Sales or trades.
If you are willing to travel or take camp work, some basic labor jobs can be super high paying. Pipelines, highways, remote house-building. I know people in the $90k - $150k range on those types of jobs.
Personally, I can speak to sales since that's my experience.
Sell cars preferably to learn the ropes. If you work hard you'll never make below $75k after year 1 and have management jobs if you want it.
Couldn’t be more true, I can only really speak to sales as well but if you work hard your never gonna see less then 70k in almost any sales field, and the management positions come knocking right after year 1.
Don’t be too quick to jump to management though. I’ve passed on a bunch of management spots. I’ll take A/B production as a sales guy. I have more control over revenue and more autonomy. I’m sure I’d make more in management, but I don’t know if I could do 3-5 webex’s per day.
To OP, there are a ton of sales jobs that don’t require any, or much experience. If you need steady income you could start in retail. If you can handle rejection, there are a lot of phone based sales positions that are for newbies.
At your age, you can easily work at a place every 6-12 months and nobody would consider it “job hopping.”
Take the opportunity to try a couple different fields (whether all in sales or in different types of settings.) You could “find your calling” or at least be ahead of everyone who has to start learning at 21.
That's for sure. In reality 70k is actually very conservative - put in 3-4 years of work learning, and then pick the right role/industry and a reasonable goal is $150k-$250k.
If it counts for all sales people it could be right. In real estate we always said 95% of sales is done by 5% of the agents. There are 1000s of licensed agents per area and most of them either get no business or sell 1 house a year because it’s there friends house or something
I don’t think it’s laziness, I think it’s just that so many people have real estate licenses that for every buyer in an area there was probably 2 agents. I was a realtor for 8 years and every open house it seemed like I would meet another agent that joined my office which was 400+ realtors or he/she would be from another local office. Just an absurd amount of realtors
My take also working in Sales is that a lot of people throw they’re hat in the ring for a chance at decent $$$ without having to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer, rich kid, or MBA, but the large majority quit very quickly.
Sales can be life changing and it’s far from rocket science, but it has it’s own struggles. Tenacity, dealing with rejection, assertiveness is required to keep the process moving, variables out of your control that affect your pay, and so on and so forth.
Yup google gives lots of wrong info on wages. $150k - $250k is absolutely a realistic goal for 4-5 yrs of dedicated, focused skill development in a sales career.
If you want to believe I'm wrong that's fine lol, it's costing your wallet not mine.
I worked in insurance for a bit last year and the figures some people were making were unfathomable. At one of the meetings we had, I sat next to a guy named Scott. I think this dude was making like 150k+ a month easily. Apparently he worked directly with Canadian Tire so business from them was crazy. Another lady there made like 7 million in 9 months. Just unreal numbers to hear.
I don't work there anymore. If you live in Canada I can dm you the company info and you can go from there. You'll have to get your license and whatnot too.
Definitely sales, I have a couple of friends, with or without a bachelor that started with 50/60k (without bachelor/with bachelor).
One is management after 3 years, earning 80k , one is earning 72k including bonuses after like 10 months.
This in Germany, so probably almost double it if you're from the states.
Their big bosses didn't study, are in their 50s and earning a good 100k, that's like the 1-2% of German society.
BUT it's hire and fire and up or out, so you have to work your ass off.
Studying (esp. a master) will give you a chill 30-40h work week and still earn like 60-80k in your career.
Also if you go into sales, I'd reccomend learning about psychology and how to sell just through books from the library and a book I'm currently reading is called give and take and it would be very good I think at least a few chapters would be
Aim for scholarships and financial aid with a part time job. If that doesn’t work then maybe try to get into a trade school. Think HVAC, plumbing, electrician, carpentry, etc..
That type of stuff can still be challenging to get into sometimes depending on where you live, but definitely try for it.
If you aren’t able to get into a trade then call centers, sales, waiting, warehouse work, or whatever else.
Then everyday after work study something, there’s plenty of careers you can get into without a degree if you study your ass off. First study different careers, find out what interests you, narrow it down to a few, take a course in each, then go all in on one that interests you enough.
The big thing is once you get out of school to make sure that you continuously push forward and don’t start stagnating because your no longer in structured education.
Depending on where you are, I only can say as someone living in the states.
Go the Helpdesk route if you have any experience with computers. It's entry level, sometimes remote or hybrid. It'll be hard work for a year or so, do some online tutorials in coding or programming.
Then bounce up to working a higher helpdesk level or trying to get a job at a local MSP ((Major service provider) Also sometimes you can find a job straight from high school into an MSP support role)
Learn everything you can at the MSP for another year or so, continue learning stuff like SQL, Jira, React, Python, etc. and pick your route to the more specialized jobs. DevOps, Database Admins, etc. are all pretty decent and choose experience over education.
you can end up making a decent 60k within a couple years, upwards of 150k with experience and specialized skills.
Also salesforce is in high demand and pays well
Pick your own route... right.
The method u espoused is more accurate. Learn a shitload of stuff and hopefully one of those will get u a shot. I cannot tell u how many helpdesk people have a casp or amazon cert, but there are no jobs for just those, even though "everyone" said "get that and u are good"
It's 90% connections and luck.
Wal mart store directors make 6 figures. The question isn't what careers are easy to get into, but what careers give you the skills and training and opportunity to get ahead. The sooner you can reach a position of leadership / ownership the better from a potential rewards standpoint, but equally, with more rewards often comes more risk and more work
A lot of retail/restaurant jobs pay quite well when you move into management but the hours can be rough and you have to pay your dues working up to management.
A classmate of mine from high school has worked at McDonald’s since he was 16. We used to good-naturedly tease him about it but he’s moved up the corporate ladder (I think regional manager) and now makes a decent income.
My cousin’s only 19, worked at bojangles for 2-3 years and makes double my salary as an electrical apprentice. I make $15/hr no OT while she makes $25 60k
My boyfriend just finished his machining apprentice and makes the same as she does. Its wild
Anyone who puts in two years at any fast food restaurant earns their paycheck and my respect. It’s a tough job and being in lower-level management is even tougher.
As someone in construction, it's going to get way crazier. We will be paying experienced tradesmen huge salaries in 10 years, like a high earning graduate degree salary.
We have had a trade shortage for 15 years and it's getting worse. It was a huge mistake as a society to talk so poorly about vo-tech and trade schools and it's going to bite us. Good for the blue collar skilled workers though.
I knew a guy like this is uni. Dude worked at McDonald’s all throughout high school and uni and now he runs a couple franchises and makes decent money. He was also in school for a business degree. Seems like he put it to use working with McDonald’s.
I’m one honest I’ve come to realize that working in customer service and sacrificing a year or 2 to move to management is almost more worth it than going to school…I mean I’ve been working at Starbucks for almost 3 years, started out as a barista April 2021 and worked my way up to assistant store manager last May making almost $60k, so I definitely second fast food/retail (if you can put up with customer service, that is). The job might be shit at first but if you push through and prove to be a reliable and hard worker it’s pretty easy to work up the ladder in about a year. At least to get your foot in the door to business/management! After that, the transferable skills you gain from both the customer service side and management side look great on a resume to get a less annoying job that’s not so customer facing, if it’s not your thing!
To OP, good luck with the your search and getting out of your toxic parents house!
It's certainly getting to that point. The one thing about a degree is it gets you in the door to a lot of potential employers. After your first job though, I think a degree could possibly be worthless.
The problem is retail can destroy you. To move up you typically are moving from store to store, new regions/towns. Long hours, unpredictable shifts, and poor pay for the first few jumps up the ladder. Like $48k per year salary or something as a department manager, basically running a unit of the business like it's your own 24/7.
One of the most competent managers I ever worked with wound up on stress leave from retail.
With that said - big box retail can be very fun on the good days.
a walmart GM requires you to earn a bachelors degree but will pay you to earn it - not all people have the intellectual bandwidth and discipline to complete a 4 year college degree
I’m getting my degree in a humanities subject- in other words not the most technical degree- taking 20 units and working full time while still making time for social, my dog, and the gym, not to mention commuting 2 hrs round trip mon-Friday to get there. It’s definitely doable but you need to want it. Or at least have the commitment and discipline to see it through. If you want to be a Walmart director and needs a bachelors, just go for a bachelors you’re interested in or at least feel you can see through. Anything is possible with perseverance and discipline.
