How do I finally get a long term career and become financially independent?

Submitted ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨AQuestionAsker@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨nostupidquestions@lemmy.world⁩

Dunno if this violates rule 3 but here I go: I am a 21 year old male currently living with a family member, I only have a DL and a High School Diploma and nothing else. I’m in the deep south so trade unions are hard to get into. I have a disqualifying condition so I can’t join the military. Getting a job is difficult because they never respond. Question in title.

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EndOfLine@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Not sure if it’s helpful, but pivotal steps in my career path involved unintentional networking.

Started working at a call center reading scripts and calling it “tech support” from that job I made friends with a coworker with a similar interest in computers. A few years later he was working in-house IT for a major company and referred me.

A few years in that field and I made friends with another coworker who got me interested in scripting / coding. A few years later after meeting that friend, he was working as a software developer and referred me to my first coding job.

Once my foot was in the door I would learn and grow in each position until I felt like I stopped growing my skillset and I would find a new job where I could build new skills.

It helps that I have a genuine interest and enjoyment in learning and improving my skills. Computers and technology just happened to be the skillet that people started to pay me for. I could have just as easily ended up a machinist, contractor, chef or any other profession sparked by a personal interest of mine.

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- cyborganism@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  This. It doesn’t matter how competent you are. It’s all about connections.
  
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  - AQuestionAsker@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Could I start making connections here?
    
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  - alternategait@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I mean , a minimum competence is the bar. I’m not recommending someone who is going to make me look bad if they get hired. But if you’re ok and my friend, I’ll recommend you and it’s more likely you’ll be hired over someone really good, but who doesn’t know anyone.
    
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foggy@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
You’re 21, and I didn’t realize this until I was like 32, but you don’t need a career yet. You need a job. The career will come from… Doing the jobs you want to do instead of your actual jobs.

when I worked at a liquor store like a decade ago, I stayed away from the registers unless it was necessary and no other work had to be done. I organized the entire overstock room and opened up another 300 sqft of storage in the process. I commented on processes that seemed inefficient and suggested improvements.

When I worked in breweries, I stayed out of the front of house. I started scrubbing tanks and finished an operations manager.

When I worked in IT support, I pointed out insecure practices and suggested secure practices. I’m now in cybersecurity.

I didn’t wanna work in a liquor store. I didn’t wanna scrub tanks. I didn’t wanna answer phones. So I… Didn’t. Unless I had to.

Just go get a job and find something there no one is doing that has value. Then lie on by changing your title to match your duties.

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- boonhet@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  This works if you have decent employers that let you do these things. I’ve literally been told “stop thinking so much” at a menial job where there could’ve been a lot of improvements made. Because there were people who had really high salaries that were supposed to think of these improvements. Not us cockroaches.
  
  But honestly the best thing these jobs can give you, besides experience of course, is connections to people who may later work in better places.
  
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  - foggy@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    If it’s menial job, it ain’t paying enough to tell you what to do if the shit you need to do is getting done.
    
    Get the shit done. Don’t ignore your duties. And from there, literally ignore them. Let them fire you for improving the place. Be a great story to politely explain in a future interview at a menial job. Jobs that menial aren’t in short supply. They just blow and the pay sucks. So, don’t let it have any power over you beyond those facts.
    
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Grenfur@pawb.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
While I can’t tell you how it works for everyone, I can tell you how it worked for me. I too grew up in the deep south, small town of 100 people, middle of absolute nowhere. I do have a college degree but in a field entirely unrelated to what I do.

It boils down to playing the game a bit. General rule of thumb is that you should never stay in a position for more than about 2 years. You SHOULD if possible stick with a company for 3-5 years. This will cover two things that recruiters are looking at on resumes, promotability and tenure. The basics of it is that at 2 years you should be seeking a promotion, if it doesn’t come, you’re looking for a different company. It’s annoying, but ‘raises’ at most companies are ass and won’t outpace inflation. You’re chasing a ‘raise’ through either a promotion or a new job.

My journey. I started out in the hotel industry, thought it would be a good way to go (Protip, it isn’t). Pay was shit, work life balance was awful, working with the general public is a nightmare. I made something dumb like $10 an hour as a Secretary. But at 2 years I got promoted to Sales Assistant, 1 year from there I took a slight promo/side-grade to the Front Desk (Not a pay increase but into a position where I had more promotion opportunities). 2 Years at the desk before I was manager of the FD. Still shit pay, still shit hours. Realized pretty quick that was where my upward mobility would stop, but even in the south 35K a year won’t pay bills… What I did have though was 6ish years at a company and 2.5 promotions.

I found a small tech company that would let me answer phones on their support team. Pay was roughly what I made before (But I was already living on ramen and cold sandwiches so whatever). What it really was, was a place where I had chances to move up.

