Education??

[rich280zxt]

Looking for help.. I'm a freshman in college right now, I was going for a Mechanical Engineering degree, but I'm not motivated anymore because I don't think its going to get me into the field that I want to work in. Basically I want to know what jobs are there in the automotive market that pay good money. I want to make 50-60 thousand a year, maybe not from the start but down the road. I love working on cars, I love graphic design, computers... I don't want to be a grease monkey. Don't just post bullshit or your stupid opinions unless you've been there and can speak from experience. Secondly, should I stay in college to get my AA, or is it a waste of time? I'm serious about doing something relating to cars for a career, and I eat sleep and dream about my Datsun. I don't care what it takes, I'm passionate about it, and I would move anywhere in the world to get a good job, for something I love doing.

[Helghast]

50-60k a year is a joke.
..maybe it's just over here in SoCal?

[lflkajfj12123]

in cali making 90k a year and being single is still rough hahaa

60k is an average wage elsewhere though

but its not much

[rich280zxt]

50-60k a year is a joke.
..maybe it's just over here in SoCal?

I live in Florida, I've never been to Cali, but I know that everything over there is hella expensive. If I moved to Cali I'd probably expect to make a lot more, which I've actually considered because I know Cali has a lot to offer. Least it seems like it.

[kousuke180sx]

Looking for help.. I'm a freshman in college right now, I was going for a Mechanical Engineering degree, but I'm not motivated anymore because I don't think its going to get me into the field that I want to work in. Basically I want to know what jobs are there in the automotive market that pay good money. I want to make 50-60 thousand a year, maybe not from the start but down the road. I love working on cars, I love graphic design, computers... I don't want to be a grease monkey. Don't just post bullshit or your stupid opinions unless you've been there and can speak from experience. Secondly, should I stay in college to get my AA, or is it a waste of time? I'm serious about doing something relating to cars for a career, and I eat sleep and dream about my Datsun. I don't care what it takes, I'm passionate about it, and I would move anywhere in the world to get a good job, for something I love doing.

Also from what I know the AA degree over here is pretty much useless as well. The BA isnt as good as it used to be, its pretty much all about the masters nowadays.

[rich280zxt]

Also from what I know the AA degree over here is pretty much useless as well. The BA isnt as good as it used to be, its pretty much all about the masters nowadays.

So If I want to be some kind of technician, see thats the thing I don't know what sort of positions are out there, should I get a college degree, or go straight to a tech school?

[Yoshi]

So If I want to be some kind of technician, see thats the thing I don't know what sort of positions are out there, should I get a college degree, or go straight to a tech school?

Tech school.

And disregard the comments about wage... it's totally dependent on where you live.
There's also aspects of different jobs that have intangible monetary value.
For example: I have a 2mi, 6 minute commute. That means I can come home for lunch, and dont' sit for hours fighting traffic like I would in socal. How much is your time worth? Mine increases in value the older I get. Everything is relative, don't get hung up on numbers. Most people taht like to throw how much they make around, are people that probably aren't as happy in life as they think they are.
I'd rather make 10k and be happy & love my job, than make 200k and be wanting. Make sense?

Following the biggest salary is for suckers who don't value their own long term happiness.

[eastcoastS14]

hahah idk wtf u guys are talkin about....if im getting 60k out of college I will be set...if you cant live on 3gs a week outside of socal or NYC you need to learn to budget better lol

[Helghast]

Yea, I'm lacking the budget aspect.
= (

Car Payment + Bike Payment + Rent + 2 insurance + GF + Food = TOO MUCH.

BLAAAARGH.

[rich280zxt]

Thanks Yoshi, I understand exactly what you mean, which is why I want to get involved with cars, I love it. Its kinda stressful though because I have a full ride at a University-and my dad is really proud of me, I dont want to mess up.

[JRas]

50-60k a year is a joke.
..maybe it's just over here in SoCal?

cost of living our there is higher than most

min wage is what $8

here it's $6.90 ( Arizona )

[Helghast]

$8+ almost $9.