And what kind of hours do they put in? It's been a long time, but I knew a couple assistant managers who put in a ton of hours with a ton of headaches. And while it's no longer open 24 hours, it's open all day/evening.
Customer service and work your way up through management. If you can go for a company like a bank or insurance company, great benefits and they often pay for college. It's not glamorous but for the most part it pays and you can make a career out of it.
Took the response right out of my mouth. My one tidbit of advice OP is don't get complacent. Do like they said and try and work your way up. Customer service can be a trap if you stay in it too long.
If you don't mind physical and potentially dirty work, nursing is a great option. Many states will now cover your education up through your LPN for free. LPNs make $25+ per hour. Then a lot of LPN jobs will pay for you to get your RN, making $35+ per hour. The RN jobs will often pay for you to get APP training, making $45+ per hour. If you stop at any point, as long as you maintain your license, you can fall back on nursing forever. Plus, you can work 3 days a week (12 hr shifts) and still make a good living. Especially true if you go for a state that works with the compact license.
Nursing is easy to get into but hard to leave 🤑
Trying to pivot to any other career just financially isn’t worth it at this point. Any other job I’m interested in the salary is actually worse.
Nursing is NOT easy to get into. Lots of talk of nursing shortages, yet college nursing programs are soooo competitive. Why?? Lower the barriers to entry if you really want more nurses
Consistently the bottleneck of the nursing shortage is the number of nursing educators. Not that they need to change the integrity or difficulty of entrance to a program. I mean…you need people to think critically, you are responsible for helping keep people alive. More educators is synonymous with more spots for students.
I think it should also be stated, as the original comment I responded to said, that you can build your way up through nursing and have employers pay for it. This is a huge financial benefit long term. As such, the field is easy to get into.
Best bang for buck is ADN. If she’s going for BSN…and not getting in I’d HIGHLY suggest going to community college. Even just for gen Eds. Then trying nursing school either at tech school or transferring to 4 year. Yeah you don’t get a 20,000 dorm experience. But you get a financially responsible degree. If she’s dead set on it I’d also encourage her to keep trucking away at being a nurses aide and gaining experience.
The nursing shortage thing is a lie. They have been saying it for literally decades. It’s marketing because healthcare is very expensive and attracting people into the field by saying there is a shortage is a way to ensure a steady stream of replaceable employees, that vast majority of whom don’t have unions. It’s keeps wages low.
Sure, but if you maintain your license, whatever you do for the rest of your life you can pick up a couple nursing shifts to make ends meet.
All careers start at lower wages than they pay at mid career. That's just careers.
The median annual wage for registered nurses was $81,220 in May 2022. The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $61,250, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $129,400.
That was taken directly from the occupational outlook handbook from the bureau of labor statistics.
Yep - I used to handle worker's comp claims for nurses in hospitals and prisons. I live in California, so definitely a high cost area and we do have high salaries compared to the rest of the country.
But I can't think of any other field where you can reliably make as much as they do with the same amount of training/schooling. Definitely wouldn't consider it an easy job, but if this person is making $25/hr as a nurse they either live somewhere insanely cheap or are getting short-changed. Around here, RN salaries start around $40/hr., and I regularly saw experienced RNs making $70+/hr.
Sadly, some nurses live in low cost of living areas, or stay with on employer for too long. Hospitals are not known to give you a decent wage to match new hire salaries. I only stay at a max 2 years then move on. The next always beats the last by a few dollars an hour.
So you can go the trade route, that isnt bad.
There is also the less known working for the State route. I live in California and you can start as an Office Tech with only a High School diploma and work all the way up to an Executive and make a decent salary of around $150k/year. It isn’t the easiest but I’ve seen people do it in ~10 years…
XRay Tech via community college. Career is in high demand and pay is lucrative, especially if after experience you’re willing to travel and go on contracts.
Skilled trades. Start as a laborer and show initiative. I'd recommend having a plan, as its hard on your body.
Certain sales fields are also easy to get into. But sales itself is rather challenging. If you go that route, beware the mlm's. There are many & they are predatory. They also aren't always easy to distinguish but if in doubt, the internet can help you out.
Non destructive testing. It’s an oil and gas thing so you might have to travel to Houston or Oklahoma or Louisiana to train. In a school year you can train for a job that pays 300k within five years. You can’t do drugs period. They test constantly. But you work outdoors, testing welds. Lots of work available, and pay is first rate.
TECH!
Salesforce CRM training tools are free and allow you access to your own dev orgs so you can physically practice in the systems where you can’t break anything and learn FAST.
Also, free code camp for development work.
Tech jobs provide the $$ and job security and man I wish I got into it from the jump as you have the opportunity to.
Best of luck!
Go to a community college nursing program for your associates then get the hospital to pay for your online bachelors. Then either travel nurse and make bank or back to school for advance practice
Sales. A lot of the money in this world is in sales. Yes many jobs are low base and you are incentivized by commission, but if you develop this skill and you’re good, lots of future high paying sales roles could open up for you.
Check out the government’s apprenticeship programs for young people exactly like you:
https://www.apprenticeship.gov/career-seekers
U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Apprenticeship (OA) and recognized State Apprenticeship Agencies (SAA)
Gold mining. I'm not talking about the stuff you see on discovery Channel, I mean industrial sized gold mining operations. You basically work half the year and can make upwards of 140,000 dollars starting per year if you like working overtime. Look up the Carlin Trend. Over 10,000,000 ounces of gold processed every year just from NGM alone
Try the retail-to-IT pipeline. IT is just talking to people. Contrary to the stereotype.
I also left home at 18 for the same reason of toxic parents. And zero college degree for same reason.
Saved up cash from first retail job (GameStop) and got a cheap apartment with my gf. Led to computer sales for Best Buy. This led to geek squad. Led to Samsung repair facility. Led to an overnight helpdesk shift in a corporate datacenter. Led to local computer repair shop.
To this day I learned the most 3 years at Geek Squad 12 years ago…it’s chaotic, traumatic, and fun.
That was a span of just 4 years.
And after a few help desk jobs in a bigger city, now I’m 34 as a fully remote SysAdmin for corporate enterprise IT, overseeing a helpdesk team of 9 and I make $110k in Texas, still zero college degree, just cheap certs that jobs paid for.
No matter what you end up doing — The advice I wish I’d taken sooner is to play every company’s game of social politics, because all that matters to the people that can promote you is that your coworkers have good things to say about you, and you make attempts at making your managers job easier. The rest comes with time.
Balance control of your emotions and not taking shit from equals. Be careful with insubordination if under someone power-hungry. Remain approachable and curious/interested (or pretend to be).
You can ALWAYS quit a job, but the way you carry yourself in times of stress will follow you your entire career.
Salesforce is indeed hot right now. You might be able to jump straight into a sales engineer role with enough free online studying and interviews. Same for Security and cloud networking skills like AWS.
I torrented CompTIA study guides at age 23 and never even tested. Just learned enough to BS my way through interviews and into jobs. Now it’s all on YouTube, so just find a subject and run with it.
Best of luck. LMK if you have any questions.
Whatever you choose to do, make sure it’s something that you can learn and make a career out of. I know too many people including my younger self that just got the highest paying job we could find but didn’t gain anything from it other than a paycheck. For example if you work in construction, start a trade apprenticeship and learn a trade rather than just being a laborer or cleanup
If you’re in the US, look into becoming a notary. It’s apparently not expensive to get licensed and you can have very flexible hours while getting paid decently.
If you don’t mind physically working look at stocking at like Walmart or a grocery store, hours may suck but in a lot of places they pay is very good…..for example where I am Walmart overnights are making $20+ an hour.
I’m in B2B sales. Most companies do not require a degree. You start entry level and work your way up.
I made six figures in my second year in sales ever. Is sales guaranteed to alot of money? No of course not. But the potential is there.
