Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire jobs without degree

Makes no sense to get a degree in a field that doesn’t pay well.

39 years electric lineman(retired now)had a few friends get killed on the job and a few more injured.Pay was great but my ass is sore now.

Get a degree in civil engineering. Demand is high, baby boomers are selling out and retiring, and the nation’s underbelly (infrastructure) is in dire need of replacement. New grads are being snapped up at a starting salary over $60k. If you possess a good work ethic and can learn from your mistakes, you’ll be hitting 6 figures in 10-12 years. And you can work as long as you want....

See a lot of grads cant find a job in their college major with high student loan debt then go back and increase debt to get a masters and can only find a low paying job

Make that $35k/year with high debt to do it.

Or work in one of my companies plants as an hourly worker, with various incentives hourly pay is $20/hour after 18 months. Maintenance pays a bit more. All the overtime you could want. 8% company match to your 401k. Target is 8% bonus annually, usually its right around that. So with zero overtime, thats $47,000/year for a kid fresh out of high school with zero education, all for throwing some cardboard in a casepacker or watching a case be conveyed into a palletizer. My brother in law is one of these hourly workers here, made $80k last year. The catch is you're going to start out on an offshift, and low senior you'll be forced into a lot of that overtime whether you want it or not. All in areas that are some of the lowest cost of living in the country.

That would be great for a recent HS grad in that field. Only concern would be more future automation at plant. Combine with training to maintain fix machinery and not a bad career. Max your investments early best you can and retire by 55 easy if watch spending. Compare that with over a 100 k or more student debt at age 25 worthless degree and a lower paying job prospects. Less than 50 k a year.

They SHOULD pay him $8,500 per month! Working in a prison sucks big time. Dealing with the low-lifes of society...dangerous, depressing, boring....shift work. My dad did it until he could find something better.

My oldest son, and probably 1/4 of his college classmates, are doing that right now. All have multiple job offers to sift through and are being coerced to drop out of college and come to work already. Those who don't do the summer internships and part-time jobs while in school have no connection to the field and no prospects.

All my nieces and nephews did unpaid summer internships and all offered jobs upon graduation

Great thread. I became a cop after after blowing a bunch of my parents money on a year of college. They should have cut me off after a semester. Long story short I wasn't college material at that point in my life and should have learned a trade or gone into the military. I had an interest in law enforcement and took civil service tests while working for a contractor for several years. Finally got hired by a good Police Department and did 22 years. Worked hard and had some great opportunities to do a lot of interesting jobs. I should write a book, but people would think half of it was fiction. Patrol, Narcotics, SWAT, Supervisor, Investigator, Instructor and ran our Training Academy for a few years. I had a great career and it was a great fit for me. Planned for my retirement from the day I was hired. Wife and I lived well below our means and I socked 25% of my pay into our deferred compensation plan. My wife has no college and was lucky to get a good job that she has had for 20+ years. I have moved on to a part time gig doing welfare fraud that is like shooting fish in a barrel. Low stress compared to what I was doing and pays for most of my daughters college tuition. Also have lots of time to hunt, fish and golf. Not bad for the kid that failed out of college in a big way.
Talked both my kids out of law enforcement and have had long talks about how they should plan their future. I am all about teaching them financial responsibility. Agreed to help pay for college degrees that would result in a job. Daughter is college material and half way through a 4 year Nursing degree that will be an automatic job upon graduation that will pay well. She will have a very small amount in loans when she is done. My son is a junior in HS and is me all over again and not college material. He is looking at the trades or the military. He does have my families work ethic and his employers love him. He has had a job since he was 15. Ambition and a work ethic are the biggest factors in a person's success in my experience. Picking a smart career path increases a person's odds. From what I have seen a majority of people who don't do well just don't want to do the actual work.

I turned my back on a free 4 year college and took out loans and put myself through a 2 year tech school doing what I loved. I was smart, but a terrible student. I hated (still do) being in a classroom, and having assigned work, only going as fast as the slowest retard in class. Couldn't imagine doing that another 4 years after high school. Problem was, what I loved was great for a single guy, and great for newlyweds with no bills. First kid came, and I switched gears. Now I make really good money, good retirement, etc and still got to do some of what I loved, and discovered there were other things I really enjoyed and am good at. I work alongside guys with GED's, masters, phd's etc. We all make the same check lol. I was EXTREMELY blessed in that I got to make my dreams come true and do what I had always wanted to as a kid. After that, it's about providing a decent quality of life for my family and I have been able to do that, thus far at least.

High school my son is in offers welding classes. If he takes all three levels in HS, then takes a couple classes at the community college after he graduates he can be certified as a welder right off the bat. I am "encouraging" him toward that. If he hates it, cool. But he'll have a trade to fall back on. He's a bit like me in that he hates school, I can't imagine him making it at a regular college. What I tell my kids is they can do whatever the hell they want, but have fun young because as you age that schidt disappears. Have a trade to fall back on, and then pursue something different. Time will tell if I guided them right.

