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When I went to diesel school I worked for a diesel mechanic for the 4 years I was there. As far as I know, I was the only one who did that.

Worked in my field while going to school. Granted, not everyone can do that.

Of course, most of my earnings went to the Snap On truck and the beer sale on Fridays.


About my Junior year a new lady enrolled in diesel. She was in her 40's at the time.


She went on to be quite successful in the field for a while. Later she decided to go back to her first profession as a Medical Doctor, and currently runs a rural clinic as well as being our Medical Control for our Ambulance.




You are only as limited as you want to be.

The rail road up here hires new people every year. So does the State. People are hiring.

Trades are a damn gold mine.

You need to have the ethic, ability, and drive. After you learn it, it’s all about managing people.

Don't be blue collar in a white collar town. That should be easily evident, but I was learning a skilled trade, got married and settled in and I just thought that good job would come along some day.

The light bulb came on when I read a book called "Night Comes to the Cumberlands",..written by a Kentucky historian named Harry Caudill.

In it, he mentioned that when the big post war migration from Appalachia occurred, nobody even bothered to stop in Lexington,...because the competition for the few blue collar jobs was too intense. They went to Michigan.

It's still pretty much the same.

Who knew?

I have been trying for years to tell young folks, industrial safety and environmental are 2 very wide open fields. A person could work and study concurrently if motivated.

I have posted this before, but it is still good advice.

Degrees in the science disciplines are useful, those of liberal arts not so much. Determination will whip education most days, and I suspect a little patience and forethought are of inestimable value.

The two most important things for life time success are intelligence and conscientiousness.

Spending 100k trying to educate an idiot doesn't give you a genius, just an idiot with a 100k in student loan debt.

A classic. And fitting

Where I work you can step right out of high school and be making 45-50k per year after bonuses. But you need to be able to read a tape measure, read blueprints, weld, and be fairly fit. You don’t have to be able to do all of those things though a few of us can check all the boxes. I’m constantly astonished at the number of men of all ages who cannot read a tape or a simple blueprint.

I know you say that you can’t weld and you aren’t good at math, I say BS. Most jobs in the trades aside from being a machinist don’t require anything other than basic math. And I could teach about anyone to weld passably with a wirefeed in half a shift, taking into account that they won’t be ready to weld pipe or anything technical but good enough to start in a fab shop.

The main thing I have figured out in my short time in the workforce is that you have to work hard but smart, and always keep learning and expanding your skillset. The fabrication company I work for employs about 25 weldors, 2 of us can TIG, 3 or 4 of us can weld pipe, 2 of us can weld aluminum, I am one of the number in all those sets. I picked most of it up on my own aside from the basics of TIG that I learned in trade school. I am also the only guy in the shop that knows how to sharpen tools on a cutter grinder, rebuild or repair the machine tools we have, and other skills and tricks of the trade. Which is the long way of saying I have always tried to keep learning and building my skills at whatever I was doing for a living and I’ve always managed to work my way up wherever I was.

I'm self employed...... It isn't a job or career, it's a way of life. Extremely time consuming! But I like what I do and for the most part I don't mind working a lot because I am a workaholic..... With all of that being said, I don't think it would be too difficult for a young person to succeed in todays world. Young people for the most part these days are lazy, at least what I have seen. I've hired more than a couple and if you tell them to leave their phone in their lunch cooler or in their car until lunch time, you can watch the blood run from their face. EVERYTHING is more important to them than work. They have to be on social media CONSTANTLY.
My advice to a young person that wants to succeed:
Understand that work comes before play, or you can't afford to play.
Be on time and not hung over.
Be willing and ABLE to learn.
Be conscientious.

If someone starting out can do these simple things, they should go straight to the top, because they would be a rare and precious find and have little competition in todays world.

Don't ever get a job for the money.... get a job doing something that interests you and you can be passionate about.... Once you become good at it, the money will come.

The trades are all starving for people that can be on time, pass a drug test, learn and perform and when you are good, there is money to be made! No college required.

Just my .02

This thread is part deux.

This was the first:

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/12238062/1

It's all about the individual and in many cases a break or two along the way.

An idiot with a PhD is still an idiot with no job. A piss-poor money manager welding on the pipeline will be further in debt and has less cash on hand than the 21 year-old manager of a Foot Locker.

A degree of some useful sort sure doesn't hurt and in many cases only helps. Add in some good old hardwork in the right place at the right time and the sky is the limit.

The school of hard knocks can be a tough beetch for many.

Like in bobinpa said, advise them to follow their interests and passions. It may take two or three jobs in n similar fields to land where you belong , but enjoy the journey.

College was good for me, but I've learned much more actually running a business than I did in engineering school, though I am glad I got degree(s) in engineering.

There's a kid in my office who I guess put this idea for the thread in my head. 28 years old, no skills, no social skills. Makes his own beer and wears cardigans and plays with action figures, all about the theory of everything but can't tie his own shoes when it comes to actually doing something. I just shake my head and wonder how some people exist.

