On good days (weekends mostly), pursuing a full-time career here in the city and living well seems attractive. By the middle of the next week, all I desire is a hut in the wilderness. I need a job which provides for a middle-class lifestyle, that I could do part of the year sometimes if neccessary. Plumber, nurse, HVAC tech, electrician, organic farmer, heavy equipment mechanic and commercial fisher all come to mind.
I need advice, validation or correction.
Scratch HVAC tech. We require drug testing and I don't think you'll qualify.
So you want a job where you have to do very little and get paid to be able to afford a middle class lifestyle? I would suggest become a politician or perhaps a union officer/rep ;-)
And since none of the jobs he mentioned require doing "very little," I suggest he's better off to continue wool gathering.
True - the jobs he mentioned require more than a little work (that is not what I inteneded as the meaning). However he seemed to be looking for a job that payed so well and he would only have to do it when he had to and live off the money he made the rest of the year and thus only having to do very littlle work each year.
This is turtle.
There is two professions that come to mine and they are Male Nurse or Get a degree in Business Management with the Hospital Management as the major. There is just a few colleges that have Hospital Management as a Major.
And don't get into the HVAC or the refrigeration business for it just plain Sucks. I been in it for 40 years.
TURTLE
Good plan... especially with whats ahead for the US economy as jobs by the millions are going to china...thats going to chain react down the food chain...diversity is a good thang.
Buy tools...be well equipped, dress very well... if you dress or groom poorly you will get $6 to $10 an hour....if you dress with one size larger than you should wear heavy twill sport shirts starched and ironed, and levi's as tight as you can fit into, and boots (not tennis shoes)...and short hair...your low range will be $20/hr and most that fit the discription make $50 to $75/hr...you need a clean pick up truck or van at the very least.... a dirty rig will take 20 dollars an hour off of what you can bill.
thats just how it is.
Be self employed ...you have the broad range skills to pull that off fast... just one home nursing customer would give you the base you need and thats a hot field these days. Have some billing forms printed up with your name on them, Worry about licensing later..its not needed for small jobs.
You could also start by applying to rural or ocean side resorts as the site maintenance man...then take side jobs around town...those jobs are worth 20 an hour ... keep looking you will find one. talent is getting scarce these days...then start building a side line of side jobs, when that comes close to your wage job, quite your wage job.
You will live a long and happy life with that sort of career. But you have to look, dress and operate like a pro to do well...
Phil Scott
You can do it,working 20 hours a week if you are self employed ...but that means on call as well, still its possible.
Phil Scott, 62 semi retired mech/ elect contr. Calif.
With his skill set, and if he dresses and grooms really well, and has professional billing forms, good tools and a clean truck...he can earn a middle class life style working under 30 hours a week easily...even under 20 hours.. Why? Just bill what an employer would have to if they hired him..thats usually 2x to 3x the salary (to cover the business expenses and insurance etc)...working alone on small jobs most guys dont have any of that... I bill at $75 to $100/hr and work under 25 hours a week for a suitable life style. It can be done.
But not as a hippie...that pay 10 bucks. You have to put on a professional showing.
Phil Scott
Apparently, I didn't make myself clear in my previous post. I don't expect a part-time job to pay for a middle-class lifestyle and neither am I afraid of hard work. I want a well paid profession which allows episodic work.
good advice
Been there done that as well, now its about 10% of my operation. HVACR seems to attract bright nerd types, who, like my own tendency, work cheap if necessary to ge the job...the net effect is jobs going for subsistence level profits.
Other trades dont seem to have the problem. Electricians dont I do that now.
With diversity you can afford to loose a lot of jobs, just quote em at good money, and if you loose it, no problem you are busy with your other trades anyway. thats my current tactic...its not fool proof, but it beat hell out of praying for the phone to ring.
Phil Scott
Unfortunately I don't have that diverse skill set, Phil. I'm a 20 yr old apprentice tool & die maker. I listed those jobs as a likely career path. Thank you for your suggestions.
In that case and especially if you live in a northern climate then look to the construction trades and the apprenticeship programs many unions (ack - I can't believe I said that!) offer (electricians , pipefitters,etc). In many of these trades you work a lot during the summer and have a good portion of the "off-season" off (at least around here). Most of the jobs you mentioned are all year steady jobs mostly.
New advice then... the trades are no competing in a world market, which means starvation wages. Use your trade job to get your ass though school in a profession, law, medicine or at least business... if you want to work with your hands find books on buying and fixing up trashed realestate.
But the trades jobs will be hard hit next as the white collar and manufacturing jobs got moved to africa, china, India and eastern europe..those people will swarm home depot as they get into the handy man bidness and trades, trades than now welcome illegal mexican and chinese aliens willing to work for less than your rent per month.
So you need to find a way to float your boat *above that mess.
Phil Scott
Fixer upper real estate for big money at the low skill and training range...you can do joint ventures with sellers and use thier money.
Just above that the trades but only in the high end aspects...industrial controls for instance not just straight wiring.
Above that ny business where you hire others. (but that can be a strain)
Above that the professions. You can arrange any of these to work as you wish.
A JOB...well unless its in the professions, is at the bottom of the scale, even professional jobs in my view are a serious disaster for many people.
Phil Scott
Good news for Ned. With all those call-backs, he's got major experience working under water. ;o)
I'm glad I'm in Higher Ed because it is one of the few areas the US is seen as a magnet for foreigners rather than a sector that can be moved overseas. Healthcare is another field and will be my second career (heading to medical school). No other "safe" fields come to mind. Can anyone think of any others?
I do firmly believe in doing what one loves BUT there are some harsh realities coming down the road in the next 20 years.
Thank you all for your help. I've decided to enroll in a 9 month course in underwater welding starting Sep 2004. I'd have gone for the dental hygienist program but I'm afraid I can't do it while working part-time. Perhaps a few years later.
You can actually combine those, if you specialize in dental work on people who have drowned .....
Paul ( pjm @ pobox . com ) - remove spaces to email me 'Some days, it's just not worth chewing through the restraints, ya know ?'
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Smart move, you should have a lot of fun and adventure and at some killer rates. Did you find out what an underwater welder gets an hour?
Phil Scott
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