$400,000 house leaves you in some shit town, and that's a 2 bedroom, craaaap house.

= (

SoCal sucks, but ohhhh so good.

The Smallest Studio apt. out here cost $900.
Small as in..500sq ft.
Yup.

..and that's not in OC, or LA ..

[JRas]

the more education, the more likely you are to make more money

stay in school it will pay off

[JesusFreakDrifter]

do what you love and love what you do, you will appreciate life more rather than the money aspect like yoshi was saying, im kinda going through the same thing myself

[Matej]

I'm kind of going through this too.
Not because of cars, I just have no idea what I see myself doing in the next five years, so I have a hard time being motivated in classes.
Currently I'm planning on doing 3D technical programming, I mean I'll most likely stick to it for now and if I get really good it wouldn't be a bad career at all, but all I know is that I'd love a career which would have me traveling all over the world, no matter how much it pays or what field it's in, but I don't know of a surefire way to land such a career.
When I see posts such as Aero-K's business trip to Japan or know people with random jobs who go on business trips to France or Australia it always has me daydreaming and wishing I had their job.

[RiversideS13]

i don't understand, what you talked understand here is like mechanical engineering. just log on to toyota web site or other car manufacture sites and look for their job opportunity requirement.

[TurDz]

the more education, the more likely you are to make more money

stay in school it will pay off

That's the key word: likely.

In terms of making money, you can make a very good amount if you choose a correct technical field and excel in it. My econ teacher in high school once did a $breakdown comparison and it showed that you may end up being farther ahead financially if you didn't go to college since you wouldn't have all of those college student/parent loans to pay off. If you have financial aid, more power to you for the school route.

After being in the automotive field for a couple years now, a degree helps with setting you up to move up the corporate ladder. It gets your foot into the door of the "professional" i.e. white collar.

My advice for you is to narrow the field of automotive you want to be in. Manufacturing, quality, design, R&D, materials, etc. If you can truly choose you'll set yourself up for a very efficient and quick progression to your goal.

BTW, I would recommend minimum a BS if you want to get into the automotive engineering field. Hope that helps a bit. Keep us updated on your decisions.

[g6civcx]

Just like anything else, be careful who you listen to. On this topic, make sure the person is actually employed before giving weight to their opinion. Obviously you don't want the blind leading the blind.


That said, practically all of the responses in this thread are good.

For everybody who says that you can make decent living without a college education, ask yourself this: are they actually doing okay? are they bitter because they never got a chance to get an education? is school not for them so they assume that school isn't right for everybody?

I admit that not everybody is cut out for school, and not all schools are cut out for everybody. You have to find what's best for your specific situation.

There's no real absolute. It really depends on the person, the background, the school or lack thereof, etc.


Most people can make a decent living regardless of what they do, but how many people really know what it takes to be wealthy?

With a mech e degree, I know places that you can make $100k your first year and $150k every year after that if you work extremely hard. For a professional job, it's hard to beat that kind of starting salary unless you start your own company or know somebody high up.


If you are Bill Gates materials, then just quit school and do what you want. For the 99.9% of the rest of the population, statistically these jobs make the most money in the professional world:

1) investment bankers
2) lawyers
3) doctors

Depending on the specialty you do, you can make more or less, but generally these 3 types of jobs make the most.

The only problem I see is that a job is a job, but a career is something that you can do for a long time. Remember that you won't be young forever and can't be running around doing physical labour.

I choose a solid technical background with a law degree. With this combo, as long as I can think clearly, I can work, even if I'm in a wheelchair.


Pick your career carefully because the choices you make now, no matter how insignificant they may seem, will have a HUGE effect on the rest of your life.

[g6civcx]

Tech school.

And disregard the comments about wage... it's totally dependent on where you live.
There's also aspects of different jobs that have intangible monetary value.
For example: I have a 2mi, 6 minute commute. That means I can come home for lunch, and dont' sit for hours fighting traffic like I would in socal. How much is your time worth? Mine increases in value the older I get.