And i also notice how the job market is so different from my dad's age group. And not necessarily in a good way...you could get a job at a factory which was local and paid about what every other job did. Now if you can find it they are minimum wage and no overtime and no pension and you are on call etc.

Just seems we squeeze every dime and every minute out and it results in people who can't afford the stuff they make all day.

One of those "everyone wants a 5 dollar pair of shoes and they want to be paid 70 bucks an hour to make them" lol

Mentors don't hurt.

"Don't try to keep up with the Joneses, --- they're broke." Dave Ramsey

I just feel so lucky that we’ve done as well as we have. Not rich, but fairly comfortable. Neither of us went to college, my wife was my first hire, she was gullible back then and listened to me. Told her she had to save 30% of what she made, so she did. Lol

Now she’s gotten smarter than me so I try and listen to her.

I’m truly humbled and grateful for our good fortune and I wish everyone well in pursuing their dreams. Particularly my kids

If I was directing a kid to go to college I’d reco engineering strongly, my middle is going but wants to be an accountant, that’s ok as long as he’s trying to be the best he can at it.
Like Jim, my depression raised grandparents, who played the role of a missing parent for me and my sis, had a great impact upon me on saving

By the time I heard of Dave Ramsey I figured he must have known them too

I dropped out of college, worked a few years in menial jobs and got a job with an electric company. It provided a good living for me and my family but it was a hard and sometimes dangerous way to make a living. I recently retired from there! For the most part, utilities don't have lay offs and when the economy has a downturn, overtime gets cut, not employees. I made more than several of my bosses and I made as much or more than several of my friends with degrees. But I worked harder, too!

Education is a wonderful thing if you get it in some useful field. And you can get an education without going into serious debt. One of my friends has 2 daughters that worked their way through school with minimum help from him. I worked when I was in college and most of my friends did. And don't go into debt to get a degree in something that has no demand.

As to getting ahead, the trick is to live beneath ones means and learn to save. Dave Ramsey comes to mind! I'm thinking about the oil field guys discussed above. A good skill with good pay and nothing to show when it ends. Truly a shame!

Global Engineering Manager, worked for me. The earlier Poster about Mentors was a big contributor as is the fact I have to work harder, learned through pressure to be able to have a passing education on any topic in the time it takes to fly to a new location, and with the full understanding that the knowledge of my pedigree status can be used albeit poorly to try and discredit me. I am the rare type who grew up with nothing and had to make my own solutions.

Then 15 years ago after leaving HS I was a single parent at 18 and just decided I was willing to admit I didn't know anything about anything but was not risk adverse and was willing to say the most commonly sighted magic words "I don't know" followed by the less referenced but more important "I will though". I tend to say "right place, right time, right attitude". Throw in maybe some sympathy from above and a Rainman like obsession to work endless hours and soak up everything and it clicked. It's not an easy path. Not fair to my family who has to deal with me living to work and for progress, and most definitely in the rare 5% to even make it this far.

I like to joke on here and my sense of humor is hard to read and comes across as my actual opinion but should be taken lightly. My big secret, care about Others. Understand, you can see Someone's limitations and decide you've invested too much time in them to continue while still caring about them.

Don't sell a BS story. Believe in what your doing and do it for the right reasons. I am fortunate that when political attacks come my way I glide through. It's because I prioritize my Company and have a Global perspective vs. worrying about how to fudge numbers and get my bonus. If you hold yourself to being beyond reproach it really throws Others off and makes an attack difficult because your motives are pure and ultruistic. The financial side will come together without obsessing over it. I haven't left a company I couldn't return to and could be downsized tomorrow and would thank my company for the opportunity to learn and grow.

I've been given a lot of titles but a prior Exec put it best " I will create the space and provide the Aircover. You just do what you do" Never had a name for it and it never mattered what my official title was. I get involved in everything and function in the controlled chaos of fixing every functional group in parallel. I realize this is not sustainable forever and it's a rare gift to be in Roles you naturally fill well. I am not anywhere near the level of success as many on here but have achieved a lot for my background and more importantly will continue to push the limits of myself and the systems I work in never settling. There is a difference between being unhappy with never good enough and recognizing milestones while identifying the next hurdle. Education is a fantastic thing and I try and expose my Kids to every opportunity. I also teach them about hard work and tenacity to never quit and push through barriers while providing cover for your Colleagues and Team even if it means taking the licks yourself. I have no doubt all will far surpass me in life as long as I do my job to prioritize their intellectual growth over my material desires. The new wears off "stuff" quick but seeing your 5 year old teach Kindergarten or your Teenager lead a Youth Group is a better reward. I also strongly discourage my path for my Kids and in my limited free time I dedicate myself to directing a Non-Profit to expose under served Youth to tomorrow's technologies. It's a new venture for me and extremely rewarding.