Anyone else feel the same? What can be done about it? What good alternatives? The internet suggests trade jobs, but how can there be time for other things?
Yeah. Get a trade. We will need welders and construction workers. Plumbing even.
Or… X ray tech. Any front line medical stuff, really. The medical field is economy proof. If you cant get work as a trained medical tech; it is because society collapsed and youre likely just trying to keep people alive after war lord raids.
I’m not sure there is any economy proof job. There’s a massive shortage of medical staff in my country. Not because there aren’t enough medics or potential medics, but because wages and conditions have been suppressed and worsened. It’s not an attractive career, and many people who pursue it for the right reasons (helping others) soon get disillusioned and leave.
What i meant by economy proof is that medical know how is attatched to inelastic demand and critical services.
Societies can last a very very long time without say… A hospitality industry. Not quite so with the medical industry, despite the ongoing fuckery of underpaying medical professionals.
Even if you might end up constantly broke; it is good to have a skill one can retreat to that offers a reliable schedule and has constant openings and you’ll be making SOME money.
As you said; there is a shortage of workers in the field.
I live with my parents. Gonna get a passport soon for when I may need to use it. A lot of credentials are scams btw I’ve learned that. Stay safe.
The commodified version of education is problematic. And educational institutions’ marketing departments have a lot to answer for. But if we look past the qualification, education itself is not a scam.
True, but how can I get education at a cheap price without going through all these “smart” classes and enduring this APUSH bullshit propaganda I’ll be dealing with for the next few months, and hopefully not ever again.
Just to be clear, I agree that some courses are scams, and the people running them do not care at all about the students. Some courses are more scam-y than others. I was mainly rejecting the idea that e.g. certain qualifications are scams because the graduates do not end up getting the relevant job. That is problematic, but the education could still be useful. It might depend on the students’ expectations going in.
If you are only taking a course because you need it to get a job, find out from the people with the jobs what qualifications they want. Do not take the word of the person selling the education!
Then find out if the person offering the job will hire you first, on the promise that you will get the qualification later, maybe part-time. And / or then ask the employer to pay for or contribute to the costs of the course. You’d be surprised how many employers will do this if you show drive / ambition and convince them that your getting the qualification will improve their company / institution. Try not to interpret this as ‘work all the unsociable hours’ – get enough work done in the (standard?) working day.
Hmm… you raise an interesting question, there. Unfortunately, I do not think you will ever avoid the propaganda. If it’s less noticeable because it’s not a random intruder telling you about how stocks work, it’s just more subtle.
But there are strategies for dealing with propaganda and dealing with the bourgeois / liberal world outlook.
- To be critical you need subject matter to analyse. If you read or watch some Michael Parenti, you’ll notice that he is citing the APUSH-friendly sources. Use your time on your AP sources to learn exactly what claims are being made, and how they are being made. A know-your-enemy kind of thing.
- If you spend time reading Marxist sources in your own time, you will be well-armed to criticise the APUSH materials. And you will see how Marxists approach similar topics. If you start this work at your age, you’ll be set.
- It may be useful to keep your head down, practice your best chameleon pose, and blend in. There’s a sense in which you just need to learn the answers that will pass the test. It’s unfortunate and dull, but there it is. Unless we get a revolution soon, it’s these qualifications that will get you a job you enjoy (or don’t hate). Gabriel Rockhill (his video lectures are good, too) said that he only has his job, in which he is able to pay his bills and spend his time doing historical materialism, because he will always be hired as an expert in French Critical Theory (of which he is not a fan).
- Be an autodidact. Learn more outside the classroom than inside it. Do what’s needed inside the classroom, but study what you really want to study in your own time.
Thank you for the information! I find it to be great advice to know the qualifications of a job because then as you work on them, you may have experience, which is what the employer is looking for.
Thank you for the advice on dealing with liberal propaganda. I have been learning outside of class, however as of now, the teacher seems to assign work that will only be done by a specific source or video. Other assignments are able to be done with other sources, so I will try out Michael Parenti’s works. Could you share recommendations of his?
