Seeking personal advice on career and relocating

[elevatedvision]

Hello everyone, I just joined the forum and am hoping to converse with fellow travelers and like minds. I'm currently living in the state of NV in the U.S. I wanted to see if anyone would be willing to offer advice for my situation. I'm unsure on what the next best step for me is regarding a career and location to live. I was in the army and worked as a ground satellite operator maintainer but have been out for a while now. I’ve worked dead end jobs since then. I have education benefits from the military that will pay for a bachelor’s degree or job training. I haven't used the benefits yet out of fear of wasting it on a career path that I will have no passion for or will become obsolete. I’m also not a fan of conventional school. I’m unsure of what my skills are besides athleticism and creativity. I am passionate about the outdoors, self-sufficient living, health, entrepreneurism, and biology. I’ve been volunteering on organic farms in the U.S with WHOOF but haven’t had the best experiences. Also, I want to avoid getting the covid shot at all costs and wearing a phony mask. I’ve been thinking a lot about moving out of the U.S to avoid tyranny, expenses, and find better community with like minds. Mexico seems like a good option. Does anyone have any ideas? Sorry if this is not the best place to post this message. I’d greatly appreciate any feedback, thanks!

[Winston]

Hey i have a home in las vegas. What part of NV you from? I used to live in Virginia City too long ago. Nice area.

Where were u stationed when u were in the military?

[MrMan]

Hello everyone, I just joined the forum and am hoping to converse with fellow travelers and like minds. I'm currently living in the state of NV in the U.S. I wanted to see if anyone would be willing to offer advice for my situation. I'm unsure on what the next best step for me is regarding a career and location to live. I was in the army and worked as a ground satellite operator maintainer but have been out for a while now. I’ve worked dead end jobs since then. I have education benefits from the military that will pay for a bachelor’s degree or job training. I haven't used the benefits yet out of fear of wasting it on a career path that I will have no passion for or will become obsolete. I’m also not a fan of conventional school. I’m unsure of what my skills are besides athleticism and creativity. I am passionate about the outdoors, self-sufficient living, health, entrepreneurism, and biology. I’ve been volunteering on organic farms in the U.S with WHOOF but haven’t had the best experiences. Also, I want to avoid getting the covid shot at all costs and wearing a phony mask. I’ve been thinking a lot about moving out of the U.S to avoid tyranny, expenses, and find better community with like minds. Mexico seems like a good option. Does anyone have any ideas? Sorry if this is not the best place to post this message. I’d greatly appreciate any feedback, thanks!

In the US, getting a college degree is almost treated like a religious requirement, to hear some politicians talk about it. But if you do want to move outside of the US, having a college degree is extremely helpful. There are a lot of countries where if you end up without a job, you can get some kind of job as an English teacher by virtue of speaking English and having a college degree. In some countries in Africa, having a college degree in a field related to what you want to do is enough to give you a qualification that justifies giving you a job a local cannot take, because of a lack of the expertise that (supposedly) comes with a degree. I was talking to a man who works for the large construction company Bechtel. Out of college, he got a job in Angola. He could get a visa because he had a business degree. He works in construction now, but the degree opened doors for him.

As an expat, it is good to have a degree. If you want to stay in the US, you can also earn good money in one of the trades. If you can get in with one of the unions, electrical, plumbing, carpentry, etc., in the northern part of the United States, it can help you earn a decent living. I am not sure what electricians and plumbers make. It was probably about $40 an hour ten or 20 years ago. I am guessing $50 or $60 now and it depends on which local. I am not thinking NY wages, which might be higher. Plumbers, pipefitters, and steam workers share a union. Some of the unions will have classes you take a couple of times a week. My brother did that and dropped out because he didn't like class time being used to campaign for Bill Clinton, who he did not support. Unions try to brainwash people to vote Democrat, but they weren't all united on that when Trump was running and they were afraid Biden would be anti-oil and down on traditional industries for the sake of environmentalism. We can see how that turned out so far.

They might start you out at double minimum wage or a little less than that, and your earnings go up every year for four or five years as you take classes two or three times a week and work on a construction site as an apprentice. When you hit journeyman, there is a huge spike in wages. Then you can either get in good with a company who uses you as a company man and keeps you working, or else you work a job, the work runs out, you go to the union hall and get another job. But you have to wait in line. When the economy is in a slump, you can be unemployed for a while or move to another city where the market is hotter. Or you just settle near a big city and save money for economic slumps. I knew one man who was a journeyman electrician who worked as a school teacher teaching shop. I think he had a degree, too. He'd work in the summer to keep up his license and to make money and get that electrical union retirement. So he had a teacher's salary and a summer electrician's salary, and two retirements. You wouldn't have to use the GI Bill for this.

If you like entrepreneurship, you can get a major in that. Basically, you get two years of gen ed, become a business major, take the core business courses of micro and macro econ, two accounting courses, a course in finance, a course in marketing, management, maybe something else like HR, then specialize in some entrepreneurship classes.

You could also get an agriculture or horticulture degree if you are into that. This could open up opportunities to work in rural areas if you like that, and there are a lot of gigs overseas for experts. I know former Peace Core workers are preferred for USAID jobs, but I think former military are preferred for overseas jobs. The big money, I hear, is being a contractor for USAID in that field. There are probably some other profitable niches.

You might be able to work overseas as an expert without a degree in some fields. I talked to an Englishman who lived in Hong Kong and went across the border to consult in China. He had an apartment there. He had it set up where he lowered his taxes based on where his official residence was. He did not have a degree but had some specialized manufacturing technique. I knew another man from New Zealand who had expertise in dyes for textile manufacturing. He had an expat job in Jakarta doing that. He did not have a degree. To get a visa, your employer has to show immigration you have specialized skills that they cannot find in the local marketplace. A degree goes a long way, but there are other niches. Actually, union training as an electrician, plumber, etc. could help meet the qualification also.

[xiongmao]

Welcome to the forum.

I think without a covid shot your chances of doing anything in future will be limited. It sucks but remember the first 3 people to get covid all died so why take the risk?

Other than that there are plenty of side hustles that can be lucrative. I did blogging for a while (like Winston) but lately I've been moving into Lego flipping [my revelation was discovering ALL Lego sets are limited edition].

[elevatedvision]

Hey i have a home in las vegas. What part of NV you from? I used to live in Virginia City too long ago. Nice area.

Where were u stationed when u were in the military?

That's cool, I'm living in Reno at the moment. It's very close to Virginia City, that's a neat historic town. I also used to live in Pahrump for a number of years just outside of Las Vegas

[Winston]

Hey i have a home in las vegas. What part of NV you from? I used to live in Virginia City too long ago. Nice area.

Where were u stationed when u were in the military?

That's cool, I'm living in Reno at the moment. It's very close to Virginia City, that's a neat historic town. I also used to live in Pahrump for a number of years just outside of Las Vegas

I used to live in Virginia City for 8 months. It's a nice historic town that looks like it's from the Old West. Do you go up there? The plays are nice too. I was in 2 plays there. It's a friendly town. How is Reno nowadays? I liked that there was never much traffic there and the people were not as toxic as Las Vegas. Have you been to those brothels near Carson City? There's a strip club there too.