College or Trade School? Should I make the jump?

[serverless]

I recently started my freshman year of college studying accounting and I am absolutely miserable. I was pushed by my family and other peers to attend college even though I wanted to go to trade school in the first place. I am thinking about dropping out to go and attend trade school as I can see no way of providing as much value with my degree in accounting or any other business related degree. Is this a good choice? My parents think I will be wrecking my future by not receiving my college degree. Should I stay in college and just do trade school over the summer?

 

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[Panos Daras]

I have done Accounting and it is the worst job I have ever had. Managed to survive for 3 years. AP, and AR are tolerable, but once you do MEC activities it is brutal. Never doing it again. I prefer to do manual labor than this shit (which I also did in the past). I would also throw Financial ANALysis inside this dumpster and burn it. Trade School all the way! FOR ME.

 

[Kevin88660]

I recently started my freshman year of college studying accounting and I am absolutely miserable. I was pushed by my family and other peers to attend college even though I wanted to go to trade school in the first place. I am thinking about dropping out to go and attend trade school as I can see no way of providing as much value with my degree in accounting or any other business related degree. Is this a good choice? My parents think I will be wrecking my future by not receiving my college degree. Should I stay in college and just do trade school over the summer?

If you are a hands on person, and the trade school offers access to jobs with good pay why not?

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Which trade?

 

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[serverless]

Which trade?

Electrician

 

[James Klymus]

The trades are very lucrative. I would say go for it. Since you’re on the forum, I’m going to assume you probably aren’t a shithead.

And the thing about the trades, is there are a ton of shitty workers/businesses, and in order to stand out LITERALLY all you have to do is not be a drunk/addicted to drugs, and do the things you say you will do.

So since you aren’t a shithead, and you have access to this forum, you can stand out from the vast majority of tradesmen and businesses.

My trade is barbering, and I can say from experience, there are TONS of barbers and barber shops out there who lose clients because of poor business practices and bad customer service.

I’ve had clients tell me “wow I’m glad you showed up! My last barber didn’t even come to our appointment.”

All I have to do is show up, be professional, and I stand out from the competition. And that’s how it is in a lot of trades.

And the pay can be very good, especially in contrast to the amount of schooling and training. You can do a program for a year or two, and when you get out you could be making at least 60-80k a year for skilled labor.

I only had to do a little over 1 year of school for barbering, and my first full year out I will be doing $90-$100k at least.

Not Fastlane money, but it’s a great baseline so you can go out and chase your entrepreneurial dreams.

The only time I would say NO to a trade, is if you think it will kill your dreams because you’re too tired to pursue other ventures. I heard MJ make that point about his step son the other day.

Sounds like accounting is going to kill your dreams though, so that’s only something you can answer. If not trades, then I would go after something in sales, marketing, or coding.

 

[NathanN]

I am in the same boat, thinking of going into the trades right now, plumbing.
Definitely a lot of money to be made there, if you use your business senses and don't be stupid like @James Klymus says and you can move up in the ranks quick.
But I am wondering too if it will be something that will cause me to be too tired to work on my entrepreneurial goals at the end of the day, but it can be a good baseline for those financial goals.

 

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[EngineerThis]

I recently started my freshman year of college studying accounting and I am absolutely miserable. I was pushed by my family and other peers to attend college even though I wanted to go to trade school in the first place. I am thinking about dropping out to go and attend trade school as I can see no way of providing as much value with my degree in accounting or any other business related degree. Is this a good choice? My parents think I will be wrecking my future by not receiving my college degree. Should I stay in college and just do trade school over the summer?

A.I. will replace white collar jobs well before tradesmen.. I was a mechanic before I went to school for engineering. It was hard but I learned a ton, made great money. And learned life long skills. College was a waste… BUT. Unfortunately that’s the only way to get the magic piece of paper that tells companies how smart you are…
FYI before you go to trades school, try tour luck apprenticing in a trade you’re interested in. You’ll get paid, learn more on the job. And learn if you like it or not before wasting time on school. I never went to school for mechanics, I learned from an apprenticeship… studied up. Got my state certifications all on my own. Trade school isn’t that important in my eyes. Get yourself on the job, and gain experience!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Electrician

My opinion based on info you provided: If you can foresee yourself enjoying the work for at least 5 years, I don't see why not. You can create a business in this space and have endless customers. Because of short-supply and high-demand, I'm guessing such a business can be made Fastlane in a decent population size, and you as a sole proprietor, a great foundation for building capital.

even though I wanted to go to trade school in the first place.

freshman year of college studying accounting and I am absolutely miserable.

