Speaking of education....

feddoc

Long Time Member
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Did any of you here start a college degree or trade school and switch degree/trade fields? I'd be interested in how that turned out.

I left active duty in the 70s and started school as a civil engineer. Got through the hard stuff (Calculus 1, 2 and 3, thermodynamics, abstract algebra) and switched over to PE..yea, I decided I wanted to teach math and coach basketball. Then I decided to get a terminal degree in Physiology...then came the Navy.

Sometimes I wonder how things would have turned out had I gone to a trade school instead as I have long ago grown tired of the vast majority of academia. Except for Homer the grammar coach. ?

What's your story? Any regrets or educational changes?
 
You could been a better Welder.
instead of just doing the 4 yrs, I wish I had stayed in for 20 yrs got the retirement
 
For the most part, I’ve always been lucky in life. I hated computers in high school, and didn’t want to continue with schooling after HS, but after 9 months working a job where most everyone at the company was an ex-con, I decided I needed to know how to do something more. So I picked up the phone book and called schools until ITT said come on down.
Got my Associate degree and landed a great job servicing computer equipment. A couple years later I upgraded jobs to a company where I worked maybe 10 hours a week......just when clients had problems. Did that for 10 years and during that time self taught myself to build websites. This site was born. I was laid off from that other job after a buy out and it was at the perfect time to do my own thing and I had built the site enough to pay bills.
Been doing this full time now for about 16 years. Its been challenging with increased competition over the past 10 years, but I’ve always planned for the ups and downs of business, so I’ve saved for any rainy days.
Going to school was a fantastic decision for me.
The cost for me every quarter was about $2000. I knew I was paying that back whether I completed school or not. That kept me motivated to keep after it.
For 2 years I worked from 7 to 4, came home, ate, went to school from 6 to 10, 5 days a week. Got weekends off.
No regrets here.
 
Did pretty good in HS, and loved science fields. Went to college for a year, and got discouraged when the classes were borderline stupid and not related to what I thought I wanted. Joined the Navy Nuclear Power program and learned to run submarine reactors and power plants. Got out and made it a pretty successful 40 year career!! :)
 
Did pretty good in HS, and loved science fields. Went to college for a year, and got discouraged when the classes were borderline stupid and not related to what I thought I wanted. Joined the Navy Nuclear Power program and learned to run submarine reactors and power plants. Got out and made it a pretty successful 40 year career!! :)
One of the most, if not the most, difficult schools in the Navy.
 
Unfortunately for me, as an impressionable young dumba$$, I watched Animal House before going to college. Lasted one semester. Went home, went to junior college, got an associate's in electronics, and grew up.
 
I went for 3 years at a State College out of high school majoring in Wildlife Management. The same school and same time as Kilbuk. He graduated and made a very successful career.

I applied for a summer job as a local fish counter for the summer and when I saw the stack of applications from students across the country I got cold feet and took a summer job working on a logging crew. Back then the only wildlife management jobs were for the government. I was making big money so when the fall semester rolled around I never signed up. I eventually quit the woods and went into the sawmill where I learned the trade of saw filer. 31 years later I retired.
Regrets? I miss the government retirement benefits but proud of making my own way and being productive in the private sector. I could go back to work tomorrow if I had to.
 
Flunked out of 10th grade quit school and started roofing.
Started my own roofing company 23 years ago, I keep about 12 people employed year round.
No regrets quitting school roofing has been very good to me and I have always enjoyed doing it.
 
Yep. Started out in pre-med. Decided I didn't want to go school for 7-8 years and switched to engineering. Ended up going for 7 anyway :rolleyes:

If I could do it all over again, I'd do pre-med and then go onto optometry.
 