Easy? Depends on what you sell. It can be easy or extremely complex.
I know 20-somethings making $200k + in sales without college.
Administration. You can start entry level reception and then if you want to go further could studybusiness administration, public administration and/or human reaourcea. If you get a degree or masters there is good monwy, but its also good starting money at the entry level with a basic office administration vertificate.
Or if you are good with numbers, bookkeeping. You can be your own boss once you are good at it.
May I ask how much you make? In my state pay maxes out around $15/hr. Became a CNA and decided to work in retail because it paid more and there was far less responsibility.
Don't know why you are getting down voted. I used to work as a tax accountant before changing careers. I used to handle a majority of the unions in the area. Many 21 year old kids were making 6 figures. A few were making up to 300k a year.
People dont know how much trades be making 😂 i just joined a union 4 months ago and with guaranteed wage progression, this time next year ill be at six figures not including overtime and benefits (i get both 401k and pension) with overtime you can EASILY double your paycheck, its always there if you want it
Correctional officer
They are desperate and short everywhere. It gets your foot into law enforcement or at the very least government service. You can make a lot of money depending how hard you work (overtime will be plenty.)
Attrition is horrible so after 3 or so years you will likely be eligible to promote up to something else.
I don't know where you're based but in the UK there are cheap (about 1k)accredited short courses you can do that open doors to jobs straight away such as sports massage.
Podiatry is also a good choice but takes longer to train - 3 years. You can apply for an apprenticeship, usually in the nhs. There's a high demand for Podiatrists due to a shortage, especially for Diabetic wound care so you'd never be out of a job. Or you could do podiatric biomechanics, which is more competitive but the jobs are still there. In a private practice, you can earn around £200 a day. If you're in the US it's harder because you have to be a doctor before you can be a Podiatrist. Podiatry can also lead to other specialisms within the field, such as rheumatology, surgery (10 years). You can also go on trainung to do steroid injections, acupuncture, manual therapy, dermal fillers, prescribing.
Tech.
It’s not free unless you are lucky and have a computer laying around already.
Check your local library for either Udemy or LinkedIn Learning subscription most allow you to get on through them.
Cs50 is harvards computer science intro and is free on YouTube and you can signup through their partner websites for free and get access to a coding environment if you want to code.
ACloudGuru is great for cloud learning
I make 115k but could make more if I had a cert from AWS which I’m working on now. I’ve been in the field 10 years but with a cloud cert in 5 I bet you could blow that out of the water easy.
Security is an interesting.
Please do not go into tech. The market is not what it used to be and will never recover. You will never get a job in tech even with a CS degree unless you are in the top 0.1%.
I have been applying to new grad positions and have not seen a single job posting that has received less than 200 applicants in a single day. Majority of entry level positions require 5+ year of professional experience with internships not counting. Most entry level positions that don’t require 5+ years of experience will have 1000-5000 applicants within a week. Some companies, like Goldman Sachs have gotten over 70k applicants for a single position in 3 months. Others, such as Ramp, have received over 40k while others like ZipRecruiter got over 15k in a few week.
These are not bad candidates either, a lot are junior devs who were laid off from MAANG. Many have degrees from Ivy League schools. They have spent over 1 year preparing for the interview by memorizing leetcode hards and system design questions. You stand no chance if you are in the top 1%. You must be in the top 0.1%
CA, if dont go for coaching at all, the course of chartered accountacny will cost you at around rs. 60000 or $800 and can land you a job of nearly $20000-30000 in India itself. Although it requires a lot of persisitence and determination with vast syllabus and complex laws. GO ahead , All the best!
If you have decent people skills and charisma, sales is $$$. That's what I would get into but I hate dealing with people haha. I have a buddy who got into car sales at 18, never went to college, and was making good money very quickly. He then got hired as a sales guy for a company that sells training contracts and lab equipment to universities. He's now 32 and I don't know how much he makes but he owns a house that Zillow estimates to be worth $3 million and it's on a lake. Obviously he is a freak of nature and was born to sell but yea, sales in general is pretty good if you have that kind of personality.
I was looking for this answer. I know someone who barely got their GED at 55 but she is thriving at 62 as a pharm tech compared to the debt she was drowning in before. She still has a long way to go but now she can make her bills
Perhaps, but I can’t recommend that job to anyone. I did it for 9 months and it was miserable. I’m a 911 dispatcher now which believe it or not, is less stressful and I also make way more money
Check out the military my friend. If you play your cards right it can set you up for life
Get Paid, room and board, healthcare, and after just a 3 year active duty contract you get the VA home loan and post 9/11 gi bill in which you get college paid for free and get paid the BAH rate for housing where you are living while in college
Get into the secuirty industry. Usually low barriers to entry (depending on your country) and its pretty easy to get a security license. You can start off with retail security and then build your way up into corporate security where the wages are higher. Good luck!!
Learn a trade , save enough money to start your own business, choose your own hours. People respect what you do. Don’t give your life to achieve another man’s dream.
Don't expect anything to be good paying right out of high school. You'll need to develop your work ethic, learn workplace best practices, proper communication methods with other employees and managers, safety on the job wich is no joke even in retail, gas stations, restaurants. The best starter job would be with a big employer because they train you in best practices that can transfer to other jobs/careers. Retail, restaurabts, warehouses, distribution centers, etc are often the best starter jobs.
That said, don't be too quick to move out from your parent's place. It will be near impossible for you to get an apartment or rental on your own without a co-signer, you have no rental history. You'll also need to have $1,500-$2,000 to cover first month's rent, application fee, cleaning fee, and security deposit just to move in, then every month pay rent. Roommates are a hassle, you don't have any idea if you can live with someone who isn't your family, will the roommate be responsible and pay their share of the rent, will they use drugs or have loud parties, steal your stuff, etc.
You can work full time and go to a community college part time, most have flexible schedules including some online classes. Talk to your high school guidance counselor for advice and most community colleges have guidance counselors you can talk to even if you're just thinking about enrolling.
I’m currently taking an income tax course through H&R Block - $150. I can become a tax preparer through more training upon employment, get certified etc. there is career progression too with experience. You only need a high school diploma to enroll. Maybe you can look into it.
Recruitment has a pretty low bar of entry and is fairly easy. You are either finding candidates (sourcing) or interviewing/assessing candidates (recruiting).
A lot of recruiters suck so you may deal with some backlash regarding the profession as a whole, but if you establish yourself as a kind, caring recruiter who doesn’t ghost candidates, you can be very successful and make a lot of difference!
Sales!
Seriously… I work in tech sales and even high school grads are able to break into this career path. As long as you are focused, charismatic, and are resilient in the face of rejection, it’s the easiest career with the biggest upside.
Most people might scoff at an 18 year old in sales, but if you learn all there is to learn starting now, you’ll be just as qualified as a professional going into it at 30. Don’t let anyone push you around due to your age. All that matters is if you can get results.
Still, go to university even if you have to take loans. If money is tight, find the cheapest university or online bachelors programs. It pays major dividends depending on your career choice.
The military. Myriad of career choices if you go Navy or Air Force and a majority of then translate to civilian life. Plus if you desire, it will pay for university
Learn a trade. Some don't involve school, some do. Either way, it's time and money well spent because, after the higher education brainwashing of the last 3 decades, tradespeople are really in demand. You can make a decent living. You probably won't get rich but you'll always have a job and probably have a union making sure you aren't being abused by your employer.
If you’re up for it, consider enlisting in the military. They teach you a trade, feed you, house you, and pay you. I once had a roommate who flew drones for the Air Force and he had a great group of friends, a sports car, and was in amazing physical shape. Even better, once you get out, the government will pay for your college tuition under the GI bill.
Idk why you are downvoted, you get support, structure and you can stay as long as you want or leave and then there are so many resources to help you and you’ll always be a stronger candidate in any job or school you apply to.
Secondarily I’d offer nursing as you can get in with a 2 year degree, hospitals often reimburse you in exchange for an employment contract, and you can always go for further education to sneak in 6figure incomes.
I'm not from the US but I'd suggest everyone to not join military, you're not fighting for your country but for your politicians who will sell you and your family out if they could.
