Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The very best career advice - EVER.

Read between the lines folks. Mike Rowe is trying to spread the news that the trades are in need of workers and the white collar jobs are all saturated. Which is more likely to be available to most folks?

Life is way to unpredictable to say either notion is better or worse than the other. I think being passionate about what you're doing is helpful wether it's a stepping stone or a winning lottery ticket.

Absolutely spot on.

I fell into my career when I realized my passions were out of wack and I needed to provide for my family.

I've found that an attitude of gratitude for being able to do that AND THEN SOME has kept me in a line of work I'm not very passionate about at all. Gratitude motivates me to do what isn't all that exciting to me to the best of my ability more or less.

And that's the core of why so many want to follow their passion and are crushed when the world doesn't present itself on a silver platter. They feel entitled.

A good friend of mine owned an archery shop and said the same thing. When he started out, he could shoot nonstop 7 days a week. After 25 years he could barely stand to look at the damn bows he worked on. I asked him what he would do if he could start over again, he said he would have went into the jewelry business and dealt with the pain in the asses, where at least the profit margin was 400% and not 4% like the hunting industry.

Another one of my contacts retired from an engineering job in Wisconsin, moved to Brunswick, GA and became a fishing guide. He quit that and went back to work in a fish factory because he got tired of baby sitting a bunch of asssshole drunks.

The perfect job is one that allows some decent money, without sacrificing too much personal time to get it. Any suggestions?

If you work at what you love, what you love will become a job.

Better to find work that allows you to live your dream, while taking as little time as possible from living it.

I wouldn't show up if they stopped paying me.

I was trained in college for radio and television broadcasting. I'm legal on the air, but the pay scale is so low, you could starve.
Add to that, the pressure is high. Everything is timed down to the second, show prep is endless, and the on air personality could put everyone in the building out of work. A multi-million dollar piece of equipment, you can no longer turn on.
It is a rush, and a drive to do it well, but you cannot support a family that way. I may get back into it when I retire.
I'm good at what I do, and I have standing offers it with other companies if I ever decide to move. The boss knows I could walk away today, and be working for his competition tomorrow.
It's not the same as working your passion, but is far less stressful.

Correct me if wrong, So you get a level of satisfaction & fulfilment from the rewards of your personal sacrifices,
that might not otherwise be attained but just by having and following some idealistic passion.

Personally I found success disappointing , cause the dreamy idea of something is never quiet like the reality
when you have attained it.

Can't you read? Or, are you going to start criticizing a man's choices to provide for him and his the same way you do as an elitist SOB about another man's faith?

4ager sober your feeble insecure mind , theres no criticism in my response to efw,
If you had adult sense , you could see I'm talking about a persons true rewards and valuable discoveries in life.

I'm passionate about being successful at what I do. About being very good at what I do. Passionate about serving my customers, my employees and my family.

Doesn't really matter WHAT that is, as long as I do it better than those idiot, lazy, incompetent competitors I have.....

Some days are better than others.

That's all I know.

Coming out of high school my passion was to do something that would keep me close to hunting and fishing, and being a Game Warden seemed like a natural fit. At the time, Game Wardens were starting about about 25K per year in Ohio. Even to a niave 18 year old kid, the thought of working so hard, being on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and not seeing a real clear chance of that really improving much wasn't very appealing. It's great to chase a passion, but sometimes unless you plan on driving a Yugo for 30 years, and living on raman noodles, it's not a realistic career path.

Fast forward a few years and I dabbled with fishing professionally. The first thing I learned, was even with a good run, it's an incredibly tough way to make a living. The second thing I learned, is living week to week, and needing to be on the stage every Sunday, just to have enough gas to drive home is no way to live. It took me two years to figure tht out. Some of the guys I fished with 25 years ago still toil in the journeyman ranks. They fill out the tournaments on Saturday, and then on Monday try to figure out how to pay the next entry fee. It's a tough way to make a buck.

It took a few years, but I learned that working with my hands and my brain was what was going to feed me. I've been in the optical industy for close to 35 years now. My bills get paid, there's a roof over my head, and food in the fridge.

Folks don't want to get their hands dirty today, and the skilled labor trades go crying for help. A friend owns a machine shop and has basically given up on finding qualified help. He makes his own machinists from the floor up. Trade schools and tech schools just can't turn out enough qualified people to supply the trades. What a shame.

I’ve been saying this for years.
99% of the young people who “follow their dream and do what they love” end up failures.
Sure, 1% make it, and they are the ones that write books and give interviews. Everybody wants to hear from the world champion cowboy. Nobody wants to hear from the 10,000 bums who borrow money and follow the rodeo circuit until they run out of money or break too many bones.
What does that one “world champion cowboy” say ?
“Follow your dream and do what you love”.

You got it.

Grateful to be able to provide for my family and even tho I'm not excited about the work I do I am proud to do excellent work.

My idealistic passion at the time could not have supported my family and me.

20 years ago I figured out what my skills were, then I found an industry that valued those skills. I have no complaints.





P

Best advice I've heard, makes the whole get out of high school and go to college a farce. Just study something is the impression you are left with. My degrees were a result of getting close to graduation, looking at where I stood in relation and made that my major so I could finish in a timely fashion. I knew a bachelors wouldn't get me a job, so got a masters.

What I should have done instead, was look around, do some research and find out what kind of jobs are actually out there that pay a descent wage and learn how to do them.

I have worked at the plumbing trade for 47 years. I hate the word plumbing!!