Kids today ... License to Drive

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

I have been doing mock interviews the last few days with high school juniors and seniors (17-18 year-olds).
About half the kids I've talk with do NOT have a driver's license, which kind of makes it hard to get a job.
The school counselors, say that's about right; 50 percent of the high school kids don't have a drivers license.

Um, what?

I can understand if you live in a urban area with public transportation. This is rural West Virginia. We are talking about counties without stop lights.

How many of you all didn't have a license at that age? I had mine (a learner's) and a job when I was 15.

Most troubling: The school counselors and employers are universal in their complaints about today's workforce, or lack thereof: They can't pass a drug test and/or won't show up for work, as in they don't want to work 40, 45 or 50 hour weeks, work nights or weekends.
That's in addition to the unreliable transportation issues.

 

[Buck]

I grew up in NJ = driving age 17.

I had my permit at 16 1/2 and license at 17.
Which was true of every kid I knew.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Yeah it's weird ... seen that for a while now. Probably some helicopter parenty stuff, combined with cost of insurance and maintenance, etc. Out here in California, one thing that's dragging down the desire is that the first year is a restricted license. You can't have any other teenagers in the car with you. So it's not like you get your license and then you and your buddies go cruising, it's really just you getting yourself places for that first year.

Also ...

Most troubling: The school counselors and employers are universal in their complaints about today's workforce, or lack thereof: They can't pass a drug test and/or won't show up for work, as in they don't want to work 40, 45 or 50 hour weeks, work nights or weekends.
That's in addition to the unreliable transportation issues.

Do the school counselors also complain about the long-haired freaky people?

And as for the employers, how many of them are also fighting against the big bad government making them pay those ingrates more than $8 an hour? Make it worthwhile for people to come to work, and people will come to work.

 

[Buck]

Wow, West Virginia is pain in the @ss for teen drivers.

http://www.drivinglaws.org/teen/wvteen.php

 

[Buck]

Other ways NJ differs from WV:
We usually owned and wore shoes.
Most of the kids I knew did not have home-done tattoos.
Incest frowned upon and often outright discouraged.

 

[Bubbler]

Maybe part of it is that parents can't afford to buy the insurance. The sticker shock I've seen as my friends' kids have become driving age ... wow.

 

[Huggy]

I've never had one - not much choice, I have no depth perception - and people I know who got one later in life ran into plenty of hurdles with Ontario's graduated licensing program. I can get pretty much anywhere I need to go on public transit, either here in my 'burb or into downtown Toronto. My wife drives which helps....

 

[Jake_Taylor]

My grandfather taught me to drive when I was 9 and I was driving on gravel roads from pasture to wheat field by the time I was 10. I had a learner's permit and then a farmer's permit at 14. The farmer's permit allowed me to drive, by myself, to and from school and on farm errands. It was a big deal when I turned 16 because it turned into a full license and I could cruise around on Saturday nights.

It's hard to imagine many kids not doing everything they could to have a license and wheel as soon as possible.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Yeah it's weird ... seen that for a while now. Probably some helicopter parenty stuff, combined with cost of insurance and maintenance, etc. Out here in California, one thing that's dragging down the desire is that the first year is a restricted license. You can't have any other teenagers in the car with you. So it's not like you get your license and then you and your buddies go cruising, it's really just you getting yourself places for that first year.

Also ...

Most troubling: The school counselors and employers are universal in their complaints about today's workforce, or lack thereof: They can't pass a drug test and/or won't show up for work, as in they don't want to work 40, 45 or 50 hour weeks, work nights or weekends.
That's in addition to the unreliable transportation issues.

Do the school counselors also complain about the long-haired freaky people?

And as for the employers, how many of them are also fighting against the big bad government making them pay those ingrates more than $8 an hour? Make it worthwhile for people to come to work, and people will come to work.

No dude, should have clarified, I'm not talking about McDonalds and minimum wage jobs. ... We are in the Oil and Gas Fields. Try $20 an hour jobs, they can't fill. These are good jobs. We can't fill them.
In Marshall County last week, near Wheeling, on of the companies had to bring in CDL drivers from Washington (state) to transport its product to Ohio.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

I've never had one - not much choice, I have no depth perception - and people I know who got one later in life ran into plenty of hurdles with Ontario's graduated licensing program. I can get pretty much anywhere I need to go on public transit, either here in my 'burb or into downtown Toronto. My wife drives which helps....