1.5 years before I made senior, 1 more before I made tier 2. From there I had a chance to work directly with clients as a tech consultant. It was a job that I truly didn’t like, but what it did was put me in a place where I could regularly interact with a bunch of people that owned business. A place to make connections. Not the job I wanted but I took it. Another year and I made senior as a tech consultant. It was at this point that my long term clients actively started trying to headhunt me. For the first time in my life I got to choose my job. I took a job for a company I liked making roughly what I made as a senior. Got another promotion, and that’s roughly where I am now. I fucking love my job. The people I work with are good humans, the pay is sufficient, just bought my first home :).

Now, it didn’t actually take all 20 of those years for me to be comfortable. The first 6-8 where rough, I ate ramen, cold turkey sandwiches, and slept on a mattress on the floor in a one bedroom apt with 0 furniture lol. About 8 years in I could afford real food and furniture. By year 12 or so I had enough money to actually do things like take a vacation.

The moral here is, it sucks, but play the game a bit. Your degree or lack there of is almost irrelevant. My degree is in Historical Culture studies… I work in Tech :P. Your resume showing you got promoted every 1-2 years is what people wanna see. Pick a job with upward mobility, even if it isn’t what you want, actively apply for promotions, position yourself to know people, suffer through the ramen phase.

Side tip, look for jobs in big cities that allow remote work. If you’re in the south, think Austin, Dallas, Atlanta, etc etc. They typically pay better because they’re used to paying people based on what it costs to live in or around those cities.

Sorry for the book. Hope it helps :).

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- QuarterSwede@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  This is really great advice and something I’ve experienced as well.
  
  However, one caveat is that startups work a lot differently. You can promote a lot faster since you’re usually doing multiple jobs at once and learning a lot of new skills at the same time. They usually don’t care too much about specific work experience either. Can you think on your own, build a team or be apart of one, and can you an execute quickly?
  
  And as always no one cares about specific degrees (especially in management), the more general you talk about it the better. People actually understand what area you were interested in, you stuck with something most people don’t do and for a degree (and, don’t really care in what).
  
  Also, over communication is better than no/poor communication. That’s helped me probably the best to promote than anything. Well, that and doing things no one wants to do, especially when on a new team. Gains brownie points almost instantly.
  
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Sunsofold@lemmings.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
As much as I hate it, the old truism remains: ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who.’ I have done the job search thing and I have done the 'friendly recommendation thing. Searching and applying took months, led to very little response, and even less good response. Being the guy who a former manager thought of when a client says ‘Stop sending us idiots. Send someone reliable,’ got me straight into softball interviews and into work within a week or less. Talk to people in your area about finding work. It takes you from the pool of 20,000 people and robots that applied on indeed and puts you in the pool of 2 people who know the back door into their system.

However, if anyone who works in HR is reading this, don’t do this crap. Just do your damn job yourself. Automation makes you worse at your job and convinces your boss you can be replaced with AI. There are no winners when you do this.

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StrawberryPigtails@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
For me it was getting a CDL. I went through Swift Transportation) to get mine, though most trucking companies either have a trucking school or have tuition reimbursement. Back in 2008, it cost me $800 upfront (going to the state for testing and licensing) plus 2 years working for Swift.

Pay was shit starting out, but at this point in my career I’m making $60,000 a year. I could be making more, but I shifted to running a yard truck instead of running routes.

If you’re not having any luck getting into the trades, that is the direction I would look. Swift literally hired me 30 minutes after I put in the application, in the middle of the night. The trucking industry as a whole tends to be really fast to hire as well. The longest I’ve had to wait to hear back from a company I’ve applied to was 72 hours.

Other options would be to check with local construction companies and farms. Both are probably really hurting for people right now due to ICE. Might also check with HVAC, plumbing and electrician outfits. I know that Alabama, in particular, has been short handed in each of these fields for a while, so they may be willing to train on the job.

Contact the companies themselves, not the unions associated with their fields as the only union I’m aware of that handles job placement as well as training is the Boilermakers. I’ve applied to them once, didn’t hear anything back from the Boilermakers for 3 years. They is a bit slow.

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KittenBiscuits@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
What sorts of jobs are you considering?

You could get a CDL from a local community college in about 6 weeks. There are some trucking companies that will train you themselves to get your CDL. They may not be the best in terms of knowledge and skills acquired, but they would be free vs you having to pay up front at a community college.

You could do sales calling from home. If you’re not a talker, this will be draining to do. If you are a natural talker, this could be your pathway to comfortable pay. Some arrangements are commission only, so there is stress there, but at the junior/entry level, there will usually be some kind of base salary + commission arrangement.

