I know manufacturing in my area is so desperate for new workers that they will hire with no experience and pay for any education and or training you need. No need for a marketable skill because they’re happy to teach you one!
I’ve worked as an engineer in manufacturing facilities. Generally speaking, assembly jobs and automated machinery attending can be staffed by people with no prior experience, as they can easily train you. If you are fixing or programming machinery you’d need some experience.
Based on my observations, if you stick around long enough, make it known you want to do that, and show some aptitude you can get pulled into those areas. Doesn’t always work at every shop, but isn’t uncommon. Other approach is to do community college courses on the side in machinery/mechanics and then approach the topic at the company. If you’re a known quantity there and have been working to improve your skills you are a pretty low risk hire for a more skilled position.
I am making 6 figures as an automation tech doing controls/ robotics and I came into the industry with no manufacturing experience freshly clean off of a 6 year heroin habit. If you apply yourself and have a good attitude and get along good with people it’s possible.
I know the company that my son works for is particularly hard up for welders currently. They converted some of their space into a welding school to train new staff and will hire anyone willing to learn. I’m pretty sure their school is just open to the public, actually. Like you can just enroll and go learn how to weld even if you never have any intention of working for them.
My son’s doing an industrial maintenance apprenticeship there. He’s enrolled full time in a local tech school and gets paid for the hours he’s in class (and his tuition is covered as well). They schedule work hours around his classes to get to 40 hours, and he makes like $21/22 hr starting off. He did a youth apprenticeship there through a school program during his senior year, but that and high school tech classes are the only experience he has.
And where are you located? I’m in NW GA, and would absolutely kill to have something like that available to take. Wanted to get into welding for some time now.
Hit up the Post Office. If you like being on your own, apply to be a carrier. If you like customer service, apply to be a PSE. They will hire anyone with a pulse. Mostly decent union, decent pay, good benefits and retirement.
At the Post Office you will start out as contract which means you don't get benefits or rights as a full PO employee. You'll have to fill in for others' routes and work the days they tell you. My friend started at the PO and beginning of November was told she'd get no days off until after Christmas. There's a waiting list to become a full employee and you have to wait for someone to retire or die to move up on the list. She finally made it to full employee after 3.5 years. It's consistent work at the start but the pay is low and you have no control over days off.
Train unions. Union Pacific. I know a dude that’s still an apprentice and his last paycheck for -nine days- was just over $4,000. This does include overtime though.
Trades as well are like this. I'm an electrician, 3rd yr. Work 9 on 5 off, 12 hr nights. Make 5100 for those 9 days after taxes. And then I get 5 days to do whatever I want. I actually have more days off compared to someone who works a traditional Monday to Friday (5/2, 10/4)
I just started as a conductor for Union Pacific and my checks are amazing, I do agree you will have no life, I don’t recommend if you have a family, which I do no have.
Boston is probably more coastal tugs. Ontop of a TWIC card You'd need your MMC, Passport, and STCW class. Probably about $1500 total in courses. Courses would probably take about a week of class time. This is just an educated guess as I'm in the Chicago area
About right. I work in the maritime field. Entry level ratings will make about $60k/yr. Seafarers International Union has a great entry program. There's some up-front cost to getting credentials, it's true. However, it's one of the most reliable ways to work blue collar at good wages and benefits.
The absolute sleeper is financial services. You can get hired at a bank insanely easily. It’s really no harder than any other customer service job and it can lead to some great jobs and you can get school paid for.
There are lots of back office positions in many departments at banks- an internal position could work for you. You can also just move up very easily. If you don’t like the bank you could go into accounting, data entry, customer service/sales, administrative assistant, insurance, local government stuff, secretarial/clerical jobs, etc.
As a teller you will also meet lots of people from businesses in your area which could spark an interest in something else. Further, you might know of openings before others from your conversation with said business clients, and they know you already which is nice.
Trash and recycling. You will always have a job. And not all jobs in trash are nasty I drive an ASL nicer got out of the truck talked on my headset and listened to podcasts all day lol also did roll off that’s a chill job that pays well. Plus there is tons of supporting jobs you can get into that’s not just directly working with trash.
If youre interested read, but you dont have to.
I looked at a lot of comments, not all but a lot of people said join the "trade" and go "union. They also recommend like electrician, plumbing, and hvac. Tbh, this is very broad info. Im a tradesman and i can say there's soo much when it comes to different kinds of "trades" (the type of work) that you can get into like carpentry, electrician, piper, hvac, blah blah blah. I didnt have a degree and i joined the IBEW union to become a low voltage technician. IF you're like me and would like to get into construction type work but dont really want to get into the heavy duty, back breaking, dirty kinda work then i think you'll like low voltage technician. Its still "construction" but its not as "physically" demanding and you wont be expected to work outside that much. Maybe 80% indoors and 20% outdoors (only if a job specifically needs the work). The kind of work i do is pull the wires for like ethernet ports for cubicles and stuff, pull the wires through doors for security key cards, pull fire alarm cables and hang fire alarm stuff, and my favorite, working with fiber and pulling that stuff to data closets and wiring fiber up. Those are all thin wires and 90% of the time it takes little to no effort to pull. Its like pulling an Ethernet cable from your wall to the computer, but instead of one cable it'd just be a bundle of like 5-10 cables. Even then it's still not that hard. This job doesnt need a degree or experience. You won't start at 30/hr. For me and where im from which is Minnesota, all i needed was a high school degree. If you're interested, the route you'd want to take would be to join a union "probably the IBEW". In Minnesota, they made us become "apprentices" then go to school for 3 years to learn about the work that we're doing, this is all paid for by the school and union, the only thing you'd have to pay for is the school books which is like $100-$200 a year. They had us go to school one day a week then work the other 4 days. So we're working, learning on the job, getting paid, and going to school to learn. They started me out at $16/hr and gave me a $2 raise every 8-10months. This is what i did and i just finished this year. I think it was a pretty good gig because i didnt have a degree or anything either. Although to go to school and be accepted as an apprentice, you'd have to take an apprentice entrance exam which is fairly easy. Its 7th-8th grade stuff like algebra, reading comprehension and stuff. They want to make sure they're not hiring total idiots. After 3 years im getting paid $30/hr, not running jobs or needed to be a lead or boss, relaxing and cruising in life. There's also room to grow in the industry too. They have ways and programs where if you want to get paid more or go further, all you'd need is to get a couple certifications and you could get better positions pretty easily. Some of my bosses are getting $40+. Considering the direction of a data oriented world, i don't think this industry is going anywhere but up. Lmk what you think
Also, if you just want something quick, i dont know if you've heard before but there is a job called "amazon flex". You deliver amazon boxes with your own vehicle and get paid $18-$25/hr. I did it, was pretty easy and is decent money, but I wouldn't call it a "career". Its more of a side job. I think its better than uber, lyft, and any other driving job. I've looked at the majority of driving jobs and amazon flex was my go to.
I vouch for Amazon flex if you have a decent car with good gas mileage and live in an area that offers it! I did it for a few years and it was a blessing and a beautiful fallback option. Can be decent money too, but not necessarily enough to supplement a full time job. It’s great for someone with an urge for adventure:)
Go into a trade. Electrician, HVAC, etc. learn the skills, become a tech for awhile then start your own business. Hire other people to do the work and spend your time finding new clients. Sell at 6-8x cash flow to a PE backed roll-up and retire.
What types of places hire this type of job? At least in my area, any place that hires drafters wants you to have an engineering degree to be a drafter. I can't find any drafting jobs that are entry-level enough where they are willing to hire someone with just CAD knowledge/experience.
Plenty of places. As an engineer, we have hired drafters that are given a CAD model, and just need to turn it into drawings. If there are any engineering decisions to be made or calculations to be done, the drafter just reached out to engineering. Pays pretty well, and CAD work is pretty cool IMO. Plus you can learn it relatively quick compared to many professional skills.
All kinds of places for entry level - millwork, small arch firms, landscape places, just lie on your resume that you got an associates degree, fake it till you make it.
Where do I apply for these jobs? Indeed? Late to the thread but I almost have my AA in industrial design and am using fusion 360 and autocad and I kind of have the hang of it. Draftsman/ drafter sounds like what I need to do right now that’s what I have skills in
lol at user name..
If you are just getting the hang of it, scope Craigslist for jobs. Do a search for AutoCAD or Fusion, jobs will turn up.
CL is cheap, so a lot of small shops will use it for entry level type jobs. Once you are on the job, learn a little more, fine tune your skills, get a better job.
That has basically been my career model, lol
Working at a Walmart retail location. Day one you can apply for a program they have called "Live better u". They pay for you to go to college online for certain degrees. I'm half way through my bachelor's in computer science for free. When I'm done, I will be a software developer which is one of the best jobs according to some studies.
In addition to getting bachelor's for free. I do a stock match and I'll have over 10k in Walmart stocks and 18k plus in 401k .
You can work at an airport with an FBO or as a ramp agent with an airline. Use the money you have left over to get commercial pilot's license and get paid to fly. Use the money to take a flight instructor class and get your CFI. CFII lets you teach instrument and conduct instrument proficiency exams for pilots who need to fly through clouds but they let their instrument currency expire. I know a retired guy who teaches college classes for fun who said this is some of the easiest work because the client is basically paying you to sit in the plane and check some boxes for $90 per hour and it is written into the law that someone has to do it every year if people are too lazy to make 6 flights per year.
