Where in Alaska can I work entry level and make enough to support myself? (to rent, to buy)

[brokeadventurer]

I am an inexperienced 23 year old who has only graduated high school.
Yet I am able bodied and I am tired of having slacked these past 6 years since graduation.
I am asking in this forum because I live in North Texas (Dallas) and know that work is in demand and there are tons of jobs out there in this country, yet I don't know where in this particular state(Alaska). I just wanted to ask for suggestions on where to start looking. Construction, oil industry, or whatnot. I am very willing to get out there and have my own life already.
Thanks in advance.

[AK76]

Alaska's economy is in the toilet right now, best to avoid it for the time being. Texas on the other hand has a strong economy last I read, best to try there, or another state that is economically fit.

[AKStafford]

As AK76 pointed out, our economy is in the ol' crapper. But maybe start with a seasonal job: https://www.coolworks.com/alaska-jobs/ You might be a little late to the party for this year, but take a look.

[AlaskaErik]

You can work entry level and you can support yourself, but you won't support yourself at entry level. They're two different things.

[semispherical]

It's rough to find entry-level work in either CA or AK, but probably rougher in AK. Stay in TX until you have enough of a financial cushion to move and in the meanwhile, maybe read up on both and narrow down your options a tad.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/calif...ork-entry.html

[Arktikos]

Some seasonal summer jobs can pay well.

Recently talked with a guy who's been coming to Alaska for the past 20 years to bar tend during the tourist season, then he heads to Mexico for the rest of the year.

[RosieSD]

Originally Posted by Blind Cleric

Some seasonal summer jobs can pay well.

Recently talked with a guy who's been coming to Alaska for the past 20 years to bar tend during the tourist season, then he heads to Mexico for the rest of the year.

Yeah, but he has 20 years of bartender experience under his belt.

[pittsflyer]

I came back up here with a BS in chemical engineering from a top university. All of my family is from up here and it took me a year to find an entry level job, becasue I have family up here it was no big deal, I drove a beater car and had everything else covered. I would not come up here knowing no one and having no support network unless you had a job lined up that paid enough to cover all your bills and save at least 30% of your income so you could put enough away if you had to get out.


Where is your family from? Just coming up here to work just to work is a dead end game plan. IF you are doing that the job need to provide significant learning opprotunies to bid your own jobs and establish yourself or it needs to pay enough so that you can save up enough money to "buy in" to Alaska. IF you take some crap job "digging ditches" then your not going to learn anything nor advance enough to buy in.


You have to think about these things now because when you are mid 30's you dont want to be living check to check to rent some slummy appartment. You need to be strategizing now how your going to actually set up shop and make things comfortable for yourself.


There are plenty of employers here and I would imagine even more in texas that are more than willing to exploit some young people for cheap labor while giving them almost no significant trade knowlage in the process. The IBEW still has an apprentice program up here but just taking an "entry level" job without an apprentice program does not guarentee that you are actually going to get the training you need to advance, you could end up doing grunt work for a long time before you can actually make any real money or establish yourself.

[Frostnip]

If you're dead set on coming to Alaska, I second the suggestion of starting with a seasonal job, if you don't have an existing marketable skillset. Might be able to leverage that into a year-round position if you impress someone local, and if not, at least you have a season's worth of cash and a good recommendation in your pocket for whatever you decide to do next.

That said, entry-level wages go a lot farther in the south/southwest than they do in Alaska, and Alaska's economy is currently stagnant at best.

[pittsflyer]

Originally Posted by Frostnip

If you're dead set on coming to Alaska, I second the suggestion of starting with a seasonal job, if you don't have an existing marketable skillset. Might be able to leverage that into a year-round position if you impress someone local, and if not, at least you have a season's worth of cash and a good recommendation in your pocket for whatever you decide to do next.

That said, entry-level wages go a lot farther in the south/southwest than they do in Alaska, and Alaska's economy is currently stagnant at best.

Once people start wising up that entry level wages up here are really sub entry level due to the COL the tourism industry will start to struggle. The only people I knew that came up here for seasonal work had friends or family they stayed with for free or for drasticly reduced rates from the market. Just so they could say they "paid their way". I noticed alot of that when I was in college, massive subsidization by family and they worked just enough so they could wear the "I worked my way through university" badge, when in reality the math was totally fubar.