Jobs are there, you just have to be willing to work. I see it around here all the time. Bitching and moaning about how there is no work. Bullchit. There are a lot, LOT of jobs out there. High paying? Not really. But if you want to live here in paradise then make it work. If not? move. I get so tired of hearing how "there aren't any jobs around here". MOVE. We are a mobile society, now moreso than ever. Cut the apron strings and go find your niche. Seems like many of the younger folk around here are #1 lazy as hell and #2 unwilling to go out on a limb and move to a different locale.

I still think the military is a great way to go. I joined at 17 and did 25 years in the Corps. Ive never regretted it and certainly I needed it or Lord knows where I would be now. The Post 9/11 GI Bill is an amazing benefit that pays for a 4 year degree plus a nice housing allowance or ive seen many learn a great trade plus the discipline to do something with it and have done very well for themselves.

Brains, looks, work ethic.................still got to talk and carry yourself like a professional.
LOTS of kids in college don't.
They think they're in school, are the elite and are pretty much slobs.

The part I like best about being a mason, is being able to show em my degree

I was going to be a Marine when I was young. My father who had a college degree said that I should look at colleges when I was between my Junior and Senior year. I didn't have a guidance counselor. I travelled throughout the country and picked 12 universities. I got admitted to 11 of them and wait listed to Pomona College. I selected Harvard because they had the best financial aid package. I graduated with less than $2000 in debt. I was going to be an engineer and was working my butt off when one day I was walking across the campus and there was a rugged looking fella that had a minikeg of beer next to a dead circus elephant. He was testing experiment flint and obsidian blades to check wear by throwing them into the vital areas of the dead elephant. He would take a break and have a beer and then dish out beer to the women who were watching him throw that spear. It sure looked a lot more fun than I was doing. I ended up getting a degree in Archeometry and History. I came back Alaska and hunted and fished for about 1 year(This was necessary after dealing with Cambridge). I took the LSAT and GMAT and was accepted into Harvard Business School.I thought about it long and hard and decided that I was just going to stay in Alaska and become a teacher. You don't get rich but you have summers off and retire at an age where you still can do things. Many of my classmates went into finance and made millions, spent millions and lost millions to M.R.S. candidates from Pine Manor and Wellesley College. They look 20 years older than me even with plastic surgery. I found my high school sweetheart and headed out to the Bush where I taught for several years. My son who likes computers better than trapping and we moved into Fairbanks where the rest of my family was living. I got to spend several years near my disabled father and right now I can choose when I retire but I am having a great deal of fun teaching school and I stick in the craw of every liberal that I run across.
I really appreciate the service and the sacrifice of those who have served in the armed forces but gawd I feel bad for them. I have seen three die from various things in their mid 30s. One of my friends had a heart attack at 41 and there are many that look 20 years older than me that are younger. I feel extremely fortunate but if I had advice for people I would say that college isn't for everyone but if you like learning go. Find something that you love to do and you don't work a day in your life. But if you are entitled and not used to doing work move to San Fran or some other bastion of liberal wonkies.

I will say, in my area, welders are getting common. We went from 1 to 6. Last few quotes I had done I laughed and went to the next guy. And they called asking why I didn't use them. Basically you can't ask for $75 an hour, quote a lot of hours anymore like they used too. The guy I have doing my work now is $50 an hour, and twice as fast. Seems like I am hearing about a new aluminum welder every month.

I thought I had no college debt.
I worked my way by being a:
Gardener
Fast food
janitor
bartender
construction

When I got out, my parents had not paid my dental bills.
I had hundreds of dollars of debt.

My father was so cheap, he never bought me a gun.
When he died, I took his money to the pawn shops looking for Colts and Winchesters.

One thing that most of these young men never consider is a 2 or 4 year stint in the Middle East working the oil fields. Yes, there are some sacrifices. You can't chase women and drink freely outside the compound, you may not even have a car at first. But after a few years of saving those high wages, they could come back to the U.S. and have a good foundation to work from, as well as a nice retirement nest egg at a young age.

Great point: Make yourself indispensable and you won't be disposed of. Make it to work on time, put in your 8 hours, stay mentally engaged. So easy, but so few can manage it.

There is nothing wrong with the trades, but working physically all day does take a toll. In the end, I think getting at least a Bachelor's degree is still a must-have. It checks several boxes. General education, i.e. Western Civilization, Art History, philosophy, literature offers a way to simply understand and enjoy the world far more. A specific education is nice, but other than educations such as architects and engineers, the information you learn is often outdated before you collect the diploma.

When I am hiring, a BA means to me that there is at least a certain level of focus and persistence in the candidate. A degree does give more job security and access to work that isn't physically demanding. For people in those type careers, their late forties and fifties are the highest earning years, when people in the trades start struggling physically.

What is ridiculous is the notion that a "Women's Studies" degree from an Ivy league school is worth $140,000 in student loans. A kid can go to school (locally), work part time, and end up with a degree, great career prospects, and no debt to drag along for 20 years. Plus, he gets to chase co-eds for four years.......