I need some help...

[IBleedBearsBlood]

OT/ sorry guys, I need some help.

Thanks to all the guys that have posted so far. Really helped me out so far and pumped me up to do this and hit it hard. Thanks fellow Bears fans.


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[Mitchapalooza]

All that tech knowledge and you use an iPhone haha :nope:

 

[IBleedBearsBlood]

OT/ sorry guys, I need some help.

All that tech knowledge and you use an iPhone haha :nope:

lol. I get that a lot. Truth be told though, the iPhone does everything I need it to do for me so I don't need a jailbreak or an android os phone. The phone is better than any other phone for me except for the size. But the next on will be bigger. Plus I like having the apple ecosystem. I buy all my songs and movies legitimately and my son, wife, or I have no problem seeing or hearing anything from any device. That can be done with another product as well but I already had the Apple TV and the phone so kept going. Works for me bro. Won't stop me later from trying to program an app on a windows or android os phone.


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[Mitchapalooza]

lol. I get that a lot. Truth be told though, the iPhone does everything I need it to do for me so I don't need a jailbreak or an android os phone. The phone is better than any other phone for me except for the size. But the next on will be bigger. Plus I like having the apple ecosystem. I buy all my songs and movies legitimately and my son, wife, or I have no problem seeing or hearing anything from any device. That can be done with another product as well but I already had the Apple TV and the phone so kept going. Works for me bro. Won't stop me later from trying to program an app on a windows or android os phone.

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haha just giving you a hard time.

 

[TezMaKai]

Community college isn't a bad route. Based on what you said your income is, you should be able to get a decent pel grant that would pay your entire tuition, that way you can avoid debt all together. It's income tax season right now, so odds are you are just now receiving your W2's. All the information you will need to fill out your FAFSA will be on that W2. Go to www.fafsa.gov and fill out the free application.

Don't be discouraged if you feel like you can't handle school. With community college, you will be taking a placement test from the beginning. If you place low in anything, they will put you in developmental classes to ready you for college level courses.

As for what you should do, that's completely up to you. I'm in school to be a respiratory therapist at my local community college, so I'm partial to the medical field in general, as I believe it is the most rewarding field you can go into. But do what you would love, don't just pick anything to get away from labor jobs.

Good luck.

 

[brett05]

To type all that from a phone was like....WOW!

OK, so you want a better career that is non-labor. Is that no warehouse jobs but willing to do skilled labor (HVAC, Electrical, etc)?

You have some of the basics (addition, subtraction, etc), but are missing others (fractions) from a math standpoint.

Here's what I would start with since you are saying school is just not an option right now.

1) Go to the Library and/or Barnes and Noble and read thru all the educational learning books from first grade on up. Do a few of the problems (don't write int he books of course ) and if you are good, skip around and make sure you understand all of it. Then go to second grade, and third, etc repeating the same process. This will take time of course, probably an hour a book. At some point you will hit a point where you can't just answer the problems. Those are the ones you check our or in the case of Barnes and Noble, purchase. Spend time basically homeschooling yourself on them. Once you complete those thru High School I think you would be best prepared for higher education like community college, online schooling, or trade school. Unfortunately schooling will be a needed part of your life more than likely.

2) What interests you? Making money as you said is important, but if you aren't happy at your job it is unlikely you'll be good at it, able to keep it, and/or get the raises you are hoping for. Put a list down and then we can give you some direction on career paths.

 

[botfly10]

Tell you what man, it was workin labor for 4 years that motivated me to go to college.

 

[nvanprooyen]

Here are some suggestions, I hope they help....

For general education stuff, Khan academy is great (and it's free): https://www.khanacademy.org/ . I would start there. While they don't cover every topic under the sun, they do have a great deal of high quality information on there. If you need more, here is a monster list of other places that have free online education:

http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/cktxy/reddit_lets_compile_a_list_of_the_best_online/

If you want to get your feet wet in web development, this free 30 day class about HTML & CSS would be a pretty good place to start:

https://courses.tutsplus.com/courses/30-days-to-learn-html-css

If you get decent enough, you can begin to take on freelance work to get experience to land a good job. Even at entry level, you should be well beyond the 30K mark if you go down this road. It's going to take a lot of work, but it sounds like you are ready to do whatever it takes to change your life (and your families) for the better. Hell, I will even volunteer to help mentor you through the process. Only disclaimer to that is you may need to wait on me periodically for responses, because I'm usually pretty busy.

 

[DrGonzo]

I'm a big proponent of community college. Off the top of my head the pluses I can think of include:

+Way more affordable than university/less debt
+Instructors who are there to teach and are usually good at it, not there do research/publish
+Schedules that are kinder to adults with jobs and families
+Campuses that are more accessible
+More diverse student body in terms of race, class, age, nationality, etc. (Personally I would feel uncomfortable as a working class guy with a family sitting in classrooms with a bunch of privileged kids from the suburbs, but I don't want to speak for you).

It took me many years to "finish" my education, with a lot of starts, stops, and detours. At various times I attended some well ranked schools and one that is considered "elite", and as it turns out the one I liked the best and got the most value from was Minneapolis Community & Technical College. There are a few fields where you have to be a superstar academically to get your foot in the door. But for the majority if you figure out what you want to do, stick with it, and get the credential from any accredited school you can make it happen.

 

[DrGonzo]

Community college isn't a bad route. Based on what you said your income is, you should be able to get a decent pel grant that would pay your entire tuition, that way you can avoid debt all together. It's income tax season right now, so odds are you are just now receiving your W2's. All the information you will need to fill out your FAFSA will be on that W2. Go to www.fafsa.gov and fill out the free application.

Don't be discouraged if you feel like you can't handle school. With community college, you will be taking a placement test from the beginning. If you place low in anything, they will put you in developmental classes to ready you for college level courses.

