Good Paying Jobs without College Education

Yes, personal ambition, skill and foresight are far more important than the degree.

 

Do you mind if I ask what you do Luke?

I wholeheartedly agree with you when you say "the work you do isn't quite as important as the environment in which you do it." I think most people would say that they find this to be true.

I guess the advice that I'll give my kids will be do something that not everyone else is doing so that you won't be one of 200 for every position you apply for and you it's OK if you don't love it as long as you like it more often than not.

 

I raised my nephews, for a while, they are now 15 and 17.. with both are very street smart and good work ethic.. but society is working on changing that.. the youngest.. is a brute at 5 9 and 210 and not fat... but I just do not see college in their future.. advised him to be a plumber.. he got a learning disability but is really good with his hands so I got a few friends that will hire him to get some experience if he wants.. if we can just get him through high school... he's lived with me, his dad, his mom now (with many back and forth in between) got anger issues, numerous physical altercations at school, and man do teenage girls like the bad boys... it's real concern.. but he wants to do right thing.. just a 15 YO with all hormones and anger that brings... but up this way plumbers are 60 plus an hour if you can find one! state requires steps.. before master with 2000 hours of work experience in between steps

 

there are some great benefits with that state job,my mom worked for the doc for almost 30 years ,mci concord and necc

 

IT management. Some industrial engineering.

 

I'm not really asking them but I am brainwashing them to follow this path and think it was their idea. Father knows best.

I won't pay for anything else.

 

I don't know what the jobs are like in the states or if I depends from state to state but in Ontario in my area trades is it, we are very heavy on agriculture but extremely hard to get into that as I've tried for a long time. Two of my brother's are in licenced trades and they are set. And here the government pays for the schooling if your part of a apprenticeship.

 

I did a couple years at community college while working full time and living with my parents before transferring to a state university. I still worked part time the two years I went to the university and graduated with around $7k in loans. That was in 2001 so I'm sure it would be more now. But it still can be done without a mountain of debt.
I worked 40-48 hours a week on graveyard while taking a full load of classes at community college and it was brutal. When I transferred to the university I only worked summers, spring break, winter break, and a few holiday weekends at my old job. It was like a vacation.
It didn't take long working in my field of study to learn that I absolutely HATED working a "normal" schedule. Got into something else 14 years ago that offered a variety of schedule options and haven't looked back.

 

Skipping reading everyone else's comments, I will say that i went to school to be a welder, by school I mean a local school, cvtc located in eau Claire WI 45 minutes from where I grew up, not wyotech, where they charge 7 times as much for what you can call the name brand, my buddy went to wyotech for auto body collision, got an interview at a place in Vegas and was disappointed when they said, we don't really give a rat's bottom about where you went to school only that you know what your doing or are willing to learn and take pride.
I make a decent living, I got laid off a month ago and had a job lined up with a buddy that was fired from the same place before I left the parking lot that very day, not to mention I work on the side and now I got called back, so I have work coming out of my ears!!!!!! I average 20 an hour at my full time job home every night. 15 cash for my buddy and when I can I push for $40 cash on my own. Welding I will say isn't for the people who are afraid to work. It can be very very demanding in a production shop. I was lucky I started with a chit job, so now that I have a couple good ones I know I'm spoiled. Long story short, pm if you'd like more details. It's a good career but the best advice I can give anyone looking into the field of welding is be ready and willing to learn new things, it's an ever changing process from method to man to machine to wire transfer to welder settings to robots to you get the point, be ready to be an information sponge......

 

I second this, it just so happens that I have always loved welding so it fits me well, but the environment changes everything, when I worked production I hated my life, brain dead work being a wire monkey isn't fun, reading blueprints, critical thinking, talking with costumers and co workers to solve problems, knowing how to straighten steel with heat and or force, adjusting tolerances to figure in for heat shrinkage, fitting complex parts, to me it was intimidating at first but you learn it and it becomes more fun than work. (for me)