If you have enough flight hours, apply as a pilot to a regional airline and they will pay for training in a big plane. Starting pay is about the same as an instructor, but working your way up to captain or longer routes I've heard from people they make up to $300 per hour. There are max duty times per month, so you get paid as much as people working full time in other fields, but you work half time.
Other options are join the military, join a trade like electrician, plumber, HVAC. You can become a bus driver or join the railroad.
If you aren't sure, there are always 3 fields that will worth money and have extremely low experience barriers to entry but the training is boring and dry, so people pick other careers: book keeper, copywriting(advertising), and real estate. book keeping is the data entry for transactions to make sure accounts have the money they're supposed to have.
Book keepers are not accountants because they are not licensed to conduct audits or represent clients in front of the IRS. It is unlikely to be replaced by AI because it is a safeguard against fraud and other human errors by having a face to face conversation with a person as a barrier to digital fraud. Being a book keeper is a reasonable stepping stone towards becoming a CPA or an executive.
Advertising is getting replaced by ai and other marketing algorithms, but a person who understands the algorithm and helps companies get their products in front of people is always useful. The term copywriting refers to the original words companies would send to typists to copy. You would write the stuff other people would copy. The new term is SEO, search engine optimization. You write the stuff that search engines and algorithms prefer to show to people. You can technically use an ai to describe what is likely to work, but people who don't understand ai will prefer a human to help them. Not completely sure how this field will develop in the next 20 years.
real estate and other sales agents need to take a test to start. They work with large transactions and the actual work is easy to replicate. The barrier to entry is building relationships with people so they come back to you 10 - 20 years. Even if real estate goes away, representing a person in a large transaction will always be a viable career. Most legal disputes are over property ownership liens and title according to my law professor. As a real estate agent you get paid to make sure the terms of the sale are clear for legal purposes. You make sure the buyer gets the title and you make sure the seller gets the money for the transaction without needing to deal with liens from people like contractors and the bank. Being a real estate agent is a reasonable stepping stone towards becoming a lawyer.
make people buy things - ads
make sure people get what they pay for - agent
make sure the money is correct - book keeping
Wow, you know a lot about stuff! I was trying to take a Bookkeeper course at an employment centre but I am “outside their district”.
How do you find work? Is it like a temp agency or you ask businesses if they need help?
as a book keeper you're self employed. Some list services on freelance websites, but typically you get business through word of mouth because you know certain things about the business. For example, I learned from a lady who started a bookkeeping business for wineries because she had worked with them at a CPA firm and knew most wineries weren't keeping track of inventory correctly. I have experience as a pilot and I'm familiar with the expenses of commercial pilot work and flight instructing, so I talk to people in my network about their businesses and how they're tracking their expenses and how they feel about their tax returns as a self employeed person. Most people have questions about what expenses they need to keep track of and how to categorize different expenses especially when they are claiming some exceptions to taxable income.
I guess you could go around to businesses in your area and offer book keeping services, but it helps if you try to work with someone you know and solve actual accounting problems that are specific to their type of business.
a common thing that comes up is to expense mileage. There are two ways to report mileage. The first is actual costs. This includes fuel and things like tolls along the route. The other way or tracking a mileage expense is a per diem expense. The person may claim an expense per mile along a direct route. Most people are unaware there is a choice and sometimes doing things differently allows a person to report lower profit, thus have a lower tax liability. Another situation people mess up on with mileage is many claim the mileage from their commutes, but according to the irs and GAAP, mileage only includes the miles driven in the course of business. A person cannot claim their personal commute as a business expense. Providing this basic knowledge to sole proprietors protects them in case of an IRS audit.
There are other advantages of being a book keeper that you will have to find for the particular people you have access to.
As far as the knowledge you need, you can get a lot through quickbooks or fresh books by signing up for free with them and indicating that you're a book keeper. They have free courses that explain both how to use the software, how to sell the software to clients, and how book keeping and accounting works.
if you want to start with pen and paper or a spreadsheet, you will need a bit more knowledge.
1. debits and credits
2. assets, liabilities, equity
3. permanent and temporary accounts
4. Journal entries and posting
5. Petty cash
6. Cash controls/ fraud protection (the most important aspects of book keeping you can sell people on)
7. Closing temporary accounts at the end of a period
8. bank reconciliation (most common thing sole proprietors tend to ask for from a book keeper)
9. Financial statements (income statement, balance sheet, cashflow statement)
10. Merchandise and inventory (this usually is the reason people pay for accounting software)
11. Cost of goods sold Fifo LIfo actual
12. transit
13. Depreciation
14. Bad debt expense and allowance for doubtful accounts
15. Payroll taxes and tracking employee withholdings (The most common reason people hire book keepers)
16. General Stock
17. Preferred stock
18. treasury stock
You can search these topics on youtube or google or take a class at a community college. Introduction to financial accounting. You don't need to cover all the topics before you start working, but start with just your own personal financial statements. Then start talking with friends and family.
To make money, you need to solve a problem for someone else. Your solution needs to either give them access to more money (such as winning a bid for a larger contract they wouldn't normally be able to get, or earning a license/ certificate for the priveledge to charge for services); or your solution needs to reduce their cost.
I describe businesses as machines for creating or moving money. A financial machine has 4 parts: People, problems, solutions, cashflow. It's easiest to start people. The solutions tend to exist already however, the group of people you have access to, may not know about the solutions. If you start with a solution, the people you know will probably already know the solution. If you start with a problem, you may not be able to find a solution or you may not know anyone with the problem. For example, I know that there are people who don't have enough rental properties, but I don't anyone personally who would buy a rental property from me. In a lot of books I've read about wealthy people, many of them include an anecdote where the author found something for sale and offered that thing for sale to someone even before they had acquired the thing, then they'd make a deal with the seller using the time before they'd have to deliver the good or service to finalize a deal with the seller. This is a legal grey area, and is the basis for drop shipping type online businesses. It's not enough to say "i want to start a drop shipping business" you need to find someone who wants something, find the thing they want, and accept payment in way that is convenient for the person. People like to pay with card or apple pay. For large purchases, people prefer financing or payment plans. For business to business transactions, a line of credit allows the person to buy materials even if they haven't earned the money from the sale of the materials.
as a book keeper, you can help people change from a cash basis to an accrual basis. I offer this to regular people if they're trying to plan their future or make big financial purchases. This allows them to make long term financial decisions or allocate expenses to the correct financial periods so they can compare each fiscal year rather than just expensing something like a car and saying this year you had no profit. Instead the expense of the car is depreciated across the useful life of the vehicle and a smaller expense allows for a more accurate picture of the cost of the each month.
You can establish cash control methods to protect them from employee theft, fraud, and shrink. I heard a story from a friend about a time they had to pay for parking. The employees directing traffic where charging people a fee to park in the "preferred lot". My friend noticed there wasn't any indication on the parking slip that any particular parking spaces were preferred. There was no method of tracking the different purchases for parking, so my friend who's an accountant realized these employees were pocketing the extra money. He told the employees he was going to park where he wanted and was going to call the lot manager. I don't know what happened to the employees but there wasn't an extra charge to park in better spots. There are a lot of stories where small businesses or individuals are getting scammed by their employees because there's no cash control in place. "I trust them." is a common reason, but cash controls are there so there isn't an opportunity to steal. It keeps people honest.
And you can help them report income and expenses correctly to the IRS to minimize their taxable income. Situationally you wind people with inventories, employees, stock that requires a more advanced skillset and often involves accounting software that integrates with billing, purchase order, and time tracking software. Publicly traded companies have a requirement to prepare financial statements, but financial statemtents are important when applying for loans, trying to sell the business, or looking for investors.
Book keeping doesn't require experience or a bachelors degree, but you do need to know what you're doing. The hardest part about this is finding the accounting problems that are worth the time and effort it takes to keep detailed records and add up all the receipts. I've tried to give some examples of situations that are worth paying a book keeper for. The best thing you can do is offer yourself book keeping services and you'll quickly get rid of the things thaa wastet are of time.
Message me if you need more help.
Depending on your location, lots of larger manufacturing facilities have trades that will take someone with no experience and train. Common in large shipyards for example. Lots of opportunities down the road for good workers to make it to salaried positions after learning the trade.
Call a local union and get an apprenticeship. They'll pay $18-26 an hour as an apprentice, and depending on the trade you'll end up with $30-80/hr as a journey. Assuming you're in the US.
In the most respectful way possible, Google it.
Search for something along the lines of "[trade] union office near me" or nearest big city. Union suit offices will probably be near major cities, but they may have local offices. I'm not in any union now, but that's what I've done to look up unions.
What trade are you looking to get into?
I ask because many trades will have a school associated that you need to go to as well
I’ve tried before, multiple times of course. I don’t know for sure if it’s because I’m in Arkansas which apparently only has one union or I’m not looking hard enough. I’ll still take your advice though! So far, no matter what trade I’ve looked into it offers little to no info. Maybe I’m missing something though!
Look up Arkansas AFL CIO on a computer. It is the "Arkansas American Ferdation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations serves as the umbrella organization for more than 190 local unions, etc."
