I read the following article and it brought me back to a discussion I had with my mother when I was about 16-18....My Mother was a meteorologist and I wanted to be a light house keeper ( it was a phase, dont judge)….she gave me the bottom line up front speech I have pretty much memorized and have since repeated to my brats.
Do a job you have to do so you can eventually do the job you want to do.
At the time, I was pretty much of the opinion that she had no idea what she was talking about ( the angst of youth ), and I was going to do as I pleased and become a rich light house keeper.
Cue the bounced reality check and fast forward several decades.
Mom, I get it now.....I took that wisdom and imparted it to my offspring; research the jobs and career fields before you plow into it head first.
Its easier to do so in this day of internet data at your fingertips than it was in my day of going to the library and spending hours looking over old micro fiches; but, the bottom line is this....due diligence and research.
The 20 highest and lowest paying college majors
When you went to school ( college, trade, apprenticeship, ), did you look at the look at the career field outlook before you took out student loans, or paid your quarterly tuition?
Did you fall victim to the " I wanna work with dolphins so I will be a marine biologist" syndrome that I saw nail so many of my friends in the 80's? ( just an example)
What did you do to prepare yourself for the future?
I read the following article and it brought me back to a discussion I had with my mother when I was about 16-18....My Mother was a meteorologist and I wanted to be a light house keeper ( it was a phase, dont judge)….she gave me the bottom line up front speech I have pretty much memorized and have since repeated to my brats.
Do a job you have to do so you can eventually do the job you want to do.
At the time, I was pretty much of the opinion that she had no idea what she was talking about ( the angst of youth ), and I was going to do as I pleased and become a rich light house keeper.
Cue the bounced reality check and fast forward several decades.
Mom, I get it now.....I took that wisdom and imparted it to my offspring; research the jobs and career fields before you plow into it head first.
Its easier to do so in this day of internet data at your fingertips than it was in my day of going to the library and spending hours looking over old micro fiches; but, the bottom line is this....due diligence and research.
The 20 highest and lowest paying college majors
When you went to school ( college, trade, apprenticeship, ), did you look at the look at the career field outlook before you took out student loans, or paid your quarterly tuition?
Did you fall victim to the " I wanna work with dolphins so I will be a marine biologist" syndrome that I saw nail so many of my friends in the 80's? ( just an example)
What did you do to prepare yourself for the future?
What matters is not what degree you get but what you do with it. Fun fact, one can obtain a liberal arts degree and have a prosperous, well-paying career.
What matters is not what degree you get but what you do with it. Fun fact, one can obtain a liberal arts degree and have a prosperous, well-paying career.
One can develop other job skills (without an expensive education) and have a prosperous, well-paying career too. The trick is to put forth the individual effort to acquire those skills and do high quality work using them. What too many folks call "good luck" is simply the confluence of preparedness and opportunity.
My skills include (but are not limited to) carpentry (framing and finish), plumbing, electrical, painting and grounds maintenance and I work as a self-employed handyman. I have about $20K invested in tools/equipment, but that is far less than the typical student loan debt. I am not rich by any measure, but am able to make over the median income (most of it in tax free cash) when I elect to work full-time. Since I am now 65 and getting Social Security retirement income I no longer need to work full-time.
Which raises a valid point....college is not the only path to a secure future; learning trades either through trade schools apprenticeship programs can provide valuable experience as well as training.
This is the Information Age - you can learn (help teach yourself?) darned near anything online. You can search virtually anything online and find "how to" information on that topic/subject. The same is true for getting customer/user reviews on tools/equipment. For example: I initially had no clue how to build a proper chicken coup - but found several plans for them online, changed them a tad, and ended up building a portable (modular?) version of a chicken coup for a customer who was (at that time) renting their farm land.
Another thing to keep in mind is bartering - I often trade my carpentry work (e.g. building you a deck) for mechanical work (e.g. fixing my truck). I got my small (5' x 8') utility trailer (about $600 in value) in trade (exchange?) for 24 hours (three days) of my labor - clearing trees/brush on a customer's property.
I read the following article and it brought me back to a discussion I had with my mother when I was about 16-18....My Mother was a meteorologist and I wanted to be a light house keeper ( it was a phase, dont judge)….she gave me the bottom line up front speech I have pretty much memorized and have since repeated to my brats.
Do a job you have to do so you can eventually do the job you want to do.
At the time, I was pretty much of the opinion that she had no idea what she was talking about ( the angst of youth ), and I was going to do as I pleased and become a rich light house keeper.
Cue the bounced reality check and fast forward several decades.
