Getting Started With Career Choices

Are you thinking about going to College for a 4 year degree... then, my first question is going to be WHY???

Not everyone is well suited to go to college and be successful... and being successful is not necessarily making “A's” and “B's” in all your classes... it is more along the lines of how much information did you retain and how good are you at using or implementing that information.

Let me explain with the following analogy:

• Those that can do... do
• Those that cannot do... teach
• Those that cannot teach... consult

While there is obviously a little sarcastic humor in that statement there is more truth in there that you at first blush realize... NOT EVERYONE CAN DO

Unfortunately, that realization usually comes after one's college graduation when you have to start paying back all your student loans.

So, college is most definitely NOT FOR EVERYONE

In the State of Tennessee, the first two years of college are FREE... so, if you lived here, you could spend 2 years of your life taking college courses, just to see if that kind of education and knowledge is right for you.

It will also give you an opportunity to spend some time thinking about what it is that you want to do with your life which is not always an easy question to answer.

When you logically think about it, there will always be a need for:

1. Doctors
2. Lawyers
3. Dentists
4. Healthcare Workers
5. Law Enforcement
6. Fire Persons
7. Military Persons
8. Teachers & Professors
9. Electricians
10. Plumbers
11. Contractors
12. Carpenters
13. Construction Workers
14. Restaurant Employees
15. Hotel/Motel Employees
16. Auto Mechanics
17. Government Workers
18. Managers
19. Accountants
20. Sales People
21. Prison Guards
22. Airlines Personnel
23. Cruise Ship Personnel
24. Farmers
25. Farm Equipment
26. Insurance Company Personnel
27. Drug Company Personnel
28. Truck Drivers

Now, not all of the jobs are in fact recession proof but these jobs are jobs on which we depend to some degree or another.

Another consideration, is your willingness to relocate within the State or to relocate outside of the State in which you live. For example, if you have attended a Community College and received training and become licensed in: Electrical, Plumbing, Heating and Air for instance... and if you were willing to move down to any resort area on the East Coast, the Gulf Coast, or the West Coast, then you would have so much work that you would have no choice but to hire people to work for you.

This work could come from the construction of new home which granted is seasonal and at best up and down most of the year, but doing renovations on existing structures NEVER ENDS... and you will always have plenty of work.

If you do not want to stick your fingers in the mouths of strangers, then I would stay away from professions like dentist and/or dental assistant, but there are plenty of technical jobs available in the healthcare industry like Xray Tech, CT/PET Scan/MRI Tech that go unfilled on a regular basis because no one ever thinks to look for training and work in that area.

And, the healthcare industry is recession proof and the number of people needing healthcare in the future is going to increase not decrease.

Restaurant Workers is not considered by many to be a glorified job, but many waitresses and waiters will tell you that they are averaging in certain areas $200/night in tips and almost every weekend no matter where the location is, it is that much or more. I have also talked with several Restaurant Managers who told me that they started out as a Bus Boy, then moved to a Waiter, then moved to a Cook, then moved to an Assistant Manager, then to their current position as Manager all within a span of 10-15 years, sometimes between 8-10 years. All the training and education, Managers ever needed was provided by the company or paid for by the company and the employee attended College. The average salary of these Managers was between $150,000 and $200,000 annually.

So, if you are considering a career, maybe going out straight to a job after high school is the direction you need to take, rather than spend 4 years in College and have a $200,000 student loan debt that will take you the rest of your life to pay off.

You will find later on in life that DEBT restricts MOBILITY.

Another excellent choice is enlisting in the military but I would be careful as to which Branch of the military because some Branches will immediately put you in harms way; so, my choice would be the Air Force. Once there and after 4 years and if you play your cards right, the Air Force will send you to College to get both a Bachelors and Masters Degree if you are willing to spend 20 years with them. So, after 4 years you spend 4 more in College for a Bachelors Degree and then 2 more after that in College for a Masters Degree which totals 10 years so far... leaving you 10 years left to follow through on your commitment and in those 10 years you will have plenty of time to acquire a PhD via online.

If you enlisted at 18 years of age and add another 20, then you will retire from the Air Force at age 38 which is really young to retire, but you will retire at the pay grade of an Officer. Now, armed with your PhD, you apply at a local College or University to be hired as a Professor where you teach classes (working on average 20 hours/week and always having your summers off) for another 20 years so now you are 58 years old. While you have retired twice and have 2 pensions, you are still not old enough to receive Social Security.

So, maybe you should stay in the military for 25 years (retiring at 43) and maybe you work as a Professor for another 25 years (taking you to 68) and now you are probably eligible for full Social Security retirement and if not, you are damn close.

You are retired with 3 sources of INCOME...

The point is that college may not be the right avenue to take for you... so, spend a little time while you are in high school or immediately following high school and think about what you want to do with your life and what careers always seem to be hiring... and, if you are not, go talk to people at some of these places that always seem to have job openings.

I did not do this when I graduated from high school because I just automatically assumed that everyone in my family had to go to college and that I was not going to be given a waiver. I floundered around in college, eventually dropped out, and spent a few years in the military and returned to college... but, it was not until much, much later that I discovered that what I really wanted to do was be an in-house trainer for a company.

Bear in mind that when you are looking for careers that are always around that workers are going to make much less of a wage than those who manage those workers... but, one does not always have to go to college in order to manage workers, but one does have to pay ones dues as a worker if that is the route that you want to go.

Debt is a constraint in everything that you do so avoid debt as best you can and look towards the future, not today or next week.

Hope this has helped a little?