12 Comments
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patiohimself's avatar

Really wish I did this. Got a degree in business management and i’m essentially in sales, something I didnt even need a degree for, and certainly making less than that

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The Word Herder's avatar

You know what? RIGHT ON.

There's nothing wrong with a trade!!!!

And college seems like an extension of the mindfuck indoctrination of pre-college school anyway!!

Good post.

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SomeDude's avatar

I've considered electrician as a trade, but not only do you have to spend years working for the parent company of already-certified folks at a pittance of pay to get past the apprenticeship requirements, they don't want to hire anyone who has no connections to the good-ol-boy network.

I made about 1/2 the pay of degreed electrical engineers when wearing that hat among several others at a job I did have the connection to get into... since I had no degree, it did not matter that I did the same work plus several other jobs at the same time.

doing shade-tree mechanic work I have made anywhere from $20/hr to $200/hr, depending on the friend discount and whether I charged 50% of shop labor quotes or did hourly work instead.

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Courageous Lion's avatar

That's one way around it. PLUS as a "shade tree" mechanic you can keep most of your labor costs and not report it to the Insidious Robbery System. According to where you reside in the USA, yes, you have to deal with the good ol' boy network. I tried to establish myself in Morristown Tennessee about 35 years ago and ran into that issue. The worse part is that the good ol' boy network of plumbers didn't know what the heck they were doing! The few jobs I did get were fixing their screw ups.

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jacquelyn sauriol's avatar

It's worth thinking about what some of the ancestors from Europe thought about wrt education. Immigrants came to America with college as a big goal for their children, in many instances. It represented a division between 'classes' of society at least in my parents time. I agree that the debt from it is disabling for many. With all the undergraduate requirements, I can see how college was designed to soak each student as much as give a 'rounded' education. If I had it to do over again, I would have gone to a community college and saved a ton of money.

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Courageous Lion's avatar

I went to a community college and took the classes needed for a criminology degree. While going there I met my wife who's dad was a master plumber and I worked for him for a number of years. I'm quite rebellious in some areas and never got a license and yet did well by word of mouth for about 20 years. I had ended up with a four year degree in forensic science and never used it. Fortunately I paid my way as I worked for it and college didn't put me in the hole. The reason I never ended up IN forensic science working along side of "Bones" is another story.

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jacquelyn sauriol's avatar

Thanks, had forgotten about Bones, boy he would have got to the bottom of the Covhoax fast!!

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Courageous Lion's avatar

LOL! He was a she.

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Bandit's avatar

Love you, love your stack! But, Oh Lordy, your spelling!

Edited to correct spelling, because I type like crap on this darn phone.

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Courageous Lion's avatar

Pleaze fourgive me. Iz a gradjit of the gooberment skewl cistern. And we nebber rewelly lerned how to speel thar. Sometimes I find myself doing really dumb things like using the wrong their where there should be. Guess I'm getting old or something. PS...Hey Bandit, do me a favor and if you spot a spelleng error, can you email a note to me about it so I can fix it? Sometimes the spell checker doesn't seem to work properly. markreynolds.bhg5@gmail.com And I spelled spelling wrong as a joke.

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Bandit's avatar

Spell check doesn't seem to know which there, their, or they're is correct and will just let you slide. Most of my spelling errors are the fact my typing sucks and I don't always proof read.

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jacquelyn sauriol's avatar

Only saw one typo, not so bad really. The thinking is clear, which is more important to me.

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