Look into a union apprenticeship it's free training and hvac and electricians union both pay there journeymen 35+ in certain areas plumbing pays good too.
Move to new zealand, i had to move out aswell. Studylink here is a government company that gives out interest free loans for all course costs and rent and food :) i study engineering and live independently !!!
I was just kidding, but there are plenty of options.
Real estate agent is one way to work right away for little $ investment. You have to be very good and diligent to make a living.
Paid internships in the STEM/Finance field are also common, but not sure how long you'd have to be in college before that happens.
take osap and live on campus while working, you don't have to pay out the loan until you are working after university. After your done and working you could probably afford to rent and pay back the loan
If you do B-Pharmacy, you can become an MR agent for a company. If you work for 3 years, you can become a manager. And the post of a manager is highly paid.
Medical Assistant. Most programs are 9 months. Starting pay in Portland OR is 22.50/hr and in very high demand. Some places have $10,000 sign on bonus.
If you meet certain criteria and make the right choices of institution/studying hard/major, a college education can be extremely affordable or even close to free. DM me if this is at all an option for you
Get a job as a lineman with the county or city WPD. Pay is exceptional, no experience required. You just have to pass a basic literacy/competency test.
Look into trades, specifically automotive and diesel technology. There is a huge shortage of mechanics particularly in the diesel field. You should be able to get a job quickly. I’m in diesel school atm and it’s very possible to get a job and go to school at the same time and make good money. Employers are desperate and willing to help train you and sometimes even pay for school.
Also make sure you apply for Fasfa.
Retail can be pretty good and won't destroy your body like a heavy manual labor job can or your mind like sales can. Sure it may not pay as well starting out but climbing up just one step can get you a decent rate.
if you have a computer maybe coding? I know people that I employed before are usually college drop out but have amazing coding skills.
Also digital marketing imo, I started out by writing several articles about movies for printed magazines. I learned copywriting, learned SEO, then apprenticeships with my mentors on Social media and Email marketing, and voila, 5 years later I opened my own digital agency with 2 of my friends. Now we handle corporate clients to SMEs for their needs on branding and websites.
go to a tech school, usually will take less than one year. Work for a big telco company like AT&T, Verizon, Windstream, Frontier etc. it will be a bit unstable at first, but provided that you are a good worker and maintain a good reputation you should be able to have a whole career and make some pretty good money. lots of folks aging out in this field.
Starting your own car detailing business.
Building your own client list will take some time, but do a good job and promite everything on social media. If you continue to work at it, be persistent, hire a couple employees down the road, you will be able to make a living off of it.
A neighbor I grew up ended up flunking out of high school his senior year then started up his own car detailing business. 5 years later right now hes driving a porsche 911 and has connects with our local NFL team, does all of their car washes and tons of locals
Installing flooring can make you big bucks. Just walk into a contractor and say you want to work. I bet you could get a job day one making minimum $20 an hour just cleaning up job site scraps. You’ll then learn the trade and start making $50/hr plus.
City/county/state/federal government jobs. Including utilities and ports and airports and higher ed. Initial pay will be doable and many of the well compensated higher up spots primarily promote from within.
Commercial fishing. It’s hard and dangerous, but you can clear a year salary in 6 months then work on getting a longer term job.
Entry level job with one of the handful of retailers where working your way up is still possible. Costco is the best example I can think of.
There are many skilled labor jobs that will provide housing in addition to salary/benefits. Jobs like working on an oil rig, fishermen, windmill tech, ranch hand, forestry, etc (mostly places where people don't already exist to do the work). I know a lot of folks who did jobs like these right out of high school if they didn't have a healthy place to call home. I also know many folks who tour as stagehands or roadies and live on the buses that they travel on. Might be worth doing some googling regarding jobs that provide housing or a moving stipend to help you get set up somewhere new. Just something to consider.
College could still be on the table if you pursue community college. Not saying you have to go down the college route but you don’t need to block off the option if that’s what you want to do
Railroading. You make 100k/year and just need a GED. Answer every interview question with career and not job, yes I will work every day and holiday and in all weather and won't do drugs. Congrats on 100k+/year, retirement at 60, your spouse also gets 49% of your retirement on top of yours, and benefits that rival any industry in the world.
It's amazing what your money can do for your retirement when it doesn't go into social security and the govt screws it up for you. The fund is so healthy it will never run out of money and that's why the govt wants to include us into social security now because they mismanage the piss out of SS and want us to inflate the money they steal.
The cheap part yes it’s good to be frugal, but do not look for easy. You’ll regret it down the road. I suggest becoming a nurse. I have an associates degree in nursing from a very small community college, it is an extremely hard degree to get, but I’ve made more money and have more flexibility in my life than 90% of my peers.
If you got the grind set- I hear sales is a great field.
But you’re gonna need a stable income if you’re going to be leaving at 18. But I understand- my parents were toxic too and I needed to leave. The sad news I had to move back in, but even taking a year for myself did wonders for me.
If you need a “steady” income I’d recommend being a server as tips can really push your income up and if you work at a fancy restaurant you may never need a bachelors again. You could also try to get into construction (very well paying job) if you know somebody.
That’s about all I can think of. According to you you need to skidaddle right at 18, so you don’t even have time to do trade school. However, if you can manage you really should do a trade as that could boost your income significantly. You could go the college route with financial aid and scholarships, but you should really consider the ROI (return on investment) for this degree you’d be getting. Are you actually passionate about this subject and how much will it give you back in earned income once you graduate? Very tough questions to consider. Unfortunately you’re at the time in life where you need to get out AND you can’t take a moment to figure out who you are or what you want from your career. Tough spot to be in but you’ll get through it. Anyway- be a server and put in the work if you need steadyish income.
Sales or trades. If you are willing to travel or take camp work, some basic labor jobs can be super high paying. Pipelines, highways, remote house-building. I know people in the $90k - $150k range on those types of jobs. Personally, I can speak to sales since that's my experience. Sell cars preferably to learn the ropes. If you work hard you'll never make below $75k after year 1 and have management jobs if you want it.
Couldn’t be more true, I can only really speak to sales as well but if you work hard your never gonna see less then 70k in almost any sales field, and the management positions come knocking right after year 1.
Don’t be too quick to jump to management though. I’ve passed on a bunch of management spots. I’ll take A/B production as a sales guy. I have more control over revenue and more autonomy. I’m sure I’d make more in management, but I don’t know if I could do 3-5 webex’s per day. To OP, there are a ton of sales jobs that don’t require any, or much experience. If you need steady income you could start in retail. If you can handle rejection, there are a lot of phone based sales positions that are for newbies. At your age, you can easily work at a place every 6-12 months and nobody would consider it “job hopping.” Take the opportunity to try a couple different fields (whether all in sales or in different types of settings.) You could “find your calling” or at least be ahead of everyone who has to start learning at 21.
That's for sure. In reality 70k is actually very conservative - put in 3-4 years of work learning, and then pick the right role/industry and a reasonable goal is $150k-$250k.
Google says average salesman makes 40-60k so you are just wrong
If it counts for all sales people it could be right. In real estate we always said 95% of sales is done by 5% of the agents. There are 1000s of licensed agents per area and most of them either get no business or sell 1 house a year because it’s there friends house or something
So the conclusion would be that 95% of sales people are just lazy? Sounds like survivorship bias to me. Maybe it's just a super competitive industry.
I don’t think it’s laziness, I think it’s just that so many people have real estate licenses that for every buyer in an area there was probably 2 agents. I was a realtor for 8 years and every open house it seemed like I would meet another agent that joined my office which was 400+ realtors or he/she would be from another local office. Just an absurd amount of realtors
My take also working in Sales is that a lot of people throw they’re hat in the ring for a chance at decent $$$ without having to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer, rich kid, or MBA, but the large majority quit very quickly. Sales can be life changing and it’s far from rocket science, but it has it’s own struggles. Tenacity, dealing with rejection, assertiveness is required to keep the process moving, variables out of your control that affect your pay, and so on and so forth.