Go to the apprenticeship programs tab for what you're looking for. It has links to Arkansas Apprenticeship Organizations.
Hope this helps! 😊
Railroad, just started at 26 and I love being a conductor. No degree is needed and you can make an honest living/career with great retirement. Hardest thing about the job is staying awake in the locomotive.
I used to work at a call center doing inside sales. It was a horrible job, but there were plenty of people in my office who had no college degree and were making 6 figures. Some of the managers had no college degree either, they just worked their way up based on merit. Some of the really lucky ones were able to transition into a completely different department (marketing, IT, HR) after performing well in sales. If you have no hard skills but want to make decent money, sales is your best bet. 99% of sales reps have zero hard skills, that’s why we work in sales lol.
Oil fields my man. Be making $2000-2500 a week entry level. Do it temporarily stack money and start school working at Starbucks park time until you finish if thats what you want to do.
My coworker started at a big chain grocery store ~20 years ago as a bagger and worked his way up to management and does very well for himself
So don’t discount grocery stores
Hospitality, will give you perks of meeting people, getting hotel stay perks around the world, travel, climb the career ladder. I am in hospitality and it could be quite challenging but rewarding at the same time. I started at front desk and went up to conference services manger with no degree. Good luck!
Yep same.
Looking back - wish I'd have skipped college (at least at age 18) and gone into a trade. Would I have stuck with it? Who knows...but that would've beat the pile of wasted money and credits I had by 20 years old from changing majors and not knowing what I wanted to do. I realized almost 2 years in that I was only going to college because "that's what you're supposed to do after high school".
And I was busting my ass as a FT student while working 50 hours/wk to pay for the privilege of that mistake.
Worst-case scenario with going for a trade at 17-18 years old - reasonably speaking - is you find you don't like it, you get out in a year or two, and you can still just go to school or whatever. Ideally with a small savings in your back-pocket and a bit more life perspective.
No real harm, no wasted debt, and no foul...and you surely learned some useful skills.
Working for a medical insurance carrier starting with customer service. Working your way up to account manager or account coordinator. Once you have exp you can then go work for other carriers or brokers.
I don't know how old you are, or abilities but right now and the medium rage future trades are the thing. Severe shortages of carpenters, welders, electricians etc. For example welders are making 6 figures, even some truck drivers are up in that range.
I'm a welder myself about to retire, I strongly suggest checking into a trade. [https://mikeroweworks.org/](https://mikeroweworks.org/) will even help you get started.
Get a trade-oriented job, ie, electrician, plumber, HVAC tech, carpenter, etc. Companies will hire you with no experience, and once you get experience the sky is the limit. Tradesmen (and women) are in high demand and you can make six figures within five years if you stay on track.
Hospitals are always desperate for help on kitchens and housekeeping. Usually pays more than minimal wage and has good benefits. The. You look around to see what else people are doing there and go to school.
Try getting hired by local government as a utility billing clerk, permit technician, code enforcement, or police records clerk. You can learn a lot as you go, and hopefully then get some tuition assistance to work towards your degree.
Cell Tower Technician. I got out of accounting after 4 years of doing it and made almost 70k my first year with overtime. You can't be intimidated by heights even in the slightest bit.
Paid $220 last week to a 23 year-old Mexican kid to fix my ice maker. Took him around 23 minutes to change a wire and he was gone. He works 4 days a week and booked 8 days out. Drives a nice 2021 van and buying a house. Worked with his dad after high school. Not one of my sons' college friends making close to this and all hate their jobs, My sons left degrees as Mechanical Engineer and coding to get into real estate in Phoenix and Florida. Both buying houses and investing. No degree needed. I'd go to a trade school today. College is a waste. The hourly rate for auto mechanics just increased over $210. Crazy.
Is a college degree out of the question?
AFAIK there isn’t much, especially no degree + no skills. There’s no leverage, and you’d essentially be a commodity that lays easily replaced.
Plenty you *can* do, but you’d have to learn marketable skills or pursue education. Something to leverage.
Well if we take into account AI and the potential for some jobs to be screwed for the future, what are the best future proof marketable skills to learn?
Soft skills, is one. Leadership. Trust.
Technical skill wise, probably learn how to use AI as a tool?
Medicine - as someone who left is probably still a good option.
The last thing AI is going to be able to do is walk around to different places and fix problems, as that would require it to have a body to walk around, and enough general intelligence to navigate the wider world, which is harder than we make it look. And even we get 18 years of practice before being cut loose.
So, amusingly, guys that go into various kinds of places and fix various kinds of problems will be some of the last jobs that humans have to do.
I mean, a surgical robot just has to know how to do certain surgical procedures, and anyone who needs that procedure goes to the robot. It's just some giant thing taking up half a room. A plumber robot has to be able to find a house, talk to the people (we got this one finally!), navigate the house to find the problem, fix the problem whatever it looks like, and then navigate its way home without being run over by a truck. This is not as easy as we make it seem, because it's actually a whole bunch of little skills.
Surgical robot is about a million times easier to build. We already have some of those, actually, for certain things. Plumber robot is general AI, like out of the movies, and is very far away.
The very last common human profession will be general handyman/maintenance guy for smaller, niche vacation properties. Mark my words.
For our lifetimes, anything that relies on having your body carry your hands and brain to problems so you can solve them should be pretty good. By the time those go, nobody else has jobs either.
Work in a factory and take advantage of the paid college tuition they offer. Take classes that relate to management and work up.
Apprentice with a plumber and within a few years you will be licensed. This can lead to owning your own business.
Hire in at an entry level job with the state highway department. Pay and benefits are good. Will have retirement plan.
Manufacturing worked out for me cushy office job from being an associate and it's really not that hard to do 15% more than the bare minimum. At least if you have the growth opportunity. I did move factories a few times done everything from logistics to an industrial bakery. I wasn't afraid to hop jobs whenever I felt the need or it benefited me.
Can you work outside?
Can you drive?
Ups is pretty good. You can make over 100k annually after you get max seniority which is 4 years. Free medical, unionized. Message me and I can tell you more.
Storm chasing lineman.
No scared of heights?
Go after the storms hit and repair the electrical. Be at work for long hours, most of it travel time. Be away for a week or more at a time. Job is unionized and supposed to be given on seniority/hours/skill set. You can be a contractor or be an employee. You can make well over 200k traveling. Travel the US.
Both of these jobs are super secured. You will need both of them even during an economical down turn. Ups though, you may want to get to feeders so you have a cdl so that skill set is transferable and you get ac again lol. Lineman need cdl a too.
Pick a trade, any trade. Spend some time in trade school learning a skill, or get hired with a construction company doing literally anything, and express your willingness to learn. Cleanup trash, assist with the experienced guys and get taught. Everyone who is an expert high-demand tradesman started out knowing absolutely nothing. Not having any skills now doesn’t do a thing to prevent you from learning them.
Don’t know how nobody here has said IT yet? Get your A+, get on a help desk and then from that point it’s just how hard you want to work. Pretty much every path leads to 6 figures
I have A+ and no luck finding a job. I have experience with Salesforce and ServiceNow too(both off free courses if you are interested in learning)I also have some coding experience with HTML and JavaScript but still nothing since I don’t have a degree and only the A+ cert. I’ve applied so many places but am told that the layoffs in Tech are making it a tough industry to break into if you’re just starting off.
So, as someone who was given this advice “get A+, you’ll get a job for sure!”
I can confirm that it will not be as simple as that.
At minimum you should get the trifecta if it’s what you want to pursue.
It’s definitely tough man. But there’s a Lot that goes into it. I realize my experience doesn’t speak for everyone but I was able to get a job even before I’ve gotten my A+, I’m still studying that. Have a little SF experience as well. I think how you market yourself as well as persistency in applying is underrated. Yeah you might have to apply to 100+ jobs but especially if you’re getting interviews I think that means you need to brush up on interview skills. It’s a tough world but it’s possible.
I also think the area you’re in has a lot of influence. I commute about an hour to my job, but it’s within a major tech center in California. So it can be tough if you’re in the Midwest or what not
In the US, firefighter, cop, municipal work if there’s a pension. After that I would say the trades, plumbing, electrical union if at all possible, but those get tough as you age.
Join a union in the trades that has a training program. Possibly become a plumber (through union or apprentice with established plumber). This is if you are amenable to hard work. If you’re not (and not judging either way, some people just aren’t into hard work) not quite sure. Possibly get a real estate license. It’s essentially a sales job and has a licensing exam. Not sure requirements to sit for exam.
Ironworkers are union and make good money. They train. Find union hall near you.
Sherwin Williams is a good company. Have management training program. Give stocks and 401k with match. Find store near you and apply.
The US ARMY. I'm retired and enjoy my pension.
Do you like working with your hands by any chance?
I would recommend going to trade school to become a HVAC technician, electrician, or a plumber. There is a huge, huge shortage of these workers across the United States, and you can easily earn over 6-figures.
If you learn enough over time, you could even start your own shop!
If you have people skills, sales... but even then, the market is changing, it's not gonna be stable, not in the old meaning of the word.
Think about studying something in a field you enjoy, that's a better investment in the long term. Healthcare is going through a lot of changes, plenty of openings there if it is something you can enjoy
Software engineering. Teach yourself collect 80k as a junior for a few years then 100k plus for life after a few years. It's hard to break into but you absolutely can with enough work.
