Gaurav251 Posted March 20, 2013 Posted March 20, 2013 Seems like my public school hell on earth life didnt give me much good, I seem to be suffering from psychological issues now due to the indoctrination and the teaching of nothingness I underwent in there, 2 more courses and after that I am free to do what I want because then I have a piece of paper telling me I survived indoctrination, But I have decided that college is not my thing, I dont want to go through another 4 years of life like this again, its to painful and thinking about it drives me to the brink of suicide, however I dont know what to do now, should I go get a low minimum wage job to get some work experience? Or maybe take an apprencticeship for something? Or start learning programming on my own time? I dont know exactly what I to do. Is there like some one else here in my shoes or a book on trying to find a way out of my narrow path of public education?
cherapple Posted March 20, 2013 Posted March 20, 2013 Some resources: The Teenage Liberation Handbook, by Grace Llewllyn, mostly for not going to high school, but helpful even for those who aren't teenagers, and who want to find ways to educate themselves Better Than College, by Blake Boles Uncollege.org That's just a start. Those will lead you to others. There is information all over the internet about educating yourself and making a living without college.
Gaurav251 Posted March 20, 2013 Author Posted March 20, 2013 Thanks, I will start working on those things right now, it seems to be a very hard struggle for me to get affection or attention from any of my family to even ask them what I should do at this point. Luckily theres people who I never met in real life out there that are willing to help me
Nielsio2 Posted March 20, 2013 Posted March 20, 2013 http://www.openbadges.org/ - Get recognition for skills you learn anywhere.
mikrob Posted March 20, 2013 Posted March 20, 2013 Without college your best bet for a good living is being your own boss in a blue collar trade. You'd probably have to work as an employee for a few years to get experience. But don't waste time as an employee unless it is a business you want to make a career out of. I'll give a personal example to show that I have some credibility on the subject. I started as a locksmith employee in 1979. I started my own locksmith business in 1982. I live in a county of only 20,000 people & average 5 hours of work per day. Over the last thirty years I have managed to save about $14,000.00 per year & I have $430,000.00 in assets with no debts. None of this came from investments as my investments lost me more money than I made. Just putting money in bank accounts worked for me. One more thing...don't get married if you want to protect your assets. I did marry & divorce 20 years later but I got very lucky in the financials of the divirce. Most men won't get so lucky in a divorce.
Gaurav251 Posted March 20, 2013 Author Posted March 20, 2013 Just to let you know, I am not ignoring your advices just because I started with the first person who responded to me, all these things will be very helpful to me in the coming months and I appreciate any experience, feedback from people who have been out of school and went through the same phase as me, Guess what I am really saying is thanks!
Gaurav251 Posted March 20, 2013 Author Posted March 20, 2013 http://www.openbadges.org/ - Get recognition for skills you learn anywhere. Hello, I must ask, can I use this site anywhere for any job? Show them my badges and it will be identified as my 'skills' and 'traits'? I really love things like this!
Nielsio2 Posted March 23, 2013 Posted March 23, 2013 Hello, I must ask, can I use this site anywhere for any job? Show them my badges and it will be identified as my 'skills' and 'traits'? I really love things like this! If it will be identified depends on the business. Open Badges has only just started, but it shouldn't take long for the credentials to be taken seriously. I suggest try it out.
Heath Long Posted March 23, 2013 Posted March 23, 2013 This is what I did: I found a job that was in the field that I liked. It paid shit, but I did it well. So well in fact, that I they paid me to learn to do it better, which led to projects which helped the company and gave me a career. My field is programming. I was hired to write HTML to update websites and I figured out how to generate the code from a database back in 1999, which changed my life and the business I worked for simultaneously. Now, I run a development team and I continue to grow as a professional. I never stop writing code because managers who do not write code are easily fired and lose their edge. I have seen a ton of 50 year old guys who used to write code and who went into management where they promptly stopped coding and lost their worth. They are now job seeking with their last coding being the outdated tech that I did in 1999. My advice is, find a jr. development position, even if it pays shit, and run with the opportunity. Never stop growing. I hired a dude recently who is in his 50's and went the management route, but he never stopped coding. He will never be looking for a job for long because he keeps his skills up to date. Find today's technology and make it obsolete. Rinse. Repeat.
cherapple Posted April 21, 2013 Posted April 21, 2013 Kids skip college, blaze different career paths Zero Tuition College and other college alternatives featured in USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2013/04/21/avoiding-college-avoiding-debt/1987309/
DoubtingThomas Posted April 26, 2013 Posted April 26, 2013 This is what I did: I found a job that was in the field that I liked. It paid shit, but I did it well. So well in fact, that I they paid me to learn to do it better, which led to projects which helped the company and gave me a career. My field is programming. I was hired to write HTML to update websites and I figured out how to generate the code from a database back in 1999, which changed my life and the business I worked for simultaneously. Now, I run a development team and I continue to grow as a professional. I never stop writing code because managers who do not write code are easily fired and lose their edge. I have seen a ton of 50 year old guys who used to write code and who went into management where they promptly stopped coding and lost their worth. They are now job seeking with their last coding being the outdated tech that I did in 1999. My advice is, find a jr. development position, even if it pays shit, and run with the opportunity. Never stop growing. I hired a dude recently who is in his 50's and went the management route, but he never stopped coding. He will never be looking for a job for long because he keeps his skills up to date. Find today's technology and make it obsolete. Rinse. Repeat. This is inspirational and I am so glad you posted your experience! My only wish was that I could do that kind of skillful programming. I took a night-class on java once and it was absolutel drudgery. The instructor was also a useless prick who essentially left us to self-teach with extremely difficult assignments, but it forced me to quickly realize I was not cut out for a career of staring at an IDE and trying to figure out what was wrong with this picture. I would say that I regret my decision to go to college, but I met my wonderful wife there so it wasn't entirely wasteful. Unfortunately I cannot supply much useful information on what to do while searching for a career because I am still searching for my own, but my advice to the OP (in terms of what not to do): a. Don't take a job to take a job. Take the time to find a job in the field that interests you. Don't be the student who gets stuck in the retail job he doesn't particularly like (nothing against retail, some people love it, and it is voluntary!). b. Don't let educators sell you on educaiton. I got a history degree during a recession because "employers respect a liberal arts degree," and that (outside of academia and the odd eccentric) is simply not true. Terrible investment. c. Don't sell yourself short on something as broad as "math," or "science," or "writing," because you probably can do much better than you think. I had afwul math teachers in highschool and worse in college, but I am now learning calculus with help from online tutoring. It amazed me how easily the subject became once I overcame this fear. d. Don't let the confusion of life and career seraching get the best of you. It is easy to become depressed or overwhelmed, but you don't have to. Staying up-beat and continuing to pursue self-knowledge no matter what happens will ultimately be what leads you out of hard times. Best of luck!
LovePrevails Posted April 27, 2013 Posted April 27, 2013 Here are some vague suggestions If you get a job to stockpile a bit of cashish, don't go for the highest paying job go for the job that you will learn most new skills from or the most valuable skills if you don't fancy staying in a job for life, as soon as you have stopped learning from the job start looking for a new job that will teach you different skills (unless of course you love the job) rinse repeat, until you can start using your skills to look for better jobs or start your own business Another good option may be voluntary service overseas, you can travel the world working in other countries, meeting beautiful people and learning practical skills that will be of economic value when you get back the most important thing is to be always learing new things that you can do to be of value to other people, that's where you will find your income and fulfillment since it's a great thing to know you are being useful to others
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