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Ask HN: In person industry tours and site visits?

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Re: Ask HN: In person industry tours and site visits?

#21

Post by blueridge »

In the US you can ride along at almost any fire department or private EMS company for a 12 hour day shift. They won't let you ride over night, but you can come back for multiple ride-alongs.

If you're more interested in the fire side, you can get on an engine. You'll respond to structure fires, car accidents, lightning strikes, and all sorts of well-being checks for people who just need help getting up off the floor.

If you're interested in medical stuff, you can get on an ambulance. You'll run 911 calls and get some real exposure to the human condition. It's a great way to learn about pre-hospital and emergency department care. It's also a great way to get a reality check on how the US healthcare system works, and how it helps or hinders the people who need care the most.

In many parts of the country fire and EMS are part of the same service and system, so you'll get exposure to a little bit of everything. I'd highly recommend fire and EMS as an alternative career path for anyone who is looking for something different, other than tech.

Re: Ask HN: In person industry tours and site visits?

#22

Post by vinay_ys »

As a kid growing up in pre-computer/internet era, we did a bunch of things to engage our curiosity and learn and have fun. But in today's world with access such rich content at your fingertips, it's all very different. These days I spend hours watching interesting stuff on Youtube in the comforts of my bedroom. But I do miss the learnings I would have had through engagement with fellow students in an actual physical tour. So, I would say, do best of both worlds.

Re: Ask HN: In person industry tours and site visits?

#25

Post by suyash »

_hzw wrote: post #16

Slightly off-topic: I didn't have the opportunity to visit industrial sites when I was a kid, so I made it up to myself by watching lots of "THE MAKING"[1] as an adult. [1]: "THE MAKING" is the Japanese equivalent of "How It's Made." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps_X1TqiJZQ&list=PLOEDIkStOh...

what a nice suggestion, always fascinated by Japanese engineering and design.

Re: Ask HN: In person industry tours and site visits?

#27

Post by reghardtpret »

Hi Helgardt, Reghardt van Katstraat. I think Henrik has written about what he calls onramps in society for younger generations, I am struggling to find the exact reference to it. But his blog is full of ideas similar to what you have written about here.

As economies develop and more specialization is allowed, it takes longer and longer for young people to "actually do work". Which is a good and bad thing.

https://www.henrikkarlsson.xyz/p/apprenticeship-online

Re: Ask HN: In person industry tours and site visits?

#28

Post by imadethis »

blueridge wrote: post #21

In the US you can ride along at almost any fire department or private EMS company for a 12 hour day shift. They won't let you ride over night, but you can come back for multiple ride-alongs. If you're more interested in the fire side, you can get on an engine. You'll respond to structure fires, car accidents, lightning strikes, and all sorts of well-being checks for people who just need help getting up off the floor.…

EMT here: highly recommend this! If you’re in the US, there’s a pretty big need for EMTs everywhere. A 3 month community college course will get you an intro job essentially no questions asked. From there you can pivot to fire if you’re physically capable, or go the paramedic route (2 more years of school). The starting pay for an EMT will be garbage, but firefighters and paramedics can make pretty good salaries depending on location.

The most important part to me was feeling like I was actually making a difference in people’s lives. I’ve done more for others in a single shift than in 5 years of one of my tech jobs. It doesn’t put food on the table, but it does help me sleep at night.

And if you are working in tech, there’s some interesting crossover applications. I’ve applied knowledge from EMS to working on EMRs for instance.

Re: Ask HN: In person industry tours and site visits?

#29

Post by anfractuosity »

There's an interesting looking Japanese website encouraging industrial tourism.

https://www.jetro.go.jp/en/eccj/ind_tourism/foods.html is the link for food, but there's a lot more categories such as life sciences and heavy industry.

(I found that link from HN a little while ago, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33680460 is the HN submission, which might have other interesting info on it)

Re: Ask HN: In person industry tours and site visits?

#30

Post by tomatocracy »

vinay_ys wrote: post #22

As a kid growing up in pre-computer/internet era, we did a bunch of things to engage our curiosity and learn and have fun. But in today's world with access such rich content at your fingertips, it's all very different. These days I spend hours watching interesting stuff on Youtube in the comforts of my bedroom. But I do miss the learnings I would have had through engagement with fellow students in an actual physical…

Depending on who's giving the tour, having the opportunity to interact with people actually working at a place (especially eg shift supervisors/foremen/etc - ie not senior management but experienced people who are still close enough to the "sharp end") and ask them questions is incredibly valuable in gaining an insight into how a business or industry works - site visits are a very important part of many investment decisions for this reason.
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