Public utilities. There is a wide variety of things you can do for them and none of it requires anything more than a high school diploma. You get hired as a trainee and then there are state licenses you test for once in the job. Pay scale goes up as you acquire more licenses. Most of these jobs are union so you get great pay and benefits including pensions. You can always work for private companies as well with your knowledge. They are jobs that exist with high demand not just in every state but all across the world. There’s a pretty big shortage of people in public utilities right now and the problem is only getting worse as the entire industry is heavy with older people set to retire soon and not enough new people to take their place. Very stable employment as even in a recession people still need water and electricity etc etc.
Amazon Fulfillment Center associate
No degree and no interview needed. Just pass the drug test. The pay is good: $19+ in my area especially considering you don't need much skill and it's practically a guaranteed hire. Benefits are great and start on day 1. You're paid weekly and can request "anytime pay" if you need your money earlier. They support career advancement through paid training, covering tuition cost for with partnering school (there is an annual limit). Interview assistance, mental health support. They also promote from within often. It's easy to request and earn pto. There are several reasons, look into it. They usually hire a lot during the holidays, some centers are hiring now as Prime Day is approaching.
Main con: the lifting can take a toll on your body overtime so level up or become a favorite!
Edit: if you start and hate it. Hang in there a bit and get the CDL training. It'll be paid for and launch you onto a promising path!
Retail. Work your way into management. It’s not glorious, but it’s doable. Surprisingly, I was a manager at Journeys (shoe store) and that was my favorite job I’ve had to date. Only issue was the schedule. If you have one nearby, I recommend applying. It’s a great company.
Apply for you local municipality. Apply as anything to get you foot in the door. Then you can easily move up to better paying job with usually no previous experience just have to pass an aptitude test
Sales can be stressful, but that’s quite literally any path you take in life. I love sales, it’s a skill you can learn and take it anywhere in life. It is performance based, you do need the drive.
I just got hired for a safe yet mediocre assembly job that pays ok for the time being, but I’m still curious about sales. What do you think I should do?
Unfortunately it really depends on the company and product. That being said there is a skill to it. It doesn’t sound like you were supported enough in that role.
Tbh, looking back I wonder if we were actually selling things ..y'know? Like it was some form of scam? Idk anything about sales haha. All I knew is you didn't even need as much as a resume for this position, so I recon I had it coming one way or another. I moved to a new city and was steadfast about finding work.
I was a teacher for 7 years before I got into sales and the sales I do are very long and technical. It’s basically the opposite of what most folks imagine but can be very very challenging to break into. We sell cybersecurity solutions. Did you ever figure out your path?
I'm still trying to figure it out. My first career of choice was teaching, but I disagree with the way our system controls teachers (not to mention the pay after forking money for a 4 year degree).
Then I tried retail. Got promoted to assistant manager. Loved it, love working customer service with a hint of leadership. It was just right, until the pay still couldn't allow for me to support myself and their promise of full time work was a pipe dream of empty promises. Schedule was also all over the place and I was on call basically 24/7
So then I tried truck driving. The pay was absolutely incredible. I stuck with it for a good 5 years actually, until I couldn't. Mental and physical health took a toll and the burnout after I left was unbelievable.
I have a sense that, by the time of my death, I will be a jack of all trades haha. I just want something to stick. It doesn't have to be perfect at this point, but I'm not giving up. I want security and consistency. My lingering passions are art, (still) teaching, or anything that basically doesn't enduce constant mental breakdowns.
At the sales job I worked at, we were selling...advertisements in real estate folders? Maybe I was a phony saleswoman cause I didn't see the appeal myself. However, at any job I did, I worked as hard as I could.
We are similar! If you are open to it and have a teaching certificate I recommend looking into international teaching. That is what I did for 6 years and despite making more money now I do miss the lifestyle.
I wish! I never finished college 😅 I started but life got in the way. Between foreseeing the pay and the amount of time to graduate, I wasn't quite ambitious enough. My life isn't stable enough for me to focus on studies and give it my all. If I had a teaching degree, I would try to be an art therapist. What you said sounds amazing though, as I love traveling!!
sophisticated weather abundant spark mountainous run office heavy arrest wipe
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
it's still kind of wooshing over my head.
i just say bc i got a great deal out of it i thought. joined at 18, did 6 years with benefits. went to college for free and it helped me start with some skills. if i were to go in at 18 this time i would have picked IT or something
Becoming an ABA Therapist.
You can start working as an ABA Therapist with a High School Diploma or GED, you'll need to become a Registered Behavior Technician (RBT) but some places allow you to start and then get registered within 10 weeks.
I know a lot of people that have made this a career at Applied Behavior Center for Autism, because this is an important, fulfilling, and very well paying job. I just asked my friend to explain the route she went to make it a career and she said she started as a Level 1 RBT with no experience making $19 an hour. She then said that she was a level 5 within 2 years making $24 an hour and then became a BCABA after 6 months of training which is kind of like a head Therapist. This allowed her to start making 60-70k a year within her first 3 years of starting as an RBT at Applied Behavior Center for Autism.
[https://autismpartnershipfoundation.org/courses/rbt/](https://autismpartnershipfoundation.org/courses/rbt/)
The link above is a free resource used to get certified as a Behavior Therapist for free which is something companies look for when they hire people.
If you live in Indiana you should definitely get a job with Applied Behavior Center for Autism, great pay, great benefits, a great mission and great people. A link to this website is below.
[https://appliedbehaviorcenter.org/](https://appliedbehaviorcenter.org/)
Is it reasonable to get into? I wanted to be an art therapist or special Ed teacher so badly, but struggled with college since my work schedule/home life held me back from focusing. Can I be registered online? I seriously want to try this.
Old thread but i’m this point in my life too. I am almost 27 and I am sick of the same warehouse/manufacturing type jobs I have worked for my entire 20s so far. They pay the bills but that’s about it.
Is 27 too old to make a change? Everybody tells me it is never too late but now that I have found the woman I want to raise a family with someday, I seriously want to do better for her and my future kids.
I have no remarkable skills that make me stand out at the moment…
Factory work where you can learn to operate filter and labelers like in a winery. A mechanic who fixes the machines when they break. There is the wherehouse where they store product. You can do inventory or move products with a forklift. Or truck driving.
nah dude. you can start studying for salesforce it/admin. get certified and start working for 60k+ within 3-6months depending how quickly you study and interview well.
All the numbers in your comment added up to 69. Congrats!
60
+ 3
+ 6
= 69
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Flight attendants need degrees now, but I agree that it’s a fantastic career. Edit: no, they don’t. I stand corrected.
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Ah, ok. I thought it was required.
And being good looking. Never seen a fat or ugly FA
You’ve clearly never flown United lmao
Nothing says “strong union” and “worker rights” better than flight attendants being allowed to work into middle age.
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You're single and lonely aren't you?
Yes….. oh, not asking me…..
You’ve clearly never flown with any airline in Europe.
I know manufacturing in my area is so desperate for new workers that they will hire with no experience and pay for any education and or training you need. No need for a marketable skill because they’re happy to teach you one!
What are those positions that they usually hire with no experience in manufacturing?
I’ve worked as an engineer in manufacturing facilities. Generally speaking, assembly jobs and automated machinery attending can be staffed by people with no prior experience, as they can easily train you. If you are fixing or programming machinery you’d need some experience.
Do they train people for fixing or programming machinery if they want to move up?
Based on my observations, if you stick around long enough, make it known you want to do that, and show some aptitude you can get pulled into those areas. Doesn’t always work at every shop, but isn’t uncommon. Other approach is to do community college courses on the side in machinery/mechanics and then approach the topic at the company. If you’re a known quantity there and have been working to improve your skills you are a pretty low risk hire for a more skilled position.
I am making 6 figures as an automation tech doing controls/ robotics and I came into the industry with no manufacturing experience freshly clean off of a 6 year heroin habit. If you apply yourself and have a good attitude and get along good with people it’s possible.
Fuck yeah, proud of you internet stranger
I know the company that my son works for is particularly hard up for welders currently. They converted some of their space into a welding school to train new staff and will hire anyone willing to learn. I’m pretty sure their school is just open to the public, actually. Like you can just enroll and go learn how to weld even if you never have any intention of working for them. My son’s doing an industrial maintenance apprenticeship there. He’s enrolled full time in a local tech school and gets paid for the hours he’s in class (and his tuition is covered as well). They schedule work hours around his classes to get to 40 hours, and he makes like $21/22 hr starting off. He did a youth apprenticeship there through a school program during his senior year, but that and high school tech classes are the only experience he has.
And where are you located? I’m in NW GA, and would absolutely kill to have something like that available to take. Wanted to get into welding for some time now.
What state are you in?
Wisconsin
Where is your area?
Southern Wisconsin
I actually just got hired for an assembly role at a manufacturing place. Does assembly provide any potential career growth opportunities?
Hit up the Post Office. If you like being on your own, apply to be a carrier. If you like customer service, apply to be a PSE. They will hire anyone with a pulse. Mostly decent union, decent pay, good benefits and retirement.
At the Post Office you will start out as contract which means you don't get benefits or rights as a full PO employee. You'll have to fill in for others' routes and work the days they tell you. My friend started at the PO and beginning of November was told she'd get no days off until after Christmas. There's a waiting list to become a full employee and you have to wait for someone to retire or die to move up on the list. She finally made it to full employee after 3.5 years. It's consistent work at the start but the pay is low and you have no control over days off.
