Originally Posted by Boiler

You may be able to help, this was over a beer conversation last Sunday and we are all non IT people.

I have seen during my work life jobs go. My Grandfather was a Coal Miner then Automotive, my Dad worked for Fords, I was in Commercial Insurance and during my time many of the companies I dealt with in the manufacturing side went under or moved overseas. Even in Insurance most of the back office functions initially moved out of the City and then went to India. And I have been out for some time so I assume it is even more prevalent.

GM closed down a factory last week, CNN interviewed a line worker who was earning $75k installing trim and had little hope of another job, guess she was 50 ish.

We were wondering why so many well paying IT jobs remain, much easier to move than an IT job than a Car Plant we thought. I do know a few people in IT and they seemingly work from home a lot, well why pay US wages at all?

Originally Posted by Steerpike

Back in the 90s, the start of 'outsourcing' and 'offshoring' IT jobs began. We (my workmates and I) all thought it was the beginning of the end, because as you note - an IT job can be located 'anywhere'. Lots of companies started moving jobs to India and other similar locations (Eastern Europe is also now a target) but - after 20+ years, it hasn't had a major impact. Sure, every company in Silicon Valley has a big tech center in India, the Philippines, Hungary, or whatever but they still have a huge local presence. One friend of mine works for "Walmart Labs' in ... San Jose; this company from Arkansas - where I'm sure there are cheaper programmers - chose to set up it's new 'tech' center in San Jose rather than anywhere else in the US, let alone offshore somewhere. So there's something about 'critical mass' and 'experienced workforce' that keeps it rooted, it seems.

I tried to talk my two nieces in the UK to go into software, but ... no go. I guess the 'STEM' education crisis is alive and well in the Western World.

Anyway - I was just inspired to post this when I saw all the hassles people are having to go through to be allowed to cut hair in the US.

Originally Posted by tom169

A reason that software development is going strong in the USA is because all the product and business decisions are being made here. It's much easier to manage an onshore development team where you can pull everyone together, even if it is by a video call. No language barriers, cultural differences (for the most part) to concern yourself with.

Also, if the offshore isn't on payroll, then it's become my experience that every project will be bloated so that the offshore company get paid more.

Originally Posted by Steerpike

Oh, I'm quite familiar with the difficulties and shortfalls of using offshore teams. But they do now seem to have a role in any moderate-sized company.

On the hairdresser front ... had my hair cut today. My hairdresser is the owner of the business. I asked her if she rents out stations; she said no, it would be too expensive. She's in a prime location on the busiest street in town (appropriately, 'Main St'). She said her rent is $11,000 / mo and she'd have to rent out a station for $2,000/mo. She has about 8 'stations' in her business. She said she has people working "on commission"; she elaborated to say, the 'worker' gets 50% and she gets 50% of every customer. She said she provides all the materials (products). I only ever see a few hairdressers there at any time, but maybe at peak times things fill up. My simple (literally, 10 minute) haircut used to cost about $15 but she's upped it to $28. My g/f gets a hair color (hide the gray by coloring it black) every few months and that now costs her anywhere from $90 to $150, depending on whether she has a 'touch up', a full coloring, or 'streaks'.

Originally Posted by ddsrph

Originally Posted by Winston_the_Great_Dane

Doesn't need 12 months of education though, surely? A public safety course would be enough, yet a hair stylist with many years experience has to jump through some arbitrary education hoops.

Bar tending school also kills me. How many of us pulled pints as a job without needing to spend money on formal training?

Education and licensing is a complete racket in the USA.

Originally Posted by christopherjames

Im going through this exact process at the moment and they dont make it easy. Before you leave the UK I would go to your college and get a reference letter stating the amount of hours you have completed. Then get references from as many employers and clients, and ongoing education facilities as you can. I also became a state registered hairdresser with the Hair Council in UK as that's basically the nearest we have to their "licence" and again more evidence to submit.
Send that in with every certificate you can along with the application and note what your "additional info" relates to on their application by number. Then you apply to the board via a license of endorsement.

They basically need to see you have done reciprocal amount of hours and have been a practising hairstylist. They might make you sit and take their written test as a formality (lots of info /examples of that online). It can take a while, I have spoken to several people out here who have moved state and it can take 4 weeks to a few months. Just get as much supporting info you can before you leave.

One other thing to note is that the industry is very different to UK. You can get a job at loads of places as you basically dont get paid. You get say 50% of what you make. So if you work a day and did 1 haircut for $60 you get $30 for that day. No salaries, sick pay, holidays etc. Or you can rent a chair or suite at places like Salon Republic. You need to build a clientele here and the co workers are very competitive as its all about money. I don't find the industry as pleasant as at home, so do lots of research before you take a job. You need somewhere with lots of footfall and walk ins ( not somewhere out of sight upstairs etc) Good Luck!