Went to two years at University of Utah was working nights in Construction. Was making more than most of my friends dads so I dropped out after two years. Worked in Construction until I started my own construction company.
The business classes I took in college paid off years later when I started my business. Worked for myself now for 22 years wouldn't trade it for anything
 
Was all signed up to go to Phoenix institute of Technology and take Computer Aided Drafting. We had just moved to a small town and my dad said if I go to school I would end up back in the big city. He said come down to the shop and I will teach you all you need to know to be a auto mechanic and run a shop. He was going to work 7 more years and I would take over his business. That was 1983, dad was still working when he past away in 2015. I now own the shop and have promised myself I will not work till I an 74. No regrets on not going to school
 
Yep Started med school. Figured how much malpractice insurance was going to cost and the years in school. So I became a Plumber. Well and I do heating and air conditioning as well. Although I won't get a double retirement like my little brother that finished school with a degree in psychology and criminology. But I don't have the depression issue's with dealing with violent crime. I worked in the family business and put the two younger ones through college. I don't think college is what its cracked up to be anymore. I went to a ladies house the other day to repair the toilet flange her husband screwed up. He had a engineering degree but drives a ambulance. She had a degree in biochemistry working at a elementary school. With six boys living in a 1200 square feet home. With three bedrooms and two bathrooms. But they where sure proud of those degrees!
 
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Yep Started med school. Figured how much malpractice insurance was going to cost and the years in school. So I became a Plumber. Well and I do heating and air conditioning as well. Although I won't get a double retirement like my little brother that finished school with a degree in psychology and criminology. But I don't have the depression issue's with dealing with violent crime. I worked in the family business and put the two younger ones through college. I don't think college is what its cracked up to be anymore. I went to a ladies house the other day to repair the toilet flange her husband screwed up. He had a engineering degree but drives a ambulance. She had a degree in biochemistry working at a elementary school. With six boys living in a 1200 square feet home. With three bedrooms and two bathrooms. But they where sure proud of those degrees!
Did you ask them if they were happy though?
 
I had a guy come in for an interview that had a Masters in Russian History and was applying for an Project Manager position.
I asked him why I should hire him and he told me I am a smart person and can learn anything. He wanted $150k to start.
I told him I can get young guys out of college that actually went to school to learn Construction Project Management and I pay them 75K to start.
Best guys I ever got were out of the trades and worked their way up the ladder.
 
Best guys I ever got were out of the trades and worked their way up the ladder.
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I agree. The ones that worked their way up, know the politics of the job. Too many times I see the younger ones not know what to say or how to say it in a tense meeting. They also don’t know how to ask for things in a sensitive, direct, yet kind sort of way, and push back or say no in the proper way.
 
I can't tell you the number of college students the sawmill hired for the summer who didn't even last one week. They couldn't even be to work on time let alone do the physical labor. I remember one guy who was on the football team who quit at lunch time on his first day.
 
Best guys I ever got were out of the trades and worked their way up the ladder.

I agree. The ones that worked their way up, know the politics of the job. Too many times I see the younger ones not know what to say or how to say it in a tense meeting. They also don’t know how to ask for things in a sensitive, direct, yet kind sort of way, and push back or say no in the proper way.
[/QUOTE]

And then there are those that play to office politics, say all the "right" things in meetings but can't lead a work group, an operation, or properly manage a project to save their lives. These are the ones blessed with the gift of gab and love to showboat.

The ones you want to surround yourself with are the quite ones, only speak when necessary, and lead off with "well, if it were me, I'd..."
 
Having a business degree i feel the degree is only one of the building blocks for a successful career. Equally important are work ethic, common sense and having a plan. Those that work their way up in companies with these building blocks are the best leaders.
 
Being in the construction industry, I have a lot more respect for the guy that started with a broom in his hand at 18 and workEd his way through while being hammered with common sense from the old timers than the guy who has a construction management degree and can show up on the job citing specifications, yet can’t operate a shovel.
A saying that my dad used often was ”got a college degree but ain’t got sense enough to dump sand out of his boots”.
 
Having a business degree i feel the degree is only one of the building blocks for a successful career. Equally important are work ethic, common sense and having a plan. Those that work their way up in companies with these building blocks are the best leaders.
Yup. I remember during my enlisted days in the Navy, it was almost a given that anyone with a degree was an officer. When I retired as an officer, it was far more common that each of my enlisted staff had a degree of some type. It is interesting to see that some fields, such as pilot, (nearly always) require a degree of some type. In my specialty, you had to have a medically related degree....unless...you had been a pilot first.