I think you answered your question here. A lot of times our language exposes our true feelings.

 

[serverless]

My opinion based on info you provided: If you can foresee yourself enjoying the work for at least 5 years, I don't see why not. You can create a business in this space and have endless customers. Because of short-supply and high-demand, I'm guessing such a business can be made Fastlane in a decent population size, and you as a sole proprietor, a great foundation for building capital.





I think you answered your question here. A lot of times our language exposes our true feelings.

Thanks MJ appreciate the response. Many of the electricians in my area have very poor customer service so I see that as an easy opportunity to leverage that with my business. I guess I did know the answer to my own question I just needed validation as I would be alone in my endeavor while everyone else heads off to college. Sounds stupid to write it down now as any entrepreneur would need to go against the societal norm to achieve their goals.

The trades are very lucrative. I would say go for it. Since you’re on the forum, I’m going to assume you probably aren’t a shithead.

And the thing about the trades, is there are a ton of shitty workers/businesses, and in order to stand out LITERALLY all you have to do is not be a drunk/addicted to drugs, and do the things you say you will do.

So since you aren’t a shithead, and you have access to this forum, you can stand out from the vast majority of tradesmen and businesses.

My trade is barbering, and I can say from experience, there are TONS of barbers and barber shops out there who lose clients because of poor business practices and bad customer service.

I’ve had clients tell me “wow I’m glad you showed up! My last barber didn’t even come to our appointment.”

All I have to do is show up, be professional, and I stand out from the competition. And that’s how it is in a lot of trades.

And the pay can be very good, especially in contrast to the amount of schooling and training. You can do a program for a year or two, and when you get out you could be making at least 60-80k a year for skilled labor.

I only had to do a little over 1 year of school for barbering, and my first full year out I will be doing $90-$100k at least.

Not Fastlane money, but it’s a great baseline so you can go out and chase your entrepreneurial dreams.

The only time I would say NO to a trade, is if you think it will kill your dreams because you’re too tired to pursue other ventures. I heard MJ make that point about his step son the other day.

Sounds like accounting is going to kill your dreams though, so that’s only something you can answer. If not trades, then I would go after something in sales, marketing, or coding.

I actually just encountered this with my barber made an appointment and he did not show up so I got a cut from someone else that I liked just as much so he will now be receiving my business. The ability to work and learn has always appealed to me business school always never made sense to me as most of the stuff you learn is absolutely useless.

 

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[ChristianGa0]

I recently started my freshman year of college studying accounting and I am absolutely miserable. I was pushed by my family and other peers to attend college even though I wanted to go to trade school in the first place. I am thinking about dropping out to go and attend trade school as I can see no way of providing as much value with my degree in accounting or any other business related degree. Is this a good choice? My parents think I will be wrecking my future by not receiving my college degree. Should I stay in college and just do trade school over the summer?

idk if my situation is similar to yours, but I quite my apprenticeship which I was doing as a waiter to focus full time on my business, i also specified to my parents i will not go to Uni to get some wack a$$ degree (maybe to learn new things but not for a degree and then a job)and I think that jump/risk helped me because now in my mind I have no choice but to make my business work and help provide the best value to people.

 

[serverless]

idk if my situation is similar to yours, but I quite my apprenticeship which I was doing as a waiter to focus full time on my business, i also specified to my parents i will not go to Uni to get some wack a$$ degree (maybe to learn new things but not for a degree and then a job)and I think that jump/risk helped me because now in my mind I have no choice but to make my business work and help provide the best value to people.

I was thinking in a similar way that Uni is making me to comfortable and that I can just cruise through all four years and not have to worry about actually making it and getting a mediocre job and remaining in the slowlane all my life. Taking the risk will put my a$$ to the fire to get started and actually pursuing a business that provides value.

 

[ChristianGa0]

I was thinking in a similar way that Uni is making me to comfortable and that I can just cruise through all four years and not have to worry about actually making it and getting a mediocre job and remaining in the slowlane all my life. Taking the risk will put my a$$ to the fire to get started and actually pursuing a business that provides value.

Yes haha, because in my mind was thinking the apprenticeship is shit but not shit enough for me to quit and just cruise through it and partially work on my business and make excuses that I had to work (at the apprenticeship) so I couldn’t work on my business. Now that I quite, my parents kinda want me to go to Uni and get a back up and that fires me up to grind on my business to make sure I make it work, cause im not tryna go to Uni or any of that.

 

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