What examples of credentials that may be scams? I might have ran into them before but I can’t quite tell
I did a TEFL UK course went through that and they’re getting wicked about the last like 2 assignments. What a waste it’s gonna be done. Now I hear you can just buy these credentials, that’s what EJ says.
I heard that as well! I wonder how much they would cost…
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My advice:
- Whatever you do, commit to it for the duration, but know that you can change your mind.
- You could do something else for now, and go to college later. If you pick up qualifications and skills in another field, this can bolster your CV if you do apply for college.
- And whatever you do, whatever qualifications you achieve, try not to expect that you will continue to get a related job. Lots of tradespersons become disillusioned and change jobs. Lots of people with degrees realise they cannot pursue their subject and get jobs in other fields.
- There’s no such thing as a job for life; just roll with the flow and try to enjoy whatever you end up doing at any given time.
- Whatever you do, try to excel at it. Be the best you can be, for you; you can add skills and qualifications to your CV and with a little creativity jump professions. This does not mean work flat out for your employer. There will be pressure to arrive early, leave late, say yes to everything, work weekends. It’s a trap. And when it inevitably comes to downsizing and lay-offs, all this extra work will count for very little. Companies / employers will not be loyal to you. But you can work hard and be loyal to yourself so that you can sell yourself at the next interview. It’s less than ideal, but this is the reality in capitalism.
- By all means pursue a ‘vocation’, but don’t fall into the trap of pursuing a vocation. By this I mean, if your managers or employer knows / suspects that you are doing a job ‘because you love it, rather than for the money’, they will abuse you for it. You may have to learn how to walk this tightrope if you go for a job that is considered to be a vocation.
- Given the framing of your question, people may suggest working for yourself, ‘then you can control your own day’. It’s another trap. Being self employed is stressful and you end up spending your evenings working (paperwork, for example) because you know that if you mess up you lose it all.
Why don’t you want to go to college? Or, rather, what do you want to do? What do you enjoy doing? What are you good at?
It may be different where you are, but tradespersons where I am from have a good work-life balance. It may be long hours (35-60, depending on the trade), but so is every other profession. But when the tradesperson gets home, unless they are self employed or running their own business, they can switch off and do whatever they like. There’s also lots of scope to organise workers in the trades. There’s an idea that tradespersons always have work. It’s a lie. If it ever was a stable job, it is not any more. At least where I’m from.
I can answer other questions about higher education, if you want to ask, like what subject to pick it where to go, etc. I may have to give general answers, but I may have some good advice.
Thank you for the information! It helped me find clarity in a few things :)) I do have a few questions
I can answer other questions about higher education, if you want to ask, like what subject to pick it where to go, etc. I may have to give general answers, but I may have some good advice.
Could you go more detail into this? I’d love to learn more about it. Also, I’m deeply interested in music producing, however it might take a while before I gain success. So my second interest may be sound engineering, may it be sound engineering in movies or other things. What would be a great career for this?
It may be different where you are, but tradespersons where I am from have a good work-life balance. It may be long hours (35-60, depending on the trade), but so is every other profession. But when the tradesperson gets home, unless they are self employed or running their own business, they can switch off and do whatever they like. There’s also lots of scope to organise workers in the trades. There’s an idea that tradespersons always have work. It’s a lie. If it ever was a stable job, it is not any more. At least where I’m from.
I’ve heard on the internet that tradespersons always have work, however I also felt that may not be true. I do hear about some bosses calling the workers to come work at random times. What do you think of this? Btw where are you from?
I’ll be happy to keep talking (and hard to keep quiet). Apologies for the delay. I was thinking about a suitable answer, which is long, but not intended to be exhaustive.