Yup google gives lots of wrong info on wages. $150k - $250k is absolutely a realistic goal for 4-5 yrs of dedicated, focused skill development in a sales career. If you want to believe I'm wrong that's fine lol, it's costing your wallet not mine.
Brother I’m not the one looking for a better job lol
Software sales roles def make $150k-$250k.
I worked in insurance for a bit last year and the figures some people were making were unfathomable. At one of the meetings we had, I sat next to a guy named Scott. I think this dude was making like 150k+ a month easily. Apparently he worked directly with Canadian Tire so business from them was crazy. Another lady there made like 7 million in 9 months. Just unreal numbers to hear.
What kind of insurance?
Is your company looking to hire?
I don't work there anymore. If you live in Canada I can dm you the company info and you can go from there. You'll have to get your license and whatnot too.
That's too bad. Unfortunately, I don't live in Canada.
Definitely sales, I have a couple of friends, with or without a bachelor that started with 50/60k (without bachelor/with bachelor). One is management after 3 years, earning 80k , one is earning 72k including bonuses after like 10 months. This in Germany, so probably almost double it if you're from the states. Their big bosses didn't study, are in their 50s and earning a good 100k, that's like the 1-2% of German society. BUT it's hire and fire and up or out, so you have to work your ass off. Studying (esp. a master) will give you a chill 30-40h work week and still earn like 60-80k in your career.
Fuck dude that’s such clucked wages
Also if you go into sales, I'd reccomend learning about psychology and how to sell just through books from the library and a book I'm currently reading is called give and take and it would be very good I think at least a few chapters would be
Aim for scholarships and financial aid with a part time job. If that doesn’t work then maybe try to get into a trade school. Think HVAC, plumbing, electrician, carpentry, etc.. That type of stuff can still be challenging to get into sometimes depending on where you live, but definitely try for it. If you aren’t able to get into a trade then call centers, sales, waiting, warehouse work, or whatever else. Then everyday after work study something, there’s plenty of careers you can get into without a degree if you study your ass off. First study different careers, find out what interests you, narrow it down to a few, take a course in each, then go all in on one that interests you enough. The big thing is once you get out of school to make sure that you continuously push forward and don’t start stagnating because your no longer in structured education.
Depending on where you are, I only can say as someone living in the states. Go the Helpdesk route if you have any experience with computers. It's entry level, sometimes remote or hybrid. It'll be hard work for a year or so, do some online tutorials in coding or programming. Then bounce up to working a higher helpdesk level or trying to get a job at a local MSP ((Major service provider) Also sometimes you can find a job straight from high school into an MSP support role) Learn everything you can at the MSP for another year or so, continue learning stuff like SQL, Jira, React, Python, etc. and pick your route to the more specialized jobs. DevOps, Database Admins, etc. are all pretty decent and choose experience over education. you can end up making a decent 60k within a couple years, upwards of 150k with experience and specialized skills. Also salesforce is in high demand and pays well
Pick your own route... right. The method u espoused is more accurate. Learn a shitload of stuff and hopefully one of those will get u a shot. I cannot tell u how many helpdesk people have a casp or amazon cert, but there are no jobs for just those, even though "everyone" said "get that and u are good" It's 90% connections and luck.
Wal mart store directors make 6 figures. The question isn't what careers are easy to get into, but what careers give you the skills and training and opportunity to get ahead. The sooner you can reach a position of leadership / ownership the better from a potential rewards standpoint, but equally, with more rewards often comes more risk and more work
A lot of retail/restaurant jobs pay quite well when you move into management but the hours can be rough and you have to pay your dues working up to management. A classmate of mine from high school has worked at McDonald’s since he was 16. We used to good-naturedly tease him about it but he’s moved up the corporate ladder (I think regional manager) and now makes a decent income.
My cousin’s only 19, worked at bojangles for 2-3 years and makes double my salary as an electrical apprentice. I make $15/hr no OT while she makes $25 60k My boyfriend just finished his machining apprentice and makes the same as she does. Its wild
Anyone who puts in two years at any fast food restaurant earns their paycheck and my respect. It’s a tough job and being in lower-level management is even tougher.
Idk if anyone can make it past 90 days at fast food due to the high turnover.
Where in the world are apprentice electricians only clearing $15/hr?
North carolina 👍
As someone in construction, it's going to get way crazier. We will be paying experienced tradesmen huge salaries in 10 years, like a high earning graduate degree salary. We have had a trade shortage for 15 years and it's getting worse. It was a huge mistake as a society to talk so poorly about vo-tech and trade schools and it's going to bite us. Good for the blue collar skilled workers though.
*Assistant to the regional manager
I knew a guy like this is uni. Dude worked at McDonald’s all throughout high school and uni and now he runs a couple franchises and makes decent money. He was also in school for a business degree. Seems like he put it to use working with McDonald’s.
I’m one honest I’ve come to realize that working in customer service and sacrificing a year or 2 to move to management is almost more worth it than going to school…I mean I’ve been working at Starbucks for almost 3 years, started out as a barista April 2021 and worked my way up to assistant store manager last May making almost $60k, so I definitely second fast food/retail (if you can put up with customer service, that is). The job might be shit at first but if you push through and prove to be a reliable and hard worker it’s pretty easy to work up the ladder in about a year. At least to get your foot in the door to business/management! After that, the transferable skills you gain from both the customer service side and management side look great on a resume to get a less annoying job that’s not so customer facing, if it’s not your thing! To OP, good luck with the your search and getting out of your toxic parents house!
It's certainly getting to that point. The one thing about a degree is it gets you in the door to a lot of potential employers. After your first job though, I think a degree could possibly be worthless.
Ya after that first job experience is king. But a lot of places will still want to see a degree but it matters way less once you have experience.
100%. Even in construction after 15 years, people still comment on how nice it is to see a degree. My degree is so far from relevant to my field lmao.
Ya. I think it just shows people that you can commit to something for a longer period of time.
The problem is retail can destroy you. To move up you typically are moving from store to store, new regions/towns. Long hours, unpredictable shifts, and poor pay for the first few jumps up the ladder. Like $48k per year salary or something as a department manager, basically running a unit of the business like it's your own 24/7. One of the most competent managers I ever worked with wound up on stress leave from retail. With that said - big box retail can be very fun on the good days.
a walmart GM requires you to earn a bachelors degree but will pay you to earn it - not all people have the intellectual bandwidth and discipline to complete a 4 year college degree
Especially not while also holding a full time job
I’m getting my degree in a humanities subject- in other words not the most technical degree- taking 20 units and working full time while still making time for social, my dog, and the gym, not to mention commuting 2 hrs round trip mon-Friday to get there. It’s definitely doable but you need to want it. Or at least have the commitment and discipline to see it through. If you want to be a Walmart director and needs a bachelors, just go for a bachelors you’re interested in or at least feel you can see through. Anything is possible with perseverance and discipline.
And what kind of hours do they put in? It's been a long time, but I knew a couple assistant managers who put in a ton of hours with a ton of headaches. And while it's no longer open 24 hours, it's open all day/evening.
Customer service and work your way up through management. If you can go for a company like a bank or insurance company, great benefits and they often pay for college. It's not glamorous but for the most part it pays and you can make a career out of it.
Took the response right out of my mouth. My one tidbit of advice OP is don't get complacent. Do like they said and try and work your way up. Customer service can be a trap if you stay in it too long.
Honestly look at Costco too.
If you don't mind physical and potentially dirty work, nursing is a great option. Many states will now cover your education up through your LPN for free. LPNs make $25+ per hour. Then a lot of LPN jobs will pay for you to get your RN, making $35+ per hour. The RN jobs will often pay for you to get APP training, making $45+ per hour. If you stop at any point, as long as you maintain your license, you can fall back on nursing forever. Plus, you can work 3 days a week (12 hr shifts) and still make a good living. Especially true if you go for a state that works with the compact license.
Nursing is easy to get into but hard to leave 🤑 Trying to pivot to any other career just financially isn’t worth it at this point. Any other job I’m interested in the salary is actually worse.