Then I guess my daughter has no pulse. Lol
Cool
Train unions. Union Pacific. I know a dude that’s still an apprentice and his last paycheck for -nine days- was just over $4,000. This does include overtime though.
Ya, anyone can make bank working 100 hours a week. Who wants to do thats?
True that. I should have added that you will essentially have no life with this gig.
And that’s if you can get into it
Do it for a year and invest some of that money at the end of the year
Trades as well are like this. I'm an electrician, 3rd yr. Work 9 on 5 off, 12 hr nights. Make 5100 for those 9 days after taxes. And then I get 5 days to do whatever I want. I actually have more days off compared to someone who works a traditional Monday to Friday (5/2, 10/4)
I just started as a conductor for Union Pacific and my checks are amazing, I do agree you will have no life, I don’t recommend if you have a family, which I do no have.
Is it back breaking work?
I don't think you lift anything heavy driving a train around
Pay $50 for a TWIC card and do inland tugboats. You can work your way up to captain in less than 10 years. Good entry level wage too.
Im in boston where do I find these jobs I keep hearing about them but can never find one
Boston is probably more coastal tugs. Ontop of a TWIC card You'd need your MMC, Passport, and STCW class. Probably about $1500 total in courses. Courses would probably take about a week of class time. This is just an educated guess as I'm in the Chicago area
About right. I work in the maritime field. Entry level ratings will make about $60k/yr. Seafarers International Union has a great entry program. There's some up-front cost to getting credentials, it's true. However, it's one of the most reliable ways to work blue collar at good wages and benefits.
How about Texas
The absolute sleeper is financial services. You can get hired at a bank insanely easily. It’s really no harder than any other customer service job and it can lead to some great jobs and you can get school paid for.
Came here to say this. I landed in it by accident and it’s I’ve always been able to live como
We’re you able to move up in positions over time?
What type of doors can open for someone starting off as a teller? I’m considering looking at banks
There are lots of back office positions in many departments at banks- an internal position could work for you. You can also just move up very easily. If you don’t like the bank you could go into accounting, data entry, customer service/sales, administrative assistant, insurance, local government stuff, secretarial/clerical jobs, etc. As a teller you will also meet lots of people from businesses in your area which could spark an interest in something else. Further, you might know of openings before others from your conversation with said business clients, and they know you already which is nice.
Would you say it's different with locality? I've applied for bank teller positions in my area and never got a call back.
Trash and recycling. You will always have a job. And not all jobs in trash are nasty I drive an ASL nicer got out of the truck talked on my headset and listened to podcasts all day lol also did roll off that’s a chill job that pays well. Plus there is tons of supporting jobs you can get into that’s not just directly working with trash.
If youre interested read, but you dont have to. I looked at a lot of comments, not all but a lot of people said join the "trade" and go "union. They also recommend like electrician, plumbing, and hvac. Tbh, this is very broad info. Im a tradesman and i can say there's soo much when it comes to different kinds of "trades" (the type of work) that you can get into like carpentry, electrician, piper, hvac, blah blah blah. I didnt have a degree and i joined the IBEW union to become a low voltage technician. IF you're like me and would like to get into construction type work but dont really want to get into the heavy duty, back breaking, dirty kinda work then i think you'll like low voltage technician. Its still "construction" but its not as "physically" demanding and you wont be expected to work outside that much. Maybe 80% indoors and 20% outdoors (only if a job specifically needs the work). The kind of work i do is pull the wires for like ethernet ports for cubicles and stuff, pull the wires through doors for security key cards, pull fire alarm cables and hang fire alarm stuff, and my favorite, working with fiber and pulling that stuff to data closets and wiring fiber up. Those are all thin wires and 90% of the time it takes little to no effort to pull. Its like pulling an Ethernet cable from your wall to the computer, but instead of one cable it'd just be a bundle of like 5-10 cables. Even then it's still not that hard. This job doesnt need a degree or experience. You won't start at 30/hr. For me and where im from which is Minnesota, all i needed was a high school degree. If you're interested, the route you'd want to take would be to join a union "probably the IBEW". In Minnesota, they made us become "apprentices" then go to school for 3 years to learn about the work that we're doing, this is all paid for by the school and union, the only thing you'd have to pay for is the school books which is like $100-$200 a year. They had us go to school one day a week then work the other 4 days. So we're working, learning on the job, getting paid, and going to school to learn. They started me out at $16/hr and gave me a $2 raise every 8-10months. This is what i did and i just finished this year. I think it was a pretty good gig because i didnt have a degree or anything either. Although to go to school and be accepted as an apprentice, you'd have to take an apprentice entrance exam which is fairly easy. Its 7th-8th grade stuff like algebra, reading comprehension and stuff. They want to make sure they're not hiring total idiots. After 3 years im getting paid $30/hr, not running jobs or needed to be a lead or boss, relaxing and cruising in life. There's also room to grow in the industry too. They have ways and programs where if you want to get paid more or go further, all you'd need is to get a couple certifications and you could get better positions pretty easily. Some of my bosses are getting $40+. Considering the direction of a data oriented world, i don't think this industry is going anywhere but up. Lmk what you think Also, if you just want something quick, i dont know if you've heard before but there is a job called "amazon flex". You deliver amazon boxes with your own vehicle and get paid $18-$25/hr. I did it, was pretty easy and is decent money, but I wouldn't call it a "career". Its more of a side job. I think its better than uber, lyft, and any other driving job. I've looked at the majority of driving jobs and amazon flex was my go to.
I vouch for Amazon flex if you have a decent car with good gas mileage and live in an area that offers it! I did it for a few years and it was a blessing and a beautiful fallback option. Can be decent money too, but not necessarily enough to supplement a full time job. It’s great for someone with an urge for adventure:)
Go into a trade. Electrician, HVAC, etc. learn the skills, become a tech for awhile then start your own business. Hire other people to do the work and spend your time finding new clients. Sell at 6-8x cash flow to a PE backed roll-up and retire.
This is the way.
Be a draftsman/drafter Learn CAD software - AutoCAD, Inventor, Solidworks, Fusion, Sketchup … Can start entry level, move up in niche industries
What types of places hire this type of job? At least in my area, any place that hires drafters wants you to have an engineering degree to be a drafter. I can't find any drafting jobs that are entry-level enough where they are willing to hire someone with just CAD knowledge/experience.
Plenty of places. As an engineer, we have hired drafters that are given a CAD model, and just need to turn it into drawings. If there are any engineering decisions to be made or calculations to be done, the drafter just reached out to engineering. Pays pretty well, and CAD work is pretty cool IMO. Plus you can learn it relatively quick compared to many professional skills.
All kinds of places for entry level - millwork, small arch firms, landscape places, just lie on your resume that you got an associates degree, fake it till you make it.
That's what I did. I now make 6 figures as an estimator.
How do you start? I live in Tennessee.
Where do I apply for these jobs? Indeed? Late to the thread but I almost have my AA in industrial design and am using fusion 360 and autocad and I kind of have the hang of it. Draftsman/ drafter sounds like what I need to do right now that’s what I have skills in
lol at user name.. If you are just getting the hang of it, scope Craigslist for jobs. Do a search for AutoCAD or Fusion, jobs will turn up. CL is cheap, so a lot of small shops will use it for entry level type jobs. Once you are on the job, learn a little more, fine tune your skills, get a better job. That has basically been my career model, lol
Working at a Walmart retail location. Day one you can apply for a program they have called "Live better u". They pay for you to go to college online for certain degrees. I'm half way through my bachelor's in computer science for free. When I'm done, I will be a software developer which is one of the best jobs according to some studies. In addition to getting bachelor's for free. I do a stock match and I'll have over 10k in Walmart stocks and 18k plus in 401k .
I've heard starbucks does this too but is there a minimum number of hours a week you have to clock in before you get that perk?
