What academic advice would you give a college freshman pursuing a lucrative career?

[Yadkin]

Originally Posted by LATB

Actually there is. It requires a marketing plan and a lot of networking. If a custom woodworker gets in the right crowd and develops a reputation he can have more work than he an handle. And for BIG money. We are talking 10 thousand and 20 thousand dollar tables and chairs at 2-3 grand each.

I know a man with a small shop (pales in comparison to yours) and he specializes in wood outdoor benches. Usually cypress or pine but often oak and other hardwoods. I commissioned him for a client who spent $5500 on a custom bench for their porch.

The key is get in the good graces of the “Mercedes Ladies”

This is exactly what my late FIL did. He started out teaching shop, then general contracting, then built-ins and custom cabinets. He worked multiple homes in Tuxedo Park, NY. Then custom work for their NYC apartments. He even did museum cabinets, sealed and nitrogen filled.

Along the way his well heeled clients placed him on their bank boards for his hands on experience. That became his retirement job, and he invested wisely, leaving his eight children and wife a nice inheritance.

[SurfnSun]

Originally Posted by LATB

I’m 64 and do it almost every day. I’ve been at it for 50+ years and will probably only quit when I am completely physically unable.

Even though I have daily aches and pains I still enjoy it. If I go a couple of days without working with my hands/tools/tractor/equipment, I get a little stir crazy.

I thought you were a realtor….did I remember wrong?

[Frankie the Fink]

Originally Posted by LATB

I’m 64 and do it almost every day. I’ve been at it for 50+ years and will probably only quit when I am completely physically unable.

Even though I have daily aches and pains I still enjoy it. If I go a couple of days without working with my hands/tools/tractor/equipment, I get a little stir crazy.

A did all that at 64 too - wait a few years, 8-10, and we'll see.

[Bruze]

Originally Posted by Frankie the Fink

A did all that at 64 too - wait a few years, 8-10, and we'll see.

LOL, yes, I fell apart at 71.

[RMVette]

I told both my kids to pick a profession that isn't to dependent on the economy, my daughter is studying nursing and my son will study forensics this fall...Oh or this...

[IB4TL]

Pics of college girls

[Bruze]

Originally Posted by RMVette

I told both my kids to pick a profession that isn't to dependent on the economy, my daughter is studying nursing and my son will study forensics this fall...Oh or this...

Attachment 99850

Ha, plastics. The 53 years I spent in moldmaking (plastic injection) I never heard of any moldmakers getting laid off.

[LATB]

Originally Posted by SurfnSun

I thought you were a realtor….did I remember wrong?

Technically a 3rd generation carpenter...
I've had a real estate license for 20 years. Until recently I had a state certified contractors license for 30 years. We closed the home building business but I still do construction consulting work and currently building a new home and developing our rural farm property.

[LATB]

Originally Posted by Frankie the Fink

A did all that at 64 too - wait a few years, 8-10, and we'll see.

I imagine in 10 years I'll be much more limited in my physical abilities.

[Mick]

Originally Posted by Datawiz

Software programming, security, AI, database management, ...

The tech industry has served me handsomely, and I have no regrets. I have a formal degree in accounting, but everything in my life that's tech is self-taught. 37 years and counting...

My son went to RPI, graduated in 3 years with degrees in Comp Sci/EE. He is 25 years old, working for Amazon in their Elastic File System, part of AWS. He makes more money now than I ever did.

He is basically an expert in "data structures". Even when he was still in college, the faculty asked him to help them improve the sophomore level data structures class, because so many students were struggling with it.

[Frankie the Fink]

Well my degree in Amateur Gynecology hasn't paid all that well, but its been an interesting field....

Board certified gynecologists just go around "spreading old wives' tails" and I wouldn't want to do it full time.

[SurfnSun]

Originally Posted by LATB

Until recently I had a state certified contractors license for 30 years.

There's the backup plan I was referencing. Big difference in being a contractor and an hourly carpenter.

My dad started as a brick mason, then went to carpentry, then owned a home building company.

I love the trades but you better expand opportunities/investments or life can be rough when you're older.

[Ronins2ndCuzzin]

I have to agree with the cyber security recommendations. A GOOD cyber guy pulls around $150K starting in the DC/VA area and around 125-130K everywhere else. You will NEVER be unemployed, especially if you get a TS clearance.

[6spdC6]

Originally Posted by dvarapala

Don't got to college. Become a plumber or an electrician and start being lucrative immediately, rather than having to dig yourself out from under hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of student loan debt (ain't no way Trump is gonna forgive that shit).