Another thing about folks who went from enlisted to officer is that they were either pretty good as Os or pretty bad. Sad to say that in too many cases, some folks would do nothing more than 'just' climb the corporate ladder instead of developing a better work ethic and common sense. They may have made O5 and above, but they were crappy leaders. I blame this squarely on those O6s and above who were not in touch with their enlisted staff.
 
Being in the construction industry, I have a lot more respect for the guy that started with a broom in his hand at 18 and workEd his way through while being hammered with common sense from the old timers than the guy who has a construction management degree and can show up on the job citing specifications, yet can’t operate a shovel.
A saying that my dad used often was ”got a college degree but ain’t got sense enough to dump sand out of his boots”.
Probably because the guy with the formal learnin' isn't paid to operate the shovel?

Some engineers in "the patch" where I cut my teeth had to tie rags soaked in diesel around their ankles when in the field so the ants wouldn't eat their candy-asses up. Those were only the Prima Donna's from ATM though...
 
Some degree requirements are simply paperwork, in order to see if you had the determination to complete a task in a timely manner (4 years). It really doesn't matter what your degree is, although it can help, but they want to weed out half the applicants at the get-go. Once you are working for a company and have proven yourself capable, many of the degree-required promotions have an "or equivalent experience" clause built in there somewhere!!
 
Farm boy that got a scholarship to play football. Four plus years later with my mushy head, I applied my Biology/Environmental Science degree and got a job with a local consulting firm. Four companies and 30years of working my way up the ladder, I started a remediation division. I now design, build and perform O&M on treatment systems. Love the field work trouble shooting and working with my hands again.
 
School of hard knocks for me... Started in construction when I was 13, worked every summer doing foundations until I was 17... At 17 started framing houses full time and high school at night...

33 yrs later I'm a superintendent for one of the largest GC's in the US...

I wouldn't change any of it if I could...
 
Loved science in high school, got a BS in biology, worked a little while as research assistant in medical field. Really wanted to be out in the woods and lakes so went back for a Master’s in wildlife biology and spent the next 32 years as a fisheries tech for the state of Texas. Now I just hunt, fish, work on our small ranch and play with grandkids. The salary over my career was not great but it paid bills. The nice part now is the pension for life, and my wife gets it if I die first!
 
Growing up the kid of a Drywaller I was on jobs from almost day one. Grew up around a lot of felons, drug addicts, etc. But those guys treated a young dude like their own. Dad figured out that the guys didnt scare me out, so he worked my azz off, thinking that would.(the harder you work the more you make, teenagers with money???)

Went to college almost as much to shut him up as because I wanted to. Ended up with BS in Microbiology, minor in Chemistry.

Didnt "walk" at graduation. The boom was on. Applied for 2 job. The first paid $11.00 at county sewer treatment plant. I actually laughed when he said that(didnt get that job?).

I traded an easier job for control.


Watch how a guy walks. Dudes that walk quickly, and in straight lines, are guys who you want. Best advice ever on hiring someone
 
My son studied watch making at a junior college after not finding his way at UW. No degree but a certificate of completion for his program. He's a high dollar watch maker now and doing well for himself.
 
My son studied watch making at a junior college after not finding his way at UW. No degree but a certificate of completion for his program. He's a high dollar watch maker now and doing well for himself.
I think this is very interesting......I had no idea watch making was still around.
 
Went through a semester of college 22 years ago. Hated it. Quit and became a ski bum at snow basin. Soon hired on as a mechanic. Went to tech school a few years later. Decided I was doooone with school. Then I went back to formal schooling and got a bachelors in business management. Now I’m a maintenance manager for a growing food production company. No regrets. But yes, I am for sure dooone with school now....and I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up?
 
