The Job Market w/o College

[Dave K]

they normally go for girls for those jobs, and extremely outgoing ones

[JSS2306]

If you're depressed sales wouldn't be your gig.

I went to a cheap two year school for hvac. I ended up doing that for a couple years but got sick of going into 150 degree attics and nasty crawlspaces. I got into appliance repair due to my previous work history with hvac. Love it. I get a company vehicle, laptop, smart phone... the whole nine. We get monthly bonuses if we hit a certain number in repair sales and benefits.

The point is, if you learn one trade you can use that to your advantage in other fields and industries. You can take it anywhere with you and you'll never have to worry about making shit money. I would say learn a trade and even if you don't like it then at least you always have that to fall back on.

[DCunleaded]

I bolted college a bit early, and I have found some nice niches in the work force. If it helps, great; if not, good luck.

The OP mentioned serving/waiting tables, and being decent at it. Upscale restaurants are fantastic places to earn a legit living; if you are near a hotel/resort, find a steakhouse inside it and enjoy. Folks in the tourist/convention center areas near Orlando easily take home over $40K annual (with no state income tax), don't work nights, and only wait on 20-30 people a night. If you aren't near a tourist area, then find a Ruth Chris-type of steakhouse. I loved working in that particular restaurant industry, and it completely bankrolled me going to school during the day for my current career. Banquet serving is a little better money, but is pretty hard work, that I never enjoyed like I did working in steakhouses.

I ended up taking EMT for a semester at community college, which was literally decided on a coin flip (real estate school or EMT school). During my EMT ride-alongs with Fire Department Paramedics, I got to see how several different FD shifts were.....then I was hooked! Fire school was about 400 total hours, which took about six months to finish. It takes a while to get an FD job currently (unless you are a paramedic), but I have the greatest job and schedule you can imagine. 24 hours on, 48 hours off, 18 shifts a year off; which means I work 102 days a year, not counting OT or sick days. Great comraderie, great job, fighting fire is awesome, helping folks is awesome; however, there is a ton of BS calls where people only call for a ride to the hospital, I am around more bodily waste and cat people than I'd ever imagine, and when bad calls happen it's tough to suck it up and keep going to calls. Most FD jobs start in the mid30s, and if you are in a state with a Union presence then the pay will increase quickly.

[MGMT]

I recently applied for a sales position with manpower group which only required a GED. I have two bachelors degrees wtf. It didn't say experience was required and I thought I had a decent shot.

Sad day.

[JiggleIt]

I was in pharma sales for two years before getting into medical devices. Pharma is lucrative and medical device sales is even more lucrative. The problem with each industry is:

Pharma- Made a lot of money as a top rep and the benefits were fantastic. Six figures if you're a very good rep and $80k+ if you're good. But...It's literally going out of style. Pharma reps are being phased out altogether. Layoffs are constant nowadays. Any major changes within the company result in layoffs a month later. Frankly, pharma reps are useless and they have a bad reputation for being lazy and passive in the sales world.

Medical Device- Lot of travel for many of those gigs. Too much travel for me. I drove 50,000 miles in a year in that job and with health issues, my wife was terrified all the time that something would happen to me on the road. It was also extremely high stress aside from the driving, which is typical for a lot of medical device gigs. I got miserable making a lot of money and my wife was even moreso. There are medical device gigs where the reps work cases inside the hospital and they are far more lucrative and less stressful...but very time consuming. The time is worth it for the $250k a year many of them make.

Medical device is what you should want and the way to get there is through B2B. You need to be aggressive, have at least 4 years of B2B experience, and- 99% of the time- white to get into medical devices.

There's plenty of other avenues than either of those two, and I like what I'm doing now far more than either one of those, but those are the two I spent the most time in.

[Bill Walton.]

The OP mentioned serving/waiting tables, and being decent at it. Upscale restaurants are fantastic places to earn a legit living; if you are near a hotel/resort, find a steakhouse inside it and enjoy. Folks in the tourist/convention center areas near Orlando easily take home over $40K annual (with no state income tax), don't work nights, and only wait on 20-30 people a night. If you aren't near a tourist area, then find a Ruth Chris-type of steakhouse. I loved working in that particular restaurant industry, and it completely bankrolled me going to school during the day for my current career. Banquet serving is a little better money, but is pretty hard work, that I never enjoyed like I did working in steakhouses.

Not waiting tables. I work at a country club in the bag room. I do make tips working there but I really only work 7 months out of the year. Luckily there's a huge amount of contacts their that are major business people. This is in the Akron Canton area. So I'm technically building a network but with really no skill or degree it's useless

I'd love to work my way up, but have no golf skills really.


As for sales, I don't see myself as the sales type but who knows. I could see myself being a good waiter tho because I feel easier trying to get tips than to generally sell something.

[Pick6]

to the op:

You are right, people would love to be in your position. I go to Akron as well, and pay for all of my living and school expenses. No fun. However, like you brought up, I think the fact that I am paying for everything motivates me.

I think your choices where you can make a decent living you should look at trade school, or more preferably a blue-collar job that requires no degree. I do not think sales is a good option for you, or anyone really. Screw commission.

Trade school- I would probably recommend going for electrician, HVAC, or welding. There are many opportunities for welding in Eastern Ohio. With each of those you have the opportunity to start your own business. Hell you could start your own business in anything and not even go to a trade school. I would recommend that you choose something you are passionate about if you decide to go into business. You just have a much better chance of succeeding that way.

