dropouts- what do they do after?

[Meowjin]

Only go to school for a trade/skill. Simple as that. I know a lot of comp sci nerds who never finished and lied their way into some big companies.

Why does no one want to work for themselves.

[SILVERBULL]

Everyone I know (in our age group) graduated HS and have gone to college but I still think traditional schooling is mostly a joke (and in some respects worse because it often dumbs kids down and teaches them just enough to be worker bees). If you're smart and hard working you will do fine with or without much schooling and if you're lazy and stupid, it doesn't matter how much "education" you have. 90+% of all the useful things I know I learned outside of the school system.

[Harvey Specter]

Originally Posted by Meowjin

Only go to school for a trade/skill. Simple as that. I know a lot of comp sci nerds who never finished and lied their way into some big companies.

Why does no one want to work for themselves.

With a job you get steady income, if you work for yourself and you might see a dime for months. Plus it's hard to start a small business in this economic climate because banks are flat out refusing to give you loans.

[Oleophobic]

Originally Posted by quasi

The old adage is so true, it's all about who you know not what you know. You can have all the schooling you want but if you can't get your foot in the door good luck getting anywhere. Education is a good thing but building a network is so much more important to succeeding IMO. You can be that guy who goes to school and keeps his head in the books with no job and no life experience but when you finish you're more then likely going to be on the outside looking in.

Everyone I know works somewhere where they had an in. I got my job because of contacts I made, no chance in hell I would have got it if I didn't I was under qualified IMO. I faked it till I made it and now I can do the job well but that first 3-4 months was like what the fuck did I get myself into.

Education is great when it compliments something else but on its own it's really not that valuable. I went to University and graduated but what I do now has nothing to do with what I went to school for.

+1
I had a job lined up after grad and my start date was the first of the month immediately following my finals. If I hadn't networked while I was still in school I would still be unemployed right now..

[RRxtar]

Originally Posted by Jah Dean

With a job you get steady income, if you work for yourself and you might see a dime for months. Plus it's hard to start a small business in this economic climate because banks are flat out refusing to give you loans.

if you really want to succeed you can do it. i started my company in 2009, probably the worst time to start a business. and i did it with no money in the bank and couldn't get a loan. i did have a very small amount of help from my family but FAR less than what most families would 'help' their kids into college with.

[winson604]

I'm 30 now and dropped out in HS. I can honestly say that I'm pretty on par if not better than quite a few people in HS who finished, moved on and finished Univ. By better I mean job status/stability, type of job, and pay.

For a while in my late teens and early 20's I did jack shit. Going out every day, partying blah blah blah. Then one day b/c I was going it for so long and at an early age I just got sick of it. Starting looking for jobs and caught my first break getting hired by a Big Cooperate Company doing Customer Service. I was for sure under qualified and didn't rock the interview but I got it. It was a sweet gig, great company, decent pay, the works. I applied myself and learned a lot of skills which has carried me to this very day. After 4 years I left and applied to my current job. A job where some people dream of getting. I applied, passed the tests, passed all the interviews, and got one of 12 spots out of 2000 applicants. How did I do it? On hands experience I gained through my previous job and just experience from life in general. I'm not saying school is shit, but school isn't everything. Street Smarts is important too, I know some people who all they did was go to school and study their whole life and they are the dumbest motherfuckers when it comes to anything other than books. Would I do anything differently? Probably not, I'm glad I experienced both sides of the fence and survived nicely. I think I came away a better person and more equipped for life.

[nns]

Originally Posted by quasi

Everyone I know works somewhere where they had an in. I got my job because of contacts I made, no chance in hell I would have got it if I didn't I was under qualified IMO.

This has me wondering, who here owes their job to networking? Who here got their job through the "old fashioned" way? EG: responding to job postings, Craigslist, dropping off resumes, etc.

The job I have now was not achieved through networking, or having "an in". I saw a posting on Craigslist, tailored a resume/cover letter, got a phone interview, followed by an in-person interview, and was then hired. Mind you, this is the extremely simplistic order of events. I was a BCIT graduate for well over a year, having applied to dozens of places, interviewed maybe 3-4 times, scouring job postings day after day, before I finally got the job I have now.

Was it frustrating? Absolutely. I worked some crappy kitchen PT job before I went to BCIT, during my time at BCIT, and after graduation from BCIT. I hated my life. The whole time I was at post-sec, I sucked it up and tried to look forward to after graduation. "Oh, it's ok if my school life sucks, when I graduate, I'll have a nice job, some good money coming in, buy a car, blah blah quit being a bitch".

