Career Guidance

Considering you "get along with people just fine," I would look at jobs that you make money with your mouth and brains, not hands and brains. Sales or something.

Originally Posted by freonjoe

My grandson graduated high school last year. He took 4 years of PTech. Ended up with a full scholarship at the local community college for diesel mechanics and a full intership working at Cummins to boot!

Thats like what i want to do, i'm going to the votech senior year and tech school or military after highschool

A four-year degree (bachelor's or applied bachelor's) will always work in your favor. It will give you more options and increase your earning potential. Even for the exact same job, a person with a 4-year degree will often be paid better than someone without one. For better or worse, the 4-year degree has become a standard requirement to gain access to most of the jobs in this country. Just take a look at some job listings and you'll see what I mean.

Pennsylvania has some very good state schools, and usually you can do your first two years at a community college and finish at a state university. Some community colleges are actually better than state schools for freshman and sophomore classes, because the class size is much smaller.

You sound like someone who might like one of the engineering disciplines, like electrical engineering. Engineering majors have to take several math classes. What kind of math are you studying right now at school? Do you like it? If you want, you can PM me and I'll give you some links to look at to help you figure out if engineering would be a good path for you.

Always wanted to be a paid escort for the older,wealthy ladies. I got into Hvac instead,not as rewarding$ but I have great benifits!

Originally Posted by FLimits

A four-year degree (bachelor's or applied bachelor's) will always work in your favor. It will give you more options and increase your earning potential. Even for the exact same job, a person with a 4-year degree will often be paid better than someone without one. For better or worse, the 4-year degree has become a standard requirement to gain access to most of the jobs in this country. Just take a look at some job listings and you'll see what I mean.

I completely agree. I don't have a degree because of my crazy delusions of grandeur when I was young thinking I'd be rich off some scheme and wouldn't need one, even passed up on the g.i.bill while in the military. If I could go back I would beat the crap out of my younger self for those idiotic decisions. Anyway, there have been times I needed a job and couldn't get one solely because I didn't have a degree, even though I qualified in every other way. It's frustrating when you see a COMPLETE MORON in a job that you would excel at simply because they have a degree. For example I had a friend that moved up the ranks in the construction biz (he's actually not a moron though) because he had a degree....in MUSIC! WTF does music have to do with construction...NOTHING!!!!! Sorry about the rant, I just wanted to second what FLimits stated.

Originally Posted by Mick

Originally Posted by TheKid

Thats like what i want to do, i'm going to the votech senior year and tech school or military after highschool

Take the VoTech route. Not many employers fully recognize military training as sufficient. I'm a 12 yr Army vet so don't throw rotten tomatoes.

Thanks, i was actually wanting to ask someone about that because I was wondering if it gave the same experience. Also, thank you for your 12 years of service

Originally Posted by Mick

The problem with military training is that it's specific to military equipment, processes etc. It doesn't give the broad-based training that employers expect. I trained as a diesel mechanic, which should have led to a great high-paying career. With 12 years experience, I couldn't even get an employer to LOOK at an application.

I was in the Air Force and I'm CONSTANTLY being asked why I didn't go work for an airline after I got out. Well first, you need an A&P certificate which the usaf doesn't provide. Second, I worked on a stealth fighter, not many of those in the commercial world, lol. It was a cool job for sure, but not much of that translates into the commercial airlines. While I'm proud of my time in the military and got alot of experience from it, it just didn't help much in getting a job in the outside world. However, there is one great thing about the military that will help your career and that's the G.I. Bill. That way you can get schooling after you get out. Plus I don't know about the other branches but the air force has the Community College of the Air Force which is available to all USAF personnel so you could actually work on getting at least an associate's degree while you're in.