Seeking Advice Anyone ?

I once worked in a printing factory and an opening came up for an apprentice machine operator. I applied for it (worked there over 5 years) and the company ended up hiring a tax accountant off the street for the job, just cause he had a degree and I didn't. The degree he had, had nothing to do with the job but it was a "piece of paper". The man did not even own any "work clothes" just dress slacks and white shirts, and you should have seen him with his own new toolbox. He didn't know which end of a wrench was which.

Sometimes it's just a matter of having a degree, no matter what for. The prospective bosses can see that you made an effort to better yourself.

The best advice I can give is your working career is for the long term. Without a degree, down the road you may find you will hit ceiling on how far you can go in the business world. However, that doesn't mean you need a degree 4 years after high school. You could set a goal like have it before 30 while working and gaining valuable experience. And start with a 2 year degree. Personally, I have a computer engineering degree and an MBA and I scrap as a fun hobby. What I have witnessed in my engineering career is many technicians who could run circles around younger engineers, but without a 4 year degree, can't move out of the tech labor grade.

TheScrapper1, you stated "since i am not a citizen here I can't have much financial aid". If you have a green card I would suggest going into the military. I went into the military myself at age 21 to learn a trade. The pay and benefits are pretty good now. You could learn some useful skills and train for a high paying job. You would also be able to go to college with most or all of the tuition paid. Than you could work on citizenship if that is what you wanted. When you got out of the service you would have veteran benefits and a college bill and job experience. David

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Originally Posted by freonjoe

Most skilled trades make above average wages. Flaggers only make that king of money when they are working a davis-bacon job.

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now in the state of ohio you have to actually have a certification to flag on any odot ( state ) heavy highway job...it is a 20 hour class, and you must have your 10 hour osha card and your stp card before you can take the flaggers class...i belong to the local labors union # 83 around here...i have been a member around 15 years...

when i started we did not even have an apprenticeship program for the trade..now days there is an apprenticeship program..it seems like every year i have to take a new class to get certified to do something that we have been doing for years..i think the training is a good thing..plus we generally get paid for any classes we have to take...

it seems like anymore you have to have a certification for anything you do..i think it is for companies insurances more than anything

I'll try to keep myself from getting into any kind of rant here. I know everyone's situation is different but if there's a way to get at least a 4 year degree without burdening yourself in the future that's the best way to go, and as has been said, especially a degree in a high paying field. My sister-in-law got a degree in english and while it allows her to get jobs that I couldn't get if only for the fact she has a degree and I don't, it's not one that will generate high pay. Although farther down the line it might since it will allow her to more easily move up the ranks in whatever job she has. I don't have a degree and it's by far one of the stupidest things I did (or didn't do) in my entire life. WHat makes it worse is I did have my tuition covered and I squandered it.

Another option though if the cost is an issue, try to find a job that offers tuition reimbursement. There are many employers out there that offer this even if they don't advertise it. For example I worked for one of the largest insurance companies and although I was able to get in the door without a degree, I had a ceiling on how far up I could go without a degree. However, this same company offered tuition reimbursement and covered up to $5250 a year (including books!). That may not sound like much but it can pay for quite a bit if you start out at a community college for all your basic courses that you would need anyway (just make sure the credits transfer).

Thanks guys for all your good advice . And wadar , I am not a citizen but I am a resident , since I applied for it when I was still I'm high school I've spend more than half my life here in the US . It is a great country but I was not trying to get into any military at all . I'm overwhelmed by the trauma some suffer after coming back . I'm just too of a chicken for that .
And collector I know State Farm does that with their insurance agents they get full tuition or reimbursement for college mainly community college so it covers pretty much all of it .

Somehow I missed the part earlier where you said you're not a citizen. Do you have "permanent resident" status -- i.e., a green card? If so, I think you still qualify for the lower in-state tuition at your state universities. I know that's the case in some states. Anyway, if you don't have a green card, that would mean you can't get a job either! So I'm guessing and hoping that you managed to get a green card, although I know it can be difficult to do. Do you know if you're able to receive financial aid (discounted loans or scholarships)? Have you tried applying?

I can tell you're worried about the cost of college, and I don't blame you, but please don't make your decision based only on that. That would be equivalent to saying you just were never given a choice, but you do have choices, and they're very important ones because they're going to shape the rest of your life. So if you actually do want to get a college education but are just worried about how to pay for it, we should be talking about how to accomplish that, not whether or not you should go. Everything we've said here has, I think, been based on the premise that you feel ambivalent about going to college because you don't think you'll need it for certain career paths. If it's something you want to do, though, you can find a way to do it. A lot of people work their way through school. In fact, working and going to school will give you a lot of advantages. You'll get more out of both your job and your education, you'll have a better resume than your peers, and you'll be a thousand times more mature than them.

