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Say you had a guy who went to college and graduated with a 2.0 GPA, no relevant internships or anything of the sort. He didn't major in finance or engineering either meaning that whatever he majored in, he would need a masters or professional school experience in order to break into a lucrative career.
So the guy graduates college with a 2.0 GPA or whatever is required for graduation. To help his cause some, lets say he went to a fairly relevant university (not Harvard or Yale but a respectable state university).
In the grand scheme of things, how screwed is he if he wants to actually get a job that pays more than 50k annually?
One poster already mentioned that police officers with just a high school diploma can make well over 50k in large cities like Austin, Houston, Dallas, Miami, and Detroit. All cities with a moderate cost of living.
Truck drivers can easily pull in over 50k if they drive over the road and if buy their own truck and run under their own authority they can pull in six figures as an owner operator.
One poster said skilled IT work. If someone can get a certificate in SQL they can find some jobs paying up to 80k a year with no college required.
Welders and plumbers can bring in $50k easily and the specialized welders in Texas doing underground drilling make 6 figures.
I am getting sick and tired of our society looking down on blue collar workers. Plenty of them are making more money and are better off than some white collar workers that are corporate America drones making their meager $45-60k salaries and getting abused in so many ways from private sector employers.
One poster already mentioned that police officers with just a high school diploma can make well over 50k in large cities like Austin, Houston, Dallas, Miami, and Detroit. All cities with a moderate cost of living.
Truck drivers can easily pull in over 50k if they drive over the road and if buy their own truck and run under their own authority they can pull in six figures as an owner operator.
One poster said skilled IT work. If someone can get a certificate in SQL they can find some jobs paying up to 80k a year with no college required.
Welders and plumbers can bring in $50k easily and the specialized welders in Texas doing underground drilling make 6 figures.
I am getting sick and tired of our society looking down on blue collar workers. Plenty of them are making more money and are better off than some white collar workers that are corporate America drones making their meager $45-60k salaries and getting abused in so many ways from private sector employers.
None of these jobs "start" at 50K, which is what the poster I questioned said. None of these jobs are one you can get with just a high school diploma.
Austin Texas start their officers off at $50k during academy training and $57k upon graduation. No college credits required; However Houston, Dallas, Tampa, and Miami police departments do require 45-60 college credits and also start their officers off at $50k.
Entry level accountants, chemists, school teachers, and nurses are lucky if they get start out at $50k. Took me almost a year and having to move to get $50k as a chemist and all we get is 3% cost of living raises while police officers in big cities get a significant raise after their 1 year probation period.
Not saying college is a bad idea or poor investment but there are some jobs that don't require a 4 year degree and pay decent money and only require 6 months of training after high school.
Austin Texas start their officers off at $50k during academy training and $57k upon graduation. No college credits required; However Houston, Dallas, Tampa, and Miami police departments do require 45-60 college credits and also start their officers off at $50k.
Entry level accountants, chemists, school teachers, and nurses are lucky if they get start out at $50k. Took me almost a year and having to move to get $50k as a chemist and all we get is 3% cost of living raises while police officers in big cities get a significant raise after their 1 year probation period.
Not saying college is a bad idea or poor investment but there are some jobs that don't require a 4 year degree and pay decent money and only require 6 months of training after high school.
Sorry, but accountants, chemists, and nurses around here all make more than 50K to start, however, they need a 4 year degree, not a high school diploma. Teachers, some make that, some make close to that, but typically they make enough above cost of living in an area to not have scrape by, usually.
Just because I could get by without a college degree doesn't mean I'd want to.
One thing that often gets glossed over is that jobs that don't require degrees tend to be a lot harder than, say, my job. Yeah, I'm sure a lot of welders make almost as much money as I do, but they have to deal with frightening working conditions and chronic on-the-job injuries and stresses that can really come back to haunt them when they get just a bit older than I am.
At my job, I get to do really cool stuff, and worst danger I have to face is a potential paper cut.
Plus, my salary keeps going up, indefinitely.
You can hear about people who can work their way up to such-and-such. Well, get a graduate degree and you can start there with room to grow. That's a trap for engineers, too, since they tend to start out higher than everyone else, but they plateau sooner.
At my community college and university, a 2.0 is the lowest required GPA.
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