For a person straight out of college this may not be the best advice because they will tend to become jaded by high expectations that are unrealistic.

Keep in mind that every job, every job has pros and cons. The thing that matters is if you can like the pros enough to overlook the cons. When you're starving then you don't have a choice.

If you spend all your time looking for that dream job, you are likely not to find it. This is because all jobs involve working with people, and people are inherently troublesome. So no matter what you, interaction with people can never be eliminated, just minimized.


So in the end of the rat race, the only thing that you walk away with is any money that you saved, any experience you got, and maybe a bruised ego. Nothing else matters.

Just keep your eyes on the prize and focus on the long term. Sometimes you have to put up with crummy jobs to get the one you like. Sometimes jobs you hate may actually end up being better than you thought.


If I can go back to my senior year in high school knowing what I know now, I would be in much much better shape, but I guess better late than never.

Everything is relative, don't get hung up on numbers. Most people taht like to throw how much they make around, are people that probably aren't as happy in life as they think they are.
I'd rather make 10k and be happy & love my job, than make 200k and be wanting. Make sense?


Following the biggest salary is for suckers who don't value their own long term happiness.

People who don't have money can also be unhappy. Can we say that making a decent living is necessary, but being wealthy may not make you happy?

I worry most about uncertainty in the future. What if I get sick? What if I can't work? Who's going to help me? Being wealthy provides financial security. That's it. Being happy doesn't have anything to do with money, but having money takes care of your basic needs so you can do what makes you happy.


What if I told you that if you worked really hard for 15 years, you will be a millionaire and retire to do whatever that makes you happy? Would you believe me? Is 15 years a long time? Do you think you would be willing to trade 15 years for the rest of your life?

[rich280zxt]

Well, yes of course, I would be willing to trade 15 years of my life to become a millionaire, I don't see who wouldn't. I love to work, I'm just not sure what kind of job I'd like to do. I started this thread to ask all of you two questions, and I don't think they have really been answered. Tell me what you do, and how you got there. I'm not convinced that a college degree will guarantee me a job building cars. I'm not really sure what aspect of building cars I'm even really interested in because I don't know what positions are out there. Thanks everyone for your posts, g6civcx I'm with you, I want to be wealthy, I'm thinking long term as well. I work at Publix, unless you're familiar with the South Eastern U.S. you've probably never heard of it. But Publix is a grocery store, I've been there for three years now, and every time I go into work, I think, damn, I hope I don't have to do this for much longer. Working in the stock dept. I have to lift 7-800 boxes a day. And I'm not complaining I enjoy it, but it gets me thinking about long term, especially in an automotive position I'm not going to be able to turn wrenches forever. In high school, I spent 4 years in an Engineering class and learned 3d Studio Max- anyone on here ever used it before? I'd like to design cars, do something hands on though. Anyway one more, what do you do, what got you there? Thanks

[flip3d]

You like computers and want to make 60k yearly? Get an A.S. in IT and some industry certs from CompTIA. You know... A+, network+, security+, etc etc. Try to get your foot in the door of some big company and continue your education. It will eventually pay off.

Let me just tell you this though. Manual labor wont make you a millionaire. You have to use your head. Do you like science? Try studying in a field that isnt very popular because then it would be easier to get a Ph.D. Write a book and bam. You officially know more than anyone in the world in that subject and people will pay you for what you know.

[g6civcx]

what do you do, what got you there?

I do legal work with patents. I currently make double the average salary for people living in my Zip code from data published in 2006. Right now it would be less than double due to inflation.

I previously worked as a management consultant in the health care industry. Before that I started my own health care management company. I have a computer science degree and a business degree.

All these things helped got me to where I am, and a lot of hard work.


If I had to pick the most important thing that got me to where I am today, it would be my college degree. That's the bottom line. If I didn't have a degree, I wouldn't be able to get this job. It's non-negotiable.


I'm with you, I want to be wealthy, I'm thinking long term as well.

