painting and facade work.
I don't have a degree for it, but I know how to do it.
I have a degree there, but I don't know how to do mechanics.
I can just wipe my ass with a degree 😂.
Totally agree with you mate! Lucky i had found that "electronics" are my passion. Lucky because i start working on electronics since i was 13 years old. Nothing is like practice! Nothing!!! They did not teach me in school how a transistor behave in circuit, how a diode behaves how a capacitor... i lear by burning 🔥 components and then, that was a lesson to remember. Today it become my job in the last 20 years and i can provide for my family, and like you said, being a bussines owner is hard man... but it provides me flexibility, make my own plans everyday.... how i like to say, best asset nowdays is "free time".
I still learn allot from your videous! I'm starting my channel shortly and hopefully i will learn others about electronic work!
This guy was absent the day they told the kids specifically that this would all be for practical use in the future. Lol Also, I have travelled several countries and can tell you "engineer" is used loosely and is not as we define it in the USA, that's why they call themselves engineers.
Same happened to me. I graduate from a technical school in electronics.
Beside basics electronics and digital basics, 80% was useless.
Now that I own my own business, I discuss school and what I think it's worth with my kids and family as well. I encourage my kids (teenagers) to persue something they will like to do, obviously that includes making a living, and not to be conducted solely by the system we live in.
I had a lot of issues with this system during the years I went to my schools and colleges, and now concluded I never needed most of it to make a good living.
It depended a lot more on perserverance, creativity and getting some accountants that let you know your responsibilities on financial stuff.
Yes, being an entrepreneur, building a succesful business yourself, is not for everyone. But sticking with the system makes people mad or at least sad.
I agree, school didn't taught me electronics and how to do basic soldering, internet sources and trying myself taught me