As for what you should do, that's completely up to you. I'm in school to be a respiratory therapist at my local community college, so I'm partial to the medical field in general, as I believe it is the most rewarding field you can go into. But do what you would love, don't just pick anything to get away from labor jobs.

Good luck.

From what I've seen RT is a good choice. I hope that goes well for you.

 

[nvanprooyen]

I just saw this in the Bears forum....I responded to you in the Bar. I'm gonna merge the two together.

 

[nvanprooyen]

I appreciate your response man. I really do. I see the other options you gave. What I really want to do is work with computers. A computer programmer or a software developer. I know you need at least an associates for that and that's getting lucky to get in with just that and not a bachelors. I also know you need to be good in math as well. I don't know how to code or know any coding languages. I know about them but nothing at all. I just know the basics about computers. That's why I want to start from scratch on math and learn algebra and calculus. I've been reading it helps you out. Now I'm pretty good at learning things, I just want to do it right and from scratch. I also wouldn't mind a small business as well. I always wanted that. Nothing fancy just small. Wouldn't mind if it only brings in $35,000-$40,000 a year. For that, would I need a business degree to better understand it or just information on the web? I really am interested in those 2.


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One thing to note here - a degree really depends on the employer. When I'm hiring someone personally for a position like this a degree is very low on the list of what is important to me. Talent and experience are the most important (for me anyways). The ability to problem solve independently is also very important. Often I would put attitude and personality above a degree even. Just my 2 cents. For the record, I do not have a degree....and I am a C level executive at a publicly traded company. I'm not trying to discourage you from pursuing education in general, just throwing out there that you may be able to get out of your situation without committing to formal education for an extended period of time. If you are interested in programming, find some good training resources (tons of good stuff out there for free) and start writing code. Then write some more.

 

[Bearly]

School and smarts aren't the same thing. You can easily educate yourself if it's just ability that you want. You also don't have to work for someone else. That said, if your aspirations are a 9-5 with the security of a regular pay check that requires a degree, get the fastest and cheapest degree that you can so it's on the resume and learn what you need to learn whether in class or not. Another option is a trade school with high placement opportunities. Nothing wrong with a blue collar job that pays and has bennies.

 

[Woods]

We all get to where we are from different directions, some roads are rougher than others. Good Luck IBBB, I'm pulling for you.

 

[brett05]

You will want to get a degree at some point. Most jobs start with HR and the weed out process starts with those with a degree. They miss some great candidates that way, but the alternative is to look at sometimes over 1000 resumes that get submitted for a single job.

 

[IBleedBearsBlood]

Thanks guys. I'll check about that fafsa. I hope they got online classes because I can't go because of my work. Nvanprooyen, sorry about that. I posted at the bar first but I realized at the time of night there ain't really many people in that forum. Thanks for pulling for me woods, and bearly, your right and I agree. There is nothing wrong with a blue collar job. I just don't want it anymore for myself. But trade school is always an option like you and others said.


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[IBleedBearsBlood]

Here are some suggestions, I hope they help....

For general education stuff, Khan academy is great (and it's free): https://www.khanacademy.org/ . I would start there. While they don't cover every topic under the sun, they do have a great deal of high quality information on there. If you need more, here is a monster list of other places that have free online education:

http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/cktxy/reddit_lets_compile_a_list_of_the_best_online/

If you want to get your feet wet in web development, this free 30 day class about HTML & CSS would be a pretty good place to start:

https://courses.tutsplus.com/courses/30-days-to-learn-html-css

If you get decent enough, you can begin to take on freelance work to get experience to land a good job. Even at entry level, you should be well beyond the 30K mark if you go down this road. It's going to take a lot of work, but it sounds like you are ready to do whatever it takes to change your life (and your families) for the better. Hell, I will even volunteer to help mentor you through the process. Only disclaimer to that is you may need to wait on me periodically for responses, because I'm usually pretty busy.

I appreciate your help and you willing to mentor me through the process. I really do. I will definitely look into the khan because from what I see, they have what I'm looking for as far as math goes. The other links as well I'll check it out. I just don't know what I need to learn exactly to go into that career path. But I'll learn it for sure whatever it is. I'll ask you if you don't mind and please don't rush. Just answer if you can at your own time. Thanks again bro.


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[Run the ball]

I'm not sure if you're willing to travel or whatever, but if you are i'd seriously consider an oilfield gig. There are numerous types of jobs that usually pay really well, a trade such as welding, electricity or mechanics would be a bonus but not necessary. The big draw back is being away from your family and home. Natural gas drilling will soon become real popular and those rig jobs are a great way to pay the bills, believe me I did it for 12 years.

 

[IBleedBearsBlood]

I'm not sure if you're willing to travel or whatever, but if you are i'd seriously consider an oilfield gig. There are numerous types of jobs that usually pay really well, a trade such as welding, electricity or mechanics would be a bonus but not necessary. The big draw back is being away from your family and home. Natural gas drilling will soon become real popular and those rig jobs are a great way to pay the bills, believe me I did it for 12 years.

Yeah man, I know that pays very well. More money is a good thing but I'd rather make it at a 9-5. Family is really important to me. Although I always have this in my back of my head in case something ever happens and I need money.


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[DrGonzo]

I'm not sure if you're willing to travel or whatever, but if you are i'd seriously consider an oilfield gig. There are numerous types of jobs that usually pay really well, a trade such as welding, electricity or mechanics would be a bonus but not necessary. The big draw back is being away from your family and home. Natural gas drilling will soon become real popular and those rig jobs are a great way to pay the bills, believe me I did it for 12 years.

I've always had a fantasy of running away to make a bunch of money doing something like that but I heard those oilfield jobs can be dangerous. Did you see many people get injured when you were doing it?