I got out of the Army in 1968 and worked construction for a few years. Money was good, but I got tired being away from the family too much. Used my G.I. bill to get my A.A. in criminal Justice and went to work for the local sheriff's dept. Quit college while only needing about 25 units more for my B.A. degree.
In my dept. you needed a B.A. to promote to the level of Lt. or higher. I had made a decision that I did not want to give up working the streets as a Sgt. and end up flying a desk as a Lt. or Captain. Best decision I ever made as the politics are terrible at the admin. level and I hated the politics that are sometimes attached to law enforcement work.
I ticked off a couple of Sheriffs as I would ignore the politics and do my job as I saw fit. Even arrested the son of the under-sheriff once. The best Sheriff I worked under, total of 5, talked me into working the hill beat of my county that included 6 small towns and 410 square mile beat. As the sgt in charged i ran the patrol shifts as I saw fit and was able to reduce crime every year for many years. That factor pleased the sheriff so much, several of them left me along and with some great deputies we gained strong support from the citizens in our beat.
We also gained strong political support from the citizens and the hill beat had more registered voters then any other district in the county. I would do it again if given the chance to turn back time as I enjoyed the work and chasing criminals.

RELH
 
I went to college being very lazy and unfocused. After a year I moved on to construction. 10 years later an associate in nuclear science and an HVAC trade course. After that life has been good.
And I never borrowed a dime. I was taking my courses after work, raising kids and running a lawn mowing business all at once. Sometimes I had 4 hours of sleep for two to 3 days at a time and never had more than 6 hours sleep on weekdays.
 
I got out of the Army in 1968 and worked construction for a few years. Money was good, but I got tired being away from the family too much. Used my G.I. bill to get my A.A. in criminal Justice and went to work for the local sheriff's dept. Quit college while only needing about 25 units more for my B.A. degree.
In my dept. you needed a B.A. to promote to the level of Lt. or higher. I had made a decision that I did not want to give up working the streets as a Sgt. and end up flying a desk as a Lt. or Captain. Best decision I ever made as the politics are terrible at the admin. level and I hated the politics that are sometimes attached to law enforcement work.
I ticked off a couple of Sheriffs as I would ignore the politics and do my job as I saw fit. Even arrested the son of the under-sheriff once. The best Sheriff I worked under, total of 5, talked me into working the hill beat of my county that included 6 small towns and 410 square mile beat. As the sgt in charged i ran the patrol shifts as I saw fit and was able to reduce crime every year for many years. That factor pleased the sheriff so much, several of them left me along and with some great deputies we gained strong support from the citizens in our beat.
We also gained strong political support from the citizens and the hill beat had more registered voters then any other district in the county. I would do it again if given the chance to turn back time as I enjoyed the work and chasing criminals.

RELH
Bob what was the hill beat. I grew up on the hill in Southern California. We called it the hill. The Palos verdes peninsula. The same hill ? Probably not.
 
BigJohnt, hill beat was the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range located in the North-East portion of our county. The county is just North of Sacramento County.
Officers working this beat were "resident" officers and required to live within the beat. Main reason we were able to gain the trust and confidence of the citizens as we were part of their community and not a strange face driving by in a patrol vehicle.
I had many coffee stops at the homes of different citizens. Stop by for coffee and they filled me in on things going on in their neck of the woods.
Their support of the residence officers were so great, that when I put the word out that our sheriff tried to use the back door to do away with the resident officers, he felt we gained too much political clout, the citizens voted that two term sheriff out of office by a margin of 73-74 percent and he thought he would never be defeated.
I hated the politics, but sometimes you had to use it for the best benefit.
RELH
 
Grew up working for mom and dad in construction, small home builder. We did maybe 2-3 houses a year and some additions/remodels/decks etc. Had no clue what I wanted to do when I grew up so I lived at home and went from the local Community College to the local state school after 2 years. Worked on my days off the entire time. Couldn't wait to get out and get a "real job". I landed a job in Customer Service for a flooring manufacturer and di very well there. Pay was great and ended up a Team Lead. I had ambitions to join the outside sales group but wanted to move down south. After 5 years I felt pretty much trapped in my place in Customer Service. So I left corporate America and went back to work for mom and dad.

Its hard work and stressful at times but I get to go out west once a year and I have some pretty nice guns :)
 
One of the best jobs I ever had was my summer job for 4 years. I drove heavy equipment. Backhoe, dragline, cable dozer, scraper, D7, excavator. We made building pads, ditches, leveled fields, cut roads. Buried septic tanks, dug ponds, cut fire breaks.

I miss that simple life.
 
