For us we had a big trade school you could go to for the last two years of high school. Normal school academic classes for one half of the day, the program of your choice for the other.
They had IT stuff, welding, auto repair, culinary etc. I went for EMS/Fire.
I still went to college. It's a cool social experience but holy fuck it's a bad financial move for most people. I'm glad I graduated debt free
Don't forget that most highschools also dropped any trades oriented classes too. So now if you want a decently paying career without a college degree then too fucking bad. They're trying to eliminate any alternative to the college debt shackle to make their worker drones more easy to manipulate and abuse.
The extra kick in the teeth is for those that for whatever reason couldn't/didn't go to college! All that messaging of "go to college or you're going to be worthless" just so happens to have the affect of making you feel completely worthless for not having a degree! All those years on online dating I'd pass on people that were educated and/or had good jobs because "why the hell would they be interested in a worthless uneducated factory worker." It's fun!
I have no debt, nor a house though, but I do have tons and tons of depression and self loathing!
This is how it went down for me:
My senior year, they herded us into the auditorium for a 45 minute presentation on how you would be a total failure and will be scrubbing toilets for all of your days if you didn't sign up for college RIGHT NOW. After that, you were put in line for the recruiter where you'd pick your school and your major. When it came my turn, I told them that I wasn't sure and was thinking of trade school. The recruiter said "oh." and sent me back to class. The school seemed to care a lot less about my academic well being after that exchange. The Military recruiters were VERY interested in how I was doing though. Being a teen during the 00's was wild.
Also:
- Don't rush having children, get some financial stability first!
- Don't rush having children, get some financial stability first!
- Don't rush having children, get some financial stability first!
- Don't rush having children, get some financial stability first!
- Don't rush having children, get some financial stability first!
- Don't rush having children, get some financial stability first!
- Don't rush having children, get some financial stability first!
- Don't rush having children, get some financial stability first!
- Don't rush having children, get some financial stability first!
- By the way, this rule only applied to people of color. By the age of 30, you supposed to have at least 4 children. Now tell me where are my grandchildren?
I love taking my twice graduated college educated ass to job postings for my field and being offered $60k CAD for highly skilled work that requires both a bachelor's and about 5-10 years of experience to pay for my $40-50k worth of education. It's great!
I've been in the job market for a while and apart from not having a bachelors degree, I have most of the certifications and experience needed. But I did the math, I am unable to afford my bills (excluding things like fuel for my car and food for the table) on anything less than around $65-70k. I don't ask for much for everything else, but I generally need at least $75k a year to survive without starving or going bankrupt.
Life is expensive and it keeps getting more expensive, but the wages I saw posted over 10 years ago when I graduated, are the same wages I see now for the same or similar work. Since the cost of everything has increased significantly over that time, I just move on to other job postings.
Don't mention salary in the post? I'm not interested. Don't have an option for full time remote? No thanks. I don't want to spend hours of my life every week in traffic, spending hundreds of dollars a month on fuel, just so you can look me in the face and say "you look tired".... Yeah, because I'm forced to be here and I'm not able to do this work from home.
What is the difference if I go to the office and use these online/cloud tools, versus doing the same from home? I don't understand.
I had no postsecondary interests, but my parents were the embodiment of this, yep yep.
Turns out taking random subjects you have no interest in doesn't result in success. Crazy. What did I want to do? Nothing. Still don't. Unioned Plant Operator it is.
Luckily that was in 2010 Canada. Wasn't much debt, just a waste of 3 years.
I graduated into Bush's recession so naturally I doubled down and got a PhD. At least they pay you stipends to do that, even if I'm even less employable than ever! *Cries in millennial
College degrees still have better lifetime earnings on average.
I'm pretty tired of this broad anti-college brush that all the social media tools are spreading around. If someone is cluelessly going to college and can't figure out that a 6-figure degree for a $45k/yr job is a bad idea they should probably try a junior college economics class, first.
Now, before someone gets all bent out of shape: NO, college is not for everyone. Don't go to a $100k college for a job that earns $45k/yr, people don't need to go to UC San Diego, one of the most expensive colleges, to major in being a veterinary assistant. Nobody cares if someone went to a cheap college after their first job experiance. Yes, people should go to a trade school if that is the direction they'd rather go. If people don't have a direction in life that would be improved by a degree or trade, then good luck to them. No, the vast, vast majority are not going to be a rich influencer or youtuber, either, where they get to post how great not going to college was.
You got so woke since going to college!
Never felt so targeted in my fucking life.
Social media wasn’t around back then to show them how college makes people gay, i.e. tolerant and open-minded. It’s hard to lump minorities into a stereotype you hate when you meet individuals, and they’re just people like you.
Plus, the promise of riches from a college education went out the window when it became less valuable than a boomer high school diploma.
What shall we light on fire first? Or who?
As a corollary, go to college for something commercially viable. If your degree is in medieval Estonian poetry, you are going to have a hard time getting a job with that that pays off the debt. Recent history aside, there were very few people who went into things like electrical engineering or medical science that could not find employment.
too real for me
