My brother, now in his late 60's, works for Crown Forklift in NW Ohio, rebuilding circuit boards because they can not get them from China. He is doing well.
There's some irony!
We've let this chip shortage" bite us in the butt, big time, but someone is making something out of it.
In '95, I got a call on a Sunday, wanting me to come in and solve a problem on a machine which was the bottleneck of the whole plant and process. NOTHING could be made without this machine.
It was an hour each way and I was on salary. All I could do is tell them what was wrong, so after a line of questioning, I determined that some knucklehead power-washed a pressure transducer, which likely cause a short on the board. I told them "call Bob." "Bob" was one of my maintenance mechanics who ran a side business repairing old VCRs worth repairing and could solder. I told them to take the part to his house, be nice, wait without complaining and kiss his butt big-time.
The question of "overtime" came up and I had to ask - "When the plant starts at 6:00 AM, how much money will we lose with in the 24 hours it will take to get a new part over-nighted?" "Bob" found the open trace cause by the short and soldered a little piece of wire across it. Back in business! I'm not sure what they worked out with "Bob" in terms of compensation, but I made sure they fully grasped the VALUE in that guy being on the payroll and available should something this stupid happen again. He thanked me Monday, so I gathered they made it worth his while.
If you don't mind, I'd like to use your story (no names) in class to underscore the importance of really knowing what t he hell you're doing and not just falling back on paper credentials. I will likely get caught and fired some day, but I put a lot of emphasis on KNOWING your stuff, taking initiative and taking responsibility - developing VALUE in yourself so you're the one who gets hired and is the last to get laid off. "Old guys," like your brother are the kind of inspiration "young guys*" need and should aspire to equal.
*"Girls" included, but they agree to being "guys" for such purposes and usually need much less heckling and cajoling to get their acts together.
Sorry. That was long, but dangit, OLD GUYS ROCK and young guys NEED the positive influence.