From the comments you post and questions you ask, I have no doubt that you will be able to achieve whatever you set out to achieve. It sounds like a stressful time for you, and there will be a lot of pressure to get everything right – but there is no right. There are expectations and beliefs about what the ‘right’ path is, but the world is changing so quickly. Most of the adults around you will just be guessing!
There’s no rush. Well, there might be – you might want /need to live on your own, for example. But there’s no real rush to get all the ‘right’ qualifications now. Take your time. Do something, and get good at it. Then do something else if you get bored or can afford it. This idea that people leave school, go to university, get the job they studied for, and buy a house is just a dream. Try not to let other people with this image put pressure on you.
Music producing and sound engineering! Nice. My friend studied sound engineering and now works in a TV studio. I’m unsure of the full range of career opportunities, and I’m unsure if a degree is needed. But…
Higher Education (HE)
There is a way of speaking about HE that sees some courses as related to a particular job (e.g. law) and others as ‘just’ degrees (e.g. history – sorry, historians) that teach transferable (but important) skills and knowledge.
This is an unhelpful distinction. Law is an undergraduate subject where I am, and the stats show that most people who study law will not get a law-related job. If they do, it is unlikely to be one of the prestigious standing-up-in-court roles.
Still, discussions about the issue usually fall back on the assumption that law students will go on to practice law. The same is likely true (I’m less familiar with the statistics) for other ‘practical’ courses, such as some of the more specific sciences. Even a PhD graduate in say, organic chemistry, is not guaranteed a job in organic chemistry. At every level, there are more graduates than jobs.
It is not necessarily a problem that graduates do not find a related job. Promising students that this will happen is a problem, though. In a better society, it would happen. In the current system, we should be more honest. So it can be helpful to see all degrees (and education) as useful for teaching transferable skills and knowledge.
What subject?
Lord Sumption (a British Law Lord) once suggested that budding lawyers study any subject except law. His point was that law is quite easy to get your head around, the technical bits are taught on required post-grad courses, and the important skills needed to practice law are transferable and can be acquired by studying something like history or literature. I do not agree with Lord Sumption about much, but he is onto something.
There are two ways to go from here:
- Pick a subject that you enjoy and do not worry too much about what job it will lead to; or
- Pick a subject that is directly relevant to the job you want, ignore the naysayers, and do not stop until you get what you want.
In a sense, your choice will likely be the same whichever option you choose. The important thing will be to realise that you may end up in a different field / job (because you change your mind or because you are forced to).
As such, if you pursue a degree, recognise that part of the end result will be an improved ability to think critically, analyse, synthesise, find, and retrieve information, and you will improve your ‘soft skills’, like understanding the conventions of a field, talking to people, dressing in the expected way, turning up on time, etc.
What institution?
If you do study in HE, you will hear lots about the institution and league tables. The world is unfortunately snobby, and people will judge you for the institution you study at. This somewhat depends on the field. Some are more elitist than others. So if, say, 70% of lawyers studied at Yale and Harvard (a made-up statistic!), then lawyers should study at Yale or Harvard. But correlation does not equal causation. Those who get into Yale or Harvard may also get their job because their family studied there and are in the same field. So going to Yale or Harvard may not be the reason they succeed.
In this respect, I would say do not be too concerned with the location. Better to choose somewhere affordable, where you enjoy the city / town, teachers, course, etc. But wherever you choose, study and get involved in the community if possible.
The above was all very HE-focussed, and so may not be relevant to you. But I hope it is of some use.
Music and Sound
It may be helpful to look for sound engineering and music producing jobs. I imagine there is a jobs website for such things? Otherwise, you could look at the websites of film and music studios.
See what positions are offered on their careers pages and then search for that position in Google, etc. You are looking for the ‘job requirements’ and ‘person specification’. You may find that a variety of similar jobs all ask for the same kind of degree or qualification. If you do, then, this is a potential course to study (it may not be in HE, as it could be a professional qualification, such as Cisco, mentioned by @Bobbycostner).
You can also look for jobs that will pay for that qualification as a starting point and try your luck.