[tiger_handheld]

Originally Posted by nns

This has me wondering, who here owes their job to networking? Who here got their job through the "old fashioned" way? EG: responding to job postings, Craigslist, dropping off resumes, etc.

The job I have now was not achieved through networking, or having "an in". I saw a posting on Craigslist, tailored a resume/cover letter, got a phone interview, followed by an in-person interview, and was then hired. Mind you, this is the extremely simplistic order of events. I was a BCIT graduate for well over a year, having applied to dozens of places, interviewed maybe 3-4 times, scouring job postings day after day, before I finally got the job I have now.

Was it frustrating? Absolutely. I worked some crappy kitchen PT job before I went to BCIT, during my time at BCIT, and after graduation from BCIT. I hated my life. The whole time I was at post-sec, I sucked it up and tried to look forward to after graduation. "Oh, it's ok if my school life sucks, when I graduate, I'll have a nice job, some good money coming in, buy a car, blah blah quit being a bitch".

Current - through networking
last - recruited
all other (McJobs) - traditional

[bballguy]

A lot of people on this thread are talking about their personal experience and end up saying they get paid a good amount of money, without actually stating their actual income....The fact of the matter is that everybody has a different lifestyle and what I might see as a good income, may not be a very good income for others...Depends on what your goals are in life, and what you would be satisfied with...Personally, I wouldn't be happy doing any of the trades or any type of physical labour....I'd rather sit in an office all day, have customers come to me, I help them using my knowledge, have great job security, and make upwards of 200K/year....All depends on personal preference, what type of job you'd want, and what kind of lifestyle you'd like to live.

[tiger_handheld]

Originally Posted by winson604

I'm 30 now and dropped out in HS. I can honestly say that I'm pretty on par if not better than quite a few people in HS who finished, moved on and finished Univ. By better I mean job status/stability, type of job, and pay.

Few years back, was at a party with some friends and other friends. Couple of girls talked about a guy named "Winson" that dropped out of school. Guy was also showed up to the party in a black Del Sol. Could that have been you?

[kevin7352]

Originally Posted by bballguy

A lot of people on this thread are talking about their personal experience and end up saying they get paid a good amount of money, without actually stating their actual income....The fact of the matter is that everybody has a different lifestyle and what I might see as a good income, may not be a very good income for others...Depends on what your goals are in life, and what you would be satisfied with...Personally, I wouldn't be happy doing any of the trades or any type of physical labour....I'd rather sit in an office all day, have customers come to me, I help them using my knowledge, have great job security, and make upwards of 200K/year....All depends on personal preference, what type of job you'd want, and what kind of lifestyle you'd like to live.

ambitious

[MindBomber]

Originally Posted by Meowjin

Only go to school for a trade/skill. Simple as that. I know a lot of comp sci nerds who never finished and lied their way into some big companies.

Why does no one want to work for themselves.

1. I doubt you've ever owned or ran a successful business, because there are a lot of reasons one would not want to work for themselves. The hours are long, it can be difficult to take a vacation, massive responsibility, risk of the business failing and losing capital, etc.

2. Saying only go to school for a trade or skill is as narrow minded and illogical as saying all drop outs are inevitably destined for failure. I know lawyers, business executives, finance executives, marketing professionals, teachers working at the university and high school level; they didn't go to school for a trade or skill, but they're very successful and happy.

[truong]

I dropped out and became a man whore. Bought an aston martin and never looked back. . . . . .

[rsx]

ahh the game of life, no rules, no right of way playing it and you can win despite someone thinking you lost.

[Sid Vicious]

anyone here actually work ft at a job they found on clist lol

[SpuGen]

Cutting out the life story.

- Dropped out in grade 12.
- Got badly injured at work.
- Became an alcoholic piece of shit for a few years.
- Finally got sick of waiting around for something to happen.

Now I have my Welding C ticket. Working towards bigger and better things.
Found my job by spamming CL since nobody wants to take on any tradesmen fresh out of school. You'd have to be pretty lucky. Or be a Plumber.

But I'm sticking it out here until I get enough hours to go for my B ticket before I jump ship.

At some point, I do want to go back to school and finish HS.

Looking back, I should've just finished Highschool. I know some retards that finished highschool, all because they actually went to class and sat down.