There was a lot of satisfaction from driving trucks and heavy equipment. One time between duty stations in the Navy I had six weeks off. Went back to my old boss and made as much in that period as I did the rest of the year in the service!!
 
I think it's important to do whatever you like and enjoy. Suppose you aren't happy if your degree, don't worry. There are many other possibilities, and you shouldn't be scared of changes. For example, I am a student at asa college Miami, and I first started in Health Care Management. Still, after just one year, I understood I had a different perspective on this domain and switched to Psychology. I don't regret a thing, and I am happy I took this decision now rather than lose years of practice and money and realize I am unhappy and want to try something different.
 
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Did you guys notice that the latest "Blue Angel" pilot started out regular navy and worked her way up to the cockpit ! That is really unusual. My dream was to become a navy fighter pilot............broke my back in four places playing high Schoo; football. Looking back it was one of the best events in my life. I probably would be pushing up sod in Vietnam.
 
I tried college for one semester. I figured out I wasn’t motivated for school and it would be a waste of money for me. Went to work at a coal mine for a few years. I really liked that job, but the writing was on the wall it wasn’t going to last. I have buddy who wired houses for a fairly large company. I got on with them as an apprentice, did my trade school and my time. And now I run a crew of guys on large high end residential projects. I enjoy my job most days.
 
I went to college on an ROTC scholarship studying Chemistry. Delayed active duty to go to graduate school in BioChemistry / BioPhysics. Became disillusioned with the leftist graduate program, and taught college chemistry for 10 years as a default.

My parents thought I was crazy when I left a "government job" (college) to work for a biotech start-up doing facilities and safety management. I've spent the last 25 years in increasingly senior roles, managing construction of high tech laboratory and manufacturing facilities. I'm currently the VP of Facilities for a large, multi-national biotech, responsible for large campus construction projects and physical plant operations with a very large staff.

I haven't regretted changing careers for one minute. I could have easily ended up as a chemical weapons officers in the sandbox, which really doesn't sound like much fun. Getting out of higher education with its total corruption by liberal politics was likewise a good decision. My formal education was definitely helpful and opened doors that might have otherwise been closed, but I found a niche that I liked and was good at, and feel I have succeeded in my professional life.

I have the time and resources to pursue my hunting passions. My job allows me to have one foot in the practical world of construction and maintenance, and the other foot in the high tech science of biotechnology. It was far from a linear career path, but in the end I wouldn't change much.

Bill
 
I went for 3 years at a State College out of high school majoring in Wildlife Management. The same school and same time as Kilbuk. He graduated and made a very successful career.

I applied for a summer job as a local fish counter for the summer and when I saw the stack of applications from students across the country I got cold feet and took a summer job working on a logging crew. Back then the only wildlife management jobs were for the government. I was making big money so when the fall semester rolled around I never signed up. I eventually quit the woods and went into the sawmill where I learned the trade of saw filer. 31 years later I retired.
Regrets? I miss the government retirement benefits but proud of making my own way and being productive in the private sector. I could go back to work tomorrow if I had to.
My dad worked in a sawmill for Boise Cascade until they closed it down in '95. He worked his way up from pulling green chain and was running the head rig when it closed. He was a mad SOB when I gave up school and started cutting logs. Man, I thought I had the world by the short hairs! I chased a heli around for a while before my wife said enough. Then I ended up 20' deep as a pipe layer. Worked my way out of the ditch into the office.
 
I was actively pursuing becoming an underwater welder. Loved diving and being under/in the water. Realized that it was actually a very very busy career with little home time, and once I met my wife that all kind of went in the dumpster. I am not actively getting a degree in radiology/imaging to become a radiological technologists.
 
