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If your friends are making $10/hr in a high COL area, then move to the surburbs. The downtown/uptown areas are always incredibly expensive. I have never lived in the central part the city.
How does one "acquire some skills" overnight? It takes a minimum of two years to "acquire skills" (at least, legitimate ones) that translate into measurably higher income. Paying rent for a room for two years in NYC while acquiring skills would cost nearly a half a million dollars.
The American media has portrayed life in NYC as being a glamorous, fun place, where ordinary people with HS or BA in Humanities have casual but challenging and creative jobs that allow them to ride around in taxis and buy groceries at the local deli and sit around and psychobabble with their beautiful friends all day and always have their hair and nails done and live in a clean tidy flat with lots of windows and high ceilings and a well-stocked bar and buy their fashionable clothes at retail and have plenty of free time to spend days in line to buy movie tickets or cellphones. I shudder to think what it is really like.
Err, not in this world, it wouldn't. I have a buddy that went into a sheet metal apprentice program straight out of high school. Pay was less than half of a Journeyman but still around $15/hour. Costs are fairly minimal, and rent for a room in NYC doesn't cost anything even remotely close to $8000 a month -- and that's for a five year internship. That pays more than busing tables.
How does one "acquire some skills" overnight? It takes a minimum of two years to "acquire skills" (at least, legitimate ones) that translate into measurably higher income. Paying rent for a room for two years in NYC while acquiring skills would cost nearly a half a million dollars.
The American media has portrayed life in NYC as being a glamorous, fun place, where ordinary people with HS or BA in Humanities have casual but challenging and creative jobs that allow them to ride around in taxis and buy groceries at the local deli and sit around and psychobabble with their beautiful friends all day and always have their hair and nails done and live in a clean tidy flat with lots of windows and high ceilings and a well-stocked bar and buy their fashionable clothes at retail and have plenty of free time to spend days in line to buy movie tickets or cellphones. I shudder to think what it is really like.
It can be done in less than 2 years.
I spent 4 months working on a SQL certification. Two companies offered me a raise of $12k and $20k over my last job. It may have been fun to keep applying for more jobs, but I was ready to start.
Err, not in this world, it wouldn't. I have a buddy that went into a sheet metal apprentice program straight out of high school. Pay was less than half of a Journeyman but still around $15/hour. Costs are fairly minimal, and rent for a room in NYC doesn't cost anything even remotely close to $8000 a year -- and that's for a five year internship. That pays more than busing tables.
It surprises me how overlooked apprenticeship opportunities are with regards to young folks. Maybe they don't know about them because school counselors are not talking about this stuff anymore, but they are out there. Furthermore, most employers in the skilled trades acknowledge that there will be a shortage of available labor as the baby boomers start retiring. Unlike many white collar professionals, these blue collar professionals will be retiring with pensions in many cases, so they won't be delaying retirement in a scramble to pile away the last bit of savings they can.
I started my apprenticeship right in HS. Right out of the gate, I was making $14/hr, great bennies, and free learning opportunity. With the wage alone, I was making considerably more than most of my friends were at my age, and I could actually afford to live on my own. Modest living, but out of my parent's hair none the less. You definitely have to work for it, and most of the work starting out is grunt work and hard on the body, but you're trading your time and effort for a free education in a skill you can take anywhere. Sounds like an incredibly good deal to me if you don't mind a little work.
Thanks for the background on apprentice programs. Around here, most young people feel heavily pressured to go to a community college in order to get "working papers".
But I'm assuming that, with any kind of job so hard to find, there probably aren't a lot of $14/hr apprenticeships going around.
But I'm assuming that, with any kind of job so hard to find, there probably aren't a lot of $14/hr apprenticeships going around.
Sure there are. Many union apprenticeships such as those for electricians and plumbers still carry the same entry level wage as 5 years ago. Many programs see value in bringing on new blood for a couple reasons... They recognize there will be a shortage of journeymen in the coming years (and people to pay into the system), and it also allows them to hire cheaper help. It doesn't make sense to hire a $40/hr electrician to clean up debree when you can hire the $15/hr kid off the street who will probably perform that job faster anyways. The apprenticeship program kills two birds with one stone. The limitation of course is in new construction, but there is still work to be found. This is also recognized as a great time to find sharp young people who would have otherwise fallen into the college track. Those are the kids who will really be leading the way in the trades and figuring out better ways to get the job done tomorrow, as well as starting businesses of their own.
