DeVry University in Arizona use to offer 3 Electronics Technology Degrees, a BSET, an ASET, and an AAET, which was basically Electronics “Lite”, with minimal math and science requirements. UC/LLNL hired at least one DeVry Arizona college student (that I know of), who had not even completed 1 year of his AAET, which was the Electronics Lite Certificate portion of the AAET degree.
Most UC/LLNL ET new hires at the time either completed a BSET, ASET, or had significant Military ET experience. So why did UC/LLNL hire this DeVry student who had not completed his AAET degree? Because UC/LLNL was HELL-bent on filling “underutilized” job categories. It was DEI on steroids. Because of his “underutilize” status, this individual quickly became a Teflon Politician/manager, nothing bad ever stuck to him.
Oddly, this manager would often speak of the need to hire from top tier ET colleges for Lab jobs. Oh, the hypocrisy of the anointed ones.
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“Mike Campbell, the associate director for laser programmes at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US, was in charge of building the $1.2 billion National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Livermore…Campbell left his position last Friday after a series of anonymous faxes was sent to officials at the Department of Energy (DOE) saying that he did not have a doctorate degree.”
The $1.2 billion 1999 NIF estimate was on the low side of course, and to my knowledge, Mike Campbell, was not in any “underutilized” job category.
Maybe the DeVry hire that didn’t complete his AAET, never said he DID complete the AAET DEGREE, and UC/LLNL just stamped him with an AA “degree equivalent”, meaning no education falsification on his part. Having said this, If I were a Lab Tech, I would rather work for Tech manager that had completed the rigors of a Tech degree or comparable experience in the military, and that could also stand behind past material technical accomplishments. A pipe dream these days.
https://physicsworld.com/a/top-livermore-physicist-resigns/
It’s not their fault, either. The outgoing management for the last 15 or so years has failed with mentoring, except in the superficial sense that they checked the boxes and have put the cool posters up. So now you have the worst case scenario, a weapons lab complex that is still reliant upon technology that is older than the new people, who have little to no interest in anything much older than 10 years from today, much less 20 0r 30. Because their horizon is shorter than the people who used to do those jobs, and they don’t want to waste any time learning about something they can’t use in their next job in 18-24 months, right about the time they are qualified enough to really be a contributor. Oh, and everyone wants to be in management, because the ones that elect to stay, though they may not have the technical experience, they can see the writing on the wall. When the music stops they want a safe place to sit.
Correct. How many LLNS managers were in the layoff (gray march) of 2008, or placed into EIT status when NIF failed to reach ignition in 2012?
12/31/2022 5:56 AM
Right, and the "designers" consider experiments suspect because the data have "error bars" that never turn up in simulations.
Or perhaps the individual is hidden in plain sight.
-Richard Feynman, theoretical physicist
“Pico received his Electronic Technician diploma from DeVry in 1981, and returned to receive his bachelor's degree in technical management in 2004…”
https://www.llnl.gov/news/news-briefs-october-3-2008
- Barry Switzer