On June 08 2009 04:18 StRyKeR wrote: Four years at your age isn't much of a time investment because the amount you'd earn by working isn't enough. The boost college will give your resume though is pretty big. Consider your options.
School 1) Four years not working 2) Four years of tuition
Work 1) Immediate money
Think which one is worth more ten years from now. Obviously, I'm telling you to go to college, but try to be objective. As mentioned earlier, the value of "Work" now should be pretty small for you since you don't expect to get a good paying job out of high school.
If it were as cut and dry and black and white as that, no one would go to college...
I'm a lineman and i love the job. It pays well and the outlook for employment is high with the need to rebuild the national grid and constant need for maintenance in distribution. You don't have to go to college since you learn the trade in a 4 year apprenticeship. Once the apprenticeship is over and you recieve your journeyman card the pay is quite nice, anywhere from 70k to > 100k depending on where you work and how much overtime you want. It's definately for someone who doesn't care to work outside or with high voltage electricity though
On June 08 2009 04:53 KaRnaGe[cF] wrote: I'm a lineman and i love the job. It pays well and the outlook for employment is high with the need to rebuild the national grid and constant need for maintenance in distribution. You don't have to go to college since you learn the trade in a 4 year apprenticeship. Once the apprenticeship is over and you recieve your journeyman card the pay is quite nice, anywhere from 70k to > 100k depending on where you work and how much overtime you want. It's definately for someone who doesn't care to work outside or with high voltage electricity though
That sounds cool...so you're sort of like an on-the-field electrical tech or something?
On June 08 2009 04:53 KaRnaGe[cF] wrote: I'm a lineman and i love the job. It pays well and the outlook for employment is high with the need to rebuild the national grid and constant need for maintenance in distribution. You don't have to go to college since you learn the trade in a 4 year apprenticeship. Once the apprenticeship is over and you recieve your journeyman card the pay is quite nice, anywhere from 70k to > 100k depending on where you work and how much overtime you want. It's definately for someone who doesn't care to work outside or with high voltage electricity though
That sounds cool...so you're sort of like an on-the-field electrical tech or something?
Yeah thats basically the idea. Repair and replace lines, poles, transformers, capacitors, troubleshoot problems. Some people go into working in sub-stations it just depends on what you want to do with your career. Also there are opportunities in most companies to advance your education further while you are working. Being hired by a local utility would be the ideal thing rather than working for a contracter.
1) Should I avoid college and try to find a decent- not a great- but a decent job? If so, what kind of job would pay decently without a college degree? I'm seriously thinking of mailman!
If you can find a "decent" job, and you don't think you have the drive to finish college, then by all means go for it. However, given the current job market, this might be harder than you think, since literally anyone can do these types of jobs.
2) Should I go to college and pick up a random one year degree just to boost my resume, and then go out into the work force as thus?
I don't think this is smart. Unless you actually have an interest in something, I wouldn't waste my time with a one year program just to "boost" my resume.
Really, whats the job market like? Is college essential for anything and everything above mc donalds? Or is just essential for more prestigious white collar jobs? Sorry if this is in the wrong area, it might do better in a blog?
The job market is terrible at the moment, it's actually as bad as media makes it sound. I would not say it's "essential" for everything above McD, but it's seriously something nice to have. Also, a large part of college is networking, which goes above and beyond what you learn in the classrooms.
You are all being incredibly short sighted. The job market will likely explode in the next 3-5 years as boomers continue to retire and we enter a more favorable economic cycle.
This is actually the perfect time to educate yourself. Your alternative is to coast in your current job until things start to open up.
It is a fantastic time to be a young person breaking into the job market. Don't lose sight of that just because the next year or two will be a bust.
In my eyes there is no question that you're better off educating yourself right now if you aren't already working somewhere.
i would say military but it just seems wrong to tell someone to join the military, and there isnt much jobs for a hs grad at this point in time. teach english in korean?
You need some kind of training at least. I am in the trades myself, and I am always going to school to learn new trades. The more shit you can do for your boss the more value you have to them. Its not college but you need to learn skills.