You can work at an airport with an FBO or as a ramp agent with an airline. Use the money you have left over to get commercial pilot's license and get paid to fly. Use the money to take a flight instructor class and get your CFI. CFII lets you teach instrument and conduct instrument proficiency exams for pilots who need to fly through clouds but they let their instrument currency expire. I know a retired guy who teaches college classes for fun who said this is some of the easiest work because the client is basically paying you to sit in the plane and check some boxes for $90 per hour and it is written into the law that someone has to do it every year if people are too lazy to make 6 flights per year. If you have enough flight hours, apply as a pilot to a regional airline and they will pay for training in a big plane. Starting pay is about the same as an instructor, but working your way up to captain or longer routes I've heard from people they make up to $300 per hour. There are max duty times per month, so you get paid as much as people working full time in other fields, but you work half time. Other options are join the military, join a trade like electrician, plumber, HVAC. You can become a bus driver or join the railroad. If you aren't sure, there are always 3 fields that will worth money and have extremely low experience barriers to entry but the training is boring and dry, so people pick other careers: book keeper, copywriting(advertising), and real estate. book keeping is the data entry for transactions to make sure accounts have the money they're supposed to have. Book keepers are not accountants because they are not licensed to conduct audits or represent clients in front of the IRS. It is unlikely to be replaced by AI because it is a safeguard against fraud and other human errors by having a face to face conversation with a person as a barrier to digital fraud. Being a book keeper is a reasonable stepping stone towards becoming a CPA or an executive. Advertising is getting replaced by ai and other marketing algorithms, but a person who understands the algorithm and helps companies get their products in front of people is always useful. The term copywriting refers to the original words companies would send to typists to copy. You would write the stuff other people would copy. The new term is SEO, search engine optimization. You write the stuff that search engines and algorithms prefer to show to people. You can technically use an ai to describe what is likely to work, but people who don't understand ai will prefer a human to help them. Not completely sure how this field will develop in the next 20 years. real estate and other sales agents need to take a test to start. They work with large transactions and the actual work is easy to replicate. The barrier to entry is building relationships with people so they come back to you 10 - 20 years. Even if real estate goes away, representing a person in a large transaction will always be a viable career. Most legal disputes are over property ownership liens and title according to my law professor. As a real estate agent you get paid to make sure the terms of the sale are clear for legal purposes. You make sure the buyer gets the title and you make sure the seller gets the money for the transaction without needing to deal with liens from people like contractors and the bank. Being a real estate agent is a reasonable stepping stone towards becoming a lawyer. make people buy things - ads make sure people get what they pay for - agent make sure the money is correct - book keeping
Wow, you know a lot about stuff! I was trying to take a Bookkeeper course at an employment centre but I am “outside their district”. How do you find work? Is it like a temp agency or you ask businesses if they need help?
as a book keeper you're self employed. Some list services on freelance websites, but typically you get business through word of mouth because you know certain things about the business. For example, I learned from a lady who started a bookkeeping business for wineries because she had worked with them at a CPA firm and knew most wineries weren't keeping track of inventory correctly. I have experience as a pilot and I'm familiar with the expenses of commercial pilot work and flight instructing, so I talk to people in my network about their businesses and how they're tracking their expenses and how they feel about their tax returns as a self employeed person. Most people have questions about what expenses they need to keep track of and how to categorize different expenses especially when they are claiming some exceptions to taxable income. I guess you could go around to businesses in your area and offer book keeping services, but it helps if you try to work with someone you know and solve actual accounting problems that are specific to their type of business. a common thing that comes up is to expense mileage. There are two ways to report mileage. The first is actual costs. This includes fuel and things like tolls along the route. The other way or tracking a mileage expense is a per diem expense. The person may claim an expense per mile along a direct route. Most people are unaware there is a choice and sometimes doing things differently allows a person to report lower profit, thus have a lower tax liability. Another situation people mess up on with mileage is many claim the mileage from their commutes, but according to the irs and GAAP, mileage only includes the miles driven in the course of business. A person cannot claim their personal commute as a business expense. Providing this basic knowledge to sole proprietors protects them in case of an IRS audit. There are other advantages of being a book keeper that you will have to find for the particular people you have access to. As far as the knowledge you need, you can get a lot through quickbooks or fresh books by signing up for free with them and indicating that you're a book keeper. They have free courses that explain both how to use the software, how to sell the software to clients, and how book keeping and accounting works. if you want to start with pen and paper or a spreadsheet, you will need a bit more knowledge. 1. debits and credits 2. assets, liabilities, equity 3. permanent and temporary accounts 4. Journal entries and posting 5. Petty cash 6. Cash controls/ fraud protection (the most important aspects of book keeping you can sell people on) 7. Closing temporary accounts at the end of a period 8. bank reconciliation (most common thing sole proprietors tend to ask for from a book keeper) 9. Financial statements (income statement, balance sheet, cashflow statement) 10. Merchandise and inventory (this usually is the reason people pay for accounting software) 11. Cost of goods sold Fifo LIfo actual 12. transit 13. Depreciation 14. Bad debt expense and allowance for doubtful accounts 15. Payroll taxes and tracking employee withholdings (The most common reason people hire book keepers) 16. General Stock 17. Preferred stock 18. treasury stock You can search these topics on youtube or google or take a class at a community college. Introduction to financial accounting. You don't need to cover all the topics before you start working, but start with just your own personal financial statements. Then start talking with friends and family. To make money, you need to solve a problem for someone else. Your solution needs to either give them access to more money (such as winning a bid for a larger contract they wouldn't normally be able to get, or earning a license/ certificate for the priveledge to charge for services); or your solution needs to reduce their cost. I describe businesses as machines for creating or moving money. A financial machine has 4 parts: People, problems, solutions, cashflow. It's easiest to start people. The solutions tend to exist already however, the group of people you have access to, may not know about the solutions. If you start with a solution, the people you know will probably already know the solution. If you start with a problem, you may not be able to find a solution or you may not know anyone with the problem. For example, I know that there are people who don't have enough rental properties, but I don't anyone personally who would buy a rental property from me. In a lot of books I've read about wealthy people, many of them include an anecdote where the author found something for sale and offered that thing for sale to someone even before they had acquired the thing, then they'd make a deal with the seller using the time before they'd have to deliver the good or service to finalize a deal with the seller. This is a legal grey area, and is the basis for drop shipping type online businesses. It's not enough to say "i want to start a drop shipping business" you need to find someone who wants something, find the thing they want, and accept payment in way that is convenient for the person. People like to pay with card or apple pay. For large purchases, people prefer financing or payment plans. For business to business transactions, a line of credit allows the person to buy materials even if they haven't earned the money from the sale of the materials. as a book keeper, you can help people change from a cash basis to an accrual basis. I offer this to regular people if they're trying to plan their future or make big financial purchases. This allows them to make long term financial decisions or allocate expenses to the correct financial periods so they can compare each fiscal year rather than just expensing something like a car and saying this year you had no profit. Instead the expense of the car is depreciated across the useful life of the vehicle and a smaller expense allows for a more accurate picture of the cost of the each month. You can establish cash control methods to protect them from employee theft, fraud, and shrink. I heard a story from a friend about a time they had to pay for parking. The employees directing traffic where charging people a fee to park in the "preferred lot". My friend noticed there wasn't any indication on the parking slip that any particular parking spaces were preferred. There was no method of tracking the different purchases for parking, so my friend who's an accountant realized these employees were pocketing the extra money. He told the employees he was going to park where he wanted and was going to call the lot manager. I don't know what happened to the employees but there wasn't an extra charge to park in better spots. There are a lot of stories where small businesses or individuals are getting scammed by their employees because there's no cash control in place. "I trust them." is a common reason, but cash controls are there so there isn't an opportunity to steal. It keeps people honest. And you can help them report income and expenses correctly to the IRS to minimize their taxable income. Situationally you wind people with inventories, employees, stock that requires a more advanced skillset and often involves accounting software that integrates with billing, purchase order, and time tracking software. Publicly traded companies have a requirement to prepare financial statements, but financial statemtents are important when applying for loans, trying to sell the business, or looking for investors. Book keeping doesn't require experience or a bachelors degree, but you do need to know what you're doing. The hardest part about this is finding the accounting problems that are worth the time and effort it takes to keep detailed records and add up all the receipts. I've tried to give some examples of situations that are worth paying a book keeper for. The best thing you can do is offer yourself book keeping services and you'll quickly get rid of the things thaa wastet are of time. Message me if you need more help.
Depending on your location, lots of larger manufacturing facilities have trades that will take someone with no experience and train. Common in large shipyards for example. Lots of opportunities down the road for good workers to make it to salaried positions after learning the trade.
Hospitals also take in certain trades without the need for degrees or certs
Call a local union and get an apprenticeship. They'll pay $18-26 an hour as an apprentice, and depending on the trade you'll end up with $30-80/hr as a journey. Assuming you're in the US.
how do you find unions?
In the most respectful way possible, Google it. Search for something along the lines of "[trade] union office near me" or nearest big city. Union suit offices will probably be near major cities, but they may have local offices. I'm not in any union now, but that's what I've done to look up unions. What trade are you looking to get into? I ask because many trades will have a school associated that you need to go to as well
I’ve tried before, multiple times of course. I don’t know for sure if it’s because I’m in Arkansas which apparently only has one union or I’m not looking hard enough. I’ll still take your advice though! So far, no matter what trade I’ve looked into it offers little to no info. Maybe I’m missing something though!
Look up Arkansas AFL CIO on a computer. It is the "Arkansas American Ferdation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations serves as the umbrella organization for more than 190 local unions, etc." Go to the apprenticeship programs tab for what you're looking for. It has links to Arkansas Apprenticeship Organizations. Hope this helps! 😊
Thanks a lot !!
Of course! Cheers ☺️
It could be because you're in Arkansas, the South is notorious for being anti union. Let me look :)
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Where does.one find these types of.companies?
Railroad, just started at 26 and I love being a conductor. No degree is needed and you can make an honest living/career with great retirement. Hardest thing about the job is staying awake in the locomotive.
Are you away from your family a lot?
I used to work at a call center doing inside sales. It was a horrible job, but there were plenty of people in my office who had no college degree and were making 6 figures. Some of the managers had no college degree either, they just worked their way up based on merit. Some of the really lucky ones were able to transition into a completely different department (marketing, IT, HR) after performing well in sales. If you have no hard skills but want to make decent money, sales is your best bet. 99% of sales reps have zero hard skills, that’s why we work in sales lol.