[Phil@rise]

just stay in school dont test waters with us. at the very least it keeps you busy longer and in less "trouble"

[eurochevy]

Originally Posted by MarkyMark

One guy I know became a longshoreman and clears over 100k a year now, he was never a book smart guy but it worked out for him.

Originally Posted by Jah Dean

I had 5 friends, barely finished grade 11 let alone graduate and their all longshoremen making crazy coin.

I had another friend who never graduated, he worked part time at the airport, saved his money up and bought a Subway when he was 24. He's now 31 and he owns 7 Subways so he did really good for himself. And I had friends who gradated, went straight to uni and now they're sitting at home unemployed with massive post secondary debt so I don't really know who's really worst off.

u need gr 12 as a longshoreman now..just saying

[BaoTurbo]

Not saying you can't be successful in your life but the best advice I always give kids now is: stay in school or at least finish high school.

Not saying you gotta be smart and stuff but the least you can do for your future life is to stay in school. Everyone now commonly has a degree and usually in the job market, having some sort of degree is better than having none at all. Back then in my parents era like the Baby Boomers all think that high school was already hard to finish, well now the bar has been risen to University which is even harder. I'm sure a lot of people know that high school isn't much importance and you can still be successful, but you have to also try to put yourself in a teenager's shoes in year 2012 to see it for yourself.

Just IMO but of course there are so many variable factors that can prove one can work out for another but as a general perspective thats my 2 cents.

[MR_BIGGS]

I'm a little bit surprised at the number of people who dropped out of highschool. That being said, I don't have a negative opinion about it because honestly, everyone has a different path in life. For some maybe it just wasn't there thing, and they felt enclosed in a system that they couldn't thrive in. For others, it could be personal problems at home that caused it. Hell for some it may be they just didn't want to do it and figured they had other plans for themselves. I did poorly in my grad year. Cheated in physics and went into the provincial exam with like 95% only to get 28% on the test. Still passed. Only passed chemistry because the teacher wanted the D.

I didn't even end up going the science route.

[TjAlmeida]

OPis going to show his parents this and tell them he is going to drop out of school because all of you did it...

But on a serious note, if you are asking people how they turned out, or how their high school mates turned out.. I would suggest staying in school because you can not base your future or general direction of life on how others have turned out.

[GGnoRE]

From what I have seen in highschools around my neighbourhood, students drop out not because they want to start gaining work experience or learn a trade, but because they don't want put the minimum effort of going to class and passing the courses. Lack of perseverance and motivation is common as well as drug use. This I know because I always use to see them smoking greens at the smoke pits while I was smoking in highschool. On the otherhand, classmates who graduated highschool and have moved on to learning trades seemed to be more mature and determined than the dropouts I know in general.

It seems like a lot of you guys in this thread are comparing the worst case scenario of highschool graduates with best case scenarios of highschool dropouts which I don't think is a fair comparison.

[bballguy]

Originally Posted by GGnoRE

It seems like a lot of you guys in this thread are comparing the worst case scenario of highschool graduates with best case scenarios of highschool dropouts which I don't think is a fair comparison.

The thing is that so many people go to college just for the sake of going to college....Those people will end up studying some useless shit like political science or something along those lines, which is where you will get your worst case scenarios....I knew a bunch of geniuses back in high school, but they get to college and have no idea what they want to do in their life so they just start studying whatever they find the easiest....Next thing you know, they are done and only finding jobs that have nothing to do with their career...

Back in the day, it was tough to get a job in the field you studied without getting your Bachelor's degree....Nowadays your Bachelor's doesn't mean shit because almost everyone has them....Now you have to set yourself apart from the rest of the crowd by getting your Masters....But with all of that schooling, you have to decide whether the career you are choosing is worth spending all that time and money on, and moreover, you better be sure that you will be getting paid....Don't want to be in debt for the next 15 years trying to pay off all those school fees only to get job that pays an average amount...

[Iceman-19]

I got kicked out of high school in grade 11, not sure how I made it that far as I rarely attended. Just didnt agree with the whole process, and was bored of it. Worked a lot of crappy and some fun jobs as I couldnt decide what path I wanted to go. I got into trades, and am now working on my 2nd 6 figure year. I'm not even close to j-man yet either.

*edit*
Wrote my GED in January of this year, easiest test I have ever seen. What a joke. No studying or anything.

[pinn3r]

this thread has turned into a place where people come to impress other people with their life stories