another example of just how bad Oregon sucks

Robins Commentary --

As people who know me and who know my history, know that I have spent the majority of my life working as an electronics technician ranging from component level electronic repair to high-speed manufacturing and robotic equipment.

Of course in the Eugene area to my knowledge we do not have that much manufacturing going on in order to apply for a job in my particular field so I have to start searching outside of the area such as Portland.

Recently, I discovered a job that was fairly similar to my last job working for a international company that closed in 2003 and I was thinking, "hey, I think I could apply for this."

One little problem...

This job requires in Oregon LME license.

Okay sure... so I go to the state of Oregon website and look up what a LME license is and it turns out just like when I used to own my own business that it is a Catch-22 scenario.

In other words... you could have 50 years of experience from another state, degrees up the yang and still not be eligible to take the test for the LME license.

The license requires the completion of a two-year apprenticeship and/or have worked and can show at least 4000 hours in a "licensed and qualified" facility.

In a way I can understand previous requirement however, I feel that if you have the experience such as myself that you should be able to challenge the test.

By the way... even though I have over 4000 hours of experience, apparently, according to the state of Oregon the company that I worked for "technically" was not following the law as far as licensing so my experience does not qualify.

Oh yes, to add to the frustration, I called the states of Arizona and Nevada and found out that they have no such requirements and both basically said, "come on down!"

Personally, (and also based on my dealings with the state) I think that Oregon needs to lighten up a little bit with the license requirements especially in this recession because they are definitely limiting access to living wage jobs.

While the representative from the state of Oregon commented that I could go through a two-year apprenticeship program in order to get the license... that may be easier said than done.