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what is the best educational plan for me career wise?
I'd ask a few hard questions. Chances are, I might suggest looking to the trades. What do electricians, plumbers and mechanics make? Can they find jobs? How much debt are they faced with when they get certified?
I think this country has done a disservice to high school kids by telling them they will be nothing unless they get a college degree. As a degree holder, I just want to say that this country needs people who can build houses and fix stuff. There is good money to be made! How much did your plumber charge to fix your toilet-a 45 minute visit. My guess about the same as what your dentist did for a cleaning.
We need scientists and plumbers. I don't see many electricians or auto mechanics living with their parents at age 30. Not so much the case with folk who hold BA and MA degrees.
I spoke with a senior in high school a few years ago and I told him he didn't have to go to college, there were other viable options if it wasn't for him. He said I was the first adult to say that to him.
what is the best educational plan for me career wise?
I'd ask a few hard questions. Chances are, I might suggest looking to the trades. What do electricians, plumbers and mechanics make? Can they find jobs? How much debt are they faced with when they get certified?
I think this country has done a disservice to high school kids by telling them they will be nothing unless they get a college degree. As a degree holder, I just want to say that this country needs people who can build houses and fix stuff. There is good money to be made! How much did your plumber charge to fix your toilet-a 45 minute visit. My guess about the same as what your dentist did for a cleaning.
We need scientists and plumbers. I don't see many electricians or auto mechanics living with their parents at age 30. Not so much the case with folk who hold BA and MA degrees.
I know electricians and plumbers who are out of work, cannot find work. I even know a guy who does both, and he's been out of work for about 6 months. He used to get a few fix-it jobs around town to tide him over until the next big project, but even that's petered out.
I thought it was a recession-proof career, but it's not. Apparently too many people thought so, and there's a glut everywhere.
Contrary to popular belief, we have more than enough scientists and a great many science degree holders are unemployed or underemployed-involuntarily-out-of-field or working in the science field for low wages. It's been said that in the science graduate school trenches the notion that science is a good career is sometimes referred to as "The Myth". To learn more, check out this great article:
I guess my advice to a young person would be to try to find out what kind of work you would enjoy in a reasonably secure field and then try to enter that field at minimal expense. Also, focus on the actual doing of the work and not on whether or not the subject matter is interesting. It's very possible that the subject matter in book form may be intellectually interesting but that the actual work itself is far less glamorous and miserable.
Consider science, for example. It's great on paper, but the actual doing of science work is often glorified blue collar laboratory work. (After you've purified the same protein five times and need to do it 100 more times, it's no longer that interesting.)
I know electricians and plumbers who are out of work, cannot find work. I even know a guy who does both, and he's been out of work for about 6 months. He used to get a few fix-it jobs around town to tide him over until the next big project, but even that's petered out.
I thought it was a recession-proof career, but it's not. Apparently too many people thought so, and there's a glut everywhere.
They could find work if they wanted to by relocating to North Dakota. At least work is available if they are willing to relocate which you cannot say for a great many other fields.
They could find work if they wanted to by relocating to North Dakota. At least work is available if they are willing to relocate which you cannot say for a great many other fields.
Yes, on the oil rigs. Oh sure, you can make good money in fast-food there, but it'll cost you to live there, and this boom won't last forever. Meanwhile, on NPR this morning:
Millennials To Bear The Burden Of Boomer's Social Safety Net : NPR
** We looked at the older folks in the millennial generation presumably through their formal education and we looked at their economic experiences on all the indicators you would - wages, employment, unemployment, debt, poverty, et cetera - and what we found is that today's generation of young adults that age, there is a bigger gap in economic outcomes between those who didn't go beyond high school and those who went to college than there ever had been in the past.
The biggest reason that the gap has increased is not so much that today's college graduates are doing better than yesterday's, it's that today's high school graduates are doing so much worse. In this age group, today's unemployment rate, 3.8 percent if you have a college degree or more, 12 percent if you have a high school degree or less.**
At 16 I'd tell a kid to find out what he's really interested in, what his passion is, what turns him on -- whether its desiging rocket ships or fixing pipes or painting pictures. At that age most kids need to be exposed to a lot of different things to find out what they're really into and could conceivably want to do for a life's work. At 16 I'd tell the kids to try stuff he's never thought of, talk to anybody he can who works and ask them what it's like to do what they do for a living. I'd tell the 16 year old to travel out of his neighborhood, his city, his state, his region, if possible, and just look around. I'd do my best to expand his world, not limit it, because you just can't make the best choices you can with only limited knowldege. Then in a year or two he'll have a very good idea about how his education should proceed.
I think this country has done a disservice to high school kids by telling them they will be nothing unless they get a college degree.
Do you have a source for that?
AFAIK, "this country" has not told kids anything of the sort.
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