Greentext

Why is learning a trade only considered a last resort? Even on lemmy, I got downvoted to shit when I commented that people should focus less on degrees and more on industry certification, to have some actual value they can sell to potential employers. An electrician certification proves that you can do something. A bachelor's degree is just a checkbox to prove you went through the motions.

Relying on just degrees that virtually everybody else has is stupid. Anon has nothing that stands out from the soup of zero-experience job seekers.

Be me Min wage job Go to college for game programming in 2019, think ill be a game developer Degree in '23 130k debt Companies hiring Grok over actual programmers Still only min wage job MFW

Anon discovers capitalism and for-profit post-secondary education.

This thread has a lot of people saying things like "don't get a degree" or "get a trade cert" or "work in a different field to get experience" which I feel completely side-steps many issues and the realities that many people face. It's just a fundamentally broken system. The value of degrees fluctuates so much because of a political climate that has the stability of a pane of glass being violently thrown off of a building and a job market that prioritizes either posting ghost jobs to overwork employees to death or outsourcing its candidate search to whoever can guess the most buzzwords in an application.

We have come to the point where me must accept that it is normal for people to spend their early 20s smoking weed and masturbating

I got my degree in 2014 at 22, and it still took scores of applications to get even a handful of interviews and one job offer for $17 an hour. I can only imagine what young people deal with today. I know it's only worsened in the last half decade or so.

The social contract has been destroyed. Time to get the pitchforks!

This is how revolutions start. Some smooth talker is going to come along and motivate all these people to do something wonderful or terrible.

To be fair I was like that when I was 23 a long ass time ago, too...

While college sure aint the answer to everything, spending your days jerking off and watching TV sure aint the answer either.

If you can't get a job in your field with a graduate degree, why does anyone think that if you get a master's, suddenly the jobs will appear?

Usually, you need a lot of less skilled workers, and as you go up in skill, the demand for the numbers of workers goes down. So getting something more advanced/specialized may actually shrink your pool of options.

Plus, people with entry jobs with graduate degrees are more likely to shift jobs because someone is offering a higher skill position with more pay, so entry jobs should become available more frequently. In contrast, highly specialised jobs requiring the masters degree and whatnot will have some quadragenarian holding it as a salaried/tenured employee.

Me too brotha, me too…crank that hog for me one time please o7

Why are people talking like being a mechanic is bum work, or like there's a huge overhead cost in being a mechanic, or that you have to go to trade school to be a mechanic, or like mechanic work is going away?

None of these is true.

Mechanics will always have work, usually with overtime, and usually pay is very decent.

No degree required. Certs optional.

Tools are very affordable when you're not buying them all at once.

Lots of room to change specializations.

ICE mechanics are still going to be hugely in demand because the Internal Combustion Engine isn't going anywhere, even if they stop putting them in some/ most automobiles. But there are dozens of other mechanical disciplines, and as long as you know how to (when to) then a wrench, you can always get a job.

A bearing is a bearing, whether it's on a crank shaft, an electric motor, a tail pulley, or a garage door.

Can confirm a Masters is pointless. Especially when everyone else at your table in the pub has a PhD.

I feel so sad for the younger people. At least companies seem to be hiring again, people are getting cold calls. I told my son not to go to college, he'll just become a debt slave.

If mechanically inclined, consider FAA Airframe and Powerplant mechanic. You'll never want for work the wages are great and there's contracting opportunities all over the world. Really the worst best part is that the defense and "war" sector of aircraft work does pay the best.

Honestly, if you're in this situation, and you have any interest at all in education, or just think it wouldn't drive you mad, look into substitute teaching. In my area the only requirement to be a substitute is to have any bachelor's degree and to be able to pass a very rigorous background check. (Think fingerprinting.) I'm currently exploring a mid-career transition to K12 teaching, and I'm planning on doing a bunch of substitute teaching in the coming school year. Substitutes make about $260/day in my district. Not amazing money, but it still comes to a solid $30/hr or so. And there's enough demand at least where I'm at that they often have postings go unfilled.

And hell, just getting out of the house and regularly interacting with people will do wonders for your mental health. I wouldn't recommend substitute teaching as a permanent career. But for someone in transition or trying to get started, it's a great option. It's a very useful way of getting past the trap of "I need experience to get the job, but I need the job to get experience." At least in my area, if you've got a bachelor's and a clean criminal record, you can become a substitute.

I graduated into Bush's recession, so I went to get a PhD in education. They pay you a small wage to do research, guaranteed for 5 years in my program. Graduated that into a healthy economy that... old professors weren't willing to retire from. Finally give up after several second place rejections and take a simple adjunct professor job just in time for the pandemic, cutting my classes to a third.

But hey, at least I didn't get that job at NCES; Trump 2.0 royally fucked all those education PhD federal jobs.

This is me but I'm in my 40s with over 25 years experience in my field. My ex left me hi and dry when she left me and I can't find a job despite my applying anywhere and everywhere that might pay more than minimum wage. I've still got my own place, but the shame I feel having to ask my parents for money is unbearable at times.

I'm currently trying to start my own business, but I still need money to pay bills in the interim. Capitalism is a fucking cancer on society.

My retirement plan is a tent in the park.

Don't look down on trade schools. The trades are a great way to make good money and not likely to be replaced by AI... If I was that age today, I would be very strongly looking at that type of work. Or something in the medical field.

If you got the degree you can land a basic government job that isn't in a major city. Process permits for 20 an hour in a small town easily. And the smaller more rural towns don't usually require a degree and will consider someone who will just live in town.

And from there you can work you way up way better than any corporate environment.

Anon was 23 in 2022.

Rest assured, it's much worse now.

There should be more of a plan for young adults and society than "good luck," if they want it. The fact that it's basically chaos is insane to me.

Why does he not say what his bachelor's degree is in? It seems highly relevant

I just got my PhD in December and still jobless. I agree with this sentiment.

I feel like I'm alone with this one, but if you have options, swallow your pride and take them. It's a paycheck, and can always lead to something better. I took a paycheck job at a retail store and I'm on the management team. Is it something to brag about? God no, it sucks. But my bills are paid and I can advance.

You can always get a job as a prison guard. Sidebar, you get a job that's below you and then start a business on paper that's doing something relevant to your degree field and you hire yourself. Then you put that shit on your resume, wham bam thank you mam, one year later and some interview preparation you got your pick of the litter.