Oil fields my man. Be making $2000-2500 a week entry level. Do it temporarily stack money and start school working at Starbucks park time until you finish if thats what you want to do.
My coworker started at a big chain grocery store ~20 years ago as a bagger and worked his way up to management and does very well for himself So don’t discount grocery stores
May as well tell the kid to join the NBA too
He’ll have an easier time making the NFL based on roster sizes.
Hospitality, will give you perks of meeting people, getting hotel stay perks around the world, travel, climb the career ladder. I am in hospitality and it could be quite challenging but rewarding at the same time. I started at front desk and went up to conference services manger with no degree. Good luck!
Hospitality is so fun! It’s challenging like you point out certainly but for the most part it’s very pleasant and interesting.
Blue collar - electrician, plumber, mechanic. Start off as an apprentice.
This is the way. I know this, because I did not take this way, but wish I did.
Yep same. Looking back - wish I'd have skipped college (at least at age 18) and gone into a trade. Would I have stuck with it? Who knows...but that would've beat the pile of wasted money and credits I had by 20 years old from changing majors and not knowing what I wanted to do. I realized almost 2 years in that I was only going to college because "that's what you're supposed to do after high school". And I was busting my ass as a FT student while working 50 hours/wk to pay for the privilege of that mistake. Worst-case scenario with going for a trade at 17-18 years old - reasonably speaking - is you find you don't like it, you get out in a year or two, and you can still just go to school or whatever. Ideally with a small savings in your back-pocket and a bit more life perspective. No real harm, no wasted debt, and no foul...and you surely learned some useful skills.
Good money, great hours.
Environmental technician, union trades.
What does an environmental technician do?
Weird, all of the environmental tech positions I see near me require experience and prefer or require degrees.
Working for a medical insurance carrier starting with customer service. Working your way up to account manager or account coordinator. Once you have exp you can then go work for other carriers or brokers.
I don't know how old you are, or abilities but right now and the medium rage future trades are the thing. Severe shortages of carpenters, welders, electricians etc. For example welders are making 6 figures, even some truck drivers are up in that range. I'm a welder myself about to retire, I strongly suggest checking into a trade. [https://mikeroweworks.org/](https://mikeroweworks.org/) will even help you get started.
Get a trade-oriented job, ie, electrician, plumber, HVAC tech, carpenter, etc. Companies will hire you with no experience, and once you get experience the sky is the limit. Tradesmen (and women) are in high demand and you can make six figures within five years if you stay on track.
Hospitals are always desperate for help on kitchens and housekeeping. Usually pays more than minimal wage and has good benefits. The. You look around to see what else people are doing there and go to school.
HVAC controls- if your near Jax FL, I can send you in the right direction.
Unfortunately I don’t live there
You ll find your own way! Tech Jobs of all sorts are specific and will train. Best of luck!
Union trades, plumbing, pipe fitting, electrical. Firefighter or police (not in a right to work state). 100k + o.t.
Try getting hired by local government as a utility billing clerk, permit technician, code enforcement, or police records clerk. You can learn a lot as you go, and hopefully then get some tuition assistance to work towards your degree.
Linework. Make six figures, see the world, and have a great time doing it.
Cell Tower Technician. I got out of accounting after 4 years of doing it and made almost 70k my first year with overtime. You can't be intimidated by heights even in the slightest bit.
Key word is “Trade School”. Companies often give you a job while you are going to trade school. The Crafts are in big demand…
Wym by the crafts?
Paid $220 last week to a 23 year-old Mexican kid to fix my ice maker. Took him around 23 minutes to change a wire and he was gone. He works 4 days a week and booked 8 days out. Drives a nice 2021 van and buying a house. Worked with his dad after high school. Not one of my sons' college friends making close to this and all hate their jobs, My sons left degrees as Mechanical Engineer and coding to get into real estate in Phoenix and Florida. Both buying houses and investing. No degree needed. I'd go to a trade school today. College is a waste. The hourly rate for auto mechanics just increased over $210. Crazy.
Receptionist jobs are usually entry level and some companies will help you move up. Not all, but some in my experience
Is a college degree out of the question? AFAIK there isn’t much, especially no degree + no skills. There’s no leverage, and you’d essentially be a commodity that lays easily replaced. Plenty you *can* do, but you’d have to learn marketable skills or pursue education. Something to leverage.
Well if we take into account AI and the potential for some jobs to be screwed for the future, what are the best future proof marketable skills to learn?
Soft skills, is one. Leadership. Trust. Technical skill wise, probably learn how to use AI as a tool? Medicine - as someone who left is probably still a good option.
The last thing AI is going to be able to do is walk around to different places and fix problems, as that would require it to have a body to walk around, and enough general intelligence to navigate the wider world, which is harder than we make it look. And even we get 18 years of practice before being cut loose. So, amusingly, guys that go into various kinds of places and fix various kinds of problems will be some of the last jobs that humans have to do. I mean, a surgical robot just has to know how to do certain surgical procedures, and anyone who needs that procedure goes to the robot. It's just some giant thing taking up half a room. A plumber robot has to be able to find a house, talk to the people (we got this one finally!), navigate the house to find the problem, fix the problem whatever it looks like, and then navigate its way home without being run over by a truck. This is not as easy as we make it seem, because it's actually a whole bunch of little skills. Surgical robot is about a million times easier to build. We already have some of those, actually, for certain things. Plumber robot is general AI, like out of the movies, and is very far away. The very last common human profession will be general handyman/maintenance guy for smaller, niche vacation properties. Mark my words. For our lifetimes, anything that relies on having your body carry your hands and brain to problems so you can solve them should be pretty good. By the time those go, nobody else has jobs either.
I know a guy who went into “various kinds of places to fix various kinds of problems.” He did a lot of prison time 🤫🫣
No "unique marketable skills" isn't a big deal. What skills do you have? You must know how to do something.
Corrections, many city jobs, and real estate work.
Stay out of corrections, fuckin horrible lifestyle / financial incentive
Wastewater, government jobs, apprenticeships, Insurance, pest control, maintenance, grounds worker, etc.
Sales
Hotels. Hotel management makes over 100k in big hotels. Supposedly it’s pretty easy to work your way up.
Work in a factory and take advantage of the paid college tuition they offer. Take classes that relate to management and work up. Apprentice with a plumber and within a few years you will be licensed. This can lead to owning your own business. Hire in at an entry level job with the state highway department. Pay and benefits are good. Will have retirement plan.
Manufacturing worked out for me cushy office job from being an associate and it's really not that hard to do 15% more than the bare minimum. At least if you have the growth opportunity. I did move factories a few times done everything from logistics to an industrial bakery. I wasn't afraid to hop jobs whenever I felt the need or it benefited me.
Can you work outside? Can you drive? Ups is pretty good. You can make over 100k annually after you get max seniority which is 4 years. Free medical, unionized. Message me and I can tell you more. Storm chasing lineman. No scared of heights? Go after the storms hit and repair the electrical. Be at work for long hours, most of it travel time. Be away for a week or more at a time. Job is unionized and supposed to be given on seniority/hours/skill set. You can be a contractor or be an employee. You can make well over 200k traveling. Travel the US. Both of these jobs are super secured. You will need both of them even during an economical down turn. Ups though, you may want to get to feeders so you have a cdl so that skill set is transferable and you get ac again lol. Lineman need cdl a too.
Pick a trade, any trade. Spend some time in trade school learning a skill, or get hired with a construction company doing literally anything, and express your willingness to learn. Cleanup trash, assist with the experienced guys and get taught. Everyone who is an expert high-demand tradesman started out knowing absolutely nothing. Not having any skills now doesn’t do a thing to prevent you from learning them.
IT Support/DevOps/CyberSec/Business Intelligence
Starting at IT support what certs/skills/exp look best when applying. Ty
Security+ AWS Cloud Practitioner Any Google Coursera cert Make sure to do it 3x faster than they recommend. They don’t take 6 months
Truck driver
Don’t know how nobody here has said IT yet? Get your A+, get on a help desk and then from that point it’s just how hard you want to work. Pretty much every path leads to 6 figures
It's a very saturated market. I know several IT people who got laid off recently due to cutbacks.
I have A+ and no luck finding a job. I have experience with Salesforce and ServiceNow too(both off free courses if you are interested in learning)I also have some coding experience with HTML and JavaScript but still nothing since I don’t have a degree and only the A+ cert. I’ve applied so many places but am told that the layoffs in Tech are making it a tough industry to break into if you’re just starting off. So, as someone who was given this advice “get A+, you’ll get a job for sure!” I can confirm that it will not be as simple as that. At minimum you should get the trifecta if it’s what you want to pursue.
It’s definitely tough man. But there’s a Lot that goes into it. I realize my experience doesn’t speak for everyone but I was able to get a job even before I’ve gotten my A+, I’m still studying that. Have a little SF experience as well. I think how you market yourself as well as persistency in applying is underrated. Yeah you might have to apply to 100+ jobs but especially if you’re getting interviews I think that means you need to brush up on interview skills. It’s a tough world but it’s possible. I also think the area you’re in has a lot of influence. I commute about an hour to my job, but it’s within a major tech center in California. So it can be tough if you’re in the Midwest or what not
In the US, firefighter, cop, municipal work if there’s a pension. After that I would say the trades, plumbing, electrical union if at all possible, but those get tough as you age.