Someone mentioned looking into a CNA certificate. You’re young so your body might handle that kind of work ok. It can be demanding and it also can be rewarding. Plus, home health agencies in your area are probably desperate for CNAs. The area of the Appalachias where I’m from, CNA is a very common path for young people to take to reliable employment.

Do you have a mower and a truck? Start cutting lawns for people. Leave a flyer or a business card around the gas stations, grocery stores, and Dollar Generals in your area. It’s getting cooler now, so those types of businesses switch to hanging holiday lights for folks who can’t or don’t want to do it themselves. Or cutting/ delivering firewood. Or someone mentioned construction (which is what the chartered fishing crews do here in the winter).

Are you more digitally inclined? Get on Fiver and UpWork and look for something that you can & want to do, then build out your profile to match that. Photography, digital art, personal assistant, writing, there are many many options here.

Here’s another… want to leave the country altogether? Look into getting your TEFL. Companies will pay to move you overseas and teach English, and most of the time, you don’t even need to speak the language of that country to start. This may not be a long term career, but it’s something to get you out and gaining life experience until you do figure out what you want to be doing with yourself.

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667@lemmy.radio ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
You’re facing an extra tough time right now because computing has optimized the hiring process so much, it’s difficult to get your foot in the door, and geopolitics are complicating things.

You’ll need to keep in mind that 21 is still quite early in your life, and the world and pop culture really pushes an “instant success” mindset that sets all the wrong expectations.

You’ll need to do several things, unfortunately all at once. First, deeply understand personal finances. Understand that you need to “pay yourself first” (savings/investments) and then what’s left over is what you have to manage expenses and debts. If you keep yourself out of debt you’re better off. Bogleheads Wiki changed the way I viewed my money: www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Main_Page

You’re going to have to continue school. You need an Associate’s at a minimum. Go to a public community or municipal college. With an AA from here, most states will grant you automatic admission to public state universities. Research this. Regardless of what your views are on the utility of college degrees, you have to play the game. A college degree is a clearing house to larger companies. Trade school, is another option.

You’re going to have to work, to finance your costs of living plus your education investments, unless you’ve got someone or some financial instruments which let you focus on school.

With respect to college specifically, you’ll get out of it what you put in. Many folks will say it’s a waste, that “they didn’t learn anything new” while they went through. Well, that just signals to me they phoned it in; maybe they got lucky and got a break on their job, too.

From there, you’ll have your personal finances on lock, and one or two degrees (AA and a BA, and maybe a certificate or two) and you’ll be much more competitive.

The real game changer after all this is networking. The saying goes: It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. The best jobs don’t get posted to corporate websites, or if they do, they’re posted for labor law compliance and they already have a candidate in mind. Become a master at socializing (≠ partying), hint: it’s mostly just listening to other people.

It takes time. Be patient. Stay focused. You’ll get there.

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- Suck_on_my_Presence@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I’m going to second the college info. My ex phoned his CS degree in and didn’t have anything to show for his skills when it came time to find a job.
  
  I hustled, kept my grades up, and was honest with my professors when I didn’t understand something. I got an internship across the country and as soon as I came back the main professor for my major helped get me two more internships while he also helped try to find me connections with his old jobs. I know I’m not the only one he did this with.
  
  But now I’ve been working for a unionized job with my degree for 4 years and am climbing up the ladders.
  
  Put in effort and try to be your honest self and it raises your chances of things working out.
  
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11111one11111@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Heres my 37 year old experience of adhd fueled emoloyment experience with no higher education. Not sure what the fuck DL is but it gives insight to your intelligence for assuming anyone will know what the fuck DL is so the list is adjusted accordingly. Take tons of adderall so my work ethic is amphetamine driven and it usually took 3 to 5 years to go from zero experience to hitting a ceiling. Only career paths I didnt progress all the way thru is nursing but gave example of path every nurse I know took who made a career out of it amd advanced their education. Each degree level comes with massive pay increase opportunities. The highest ceilings are Nursing, Procurement and IT. The most secure single certification lifelong careers Linesmen and Machinist. Fastest career path to the grave or being/feeling like youre famous: chef.

Machinist: 3 month certification class. Employers often pay for the class if you agree to work for them on completion.

CNA: 3 month cert. Again, enployers often cover course costs. Good experience towards, which employers also usually offer tuition reimbursement, nursing degrees which have very high ceilings d3pending on type of nursing degree you have. Can go for 2 years, work, need more money, go for 2 more years, work for more money, need more money, go to school for 2 more years, work for more money… Basically all the way from LPN up to Nurse Practitioner who are basically doctors.

Linesman: 2 year degree. Union. Work for local electrical department with government pension/benefits.

IT certs from Cysco: cheap, free courses available, most places will accept in place of degree fields without paying outrageous tuition for degree.

