Me too brotha, me too…crank that hog for me one time please o7
>have a [non-specific] degree
Ok, and? Is it a degree in something somebody will pay you for or am I supposed to feel bad that your degree in medieval polish history doesn’t entitle you to a middle class office job where you don’t meaningfully alter material reality.
Why are people talking like being a mechanic is bum work, or like there’s a huge overhead cost in being a mechanic, or that you have to go to trade school to be a mechanic, or like mechanic work is going away?
None of these is true.
Mechanics will always have work, usually with overtime, and usually pay is very decent.
No degree required. Certs optional.
Tools are very affordable when you’re not buying them all at once.
Lots of room to change specializations.
ICE mechanics are still going to be hugely in demand because the Internal Combustion Engine isn’t going anywhere, even if they stop putting them in some/ most automobiles. But there are dozens of other mechanical disciplines, and as long as you know how to (when to) then a wrench, you can always get a job.
A bearing is a bearing, whether it’s on a crank shaft, an electric motor, a tail pulley, or a garage door.
I feel like I’m alone with this one, but if you have options, swallow your pride and take them. It’s a paycheck, and can always lead to something better. I took a paycheck job at a retail store and I’m on the management team. Is it something to brag about? God no, it sucks. But my bills are paid and I can advance.
I don’t remember ever commenting on 4chan…
You can always get a job as a prison guard. Sidebar, you get a job that’s below you and then start a business on paper that’s doing something relevant to your degree field and you hire yourself. Then you put that shit on your resume, wham bam thank you mam, one year later and some interview preparation you got your pick of the litter.
I did this to become a programmer. No CS degree, learned to program by working on a personal project (music composition software), formed an LLC and sold the app as shareware back in the day when there was such a thing and people would pay $29.95 (!) for it. Still didn’t make nearly enough to live on, got a real job with a resume that listed my own company as my first employment. Wasn’t even dishonest about it, listed my role as “sole proprietor”. Maybe the people reviewing my resume didn’t know what a proprietor was.
TBF this was the '90s when Internet startups were hiring anything with a pulse.
Can confirm a Masters is pointless. Especially when everyone else at your table in the pub has a PhD.
I’m laughing to think what happens when the market is saturated with PhDs.
Will everyone need to be a professor to be competitive?
My retirement plan is a tent in the park.
Mine is as a mime in a mine.
Mine is my other kidney.
Mines a hole in the dirt
This thread has a lot of people saying things like “don’t get a degree” or “get a trade cert” or “work in a different field to get experience” which I feel completely side-steps many issues and the realities that many people face. It’s just a fundamentally broken system. The value of degrees fluctuates so much because of a political climate that has the stability of a pane of glass being violently thrown off of a building and a job market that prioritizes either posting ghost jobs to overwork employees to death or outsourcing its candidate search to whoever can guess the most buzzwords in an application.
While volatile is a good way to describe the day to day. It’s been trending worse for many years now.
Anon was 23 in 2022.
Rest assured, it’s much worse now.
Anon was 23 in 2022.
So they’re like, 60 now?
Pfff you only have a PhD? You need at least 3 PhDs to apply for a job
Honestly, if you’re in this situation, and you have any interest at all in education, or just think it wouldn’t drive you mad, look into substitute teaching. In my area the only requirement to be a substitute is to have any bachelor’s degree and to be able to pass a very rigorous background check. (Think fingerprinting.) I’m currently exploring a mid-career transition to K12 teaching, and I’m planning on doing a bunch of substitute teaching in the coming school year. Substitutes make about $260/day in my district. Not amazing money, but it still comes to a solid $30/hr or so. And there’s enough demand at least where I’m at that they often have postings go unfilled.
And hell, just getting out of the house and regularly interacting with people will do wonders for your mental health. I wouldn’t recommend substitute teaching as a permanent career. But for someone in transition or trying to get started, it’s a great option. It’s a very useful way of getting past the trap of “I need experience to get the job, but I need the job to get experience.” At least in my area, if you’ve got a bachelor’s and a clean criminal record, you can become a substitute.
I’d also recommend driving a school bus. $35/hour and subsidized health insurance. You only have the little bastiges for 15 minutes at a time and you don’t have to teach them shit. You don’t need a bachelor’s degree (or even a high school degree) and god DAMN do my coworkers show the results of that.
If I wanted good advice I’d go see a shrink, not a green text forum. Nerd. /s
Greentexts are a lot cheaper though. Kinda like self medicating with alcohol.
Yeah! Drinky-drinky no thinky! Just like dad taught me.
$260 a day is quite decent
In my area, the average monthly rent for a two bedroom apartment is $1500/month, or $18,000 per year. If you maxed out substitute teaching, teaching every day you could? That would bring in about $45k/year. And the job comes with no health insurance, retirement, or other benefits. On days you don’t work, you don’t get paid. Full time teaching positions do have benefits and pay better, but those require more extensive licensing.
You could earn a subsistence living substituting where I’m located, especially if you got roommates. But it’s not a long-term viable career if you want to have any hope of home ownership, retirement, etc. A great option for those in transition, but not a career.
I was going to say lol, that’s double the average wage in my city
It’s a maximum $45k/year job that offers no health insurance, retirement, or paid leave. Sure it’s $260 per day, but that is only for the school days that you work. Considering the number of days in the school year, and the reality that you won’t be able to find a position every day? If you max it out and sub as much as you can, you’re talking about $45k/year with zero benefits.
Not a bad gig if you’re on your parent’s or spouse’s health insurance. But if you try and work that your whole career, you can forget about ever being a home owner or retiring. Starter homes here go for $400k.
Great option for those in transition. But there’s a reason I call it decent, but hardly amazing.
Still not awful for my area, with a median income of 47k. But to be fair my area is poor as shit.
And I imagine that subs in your area probably get paid proportionally less. Though maybe not.
Looking into it, substitute teachers in my area make from 40-50k on average, so really not far off. Considering many jobs in my area already don’t provide health insurance, it’s really not the worst option for people specifically in my area. I’m sure this is by far the exception of course, just thought it was interesting.
Although TBF it probably isn’t an every day kind of thing.
Welcome Anon!
Signed, A 2006 graduate
Glad I didn’t go to uni. Wish I did an apprenticeship sooner.
DO NOT BECOME A MECHANIC
Why not?
Maybe don’t specialize in internal combustion engines, but… EVs still need repairs even if their predicted lifespan is significantly shorter. Won’t need head gasket replacements, but brakes are still brakes, struts are still struts. I suspect if you specialize in high voltage systems, you’ll still have a good career ahead of you as a mechanic.
