College vs skilled trades.

I have the degree and have had a great, nearly 21 year career, but it looks like
I may end up flipping houses for a living unless I comply with the vaccine mandate.
It's good to have an education AND general skills.
 
Jbrow327 said:
Thanks
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I didn’t have much direction in high school, and certainly didn’t know how much industry was out there. There’s a whole lot more to the engineering field than sitting in an office. If you like solving problems in the real world, that’s the field to pursue. I didn’t because I was allowed to believe that I was “bad” at math.

The secret is that math takes work to learn for about 95% of people. There’s no such thing a being “bad” at math, you either do the work of learning or you don’t. Mathematics is how we understand all the other fields of science, end of story.
 
isocyanate said:
I didn’t have much direction in high school, and certainly didn’t know how much industry was out there. There’s a whole lot more to the engineering field than sitting in an office. If you like solving problems in the real world, that’s the field to pursue. I didn’t because I was allowed to believe that I was “bad” at math.

The secret is that math takes work to learn for about 95% of people. There’s no such thing a being “bad” at math, you either do the work of learning or you don’t. Mathematics is how we understand all the other fields of science, end of story.
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Couldn't agree more. My wife always says she is bad at math so our daughter got that from her. I keep telling her exactly what you said. It is simply the effort put in to learn and understand how math works.
 
isocyanate said:
I didn’t have much direction in high school, and certainly didn’t know how much industry was out there. There’s a whole lot more to the engineering field than sitting in an office. If you like solving problems in the real world, that’s the field to pursue. I didn’t because I was allowed to believe that I was “bad” at math.

The secret is that math takes work to learn for about 95% of people. There’s no such thing a being “bad” at math, you either do the work of learning or you don’t. Mathematics is how we understand all the other fields of science, end of story.
Click to expand...
Very true. Problem I see with myself is not being able to retain math. Unless I’m applying it and writing out equations every day it’s lost fast. My kids also struggle with math, maybe if they were taught how a polynomial equation is used in jobs they might grasp it better?
 
fng4life said:
Very true. Problem I see with myself is not being able to retain math. Unless I’m applying it and writing out equations every day it’s lost fast. My kids also struggle with math, maybe if they were taught how a polynomial equation is used in jobs they might grasp it better?
Click to expand...

I think most folks are pretty much the same way. I deal with statistics a lot in my job. I have a 101 level stats book that I break out constantly to remind myself of things that I dont use regularly.

sometimes the things you have to learn in school are less practical than they should be outside of a pure mathematics education….But it does teach problem solving methods, so just gotta chalk it up as a means to an end….

I use geometry and trig to figure stuff out all the time. But rarely is the quadratic formula necessary…although I just may not understand it well enough to apply it….
 
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I took/dropped Algebra 5 times in College, just didnt "get it".
Took Statistics,,,,no problem, breezed through. That is math I can understand.
Thats real world math.
 
College is a waste of money straight out of high school. If you intend to do something specific (lawyer, doctor, etcetera) then that's when you should go to school. Otherwise, get a job, work your way up, and get the degree later if you think it will help you advance.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
 
Actual_Cryptid said:
the "real men don't wear safety glasses and earplugs, OSHA is for pussies" probably contributes.
At least that's what i observed when I was roofing and throwing crates in a warehouse as a younger, dumber man.
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I disagree. Double digit surgeries and being gimped up has little to do with OSHA regulations. It has to do with hard manual labor for years on end. The body isn’t designed to be beaten on day after day. In the same way. And a career doing so is going to leave a mark. It’s no different then a lifetime spent waiting tables. Prosthetic knees and bad hips are the result. Just the same as carrying shingles over a career. Or laying block, or framing. Or a long career on a computer. Your hands will show the results. Etc….


We just aren’t made to abuse ourselves for 40 years without something wearing out.
 
When I graduated high school I had a pretty specific plan for what I wanted to do in life. Graduated from undergrad with BS in exercise science and certified as an athletic trainer, without any debt. Then I graduated form a state medical center with a doctor of physical therapy degree. I accumulated debt in doing so, but was able to keep my level of debt from exceeding the amount of my expected starting salary. I made my last payment on that debt last December, 10 years out. I was the first of the grandkids on both sides to graduate from a university, with most of my relatives in the trades or farming.