Well in some cases not immediately but then again not that long.

At the risk of being pilloried by some on here because of union affiliation I will add in my .10 cents (Adjusted for inflation) I have said many times I used the union they did not use me!

After a few years of doing a couple other jobs, I joined the pipe fitters union as a apprentice.(1970) It was a 5 year time frame and at that time we started at minimum wage and got raises every 6 months till you became a full fledged mechanic and thusly earned full pay. Now understand that was a minimum, if you produced and your boss was not a cheapo you could make more money than the minimums I described. Many times serious OT was easy to get.

I got married my first year in the union then we had a couple kids and in my 5th year as a apprentice we bought our first house.

Going to skip a awful lot of details but by diligent work I was able to retire at full pension at age 55 (2002) Retired very comfortably and now live on a paid for house on a big lake in northern NY.

I did the math on my stock portfolio, what my paid for house is worth and a couple other things minus my liabilities (thats a very small number) and the total(Net Worth) proved to be a rather decent number.

I agree with many others and will state college especially those dumb assed liberal bullshit degrees are not for everybody. Common sense and a good work ethic has taken me much farther than many of the kids I went to school with/ hung around that went to college.

I retired very comfortably long before most of them did, some of them by over 12 years.

[DAB]

The common theme in all these success stories is “hard work”

You can’t count on anyone else to take care of you.

[Frankie the Fink]

Originally Posted by Ronins2ndCuzzin

I have to agree with the cyber security recommendations. A GOOD cyber guy pulls around $150K starting in the DC/VA area and around 125-130K everywhere else. You will NEVER be unemployed, especially if you get a TS clearance.

When I was a Wash DC Federal Exec in the early 2000's contractors were telling me they had to pay 6 digits for kids with cybersecurity degrees straight out of college - the need was that desperate. Even folks with fresh CISSP / CISA certs were commanding fat salaries...

[Frankie the Fink]

Originally Posted by 6spdC6

Well in some cases not immediately but then again not that long.

At the risk of being pilloried by some on here because of union affiliation I will add in my .10 cents (Adjusted for inflation) I have said many times I used the union they did not use me!

After a few years of doing a couple other jobs, I joined the pipe fitters union as a apprentice.(1970) It was a 5 year time frame and at that time we started at minimum wage and got raises every 6 months till you became a full fledged mechanic and thusly earned full pay. Now understand that was a minimum, if you produced and your boss was not a cheapo you could make more money than the minimums I described. Many times serious OT was easy to get.

I got married my first year in the union then we had a couple kids and in my 5th year as a apprentice we bought our first house.

Going to skip a awful lot of details but by diligent work I was able to retire at full pension at age 55 (2002) Retired very comfortably and now live on a paid for house on a big lake in northern NY.

I did the math on my stock portfolio, what my paid for house is worth and a couple other things minus my liabilities (thats a very small number) and the total(Net Worth) proved to be a rather decent number.

I agree with many others and will state college especially those dumb assed liberal bullshit degrees are not for everybody. Common sense and a good work ethic has taken me much farther than many of the kids I went to school with/ hung around that went to college.

I retired very comfortably long before most of them did, some of them by over 12 years.

I actually returned from the Army and completed a 4 year Federal avionics apprenticeship program to become a journeyman on Navy fighters - good benefits, nice pay but demanding work physically and working in steamy hangars wasn't much fun.

I used my GI Bill for night school and got my Computer Science degree in 1985 before that was even a "thing". Both professions served me well. There is not one damned thing wrong with working with your hands in a trade. As Mike Rowe will gladly tell you.

[Onebadcad]

Originally Posted by DAB

The common theme in all these success stories is “hard work”

You can’t count on anyone else to take care of you.

Or just get a job with the gov:
no stress
no overtime
no weekends
no standard of performance
zero accountability
lifetime tenure
free beenefits
free pension
union gets you a raise every year
etc...

[Aerovette]

I am ashamed to say it, but I have always wondered what it is like to be really really good at something. I excel at mediocrity and am moderately successful at being somewhat functional at best. It's my comfort zone now.

As a kid I was a great tree climber and an awesome bike jumper. It did not translate well to adulthood.

[LATB]

Originally Posted by DAB

The common theme in all these success stories is “hard work”

You can’t count on anyone else to take care of you.

Indeed. And most young Americans do not have any desire to work and especially work hard.