I enrolled in a State Technical school for mechanical & architectural drawing. First semester in, found out my girlfriend was pregnant while working full time at Nike. I dropped out of school, got married, picked up 2 additional part time jobs to make ends meet. I left Nike & got a better paying job working for Alcoa 30 years ago. I started at the bottom & have worked my way up & found myself in the Field Service group for our Machinery & Equipment division of my company doing contract work for Coke, Pepsi, Nestle… pretty much every major bottler in North & South America . In 2009 Alcoa sold Reynolds & my company. I never imagined I would still be with the same company, let alone doing something totally different than what I had my eyes set on. That’s life I suppose. I know I’m blessed that everything happened exactly as it did. I love my boss & coworkers, they are a great bunch of guys. Today I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
 
I have certain skills that very few people in this country have. I really thought I would be a worthless vagrant growing up. I have no sales or people skills. Somehow people found me and wanted my skills for different jobs and reasons. My entire life was very blessed but really strange. Somehow God always brought the perfect people to me because I certainly didn't know how to find them or monetize my skills.
 
I enrolled in a State Technical school for mechanical & architectural drawing. First semester in, found out my girlfriend was pregnant while working full time at Nike. I dropped out of school, got married, picked up 2 additional part time jobs to make ends meet. I left Nike & got a better paying job working for Alcoa 30 years ago. I started at the bottom & have worked my way up & found myself in the Field Service group for our Machinery & Equipment division of my company doing contract work for Coke, Pepsi, Nestle… pretty much every major bottler in North & South America . In 2009 Alcoa sold Reynolds & my company. I never imagined I would still be with the same company, let alone doing something totally different than what I had my eyes set on. That’s life I suppose. I know I’m blessed that everything happened exactly as it did. I love my boss & coworkers, they are a great bunch of guys. Today I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

I had an electrician buddy who worked for a can making plant in Denver maybe 38 years ago. Pretty amazing watching those cans get punched out, then painted.
 
I had an electrician buddy who worked for a can making plant in Denver maybe 38 years ago. Pretty amazing watching those cans get punched out, then painted.
Agreed… Some of the high speed equipment that is used in the manufacturing & production processes are pretty remarkable.
 
Gotta be really careful working at Nike ? Ha..couldn't resist.
Lol… I was straight out of high school & worked in screen printing before I graduated. Aside from a job at FedEx, working at Nike was about as good as it got in Memphis. I only worked in their screen printing department about a year & a half before going to work for Alcoa.
 
For me, it was more about where I lived than what I do. I went to college on a football scholarship. Got a B.S in Wildlife Mgt. Then realized I was going to have to go to work for Game and Fish or the Feds. That was also a nonstarter for me. So I decided to go to grad school. Got a M.S. in Ag Econ. Went to work for the U of Wyoming and stayed 39 years, It was pretty good but didn't define me.

All I ever wanted to be was a rancher. I love cattle and wildlife. My wife and I had triplets (no fertility drugs) 2 years after we got married. That was too much financial stress to chase the ranching dream. We do have a small place and it is pretty nice. But not enough to make a living (unless we did the marijuana like Eel). We ran cattle for 25+ years, and we still winter cows for other people. I also guided to make extra money and have now been an outfitter for 35 years.

When you live in rural Wyoming you scramble and do whatever is needed to make ends meet. I feel blessed. Get to live in a good rural place, chase wildlife much of the year and still get to be around cows.

Best thing is our kids learned to think and to work hard being here. They are all good successful and honest people making their way in a crazy world.
 
For me, it was more about where I lived than what I do. I went to college on a football scholarship. Got a B.S in Wildlife Mgt. Then realized I was going to have to go to work for Game and Fish or the Feds. That was also a nonstarter for me. So I decided to go to grad school. Got a M.S. in Ag Econ. Went to work for the U of Wyoming and stayed 39 years, It was pretty good but didn't define me.

All I ever wanted to be was a rancher. I love cattle and wildlife. My wife and I had triplets (no fertility drugs) 2 years after we got married. That was too much financial stress to chase the ranching dream. We do have a small place and it is pretty nice. But not enough to make a living (unless we did the marijuana like Eel). We ran cattle for 25+ years, and we still winter cows for other people. I also guided to make extra money and have now been an outfitter for 35 years.

When you live in rural Wyoming you scramble and do whatever is needed to make ends meet. I feel blessed. Get to live in a good rural place, chase wildlife much of the year and still get to be around cows.

Best thing is our kids learned to think and to work hard being here. They are all good successful and honest people making their way in a crazy world.
Well done ICM!
 

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