Blue Collar jobs, trade school not required- factory worker, steel-mill worker, coal miner. I can only comment on from where I am from (SE Ohio). You can make a great living doing manual labor. Steel mills and coal miners are the way to go where I am from. My whole family and a lot of my friends are coal miners and you can easily make 100k+ a year, depending on how much you want to work. Not a fan of that? I just read today that the US is expected to be the leading producer of oil IN THE WORLD by 2020. This is expected to happen by fracking. You know where fracking is growing/going to be huge? EASTERN OHIO. I know guys who are making 100/hr (certified welders) working on the pipeline for gas companies. I think signing up for the labor union is a great idea as well. I am not sure how you didnt get accepted for an apprenticeship. However, I have some experience in this area because I was hired by a road construction company to work in the yard for 10/hr. I got a chance to go out on the road once and proved myself. I could have a full-time labor job if I wanted to, however I am in college. Consider looking for a lower paying job that gives you opportunity. I am not in a labor union, but my company could get me into it if I would take the job.

Sorry about all of my rabbling, but hopefully I gave you some things to think about.

[Chardon]

I'm trying to think about where EASTERN ohio would be.

[Pick6]

I'm trying to think about where EASTERN ohio would be.

All over Eastern OH. I know you Kent students have trouble with geography, and about everything else.


Mainly concentrated Youngstown and areas South.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...ing-state.html

[Doc Shakalou]

I was in pharma sales for two years before getting into medical devices. Pharma is lucrative and medical device sales is even more lucrative. The problem with each industry is:

Pharma- Made a lot of money as a top rep and the benefits were fantastic. Six figures if you're a very good rep and $80k+ if you're good. But...It's literally going out of style. Pharma reps are being phased out altogether. Layoffs are constant nowadays. Any major changes within the company result in layoffs a month later. Frankly, pharma reps are useless and they have a bad reputation for being lazy and passive in the sales world.

Medical Device- Lot of travel for many of those gigs. Too much travel for me. I drove 50,000 miles in a year in that job and with health issues, my wife was terrified all the time that something would happen to me on the road. It was also extremely high stress aside from the driving, which is typical for a lot of medical device gigs. I got miserable making a lot of money and my wife was even moreso. There are medical device gigs where the reps work cases inside the hospital and they are far more lucrative and less stressful...but very time consuming. The time is worth it for the $250k a year many of them make.

Medical device is what you should want and the way to get there is through B2B. You need to be aggressive, have at least 4 years of B2B experience, and- 99% of the time- white to get into medical devices.

There's plenty of other avenues than either of those two, and I like what I'm doing now far more than either one of those, but those are the two I spent the most time in.

Unless I'm mistaken, don't most pharma jobs require sales experience? I know the device sales positions do, but I'm talking pharma. I applied to one using a referral from somebody in my sister's law firm. I had a sales internship where I was the top salesman in their history. I applied for a pharma job and never even got a callback. So I imagine, unless you get very lucky, you won't be able to walk right into a pharma sales position without at least a couple of years of experience. I'd also imagine they would prefer experience in medical sales as to any other random industry.

[Chardon]

All over Eastern OH. I know you Kent students have trouble with geography, and about everything else.


Mainly concentrated Youngstown and areas South.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...ing-state.html

We Kent students cut up Ohio in 5 areas. NorthEast, Northwest, Southeast, Central and Southwest.

[Pick6]

We Kent students cut up Ohio in 5 areas. NorthEast, Northwest, Southeast, Central and Southwest.

Congrats. There are still basic directions that exist, whether you choose to acknowledge them or not. I was taught them in grade school by "NEWS"- North, East, West, and South.

[JiggleIt]

Unless I'm mistaken, don't most pharma jobs require sales experience? I know the device sales positions do, but I'm talking pharma. I applied to one using a referral from somebody in my sister's law firm. I had a sales internship where I was the top salesman in their history. I applied for a pharma job and never even got a callback. So I imagine, unless you get very lucky, you won't be able to walk right into a pharma sales position without at least a couple of years of experience. I'd also imagine they would prefer experience in medical sales as to any other random industry.

Pharma is ALL about who you know. There's about a 1% chance you'll get into it without knowing the hiring manager or a friend of the hiring manager. They'll hire anybody with any kind of experience if they know them. And at this point in time, I don't think I'd even call getting into pharma lucky. It's a waste of time anymore and not really good for your resume.

I'd suggest people take their focus off of pharma and focus more on the bigger picture of getting involved with an industry you're interested in OR paying your dues in B2B selling copiers or ADP or some kind of equipment and then springboarding into medical devices.

As for Bill...if you don't like sales, then it's probably vocational school or go back to college.

[Northstar]

Take a class for machining, Cleveland has lots of manufacturing so I'm sure there are plenty of machine shops in the area as well. You will probably start out in the mid $30k range and you can work your way up with experience. I know you don't want to take a "class" but it would be hands on experience preparing you for a job compared to reading a book. Not to say you wouldn't have to study up on terminology and whatnot, but at least anything you learned in class would be directly applied to what you would do as a machinist.

There are people where I work who are machinists and they are in a union and get paid gobs of money. The union jobs will pay you a lot better than the non-union jobs.

Further down the road if you were really into it and were able to get the financial backing (sounds like your parents are decently well off), you could look into starting a machine shop. If I had the capital I would quit my job and start a machine shop right now. You literally do maintenance on the machine/tools you use and they do the work, and machining is not cheap for those purchasing the service. Where I work we send some of our parts (metal parts) out to be machined and the invoices we get back are not cheap.

[Kiddo]

I only went to eighth grade...if i work hard next year i'll make close to a stress free 100k.