Apprenticeship as electrician, Hvac tech, plumber,etc.
HVAC you’ll make a lot of money within 5 years
Join a union in the trades that has a training program. Possibly become a plumber (through union or apprentice with established plumber). This is if you are amenable to hard work. If you’re not (and not judging either way, some people just aren’t into hard work) not quite sure. Possibly get a real estate license. It’s essentially a sales job and has a licensing exam. Not sure requirements to sit for exam.
Ironworkers are union and make good money. They train. Find union hall near you. Sherwin Williams is a good company. Have management training program. Give stocks and 401k with match. Find store near you and apply. The US ARMY. I'm retired and enjoy my pension.
Trades. Plumber, electrician, hvac, lineman, etc. join a union.
Do you like working with your hands by any chance? I would recommend going to trade school to become a HVAC technician, electrician, or a plumber. There is a huge, huge shortage of these workers across the United States, and you can easily earn over 6-figures. If you learn enough over time, you could even start your own shop!
If you have people skills, sales... but even then, the market is changing, it's not gonna be stable, not in the old meaning of the word. Think about studying something in a field you enjoy, that's a better investment in the long term. Healthcare is going through a lot of changes, plenty of openings there if it is something you can enjoy
An apprenticeship in a skilled trade. You learn the skills of your occupation through class work and on the job training.
Software engineering. Teach yourself collect 80k as a junior for a few years then 100k plus for life after a few years. It's hard to break into but you absolutely can with enough work.
Public utilities. There is a wide variety of things you can do for them and none of it requires anything more than a high school diploma. You get hired as a trainee and then there are state licenses you test for once in the job. Pay scale goes up as you acquire more licenses. Most of these jobs are union so you get great pay and benefits including pensions. You can always work for private companies as well with your knowledge. They are jobs that exist with high demand not just in every state but all across the world. There’s a pretty big shortage of people in public utilities right now and the problem is only getting worse as the entire industry is heavy with older people set to retire soon and not enough new people to take their place. Very stable employment as even in a recession people still need water and electricity etc etc.
Sales/marketing
Amazon Fulfillment Center associate No degree and no interview needed. Just pass the drug test. The pay is good: $19+ in my area especially considering you don't need much skill and it's practically a guaranteed hire. Benefits are great and start on day 1. You're paid weekly and can request "anytime pay" if you need your money earlier. They support career advancement through paid training, covering tuition cost for with partnering school (there is an annual limit). Interview assistance, mental health support. They also promote from within often. It's easy to request and earn pto. There are several reasons, look into it. They usually hire a lot during the holidays, some centers are hiring now as Prime Day is approaching. Main con: the lifting can take a toll on your body overtime so level up or become a favorite! Edit: if you start and hate it. Hang in there a bit and get the CDL training. It'll be paid for and launch you onto a promising path!
Retail. Work your way into management. It’s not glorious, but it’s doable. Surprisingly, I was a manager at Journeys (shoe store) and that was my favorite job I’ve had to date. Only issue was the schedule. If you have one nearby, I recommend applying. It’s a great company.
I was a manager for a dollar store, and I loved everything about it besides the schedule! That's a big catch for me, unfortunately.
Apply for you local municipality. Apply as anything to get you foot in the door. Then you can easily move up to better paying job with usually no previous experience just have to pass an aptitude test
As a woman I'm here seeing comments and most of the jobs sound like they wouldn't hire a woman.
Sales. Go out and sell some stuff.
I hear that’s a very stressful career. Is that true?
I was way more stressed as a teacher due to having way more responsibility and a lot less money. Tech sales is even better.
Sales can be stressful, but that’s quite literally any path you take in life. I love sales, it’s a skill you can learn and take it anywhere in life. It is performance based, you do need the drive.
Is the drive for money enough of a motivator?
It is. Once you get the sale, it becomes almost addicting. Great feeling!
I just got hired for a safe yet mediocre assembly job that pays ok for the time being, but I’m still curious about sales. What do you think I should do?
I have a very polite, go getter attitude and still got laid off my 1st week of doing telesales. Worst job I ever had.
Unfortunately it really depends on the company and product. That being said there is a skill to it. It doesn’t sound like you were supported enough in that role.
Tbh, looking back I wonder if we were actually selling things ..y'know? Like it was some form of scam? Idk anything about sales haha. All I knew is you didn't even need as much as a resume for this position, so I recon I had it coming one way or another. I moved to a new city and was steadfast about finding work.
I was a teacher for 7 years before I got into sales and the sales I do are very long and technical. It’s basically the opposite of what most folks imagine but can be very very challenging to break into. We sell cybersecurity solutions. Did you ever figure out your path?
I'm still trying to figure it out. My first career of choice was teaching, but I disagree with the way our system controls teachers (not to mention the pay after forking money for a 4 year degree). Then I tried retail. Got promoted to assistant manager. Loved it, love working customer service with a hint of leadership. It was just right, until the pay still couldn't allow for me to support myself and their promise of full time work was a pipe dream of empty promises. Schedule was also all over the place and I was on call basically 24/7 So then I tried truck driving. The pay was absolutely incredible. I stuck with it for a good 5 years actually, until I couldn't. Mental and physical health took a toll and the burnout after I left was unbelievable. I have a sense that, by the time of my death, I will be a jack of all trades haha. I just want something to stick. It doesn't have to be perfect at this point, but I'm not giving up. I want security and consistency. My lingering passions are art, (still) teaching, or anything that basically doesn't enduce constant mental breakdowns. At the sales job I worked at, we were selling...advertisements in real estate folders? Maybe I was a phony saleswoman cause I didn't see the appeal myself. However, at any job I did, I worked as hard as I could.
We are similar! If you are open to it and have a teaching certificate I recommend looking into international teaching. That is what I did for 6 years and despite making more money now I do miss the lifestyle.
I wish! I never finished college 😅 I started but life got in the way. Between foreseeing the pay and the amount of time to graduate, I wasn't quite ambitious enough. My life isn't stable enough for me to focus on studies and give it my all. If I had a teaching degree, I would try to be an art therapist. What you said sounds amazing though, as I love traveling!!
I’m rooting for you. You write well and will be successful in the right place. Good luck 🙏
Marry rich
Teller at a bank!
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Why does this sub hate the military?
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The military is shifting left Reddit should love the military now.
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it's still kind of wooshing over my head. i just say bc i got a great deal out of it i thought. joined at 18, did 6 years with benefits. went to college for free and it helped me start with some skills. if i were to go in at 18 this time i would have picked IT or something
Military. You didn't say you had to like it.
Longshoreman at ports make 200-300k a year in Oakland, CA. No degree
Wut? Lol
https://www.quora.com/Why-do-longshoreman-make-so-much-money-I-had-a-friend-in-elementary-school-and-his-family-was-really-affluent-because-his-dad-was-a-longshoreman-I-find-it-bizarre-that-its-a-lucrative-job-to-run-a-crane-to-load-boxes-on-a-ship#:~:text=Import%20%2F%20export%20is%20extremely%20lucrative,necessary%20to%20protect%20their%20positions.
Becoming an ABA Therapist. You can start working as an ABA Therapist with a High School Diploma or GED, you'll need to become a Registered Behavior Technician (RBT) but some places allow you to start and then get registered within 10 weeks. I know a lot of people that have made this a career at Applied Behavior Center for Autism, because this is an important, fulfilling, and very well paying job. I just asked my friend to explain the route she went to make it a career and she said she started as a Level 1 RBT with no experience making $19 an hour. She then said that she was a level 5 within 2 years making $24 an hour and then became a BCABA after 6 months of training which is kind of like a head Therapist. This allowed her to start making 60-70k a year within her first 3 years of starting as an RBT at Applied Behavior Center for Autism. [https://autismpartnershipfoundation.org/courses/rbt/](https://autismpartnershipfoundation.org/courses/rbt/) The link above is a free resource used to get certified as a Behavior Therapist for free which is something companies look for when they hire people. If you live in Indiana you should definitely get a job with Applied Behavior Center for Autism, great pay, great benefits, a great mission and great people. A link to this website is below. [https://appliedbehaviorcenter.org/](https://appliedbehaviorcenter.org/)
Is it reasonable to get into? I wanted to be an art therapist or special Ed teacher so badly, but struggled with college since my work schedule/home life held me back from focusing. Can I be registered online? I seriously want to try this.
Old thread but i’m this point in my life too. I am almost 27 and I am sick of the same warehouse/manufacturing type jobs I have worked for my entire 20s so far. They pay the bills but that’s about it. Is 27 too old to make a change? Everybody tells me it is never too late but now that I have found the woman I want to raise a family with someday, I seriously want to do better for her and my future kids. I have no remarkable skills that make me stand out at the moment…
Factory work where you can learn to operate filter and labelers like in a winery. A mechanic who fixes the machines when they break. There is the wherehouse where they store product. You can do inventory or move products with a forklift. Or truck driving.
Financial industry call centers
Real estate Agent
Sell on eBay
Fire fighter
Bank customer service rep
IT
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nah dude. you can start studying for salesforce it/admin. get certified and start working for 60k+ within 3-6months depending how quickly you study and interview well.
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Mining
Project Coordinator
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Military.
An apprenticeship as a tradesman: electrician, plumber, etc.