Why settle for just X dollars? I always encourage everyone to reach their full individual potential. If you have the drive and the intelligence, there's no reason you can't make a better life for yourself.

If you seriously looked at it, people who put down high-paying jobs either: a) can't cut it, or b) don't want to try. If you don't like the money, donate to your family or charity. But you'll never know unless you try. At some point it stops being about you and becomes what you can do for others.

Don't ever let people tell you you can't do something just because they can't.

3d Studio Max- anyone on here ever used it before?

I have. It's a pretty cool program we used back in engineering school.


If you can commit to maxing out your 401(k) and your Roth IRA, which comes out to $20k a year before taxes, and if you employer helps you out another few thousands, let that ride in the market at an average of 10%, you will have $1 million in 15 years. It sounds like a lot of money, but it averages about $1k a month out of your take home salary. If you can learn to live on the rest of your paycheck and not get into debt you will be a millionaire in 15 years.


All you really need is a $35k job if you can live off $1k each month. Swing that for 15 years and you can retire a millionaire.


I've tried to get my friends to come over and work with me. You can make $150k, but the catch is in the beginning you have to work about 70 hours a week. As you get more senior you can work less and still make the same money as your billable rate goes up. Pretty much all of them say they have too much of a life to put in that much work, but they all just go home, watch TV, and play video game most nights.


If you made $150k, $100k after tax, lived off of $2k a month, and invested $75k a year, do you know how quickly you can become a millionaire?

[trust187]

what exactly is a roth ira ?

[g6civcx]

what exactly is a roth ira ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roth_IRA

[Yoshi]

For a person straight out of college this may not be the best advice because they will tend to become jaded by high expectations that are unrealistic.

Keep in mind that every job, every job has pros and cons. The thing that matters is if you can like the pros enough to overlook the cons. When you're starving then you don't have a choice.

If you spend all your time looking for that dream job, you are likely not to find it. This is because all jobs involve working with people, and people are inherently troublesome. So no matter what you, interaction with people can never be eliminated, just minimized.


So in the end of the rat race, the only thing that you walk away with is any money that you saved, any experience you got, and maybe a bruised ego. Nothing else matters.

Just keep your eyes on the prize and focus on the long term. Sometimes you have to put up with crummy jobs to get the one you like. Sometimes jobs you hate may actually end up being better than you thought.


If I can go back to my senior year in high school knowing what I know now, I would be in much much better shape, but I guess better late than never.



People who don't have money can also be unhappy. Can we say that making a decent living is necessary, but being wealthy may not make you happy?

I worry most about uncertainty in the future. What if I get sick? What if I can't work? Who's going to help me? Being wealthy provides financial security. That's it. Being happy doesn't have anything to do with money, but having money takes care of your basic needs so you can do what makes you happy.


What if I told you that if you worked really hard for 15 years, you will be a millionaire and retire to do whatever that makes you happy? Would you believe me? Is 15 years a long time? Do you think you would be willing to trade 15 years for the rest of your life?

Wow guy... I don't know whether you're just really passionate about this topic or you're LOOKING for an arguement.
All I was saying is that he should try to think about things that aren't necessarily in the job description under "Pay & Benefits".

As if I'm presumptuous enough to give detailed career advice to someone I don't know, and more importantly, doesn't know me.

If you want to give "how to be a millionaire" career advice, great, more power to you. But how about you try doing so WITHOUT putting words in my mouth?
"Can we say that making a decent living is necessary, but being wealthy may not make you happy?"
Come down off your high horse man, no one said anything that obtuse and you know it. You can make your point without tearing apart what was SUPPOSED to be just helpful advice on my part. The phrasing of that entire paragraph serves no purpose to be to apparently placate your own ego.

Gosh, now I remember why I don't come here much anymore. Attitudes ruin the desire to be helpful when people can't agree that there might just be more than one opinion, point-of-view, or way to "help" those who ask. What happened G6cvcx? Last time I talked to you, you weren't anything like this.