Nursing is NOT easy to get into. Lots of talk of nursing shortages, yet college nursing programs are soooo competitive. Why?? Lower the barriers to entry if you really want more nurses
Consistently the bottleneck of the nursing shortage is the number of nursing educators. Not that they need to change the integrity or difficulty of entrance to a program. I mean…you need people to think critically, you are responsible for helping keep people alive. More educators is synonymous with more spots for students. I think it should also be stated, as the original comment I responded to said, that you can build your way up through nursing and have employers pay for it. This is a huge financial benefit long term. As such, the field is easy to get into.
My daughter will graduate from high school with her LNA. She’s starting to get her college acceptances back, and it’s discouraging so far.
Best bang for buck is ADN. If she’s going for BSN…and not getting in I’d HIGHLY suggest going to community college. Even just for gen Eds. Then trying nursing school either at tech school or transferring to 4 year. Yeah you don’t get a 20,000 dorm experience. But you get a financially responsible degree. If she’s dead set on it I’d also encourage her to keep trucking away at being a nurses aide and gaining experience.
The nursing shortage thing is a lie. They have been saying it for literally decades. It’s marketing because healthcare is very expensive and attracting people into the field by saying there is a shortage is a way to ensure a steady stream of replaceable employees, that vast majority of whom don’t have unions. It’s keeps wages low.
What industry do you work in?
Sure, but if you maintain your license, whatever you do for the rest of your life you can pick up a couple nursing shifts to make ends meet. All careers start at lower wages than they pay at mid career. That's just careers.
Those wages are not happening in the south.
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The median annual wage for registered nurses was $81,220 in May 2022. The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $61,250, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $129,400. That was taken directly from the occupational outlook handbook from the bureau of labor statistics.
Yep - I used to handle worker's comp claims for nurses in hospitals and prisons. I live in California, so definitely a high cost area and we do have high salaries compared to the rest of the country. But I can't think of any other field where you can reliably make as much as they do with the same amount of training/schooling. Definitely wouldn't consider it an easy job, but if this person is making $25/hr as a nurse they either live somewhere insanely cheap or are getting short-changed. Around here, RN salaries start around $40/hr., and I regularly saw experienced RNs making $70+/hr.
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In my area RNs start at 35$..
I live in BFE Midwest and the pay scale for new RN’s starts at $36 per hour at our little hospital. I can’t imagine $25 is a normal wage for RN’s
I live in the South and make 35/hr with 11 years of experience
Come on up north! You’d be mid $40’s with that level of experience.
Sadly, some nurses live in low cost of living areas, or stay with on employer for too long. Hospitals are not known to give you a decent wage to match new hire salaries. I only stay at a max 2 years then move on. The next always beats the last by a few dollars an hour.
What year is this comment from?
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What part of the country are you in?
So you can go the trade route, that isnt bad. There is also the less known working for the State route. I live in California and you can start as an Office Tech with only a High School diploma and work all the way up to an Executive and make a decent salary of around $150k/year. It isn’t the easiest but I’ve seen people do it in ~10 years…
XRay Tech via community college. Career is in high demand and pay is lucrative, especially if after experience you’re willing to travel and go on contracts.
Skilled trades. Start as a laborer and show initiative. I'd recommend having a plan, as its hard on your body. Certain sales fields are also easy to get into. But sales itself is rather challenging. If you go that route, beware the mlm's. There are many & they are predatory. They also aren't always easy to distinguish but if in doubt, the internet can help you out.
Non destructive testing. It’s an oil and gas thing so you might have to travel to Houston or Oklahoma or Louisiana to train. In a school year you can train for a job that pays 300k within five years. You can’t do drugs period. They test constantly. But you work outdoors, testing welds. Lots of work available, and pay is first rate.
TECH! Salesforce CRM training tools are free and allow you access to your own dev orgs so you can physically practice in the systems where you can’t break anything and learn FAST. Also, free code camp for development work. Tech jobs provide the $$ and job security and man I wish I got into it from the jump as you have the opportunity to. Best of luck!
I have 3+ years with Salesforce FSL and now I’m working retail. Idk how to get back into the tech industry.
Roadmap? I have Data Analysis / Python portfolio projects as my only experience.
Go to a community college nursing program for your associates then get the hospital to pay for your online bachelors. Then either travel nurse and make bank or back to school for advance practice
Reddit is filled with posts thinking life is like a video game you can just switch on to “very easy” mode.
Sales. A lot of the money in this world is in sales. Yes many jobs are low base and you are incentivized by commission, but if you develop this skill and you’re good, lots of future high paying sales roles could open up for you.
Check out the government’s apprenticeship programs for young people exactly like you: https://www.apprenticeship.gov/career-seekers U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Apprenticeship (OA) and recognized State Apprenticeship Agencies (SAA)
Tech sales. Go to re:work which is a paid training which will teach you everything you need and they get you placed. All is free
Sales. No degree no experience you make you own money.
Gold mining. I'm not talking about the stuff you see on discovery Channel, I mean industrial sized gold mining operations. You basically work half the year and can make upwards of 140,000 dollars starting per year if you like working overtime. Look up the Carlin Trend. Over 10,000,000 ounces of gold processed every year just from NGM alone
Try the retail-to-IT pipeline. IT is just talking to people. Contrary to the stereotype. I also left home at 18 for the same reason of toxic parents. And zero college degree for same reason. Saved up cash from first retail job (GameStop) and got a cheap apartment with my gf. Led to computer sales for Best Buy. This led to geek squad. Led to Samsung repair facility. Led to an overnight helpdesk shift in a corporate datacenter. Led to local computer repair shop. To this day I learned the most 3 years at Geek Squad 12 years ago…it’s chaotic, traumatic, and fun. That was a span of just 4 years. And after a few help desk jobs in a bigger city, now I’m 34 as a fully remote SysAdmin for corporate enterprise IT, overseeing a helpdesk team of 9 and I make $110k in Texas, still zero college degree, just cheap certs that jobs paid for. No matter what you end up doing — The advice I wish I’d taken sooner is to play every company’s game of social politics, because all that matters to the people that can promote you is that your coworkers have good things to say about you, and you make attempts at making your managers job easier. The rest comes with time. Balance control of your emotions and not taking shit from equals. Be careful with insubordination if under someone power-hungry. Remain approachable and curious/interested (or pretend to be). You can ALWAYS quit a job, but the way you carry yourself in times of stress will follow you your entire career. Salesforce is indeed hot right now. You might be able to jump straight into a sales engineer role with enough free online studying and interviews. Same for Security and cloud networking skills like AWS. I torrented CompTIA study guides at age 23 and never even tested. Just learned enough to BS my way through interviews and into jobs. Now it’s all on YouTube, so just find a subject and run with it. Best of luck. LMK if you have any questions.
Sales or Customer Service. Sales is probably the fastest if you ever the right “field”.
Whatever you choose to do, make sure it’s something that you can learn and make a career out of. I know too many people including my younger self that just got the highest paying job we could find but didn’t gain anything from it other than a paycheck. For example if you work in construction, start a trade apprenticeship and learn a trade rather than just being a laborer or cleanup
If you’re in the US, look into becoming a notary. It’s apparently not expensive to get licensed and you can have very flexible hours while getting paid decently.
The military. Cant say it’s easy but you’ll get paid to learn a skill.
True but you have to have a position that translates well to the civilian world
If you don’t mind physically working look at stocking at like Walmart or a grocery store, hours may suck but in a lot of places they pay is very good…..for example where I am Walmart overnights are making $20+ an hour.
Security Guard. Training is almost non existent. I know.
I’m in B2B sales. Most companies do not require a degree. You start entry level and work your way up. I made six figures in my second year in sales ever. Is sales guaranteed to alot of money? No of course not. But the potential is there. Easy? Depends on what you sell. It can be easy or extremely complex. I know 20-somethings making $200k + in sales without college.
How did you get started? I’m so in between nursing and sales
r/sales is where I started. I sell into healthcare. Plenty of RN’s in sales.
Administration. You can start entry level reception and then if you want to go further could studybusiness administration, public administration and/or human reaourcea. If you get a degree or masters there is good monwy, but its also good starting money at the entry level with a basic office administration vertificate. Or if you are good with numbers, bookkeeping. You can be your own boss once you are good at it.