There were certainly times when I was sitting in a graduate class accumulating debt while my friends and cousins were working in the trades and earning decent salaries that I wondered what I was doing. Also while I was a 30 year old paying off student loans instead of putting that money into retirement investments. Now I'm making a decent salary, my only debt is my house, and we have a comfortable life with some expendable income. I also have a job that I love doing , in a setting I love working at, and I can see myself being happy here for the next 30 years.

I have friends that work in the trades that entered the workforce young with low levels of debt and were able to start investing for retirement early. They are quite a ways ahead of me in that regard, but they are starting to notice the wear and tear on thier bodies. There are others that partied thier salaries away in thier 20's and now have wear and tear and no financial advantage over me. I have PT friends that have worked into ownership in private practice that are financially miles ahead of me and will likely be able to retire young and healthy. I also have PT friends that amassed 6 figures of debt and are chained to large monthly payments until they hit thier mid forties.

Long post for this point: figure out what will make you happy; money, time off, independence, stability, etc...and find a career you can achieve that will meet that goal without weighing you down for years financially. There are ways to do that in the trades and with college degrees, and all can be worthy careers that lead to high levels of success. And if you want to steer your kids towards something, make it having success with grades and GPA in high school. Being able to choose between the trades and a college degree for the same price leaves all the possibilities on the table.
 
I am not the smartest, and did not go to collage. Many many of my friends did. The majority of them are not doing what they went to school for. Most are making about what I make, some more some less. One of the guys that are doing the best, didn't even graduate high school. Owns several restaurants now. The thing I do notice is I do manual labor and as I get older its getting much harder on my physical. The majority of the people I graduated with now have office type jobs. Which I can only blame my self for, as I have had opertunities to sit behind a desk, I just couldn't stand it. And the money just wasn't worth it to me.
 
There is no right or wrong answer. It all depends on what will make you happy, and what presents lucrative opportunities in the area you want to live. Be realistic, talk with people in careers that you are thinking about and find out what opportunities are out there, what the work/life balance looks like, how stressful the job is, what average salaries are etc. College and advanced degrees can be great. They have been for me, but I knew exactly what I was getting into debt wise and had realistic plans and expectations for dealing with the debt when I got out. Nobody paid for my degrees and less than ten years out I am almost debt free. Like anything in life, be deliberate, learn about your options, and make informed decisions.
 
You can do well in the trades as evidenced by this thread but you guys work really hard for it.
I'm extremely happy I have a STEM education and put in about 1/10 as much work and still make great money.

Crap tons of time to hunt fish and do whatever I want with my life instead of selling every hour for money.

That's what college bought me. My hourly rate is so much higher I really don't have to work much.
 
I agree it's all about what a person wants to do.

Some careers require a degree, some will benefit from a trade school.

There are a lot of folks that never use their degrees and plenty of people that probably would have benefited more from a trade school. BUT there are still a lot of folks who toughed it through college and got into a career they love.

Game warden in my case. Not for the money that's for sure, but I couldn't have asked for a more satisfying career.
 
z987k said:
You can do well in the trades as evidenced by this thread but you guys work really hard for it.
I'm extremely happy I have a STEM education and put in about 1/10 as much work and still make great money.

Crap tons of time to hunt fish and do whatever I want with my life instead of selling every hour for money.

That's what college bought me. My hourly rate is so much higher I really don't have to work much.
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I have to ask, what is your degree in and what do you do?
 
I can tell you I would not have my job if I didn't go to college and I work in the hunting/shooting industry and like what I do. I grew up in a very successful family business in the trades (flooring). Did that in the summer and brief period after college and before my current job. I could have made a lot more money doing that the past 10 years and at this point would probably being running/owner and making A LOT more than I do now without a degree by "working my way up". Hell I literally grew up doing it and learning about it.

Thing is I didn't mind the work/manual labor I had ZERO interest in the flooring industry. IMO it makes a big difference in doing something for money or because you like it. So whether it is going to college for a specific degree or reason or going to a trade school...or hell just winging it and figuring it out. It is an individual decision. Anyone that says one way or the other is wrong or worthless has zero idea what they are talking about. I don't really think there are worthless degrees (even though I say there are). I think there are unrealistic expectations or dreams based around those degrees.
 
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