If this is the field you want to end up in, work out what the studios want from employees and slowly build those skills and that knowledge into your CV. Even if you do not go down the ‘mainstream’ route, if you can show the employer that you meet all their requirements, they will not care that you do not have e.g. the formal qualification.
I imagine that sound engineering relies on electronics and some coding. If this is the case, you could look for a relevant trade. If you enjoy the trade and it works out, great. If not, you gained some financial independence and added some relevant skills that will help you get onto a relevant course and / or apply for a job, say, a studio.
Paying for it
Education is expensive, especially in the US. If you are interested in travelling abroad, there are some European universities that charge no fees. You just need to pay your bills, for which there may be grants / loans. Universities also have hardship funds to help those in financial difficulty. The provision may not be the same everywhere.
If you do study for a degree / diploma / etc, apply for scholarships. You can search on academic jobs and university / college websites for scholarships in different fields. Do this even if you can afford the fees, etc (i.e. with a loan), as scholarships look impressive on your CV.
There are not many, but there will be some employers who will pay for your training. (It’s scary, but you will have more options if you consider moving across the country or even to another country. Don’t rule it out if you can help it!) So when you’re looking at available positions, have a look for ‘entry-level’ positions and see if there is any on-the-job training. You could also email the contact in the advert and ask if there is any provision for contributing to e.g. degree costs. It’s rare, but it happens. It’s more likely to happen if you ask.
Read and Practice
Whatever you do, read and if you enjoy or need a practical skill to produce music or engineer sounds, practice. Maybe read about music and read musicians’ / producers’ biographies. You will get a greater sense of the field and will be able to have a more impressive conversation with potential employers and peers.
As for trades…
The housing crisis ruined lots of tradesperson’s livelihoods. There’s not much to be done if customers / governments simply stop paying for certain works. Customers stop paying if they lose their own jobs, etc, and governments stop paying when they implement austerity.
Most of my friends and family were / are in trades. People who had always worked or had their own (established) small businesses either lost their jobs or had their wages slashed by a third or more – if a tradesperson is made redundant, they may ‘always have work’ (I agree with the overall sentiment), but there is no guarantee that the next employer will pay the same or even pay an ‘industry standard’. I know fully qualified tradespersons who shifted careers because they could not live on what companies started paying. Some people managed, but work slowed right down.
This coming / ongoing crisis will have a similar effect. As the price of fuel, food, energy, and borrowing goes up, people will be unable to afford to pay for ‘extras’, even if they are ‘essential’, such as replacing faulty roofs, boilers, windows, tires, engines, etc. People will just make do with what they have, because they need to eat, and there’s only so much they can borrow / pay back.
IME being called in to work at awkward times happens in every kind of job. Tradespersons tend to be better at fighting this kind of thing, though, partly due to some unstated rules and a general ‘nah mate, I’m the skilled one, here’ attitude. It really depends on the industry, though, and whether it is domestic, commercial, or industrial work.
I don’t want to say exactly where I’m from, I’m afraid. It’s not the US, but it is in the imperial core.
Thank you for the information, comrade! I’ll save this comment for the future incase I need to look back on it.
If you do study in HE, you will hear lots about the institution and league tables. The world is unfortunately snobby, and people will judge you for the institution you study at. This somewhat depends on the field. Some are more elitist than others. So if, say, 70% of lawyers studied at Yale and Harvard (a made-up statistic!), then lawyers should study at Yale or Harvard. But correlation does not equal causation. Those who get into Yale or Harvard may also get their job because their family studied there and are in the same field. So going to Yale or Harvard may not be the reason they succeed
I do agree with this, and what’s crazy is that they’re already becoming snobby in high school.
The information you provided on finding jobs in the law field was interesting. I noticed that a lot of people who get degrees in certain fields have hard times getting those jobs in that same field. I’ve even heard someone tell us a story about how they were declined because despite having the degree, they “didn’t have the experience.”