Classically trained chef: apply to any metropolitan restaurant, work your way up from dishwasher to sous chef with no prior education or experience. Must be able to handle high stress high demand work environment. Must be extremely competitive and good at doing drugs and drinking.

Procurement: basic understanding of relevant software and commercial purchasing. Starting employment usually begins with incoming sales and processing orders.

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- FabledAepitaph@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  What’s your deal? DL is obviously “drivers license”, lmao.
  
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  - 11111one11111@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Why is that obvious?
    
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- AQuestionAsker@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  DL means Drivers License, a quick google search would’ve told you that
  
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  - 11111one11111@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    1st search results is acronymfinder with 116 results for DL. Fuck off lol
    
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  - cecilkorik@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Just think of it this way, if a guy who doesn’t know and can’t figure out what a “DL” is can get a job, you’ll be fine.
    
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Suck_on_my_Presence@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Getting an associates degree can help you a lot if you have the ability to do so. There are a lot of medical jobs that you can nab with a 2 year degree. X-ray tech, cat scan tech, MRI tech, ultrasound tech, etc. You can also do back of house stuff such as medical coding or IT for hospitals. You can also get an associates in chemistry and work in a lab. You can work as an insurance actuary. Maybe look up what certifications your local community college offers. Certs usually lead to jobs.

If school isn’t in your budget yet, or just not your thing, landscaping is almost always hiring, as are construction jobs. They’re hard on your body, but it’s a job to start with. Someone mentioned trucking, a CDL is a great idea. Again, not easy work, but it’ll pay the bills until you feel like doing something else. Forklift certifications are good to have as well, although I’m not positive on how long those take.

You have a lot of options for sure, and you’re young. The world is your oyster, it’s just up to you to put in the effort.

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Angelevo@feddit.nl ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Learn a trade. Do you like working with wood, metal, electronics? Gardening? Construction?

The best advice I can add to what has been given already is to just try out a few things and feel if something resonates. You can ask companies to go along for a day to see how the work is done to learn, help them for a day without pay to learn, for instance.

Does take some initiative and social skills, can lead to a nice career.

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- TJDetweiler@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  To add to this with my own anecdotal experience: I got into a trade at 18, right outta high school. Had mediocre high school grades, and decent college grades for electrical. Got a job in a place I didn’t wanna work for about a year, but made good connections and got good experience. Used that to get a job in my home town, and literally jumped from job to job, or was able to keep my job through intense layoffs by being a good bullshitter.
  
  Some of the best advice I ever received was “it’s not the grades you make, it’s the hands you shake”
  
  Get into something that might interest you, and network with people. Networking for me from a trades background as a young guy got me a work from home job doing IT in my 30s.
  
  Best of luck mate, you’ll figure it out. Time is on your side, just don’t be idle for too long if you can help it. Older you will thank you.
  
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- Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  This is the correct answer. Also, try to find areas where there is a labour shortage. Those might not be the most attractive options but it may be a way to get a stable job with a decent income.
  
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scarabic@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Do what generation after generation of people have done: move to find opportunity. There are plenty of places where the economy is active enough that you aren’t caught between union gatekeepers and starvation.

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Grimy@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
You need to figure out what fields interest you and then get qualifications for it. The lack of response might be a CV issue, have someone you trust look over it and give you pointers. It’s okay to lie and embellish on a CV.

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msokiovt@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I’d take the Jack Spirko route. You’re supposed to be broke in your 20’s, from what I’m aware of, and you’re supposed to be working a job, or learning a trade. However, due to numerology, I determined that a trade isn’t right for me.

Highly recommend getting “Laws of Life”, his book, and his second iteration once it comes out. It’s on Amazon, so just look up “Jack Spirko Laws of Life”, and you’ll find it.

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altphoto@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Don’t apply for positions you can’t possibly fill. But do some judgement. If you think you’re pretty close to what they ask then apply.

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mapiki@discuss.online ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
The never respond makes me think it could be a cover letter/resume problem - check resources for those. And like other people mention, contacts help when your resume isn’t stellar. Consider reaching out to people directly on LinkedIn (I did this for a local engineering company that didn’t have any jobs posted… but they still hired me). Might help if resume or cover letter is getting filtered out by AI during the process.

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RBWells@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
That is so young to worry about a career. What jobs have you been applying to? There are other ways to get into trades, if that’s what you want. Or just working at the grocery store, they seem to want to promote men so much more than women. All the managers at the ones around here started as baggers, all are dudes. If there is a Whole Foods, they have programs to learn butchering, cheese mongering, pizza making, baking.

But get a job first, any job. My kids all started out working at the skating rink, crap job but it’s so much easier to get a job when you have a job. Will your parents let you stay there and save money?

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MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Try to apply to any/all Union apprentice programs. I think most only have open application once a year.

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