[Gnnr]

To add to what was said, INTERNSHIP INTERNSHIP INTERNSHIP. Please try out your field before you complete your study, you may find you wont like it. Its okay to change your major you know. Take a summer internship, even if its not paid. It can get you the connections you need in the future, and you can always put it on your resume.

[drift freaq]

Whatever you do, make sure you study and get your degree in something you want to do. I am a strong proponent of people doing what makes them happy. Yoshi is doing what makes him happy and thats where he is at, that is cool.
Of late most college students in this country have become obessed with making money to the point that they forgo studying Sciences and whatnot in favor of a MBA or becoming a Lawyer( which I might add this country has to many of both). Scientists can make great money, but more so than that they usually follow their passions. Following your career passion is the thing that will make you most happy in life. Working at something you do not like for the sake of making money sucks. Getting a education is important. Applying it to something you want to do is equally important.

Life is about a lot of things and their is nothing wrong with wanting to make money. Though of late this country has turned into a bunch of credit happy,money grubbing and spending, materialistic assholes.

Oh and yes I have a Roth IRA and stocks and whatnot.

[g6civcx]

Wow guy... I don't know whether you're just really passionate about this topic or you're LOOKING for an arguement.
All I was saying is that he should try to think about things that aren't necessarily in the job description under "Pay & Benefits".

As if I'm presumptuous enough to give detailed career advice to someone I don't know, and more importantly, doesn't know me.

I agree with this, but telling an 18yo to go to tech school may not be the best advice. Before you know it, he'll be 40 and wanting what he could have done with his career.

This also won't work once you start having other people depending on you. It stops being about you. If you're going to dabble, do it now before you start having other obligations.

If you want to give "how to be a millionaire" career advice, great, more power to you. But how about you try doing so WITHOUT putting words in my mouth?

I never said anything you didn't say. All I did was quote for context. If you feel that I said "Yoshi said X", please feel fre to quote me.

"Can we say that making a decent living is necessary, but being wealthy may not make you happy?"
Come down off your high horse man, no one said anything that obtuse and you know it. You can make your point without tearing apart what was SUPPOSED to be just helpful advice on my part. The phrasing of that entire paragraph serves no purpose to be to apparently placate your own ego.

You said it:

I'd rather make 10k and be happy & love my job, than make 200k and be wanting. Make sense?

Following the biggest salary is for suckers who don't value their own long term happiness.

10k = a living, 200k = wealth. 10k = happy & love. 200k = wanting. making a living = happy & love. wealth = wanting.

Based on your comment. Making a living is necessary but not sufficient for happiness, unless you believe that being homeless can make you happy.


All I did was apply simple logic to your statement. Everything you said was obtuse either came from you directly or as the result of simple logic. So either a different interpretation of what you said is obtuse, or logic is obtuse. I have no interjected my opinion in that conclusion.


Gosh, now I remember why I don't come here much anymore. Attitudes ruin the desire to be helpful when people can't agree that there might just be more than one opinion, point-of-view, or way to "help" those who ask.




I admit that not everybody is cut out for school, and not all schools are cut out for everybody. You have to find what's best for your specific situation.

There's no real absolute. It really depends on the person, the background, the school or lack thereof, etc.

Pick your career carefully because the choices you make now, no matter how insignificant they may seem, will have a HUGE effect on the rest of your life.

I definitely agree that there are multiple ways to skin a cat, as I explictly said above.


It seems like you're selectively reading what you consider to be personally offensive and ignoring the totality of the post.

If you are offended, I apologize. I don't know you as you don't know me. I was just speaking in generality. If something hits home don't take it personally. If I don't know what I'm aiming at then obviously I can't be doing it on purpose.

The assumptions are your own unless you can quote. I am not responsible for your personal inhibitions. I never made any conclusion you accussed me of making.


I would like to get deeper into technical topics, like how to maximize your Title IV financial aid, how to write a good resume, how to pick a good career, how to save your money to avoid taxes, how to crack an HR interview, etc. I can help with all that, but there is no interest and most people don't know the difference.