You don't need depth perception to past the eye and road tests in Ohio. :)

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Other ways NJ differs from WV:
We usually owned and wore shoes.
Most of the kids I knew did not have home-done tattoos.
Incest frowned upon and often outright discouraged.

****. You. ;)
In rebuttal ...

Thanks NJ!


We get a LOT of Jersey folks down here for college. A LOT.
It's so awesome to hear them tell us how great everything is in Jersey and how much better **** is in Jersey. While they are here.

We also have a LOT of hunters from NJ. Honestly, can't blame them. The land is so much cheaper here, and more abundant.

I'm trying to put together a recruiting program to bring a workforce out of the Northeast and rustbelt cities to come here.

And Incest is frowned upon ... well, we look the other way (it's rude to watch).

 

[LongTimeListener]

No dude, should have clarified, I'm not talking about McDonalds and minimum wage jobs. ... We are in the Oil and Gas Fields. Try $20 an hour jobs, they can't fill. These are good jobs. We can't fill them.
In Marshall County last week, near Wheeling, on of the companies had to bring in CDL drivers from Washington (state) to transport its product to Ohio.

They should pay $25 an hour then.

 

[SpeedTchr]

Thank goodness. No one should be allowed to drive until they are at least 21. Damn kids and their lead feet and loud stereos.

 

[User 11148]

My older daughter, now 20, wasn't in a very big hurry to get her license, but she did right before her 17th birthday. My son, who turns 17 in a few weeks, still doesn't have his. Both my wife and I are amazed at this dynamic ... when we were teens one could have a daytime-only license within 10 days of one's 15th birthday (you could get your learner's permit on your 15th birthday, which we both did, and then after a 10-day wait you could try for your main license).

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that being homebound (relatively speaking) isn't REMOTELY as bad now as it was when my wife and I were kids. My kids have cable, the internet, video games, etc. Plus, it is a much bigger pain to get a license now than it was back then.

 

[MisterCreosote]

I got my license in Pennsylvania back when they didn't require one second of actual road driving to pass.

The "road course" I was tested on was an absolute joke. So was the written test.

That explains a lot, actually.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

90 percent of my friends got their license (or tried and failed) within a week of turning 16.

The exceptions were kids who got in trouble all the time whose parents wouldn't let them get their license, or people who couldn't get their license until they got a certain GPA. There were a few others (usually girls) who didn't want to get their license because they liked being driven around.

 

[Dyno]

I got my learner's permit on my 16th birthday (first day you could in NY) and my license a few months later. Back then, your license was a restricted one until you turned 18, unless you took driver's ed, in which case your license became unrestricted at 17. My two closest friends didn't get their licenses until after we all turned 18, which was a pain for me, because that meant I was always getting hit up for rides. They both have said they were in no hurry because they didn't want the responsibility of driving.

 

[micropolitan guy]

In my state you can get a permit at 15 and a restricted license at 16. My son got his license at 16 and a couple months. He's a good driver. Of course he is inexperienced and we worry but it is nice not to have to cart him all over town anymore. I do think 15 is too young to drive.

Growing up in NYS, like Dyno, got my permit sometime after my 16th and then got my license just after turning 17, and I'd already had driver's ed so I could drive at night, etc., right away. I wasn't in that big of a hurry.

My Sheriff's Card, now that was different. I went right into the Erie County Courthouse the day I turned 18. That was a real priority!

 

[User 11148]

My Sheriff's Card, now that was different. I went right into the Erie County Courthouse the day I turned 18. That was a real priority!

What was that for? To buy beer?

 

[Buck]

Other ways NJ differs from WV:
We usually owned and wore shoes.
Most of the kids I knew did not have home-done tattoos.
Incest frowned upon and often outright discouraged.

****. You. ;)
In rebuttal ...

Thanks NJ!


We get a LOT of Jersey folks down here for college. A LOT.
It's so awesome to hear them tell us how great everything is in Jersey and how much better **** is in Jersey. While they are here.

We also have a LOT of hunters from NJ. Honestly, can't blame them. The land is so much cheaper here, and more abundant.

I'm trying to put together a recruiting program to bring a workforce out of the Northeast and rustbelt cities to come here.

And Incest is frowned upon ... well, we look the other way (it's rude to watch).

I'm just joshing.
I went to school in California PA and had friends at both Wheeling and WVU. I visited WV many times during my college years.
And I was not pro-NJ when I was that age.


Next question, if you're recruiting people, do you know of any WV college's looking to fill an open PR/marketing director position?
I'd move to WV.
I'm not sure the wife wants to, though.