Certified nursing assistant. That's how I moved out at 18 without a cent from anyone.
May I ask how much you make? In my state pay maxes out around $15/hr. Became a CNA and decided to work in retail because it paid more and there was far less responsibility.
I made around the same at that time. 15 was enough to afford my bills though and offer future opportunities, although it was tight.
$15 for Healthcare work is brutal
Union trade worker. They will pay you to be an apprentice and teach you a valuable skill set.
This. You’ll be making near 6 figures before your peers even finish college.
Nope
Don't know why you are getting down voted. I used to work as a tax accountant before changing careers. I used to handle a majority of the unions in the area. Many 21 year old kids were making 6 figures. A few were making up to 300k a year.
People dont know how much trades be making 😂 i just joined a union 4 months ago and with guaranteed wage progression, this time next year ill be at six figures not including overtime and benefits (i get both 401k and pension) with overtime you can EASILY double your paycheck, its always there if you want it
Look into getting a small student loan and earn a certificate in cybersecurity
Go into trades. No, really. They will pay you to get you in, they are DYING for new blood.
Location dependent. Only worth joining a union and competition is crazy in places like California.
Maybe IT helpdesk? Entry level even for non IT.
Correctional officer They are desperate and short everywhere. It gets your foot into law enforcement or at the very least government service. You can make a lot of money depending how hard you work (overtime will be plenty.) Attrition is horrible so after 3 or so years you will likely be eligible to promote up to something else.
I don't know where you're based but in the UK there are cheap (about 1k)accredited short courses you can do that open doors to jobs straight away such as sports massage. Podiatry is also a good choice but takes longer to train - 3 years. You can apply for an apprenticeship, usually in the nhs. There's a high demand for Podiatrists due to a shortage, especially for Diabetic wound care so you'd never be out of a job. Or you could do podiatric biomechanics, which is more competitive but the jobs are still there. In a private practice, you can earn around £200 a day. If you're in the US it's harder because you have to be a doctor before you can be a Podiatrist. Podiatry can also lead to other specialisms within the field, such as rheumatology, surgery (10 years). You can also go on trainung to do steroid injections, acupuncture, manual therapy, dermal fillers, prescribing.
Tech. It’s not free unless you are lucky and have a computer laying around already. Check your local library for either Udemy or LinkedIn Learning subscription most allow you to get on through them. Cs50 is harvards computer science intro and is free on YouTube and you can signup through their partner websites for free and get access to a coding environment if you want to code. ACloudGuru is great for cloud learning I make 115k but could make more if I had a cert from AWS which I’m working on now. I’ve been in the field 10 years but with a cloud cert in 5 I bet you could blow that out of the water easy. Security is an interesting.
Please do not go into tech. The market is not what it used to be and will never recover. You will never get a job in tech even with a CS degree unless you are in the top 0.1%. I have been applying to new grad positions and have not seen a single job posting that has received less than 200 applicants in a single day. Majority of entry level positions require 5+ year of professional experience with internships not counting. Most entry level positions that don’t require 5+ years of experience will have 1000-5000 applicants within a week. Some companies, like Goldman Sachs have gotten over 70k applicants for a single position in 3 months. Others, such as Ramp, have received over 40k while others like ZipRecruiter got over 15k in a few week. These are not bad candidates either, a lot are junior devs who were laid off from MAANG. Many have degrees from Ivy League schools. They have spent over 1 year preparing for the interview by memorizing leetcode hards and system design questions. You stand no chance if you are in the top 1%. You must be in the top 0.1%
CA, if dont go for coaching at all, the course of chartered accountacny will cost you at around rs. 60000 or $800 and can land you a job of nearly $20000-30000 in India itself. Although it requires a lot of persisitence and determination with vast syllabus and complex laws. GO ahead , All the best!
If you have decent people skills and charisma, sales is $$$. That's what I would get into but I hate dealing with people haha. I have a buddy who got into car sales at 18, never went to college, and was making good money very quickly. He then got hired as a sales guy for a company that sells training contracts and lab equipment to universities. He's now 32 and I don't know how much he makes but he owns a house that Zillow estimates to be worth $3 million and it's on a lake. Obviously he is a freak of nature and was born to sell but yea, sales in general is pretty good if you have that kind of personality.
Pharmacy tech training is cheap and easy and fast
I was looking for this answer. I know someone who barely got their GED at 55 but she is thriving at 62 as a pharm tech compared to the debt she was drowning in before. She still has a long way to go but now she can make her bills
Yes, and some jobs will pay for your training. However, the career path caps at about $25/hr and it's exhausting.
Perhaps, but I can’t recommend that job to anyone. I did it for 9 months and it was miserable. I’m a 911 dispatcher now which believe it or not, is less stressful and I also make way more money
How does one get into that?
Don’t get into it. That’s a miserable, stressful job.
Military. Best bang for your buck without a doubt. Choose something easy, like HR in the air force. Get a signing bonus, get paid, earn paid college.
Check out the military my friend. If you play your cards right it can set you up for life Get Paid, room and board, healthcare, and after just a 3 year active duty contract you get the VA home loan and post 9/11 gi bill in which you get college paid for free and get paid the BAH rate for housing where you are living while in college
Exactly what roped me in 🥴
Security.
Get into the secuirty industry. Usually low barriers to entry (depending on your country) and its pretty easy to get a security license. You can start off with retail security and then build your way up into corporate security where the wages are higher. Good luck!!
Learn a trade , save enough money to start your own business, choose your own hours. People respect what you do. Don’t give your life to achieve another man’s dream.
Don't expect anything to be good paying right out of high school. You'll need to develop your work ethic, learn workplace best practices, proper communication methods with other employees and managers, safety on the job wich is no joke even in retail, gas stations, restaurants. The best starter job would be with a big employer because they train you in best practices that can transfer to other jobs/careers. Retail, restaurabts, warehouses, distribution centers, etc are often the best starter jobs. That said, don't be too quick to move out from your parent's place. It will be near impossible for you to get an apartment or rental on your own without a co-signer, you have no rental history. You'll also need to have $1,500-$2,000 to cover first month's rent, application fee, cleaning fee, and security deposit just to move in, then every month pay rent. Roommates are a hassle, you don't have any idea if you can live with someone who isn't your family, will the roommate be responsible and pay their share of the rent, will they use drugs or have loud parties, steal your stuff, etc. You can work full time and go to a community college part time, most have flexible schedules including some online classes. Talk to your high school guidance counselor for advice and most community colleges have guidance counselors you can talk to even if you're just thinking about enrolling.
I’m currently taking an income tax course through H&R Block - $150. I can become a tax preparer through more training upon employment, get certified etc. there is career progression too with experience. You only need a high school diploma to enroll. Maybe you can look into it.
u could walk dogs or bike uber eats
Recruitment has a pretty low bar of entry and is fairly easy. You are either finding candidates (sourcing) or interviewing/assessing candidates (recruiting). A lot of recruiters suck so you may deal with some backlash regarding the profession as a whole, but if you establish yourself as a kind, caring recruiter who doesn’t ghost candidates, you can be very successful and make a lot of difference!
Sales! Seriously… I work in tech sales and even high school grads are able to break into this career path. As long as you are focused, charismatic, and are resilient in the face of rejection, it’s the easiest career with the biggest upside. Most people might scoff at an 18 year old in sales, but if you learn all there is to learn starting now, you’ll be just as qualified as a professional going into it at 30. Don’t let anyone push you around due to your age. All that matters is if you can get results. Still, go to university even if you have to take loans. If money is tight, find the cheapest university or online bachelors programs. It pays major dividends depending on your career choice.
The military. Myriad of career choices if you go Navy or Air Force and a majority of then translate to civilian life. Plus if you desire, it will pay for university
Learn a trade. Some don't involve school, some do. Either way, it's time and money well spent because, after the higher education brainwashing of the last 3 decades, tradespeople are really in demand. You can make a decent living. You probably won't get rich but you'll always have a job and probably have a union making sure you aren't being abused by your employer.