Mom, I get it now.....I took that wisdom and imparted it to my offspring; research the jobs and career fields before you plow into it head first.
Its easier to do so in this day of internet data at your fingertips than it was in my day of going to the library and spending hours looking over old micro fiches; but, the bottom line is this....due diligence and research.
The 20 highest and lowest paying college majors
When you went to school ( college, trade, apprenticeship, ), did you look at the look at the career field outlook before you took out student loans, or paid your quarterly tuition?
Did you fall victim to the " I wanna work with dolphins so I will be a marine biologist" syndrome that I saw nail so many of my friends in the 80's? ( just an example)
What did you do to prepare yourself for the future?
I have saved a ton of money on youtube, just learning how to do car repair of all things.
What matters is not what degree you get but what you do with it. Fun fact, one can obtain a liberal arts degree and have a prosperous, well-paying career.
It's not so much a matter of "what you do with it", but what is the state of the economy when you graduate and what the job market is for the particular degree that you have. Sure someone with a liberal arts degree can land a good paying job in a good company, but they can also end up waiting tables as well. As someone who worked in education I can tell you that when jobs for history teachers open up schools get hundreds of resume's. When jobs for science teachers open up often it is only a few.
One can develop other job skills (without an expensive education) and have a prosperous, well-paying career too. The trick is to put forth the individual effort to acquire those skills and do high quality work using them. What too many folks call "good luck" is simply the confluence of preparedness and opportunity.
My skills include (but are not limited to) carpentry (framing and finish), plumbing, electrical, painting and grounds maintenance and I work as a self-employed handyman. I have about $20K invested in tools/equipment, but that is far less than the typical student loan debt. I am not rich by any measure, but am able to make over the median income (most of it in tax free cash) when I elect to work full-time. Since I am now 65 and getting Social Security retirement income I no longer need to work full-time.
I read the following article and it brought me back to a discussion I had with my mother when I was about 16-18....My Mother was a meteorologist and I wanted to be a light house keeper ( it was a phase, dont judge)….she gave me the bottom line up front speech I have pretty much memorized and have since repeated to my brats.
Do a job you have to do so you can eventually do the job you want to do.
At the time, I was pretty much of the opinion that she had no idea what she was talking about ( the angst of youth ), and I was going to do as I pleased and become a rich light house keeper.
Cue the bounced reality check and fast forward several decades.
Mom, I get it now.....I took that wisdom and imparted it to my offspring; research the jobs and career fields before you plow into it head first.
Its easier to do so in this day of internet data at your fingertips than it was in my day of going to the library and spending hours looking over old micro fiches; but, the bottom line is this....due diligence and research.
The 20 highest and lowest paying college majors
When you went to school ( college, trade, apprenticeship, ), did you look at the look at the career field outlook before you took out student loans, or paid your quarterly tuition?
Did you fall victim to the " I wanna work with dolphins so I will be a marine biologist" syndrome that I saw nail so many of my friends in the 80's? ( just an example)
What did you do to prepare yourself for the future?
One can develop other job skills (without an expensive education) and have a prosperous, well-paying career too. The trick is to put forth the individual effort to acquire those skills and do high quality work using them. What too many folks call "good luck" is simply the confluence of preparedness and opportunity.
My skills include (but are not limited to) carpentry (framing and finish), plumbing, electrical, painting and grounds maintenance and I work as a self-employed handyman. I have about $20K invested in tools/equipment, but that is far less than the typical student loan debt. I am not rich by any measure, but am able to make over the median income (most of it in tax free cash) when I elect to work full-time. Since I am now 65 and getting Social Security retirement income I no longer need to work full-time.
i chose the major that had the best potential for a career in a subject that i disliked the least and had the most aptitude in. it was probably one of the least stupid decisions that i made at age 19.
My choice of a major was largely done for practical reasons as well. In hindsight I wish I was doing something else but I made the best of it and live a comfortable middle class life and will hopefully be able to retire in my early to mid sixties.
I might not be able to retire early, but I started a family later than most, and it's worth it. I am more passionate about subjects outside my major, but I get to do that in my spare time.
Kind of! I am terrible at math and didn't want to become some sales and marketing drone. I got a degree in communications and have worked steadily and at better jobs ever since then.
Irony is, I do a lot of math, standard deviations and regression analysis....but the computer does it, and I understand it...
I did to, had my first child in my late thirties. Physically I regret it as my body can't keep up with the responsibilities. I also don't spend any time studying or researching things in my major.
Which raises a valid point....college is not the only path to a secure future; learning trades either through trade schools apprenticeship programs can provide valuable experience as well as training.
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