Profoundly Disconnected - Mike Rowe

Started my electrical apprenticeship at 15. Worked the trade for 4 years then 2 years random jobs. Back in til last year. Journeyman card at 21. Hired on at LaFarge Cement Plant and tested out of all but 18 months of a 4 year Instrumentation union class. Got my Masters license when I was 27. So far the fact I didn't go to high school (have my ged) or college hasn't kept me from getting a job I wanted.

The last 3 jobs I've had I made 45-60k a year plus whatever else I make on the side in unrelated income. I played around with contracting when I was out of a job for a few years. Kinda changing course now. Still doing Industrial Electrical Maint. when the plant needs it but doing something else unrelated for the most part. Humility is the most important thing a young man needs to succeed in a job. Be willing to learn and take a few hard knocks when deserved. I gotta say this. Observing the average modern American male "yutes", my boys are going to have a great advantage once they are young men. My 11 year old boy already has a good grasp on electrical theory and has put many a summer hour working. Whenever he complains I tell him he gets to decide what he does when he's 18. As of now he's going to learn what I can give him so he never has to be without a job for long.

AS, BS, MS, PhD. But I also worked my ass off at manual labor much of the time, and took/take shop and other continuing ed classes as necssary. State schools and employer programs, paid off all loans by the time I was 30.

BS and MS here. No real debt from that.

Army paid for some of my BS. The rest of the BS and most of my MS was paid by the company I worked for (worked full time at night and went to school full time during the day for most of my BS).

Like Mike Rowe, I found very early that I didn't quite have the aptitude for metal/wood/etc. Anyway, I found my niche, love what I do, and get paid well to do it. I really can't argue w/ that.

2 years school of mines in golden Mech engineering did not work out then 18 months diesel tech school. 7 years in the industry climbed from shit stick to one of top 5 guys in one if the largest dealerships in the country.,,, I Found my passion



75 a year with no 4 year degree and still have 4 years till I am thirty does not hurt either.

I just love how Mike Rowe describes his topic in this video. It puts it into a different perspective, which is refreshing.

Honestly, if I had really been smart about the whole education thing, I wouldn't have touched a 4 year degree. I didn't want to do it, I hated every second of it, and it cost me more money than I will be able to pay back in any sort of reasonable amount of time. The only reason I finished is because "they" say you can't get a good job without a bachelors (hell, now it's probably "you can't get a good job without a masters"). Honestly, I'm not even proud of getting my degree because I didn't really try all that hard and I only did enough to get by with a passable grade. It's just a mountain of debt that my wife and children are now burdened with. Now, that's not to say I'm not thankful for where I'm at...because I wouldn't have my job right now if I didn't have my degree. But looking back on everything, an alternative education might have been just the thing to kick in my motivation. Instead of being 26, overweight and riddled with debt I might have been 26, in crazy good shape and completely debt free. I dunno. Who knows.

BS & MS in civil engineering here. Went to college right after HS and wasted a lot of time and money. Quit with nothing. Married, two kids and then divorced I still had nothing. Second wife put me through college the second time and what a difference 15 years and a whole lot of growing up did. After CU, I went right back to construction but I was running the jobs and not swinging a hammer any more. Retired now and am always glad I went back to school.

But, like lots of young people I wasn't ready when I was 19, I would have been a lot better off going to trade school. I wasn't ready. I never pushed our kids too hard. We have one that owns a pet grooming shop, another is a truck driver and one has a BS and MS. You know what, they all are happy, have their own families, own a home, etc. Pushing them into something they didn't want would not have worked.

I grew up in a construction household. My father was an iron worker and life was very much feast or famine. When construction was booming life was good and when construction was down life was miserable. We often had to move in with my grandmother when my father would get laid off and was unable to find work. My father always told me to never go into construction, the work is to seasonal and despite the promise of big pay without a college degree the physical toll it takes on your body just isn't worth it. In the early 2000's a lot of my friends became union framers and carpenters. They were driving new trucks, buying houses and doing very well for themselves. At the same time I was making an okay living in telecommunications but I also often worked weekends, evenings and holidays while they were off during most of those times so it was very tempting to follow in their footsteps and take on a union trade. When the housing market collapsed they were all laid off and unable to find work in their trade. Ultimately they lost their trucks, their houses and many of them also lost their wives/families because of the emotional toll and stress caused by almost instant poverty. Most of them had to move back home with their parents and some still do.

Despite not having a degree I have managed to work my way up in a very large corporation and make a great living doing what I do. Most of my collegues have MBA's from instutions like DU and the 6 figure debt that goes along with it, despite their MBA's and insane debt they don't make any more $$ than I do and I am quite honestly better at my job than most of them. Sadly, due to not having a degree I am limited in how much further up the ladder I can climb. The next level in my career would be to become a director which is possible but is the absolute ceiling in my profession without a degree. I have often considered going to college to get a degree and may end up doing so at some point but I've already made the decision to become and independant consultant in my field within the next 1-2 years which will allow me to be my own boss, have limitless earning potential and does not require a degree, just comprehensive industry experience.

If you are reading this thread right now and considering a career change let me share something with you that my father used to tell me all the time. "Son when you are trying to decide what you want to do in life just remember this, no matter how bad things get people will always get sick, people will always need to communicate and people will always need to eat." Staying true to my father's advice I chose to help people communicate and have first hand knowledge of just how recession proof the industry is.

While the world certainly needs ditch diggers and oil rig hands those are not the only choices for guys who don't have a degree. There are many white collar professions that don't require degrees and pay 6 figure incomes as well.

Almost done with my Masters but will likely not use it, military pretty much required it and partially paid for it. When I retire, I joke that I want to drink beer, fish, and travel, but honestly, I think I want to learn all the skills I never did when I was younger like welding or machining.

I love Mike Rowe- he's also a very outspoken conservative as well (plus I love how he narrates Deadliest Catch- one of the few Discovery shows I still watch). And I agree with everything he said, and what many on here have said. To share my story- I tried the college thing, twice. It's not for me. But of course society says, now a days, you're nothing without a 4-year degree, and I'm two classes from an Associate's which I intend to get within the next year or two, but that's about as far as I'll probably go. It makes me sad that people were trying to criticize me because I have the GI Bill, and valuable skills learned from the military, and instead of getting a BA or BS, or even as far as a Masters, I'm choosing instead to use the GI Bill to put myself through a law enforcement academy. College isn't for everyone, and these videos point out perfectly that people are trying to get a corner office, yet now a days we don't even know how to build that corner office.

Some of the smartest guys I know aren't what many would consider "educated" in modern sense- they never went to college, but one owns 4 different companies, each operating in the +, and he rakes in over $400K a year. He learned his skills from the military and trade schools. Like Jim said, some of these folks who spent well over half of their lives in school (if you count grade school) are brilliant, but couldn't tell you the difference between an alternator and a distributor under the hood of a car, or be able to figure out if a bolt on their kids' swing set requires a standard or metric socket. There's two kinds of educated, those who learn in school, and those who learn in the trades- and I don't think we should give one preference over another, they're both capable of the job they are taught to do.

Just a little perspective. I am currently working, but was just offered a job making $27/hr 60hrs/week and $70 per day just to drive to somewhere outside Greeley. Not bad at all.