I know there are still a few apprenticeship opportunities in my trade through the union, but the wages are all over the place. Where I started, it's $12/hr today, but that was due to labor agreements made during bankruptcy. Many other companies are offering as much as $17/hr, especially in aerospace where the work is more complex and challenging.
There are also many non union companies who have their own apprenticeship programs established that do not lead to a journeyman card. A company I applied to earlier this year has an active "apprenticeship" program that they have been running for 10 years now. They take their apprentices through every step of the process in their company, so trainees understand the job and methods in their entirety. They also include classroom learning paid for by the employer, technical training in various areas, offsite workshops as well as company trips taken to trade shows and conventions. You can learn just as much, and often times more in a non union shop as you can in a union shop. Often times, the union programs are slower to adapt to change, and so apprentices come out with an outdated skillset and understanding of the profession. Non union shops generally emphasis competitive approaches and that means staying on top of the latest developments in the trade. I also know plenty of non union "apprenticeship" programs that offer good wages in the area of $15/hr and up. Those programs tend to be more competitive and are rather particular regarding who they hire.
Don't disregard an opportunity because it does not lead to a credential or a journeyman card. They are nice to have, but it's the actual skills that you possess that dictate how far you will go, and how much you can earn. I do not have my card, but I also earn a good chunk more without it than I would had I stayed in my program. In fact, since that company did not stay competitive, I would be earning quite a bit less. I would have also had very little exposure to the type of work I do today, which is much more in demand. Non union shops face fierce competition, and that competitiveness is what breeds evolution, both on the part of the methods applied and the worker.
The big metros are where the high paying and highly skilled white collar jobs tend to be clustered. Electricians and plumbers are needed in every city, but it's unlikely that you'll see employers that need highly educated and trained engineers, financiers, Big 4 accounting, etc, in small town Wyoming. Those jobs are concentrated in NYC/Boston/Bay Area/DC/Chicago and large regional metros. I am from small town TN and most of my immediate circle of friends were STEM/Business majors and had to move off to bigger metros to survive or are in the process of doing so. Those in the blue collar trades, health care, and education were able to stay.
I'm all for apprenticeships and also community colleges. Too many kids have been shoved through college for no good reason.
The only city I know anything about is Boston and it's incredibly expensive to live there. You can't move to the suburbs either because they're just as bad if not worse. It gets a little bit cheaper if you move a few hours away but then you're too far away to get to work. It's definitely the kind of place where someone with a PhD works in an office getting minimum wage.
In Boston the jobs are bio-tech, medical research and some kinds of computer related--this is from what I see and hear on the media. If you can do that, you're good. If not, move away. The Boston area is so expensive that hoards of young people have moved away, mostly to the south.
I've always been glad that I don't like city life anyway.
I'm all for apprenticeships and also community colleges. Too many kids have been shoved through college for no good reason.
The only city I know anything about is Boston and it's incredibly expensive to live there. You can't move to the suburbs either because they're just as bad if not worse. It gets a little bit cheaper if you move a few hours away but then you're too far away to get to work. It's definitely the kind of place where someone with a PhD works in an office getting minimum wage.
In Boston the jobs are bio-tech, medical research and some kinds of computer related--this is from what I see and hear on the media. If you can do that, you're good. If not, move away. The Boston area is so expensive that hoards of young people have moved away, mostly to the south.
I've always been glad that I don't like city life anyway.
thank you, at least you understand. my childhood friends are there, and we are all in our late 20's. all of their family, cousins, grandparents, etc are there. but, its so hard for them to move out, even if they have goverment housing. Its kind of hard to justify paying 1,600 or so for a decent studio, not everyone there can land a high paying job with a degree in hand.
and getting married is another huge issue, its hard to live in a shoebox studio while the baby is crying, on top of paying for childcare.
Many young people end up moving for a job and leaving their mom and dad. You have to go where where the opportunities are. I relocated for $20k/yr raise to Dallas, when the other job offers were ok. A move doesn't have to be permanent.
I know somebody that moved to California for $150k for position at a Fortune 500 company and back to Texas to be closer to family, after 3 years.
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