Yes I do have a work permit and a social , a driving license I am basically a temporary resident while time tells if I will get a chance to aplly for citizenship .
And Fl limits I have checked for fafsa but people like us can't get any aid from that . I have gotten mostly A"s some B"s with a GPA of 5.146 unweighted in high school . And managed to get a scholarship which gives me $500 each semester but I feel like that's not enough . Out of 8 that I applied for I only got 1 . I bombed my act and got a 23 on it as well . For the moment I am working and hoping to go in next semester and continue in HVAC . Book costs + class cost + tools .

I would suggest making your own career. There are many ways to learn, there are many types of degrees, certificates and the like. If you work for yourself it dosent matter what degree you have, only knowledge and experience. An example of this is are the ewaste/ computer repair/ support companies. They compete directly with corporations that have traditional employees but may not have the same "schooling". Education is vastly diffrent than schooling. You can take any class you want from most schools, community colledges and tech schools. If you make your own career or job you can tailor your education for knowledge and not worry about the degree.

What do you mean you "only" got one scholarship?!? That's fantastic. Most people get ZERO scholarships! So you should pat yourself on the back for that. You also have a good GPA, and that's a better predictor of success in college than a high standardized test score. Believe me, the admissions people know that; they will choose someone with higher grades and a somewhat weaker test score over someone with crummy grades and a great test score. Anyway, if you think your ACT score doesn't reflect your abilities, just take it again. Tons of people do those tests more than once. A lot of them get tutored to take it, too. It's a big business!

Listen, seriously, you're young and have nothing but opportunity ahead of you. I'll just repeat what I said before: Think carefully about what you want in life, and make your decision based on that, not on anything else. If you know where you want to go, you can get there. If you walk away from something important that you actually want, you will be short-changing yourself, and later you will always wonder about the "other" life you might have had. If what you really want is to study a trade and not go to college, and you are confident that this is the work you want to do from now on, then that's great -- go for it. If that's actually just a compromise you're thinking about making because you're worried about the cost of college, then it's time to think outside the box and find some smart solutions. You've taken your studies seriously so far, you've applied for scholarships...so you don't sound like someone who has no interest in going to college, but then again, maybe you just did it because that's what you' were expected to do.

Anyway, you asked for some advice, and you've gotten lots of it from an incredibly diverse group of people. I hope that has helped some. And if you need more help, just ask for it. We may not know you personally, but everybody here wants the best for you. To me, you sound like a great, hardworking, thoughtful guy who will be successful in whatever you choose. So choose what's best for you. That's your privilege at this age, and that's what your parents want for you. I'm sure they've worked very hard to make a good life here. Why do you think they did that? Later, when you have more responsibilities, you'll have plenty of compromises to make. Now is not the time.

I have a box full of degrees, graduation certificates, and recognitions of accomplishments, Somewhere I don't even know where they are at anymore. You can literally line the $h*t house wall with them. What really counts at the end of the day, do you feel good about what you do! Getting your H.S. diploma is big accomplishment and you should always be proud of that accomplishment. You are just getting started, keep going to school, seek education wherever you can get it. A tech job is good, but any work is better than none. With a high tech job as many have already said will require a degree, that degree will not get you a job. Sure it will be a requirement, a starter, I have literally hired 100's of people. In high tech and low tech, radar techs to ditch diggers. What I look for is how a person caries him or herself, how they communicate is a big item. You can have all the qualifications on paper, but if you can't work well with others, you well not succeed at anything. I wish you all the luck, remember you want a complete package!

Thanks again FLimits , and all the guys still giving me advice . For taking the time of your day to get me motivated to better myself and not give up . And so I plan on doing that , and I have always though a degree will only get you so far and it's mainly experience and how well you react and work alongside other people .

It's getting tougher to find people that want to learn skilled trades like carpentry, HVAC, refrigeration etc. If you could find someone to provide some on the job training and learn a trade that pays well, you should be able to write your own ticket.

Four year or more degree may be great for some but there's a lot of people out there that graduate owing six figures in student loans and can't find a job to save their life.

With the economy/employment situation the way it is, and the over abundance of degreed people from here and imported from country's like India and Pakistan I wonder how long it will be before Mc Donalds or wall mart require a degree to get one of their 29 hour a week minimum wage jobs.