On June 08 2009 03:50 Dazed_Spy wrote: I don't really want to go to college
GOTO COLLEGE GOTO COLLEGE GOTO COLLEGE
GOTO COLLEGE GOTO COLLEGE GOTO COLLEGE
GO TO FUCKING COLLEGE GO TO FUCKING COLLEGE GO TO COLLEGE JESUS CHRIST GOTO COLLEGE
if you "aren't in the mood for college," at the VERY least go to a 4 year state school, party/play video games a bunch, and get a degree in something you find mildly interesting.
NOT going to college will likely be the most enormous mistake of your life.
i am normally the most mannered, diplomatic individual on forums, but it fills me with intense rage and disbelief that you would not goto college simply because "you don't feel like it."
go to damn college jesus christ GOTO COLLEGE GO TO COOOLLLLEEEEGGGGEE IMMEDIATELY
On June 08 2009 06:00 InToTheWannaB wrote: You need some kind of training at least. I am in the trades myself, and I am always going to school to learn new trades. The more shit you can do for your boss the more value you have to them. Its not college but you need to learn skills.
you could try going to a technical college and getting certified/an associate's degree first, and earn more money than high school grad level while thinking about your next step. Plus, your immediate employment after graduation has much greater chances.
I dunno about Canada but here in the central US it seems to work out money-wise. My cousin went to welding school in Tulsa for a year and imeddiately out he lands a $60k job. Now he's working to get in with the boilermaker unions or something while he still pulls decent jobs every few months. Kind of erratic job security I know (at least until he makes it in with a union) but great money for only one year of higher education.
My other cousin (lol big families in Missouri) did the same thing but at a tech school for cars. He worked at a Mercedes factory for a little bit before moving to Texas to work at a dealership.
On the other hand , it's not a perfect solution. A guy I worked construction with went to some auto tech thing in Oklahoma but was working construction in order to make some money first before moving on. :/ Back home, two of my high school buddies who were pretty nerdy ended up becoming head IT for the campus, one right out if high school, the other when the first got busted for smoking pot and took over the first's job. They were only certified at best
My point is it isn't a solution, just an option that won't eat up nearly as much of your time and money as a BA but can net you back more money in return than a HS diploma. Hell just becoming certified means you can demand to be paid more because you ARE certified. You can then decide whether you want to do more, but you'll be paid more while waiting. Don't think that you always have to go straight to college right out of HS. Here at Devry I see plenty of adult students in their late 20s/30s/40 who want to be better supporter for their families etc.
(PS. I wouldn't really recommend DeVry to anybody unless you're going for a business management degree I came up here attracted by their accelerated degrees (BA in 32 months) and touted employment-field-rates but it is seriously a disappointment.)
EDIT:
oh yeah some of the trades that can pay good either immediately or over time that you can go to tech school for:
-Welding (very common) -IT/computer networking (big demand) -Electrician/Lineman (Linemen in particular have good longtime job security/decent pay, I was gonna be one before I chose profession of slacker ) -Automotive tech (dunno a lot about this one but I heard it pays great if you get in with a big company)
On June 08 2009 05:30 ManaBlue wrote: You are all being incredibly short sighted. The job market will likely explode in the next 3-5 years as boomers continue to retire and we enter a more favorable economic cycle.
This is actually the perfect time to educate yourself. Your alternative is to coast in your current job until things start to open up.
It is a fantastic time to be a young person breaking into the job market. Don't lose sight of that just because the next year or two will be a bust.
In my eyes there is no question that you're better off educating yourself right now if you aren't already working somewhere.
Boomers retiring is causing as much trouble as they'll benefit the job market in the future. They're making social security complicated, and will be stressing the economy as money will be put into them with little to none coming out. Plus past that, once the boomers pass away, those jobs that they opened up will go to shit as well.
They're a double-edged sword with the benefits only being temporary.
The job market won't explode in a few years...more positions will open up in relation to them, but I really don't think they're the key to fixing this recession.
EPT
I came up here attracted by their accelerated degrees (BA in 32 months) and touted employment-field-rates but it is seriously a disappointment.)