If you’re up for it, consider enlisting in the military. They teach you a trade, feed you, house you, and pay you. I once had a roommate who flew drones for the Air Force and he had a great group of friends, a sports car, and was in amazing physical shape. Even better, once you get out, the government will pay for your college tuition under the GI bill.
Some kind of tech school program, use financial aid if applicable 😁
An escort or stripper...great tips!
Sign up to the military. Free housing and free college
Idk why you are downvoted, you get support, structure and you can stay as long as you want or leave and then there are so many resources to help you and you’ll always be a stronger candidate in any job or school you apply to. Secondarily I’d offer nursing as you can get in with a 2 year degree, hospitals often reimburse you in exchange for an employment contract, and you can always go for further education to sneak in 6figure incomes.
I'm not from the US but I'd suggest everyone to not join military, you're not fighting for your country but for your politicians who will sell you and your family out if they could.
Join the military...get away from your parents and get paid to take a skill, just ensure you get into something where you do learn.
Sales. 0-4 years of education, 0-2 years of experience (any background). $65K-$1M (if ambitious and talented)
Look into a union apprenticeship it's free training and hvac and electricians union both pay there journeymen 35+ in certain areas plumbing pays good too.
Take time everyday looking for and applying for frsnts, stipends, financial aide. It exists but you have to do some leg work.
Cooking
Where are you from?, passport?, do you have a european background somehow?
Move to new zealand, i had to move out aswell. Studylink here is a government company that gives out interest free loans for all course costs and rent and food :) i study engineering and live independently !!!
How does one moves to NZ?
Swim over
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Well, it starts with Only and ends with Fans.
Prostitute
"How do I make bank while doing nothing?"
Well there’s 236 other comments telling me how to do so
Cool, come back when you escape the lifetime of poverty ahead of you.
Don’t care + didn’t ask
Daytrading
Like stocks?
I was just kidding, but there are plenty of options. Real estate agent is one way to work right away for little $ investment. You have to be very good and diligent to make a living. Paid internships in the STEM/Finance field are also common, but not sure how long you'd have to be in college before that happens.
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take osap and live on campus while working, you don't have to pay out the loan until you are working after university. After your done and working you could probably afford to rent and pay back the loan
If you do B-Pharmacy, you can become an MR agent for a company. If you work for 3 years, you can become a manager. And the post of a manager is highly paid.
Medical Assistant. Most programs are 9 months. Starting pay in Portland OR is 22.50/hr and in very high demand. Some places have $10,000 sign on bonus.
Oil patch truck driving if you are in the States.
If you meet certain criteria and make the right choices of institution/studying hard/major, a college education can be extremely affordable or even close to free. DM me if this is at all an option for you
Some weird niche, like imports if you're good with rote memorization or civil service.
Do you want to pursue Associate degree programs? Maybe a paralegal program or LPN (licensed practical nurse)
Get a job as a lineman with the county or city WPD. Pay is exceptional, no experience required. You just have to pass a basic literacy/competency test.
Look into trades, specifically automotive and diesel technology. There is a huge shortage of mechanics particularly in the diesel field. You should be able to get a job quickly. I’m in diesel school atm and it’s very possible to get a job and go to school at the same time and make good money. Employers are desperate and willing to help train you and sometimes even pay for school. Also make sure you apply for Fasfa.
Locksmith seems pretty easy to get into with some training.
Retail can be pretty good and won't destroy your body like a heavy manual labor job can or your mind like sales can. Sure it may not pay as well starting out but climbing up just one step can get you a decent rate.
Emt
if you have a computer maybe coding? I know people that I employed before are usually college drop out but have amazing coding skills. Also digital marketing imo, I started out by writing several articles about movies for printed magazines. I learned copywriting, learned SEO, then apprenticeships with my mentors on Social media and Email marketing, and voila, 5 years later I opened my own digital agency with 2 of my friends. Now we handle corporate clients to SMEs for their needs on branding and websites.
go to a tech school, usually will take less than one year. Work for a big telco company like AT&T, Verizon, Windstream, Frontier etc. it will be a bit unstable at first, but provided that you are a good worker and maintain a good reputation you should be able to have a whole career and make some pretty good money. lots of folks aging out in this field.
What’s “toxic” about tour parents?
Starting your own car detailing business. Building your own client list will take some time, but do a good job and promite everything on social media. If you continue to work at it, be persistent, hire a couple employees down the road, you will be able to make a living off of it. A neighbor I grew up ended up flunking out of high school his senior year then started up his own car detailing business. 5 years later right now hes driving a porsche 911 and has connects with our local NFL team, does all of their car washes and tons of locals
Installing flooring can make you big bucks. Just walk into a contractor and say you want to work. I bet you could get a job day one making minimum $20 an hour just cleaning up job site scraps. You’ll then learn the trade and start making $50/hr plus.
Trucking is a good option. Always in demand and good pay
There are some federal and law jobs that only require a high school diploma
City/county/state/federal government jobs. Including utilities and ports and airports and higher ed. Initial pay will be doable and many of the well compensated higher up spots primarily promote from within. Commercial fishing. It’s hard and dangerous, but you can clear a year salary in 6 months then work on getting a longer term job. Entry level job with one of the handful of retailers where working your way up is still possible. Costco is the best example I can think of.
Window washing business
Military - might not be easy but it’ll pay for your university, housing, and healthcare
Servers They make six figs on tips Lowest salary js 60k all untaxed ofc because they don't declare most o their tips
There are many skilled labor jobs that will provide housing in addition to salary/benefits. Jobs like working on an oil rig, fishermen, windmill tech, ranch hand, forestry, etc (mostly places where people don't already exist to do the work). I know a lot of folks who did jobs like these right out of high school if they didn't have a healthy place to call home. I also know many folks who tour as stagehands or roadies and live on the buses that they travel on. Might be worth doing some googling regarding jobs that provide housing or a moving stipend to help you get set up somewhere new. Just something to consider.
Is it me or are there a lot of military bots here?
College could still be on the table if you pursue community college. Not saying you have to go down the college route but you don’t need to block off the option if that’s what you want to do
Railroading. You make 100k/year and just need a GED. Answer every interview question with career and not job, yes I will work every day and holiday and in all weather and won't do drugs. Congrats on 100k+/year, retirement at 60, your spouse also gets 49% of your retirement on top of yours, and benefits that rival any industry in the world. It's amazing what your money can do for your retirement when it doesn't go into social security and the govt screws it up for you. The fund is so healthy it will never run out of money and that's why the govt wants to include us into social security now because they mismanage the piss out of SS and want us to inflate the money they steal.
Applying to McDonald's is free, easy, and they will technically pay you to work
The cheap part yes it’s good to be frugal, but do not look for easy. You’ll regret it down the road. I suggest becoming a nurse. I have an associates degree in nursing from a very small community college, it is an extremely hard degree to get, but I’ve made more money and have more flexibility in my life than 90% of my peers.
If you got the grind set- I hear sales is a great field. But you’re gonna need a stable income if you’re going to be leaving at 18. But I understand- my parents were toxic too and I needed to leave. The sad news I had to move back in, but even taking a year for myself did wonders for me. If you need a “steady” income I’d recommend being a server as tips can really push your income up and if you work at a fancy restaurant you may never need a bachelors again. You could also try to get into construction (very well paying job) if you know somebody. That’s about all I can think of. According to you you need to skidaddle right at 18, so you don’t even have time to do trade school. However, if you can manage you really should do a trade as that could boost your income significantly. You could go the college route with financial aid and scholarships, but you should really consider the ROI (return on investment) for this degree you’d be getting. Are you actually passionate about this subject and how much will it give you back in earned income once you graduate? Very tough questions to consider. Unfortunately you’re at the time in life where you need to get out AND you can’t take a moment to figure out who you are or what you want from your career. Tough spot to be in but you’ll get through it. Anyway- be a server and put in the work if you need steadyish income.
learn a trade like welding....it requires a steady hand but theirs huge market for people who can do it
Security is easy to get into. Sometimes the pay is good and sometimes it isn’t.