Men skipping college

Everybody should take some really lousy jobs,,,,,so they will know, when they have a good one.

What I like about having a trade is it allowed me freedom. Freedom to go anywhere I wanted and nearly at anytime. Just because a young person goes and gets a Jry. level certificate, it does not mean they have to spend the rest of their lives occupied doing that. But it can be awesome having a trade to fall back on. Never know when an office job will disappear on you and they can be harder to come by, at least good ones.

One thing I didn't like about the office work, is having to get along with everyone. I needed the freedom to think, act, and look the way I did.

I know guys that wanted to go to college but got a electrical card first, so they could pay for school. Hopefully without loans. It is much better than trying to pay for school flipping burgers.

I'm also glad that the vast majority of my work was done union. Each to their own, but later in life I can spot the older guys that were more trod upon by their employers.

Nothing wrong with going it your own way and starting your own business either. Everyone should have to give that a try once or twice. Might make them respect what your boss is going through a little easier. Me personally, I swore off having any more employee's years ago.

Quote: Face

34 more years of this s#$%? I think the line is more like 3 point 4, and smart money is on the under ;)

I guess the old saw of take care of yourself
when young and you'll appreciate it later
was kinda lost on you. There is still time,
but you must quit smoking today, for
starters. In 12 years you'll be going wtf
have I done with my life if you don't.

Quote: petroglyph

Me personally, I swore off having any more employee's years ago.

Haven't had a real boss since 1977. Don't
care for it, I'm too much of a smart ass.

Quote: petroglyph

Everybody should take some really lousy jobs,,,,,so they will know, when they have a good one.

I have always thought of making a list of "jobs everyone should have to have in life." The kinds of jobs no man is really a rounded man unless he has seen what they are like. For example:

Everyone should have a job dealing with the public/directly with customers
A job where your daily pay is not guaranteed (e.g.: like my suitcase courier job)
Where you have to stand all or almost all of the time
Where you have to work in less than comfortable cold, hot, or rain/snow. And I do not mean the A/C is cold. I mean outside cold.
Where a machine or customer flow mean you do not get a break in the action by your own choice
Where you work nights/weekends/holidays or any not 9/5/M-F schedule, and often less than 8 hours rest between shifts

Any more ideas?

Quote:

What I like about having a trade is it allowed me freedom. Freedom to go anywhere I wanted and nearly at anytime. Just because a young person goes and gets a Jry. level certificate, it does not mean they have to spend the rest of their lives occupied doing that. But it can be awesome having a trade to fall back on. Never know when an office job will disappear on you and they can be harder to come by, at least good ones.

Hmmm, my craps teacher said just this! But it is true, and I do wish I took a trade in high school instead of the nonsense I took. Except the idiots you had to deal with who took a trade because "shop is easy!"

College kind of comes too soon. Some people may know what they want to do with their lives. A degree in medicine, law, engineering, physics, chemistry, and even math sets a clear, yet varied, field of professional opportunities for a career. But you may also find out you hate medicine, or can't handle it, or that while learning physics is satisfying, working in physics is not, etc.

But much the same might be true of skilled trades, not to mention the humanities (everyone should get a decent liberal arts education in high school, BTW). A degree in history might land you a job in academia, which would be good, or an academic setting like a think tank, or you might end up selling insurance or flipping burgers. You may want to be a mechanic because you like cars, or a pilot because you like airplanes, and find either as too hard for you or not satisfying, or boring, etc.

Hypothetically, and unrealistically, speaking, what would be great would be something like a trust fund to let you explore various interests for a few years before you commit yourself, your money and your very life on something. You could try various things for low or no pay, or audit courses, or otherwise gain some experience in diverse fields, and then you'd have a clearer idea of what you want.

Quote: AZDuffman

Everyone should have a job dealing with the public/directly with customers

If only to realize how much it sucks
and how much they hate it.

Quote: Evenbob

But is it really all that different than the
past? I knew a guy in the mid 80's who
had an employment agency. He would
place college grads in jobs. He said they
typically swaggered into his office with
a degree in one hand and a list in the
other of their demands for their first
job. Some would literally put their feet
up on his desk, they were so smug and
self confident.

Back in my day (80s/90s) it was mixed. One thing I always will remember is when some girls would whine about being assigned an 8 hour work shift while the guys really all said, "8 hours is what you will work for your life!"

I also remember so many then-kids thinking the world worked in a way it did not. One buddy thought his Chevette should have gone UP in value because he put a stereo and new exhaust system on it! He turned out very well now, but his late teens were bad times. I probably helped save his skin telling his parents how to handle his attitude.

I do not know if it is the same or not, how these kids today waste money. My last bank job, you would think they were all trust fund babies the way they spent. Last 2 bank jobs for that matter. Attitude was they will never pay off student loans, so why not live it up?

Quote: Evenbob

If only to realize how much it sucks
and how much they hate it.

I hated the call center more than face to face. Just so many idiots out there! We had a list of stupid things they said, wish I still had it.

Six months in a call center and I thought of how prison might be less stress.

Quote: AZDuffman

I hated the call center more than face to face.

You never worked with drunks full time
in a bar, then. The DMV would be a picnic
compared to that. I hated Cheers because
it was the opposite of how real drunks
act.

Quote: Nareed

Hypothetically, and unrealistically, speaking, what would be great would be something like a trust fund to let you explore various interests for a few years before you commit yourself, your money and your very life on something. You could try various things for low or no pay, or audit courses, or otherwise gain some experience in diverse fields, and then you'd have a clearer idea of what you want.

This is one of those things that is so terrible and seems there's no real fix. I look at people now and say "How the f#$% could you do one thing for thirty years?" And to think that decision must be made when you're still a child.

And forget what you're personally attracted to, people flat out have different brains. Did you, Nareed, realize or understand your affinity to literature and history when you were 14-18? At almost 100% probability, we all just guess and hope as it's well before it's possible to have a clue of who we are and what we want.

It's a wonder success even exists.