What to do if you keep failing?

[Petunia 100]

IMO trades have been wrongly demonized by our society, the overriding message to kids is you may get a 4 year degree. I have a friend that is a plumber and he banks.

Oh, I agree. There is nothing at all wrong with following your aptitudes and learning a trade. A skilled tradesperson can earn a very good living.

[WhiteAbyss]

My mind is not 'wired' for math. I am more literature. But society doesn't value anything except the ability to be a human calculator in this computer age so I forced myself to do the maths to get into Uni with an honours degree for Mechatronics Engineering. Lol you say I didn't try hard enough. Hello. NOBODY in the class had any idea what was going on 90% of the time, the teacher was some Indian guy who spoke at a hundred miles an hour, and all the classes were rushed. There was no learning going on. It's just a degree factory churning out people who are educated, but not people who are intelligent. There is a BIG difference between the two. Maybe if they actually cared about teaching the students, instead of pimping themselves out to every corrupt overseas official with a spoiled brat who wants to study in Australia, then I would have tried. But they don't give a damn so why should I even try.

The course has a 70% failure rate so it can't be me. Anyway what's so exciting about being an Engineer anyway? Spending your whole life plugging numbers into formulas that a computer could do? Getting an ego boost cause you can manipulate numbers? For what? $50k a year? Please, at that salary it's about as interesting as watching paint dry and a waste of a life.

No, Engineers can not easily get a job here in Australia. It's basically only good if you want to be constantly travelling overseas for work. And I don't know if you have taken a look at the mess your countries are in, but no sane Australian wants to be travelling overseas anymore.

Regarding the egg cracking device, actually it is useful because health and safety require McDonalds to refrigerate their eggs, which makes them brittle and shatter easily when cracked. Also my device allowed 8 eggs to be cracked at once.

I have tried everything. Especially in markets that don't have competition. I even tried creating a tea out of Oecophylla smaragdina and marketing it to China and India where it has been used as a traditional medicine for thousands of years. Couldn't get the Dep of Environment to take me seriously, then I see a story on TV a few months later about how the ant is selling for $600 per kilo.

I'm going to have one last shot with the dog doo and if that doesn't work out well, I'll just become another statistic.

I don't think i am a victim at all, I just had a huge melanoma cut out of the back of my neck and another above my heart and liver, and I am still trying. But there comes a point where you say what am i going to do if i earn all this money? All it will do is give me free time, which I already have on the dole, so nothing new there. And i'm not particularly interested in gaudy cars or houses. What's the point of being rich? My problem is I realize money is all a joke, a make believe concept that has no real value, is just meaningless plastic or paper. A dollar bill with a US presidents head on it is about as meaningless to me as a coin from antiquity with Cleopatras head on it.

RACIST TIRADE REMOVED BY MODERATOR

[Singuy]

Okay, so math is not for you..but what about science? Ever looked into becoming a MD, Dentist, Pharmacist, Optometrist, Physical Therapist, etc etc?

You can't just fail one class and determined "well this is all a lie!".

[TexasHusker]

I hope the poop scooping brings you a life of purpose and wealth. There is an increasing amount of dog excretement these days so I expect you've got a bull market for a long time. Just don't screw the pooch.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

nursing, a lot of health care fields are growing and well paid.

[disneysteve]

I can't believe any of you are still responding seriously after his 2nd post.

[Jluke]

I can't believe any of you are still responding seriously after his 2nd post.

exactly... so now I can say this...

When someone reaches this point they should take the participation trophy and go home...

[disneysteve]

health and safety require McDonalds to refrigerate their eggs

You might not know this but in the US, eggs are routinely refrigerated. I know that isn't the case in other countries but it's standard practice here.

[commoncentsmike]

IMO trades have been wrongly demonized by our society, the overriding message to kids is you may get a 4 year degree. I have a friend that is a plumber and he banks.

I agree. My father lays tile in multi million dollar homes. Hasn't had a boss in 40+ years and makes good money. Stepdad owns his own electric business. And lastly my younger brother worked with making/installing fiberglass shower pans and made nearly $100K/year at 24 without a degree.

[disneysteve]

One issue I see with a lot of trade jobs in my line of work (medicine) is that they can be rough on the body. It's great when you're in your 20s or 30s but when you start hitting your 50s, crawling around in basements and attics, working under counters, doing heavy lifting, hauling tools and supplies and such gets a lot more difficult. Unless you're able to move into a more supervisory position, it can get tough to keep at it. I see a lot of patients who find themselves too young to retire but too beat up to keep doing what they've been doing their whole career. A lot of them end up filing for disability because they don't know what else to do.

[~bs]

One issue I see with a lot of trade jobs in my line of work (medicine) is that they can be rough on the body. It's great when you're in your 20s or 30s but when you start hitting your 50s, crawling around in basements and attics, working under counters, doing heavy lifting, hauling tools and supplies and such gets a lot more difficult. Unless you're able to move into a more supervisory position, it can get tough to keep at it. I see a lot of patients who find themselves too young to retire but too beat up to keep doing what they've been doing their whole career. A lot of them end up filing for disability because they don't know what else to do.

that is why in my opinion these guys need to save tons of money when they're younger (because they can) so they don't end up as that old guy with a broken body still trying to "crawling around in basements and attics, working under counters, doing heavy lifting, hauling tools and supplies ". Be smart and retire young

[97guns]

You might not know this but in the US, eggs are routinely refrigerated. I know that isn't the case in other countries but it's standard practice here.

Nothing is really refrigerated in a lot of places, meat and seafood sold in open air markets, eggs basting in the sun, even 7-11 sells their eggs off the shelf unrefrigerated. I've seen "fresh" clams for sale, foaming and baking in the sun

[msomnipotent]

Most of the employees at our Home Depot are 50-60 year old ex-professionals, except the cashiers. That would be the route I would take if I was in the trades.

[hamchan]

One issue I see with a lot of trade jobs in my line of work (medicine) is that they can be rough on the body. It's great when you're in your 20s or 30s but when you start hitting your 50s, crawling around in basements and attics, working under counters, doing heavy lifting, hauling tools and supplies and such gets a lot more difficult. Unless you're able to move into a more supervisory position, it can get tough to keep at it. I see a lot of patients who find themselves too young to retire but too beat up to keep doing what they've been doing their whole career. A lot of them end up filing for disability because they don't know what else to do.

Desk/computer jobs are just as bad, if not worse IMO. 95% of my client base as a massage therapist work in IT. Amazon, Google, Microsoft. Their bodies are a wreck. We weren't designed to sit hunched over a desk all day doing repetitive motions with our hands. I had a desk job when I was in college and back pain was a contant. Now, at 38 doing a physically demanding job requiring a lot of strength, I rarely have work related pain.

I do weight lifting several times a week as well, and that helps. I wish more people recognized how important strength building exercise is.

[disneysteve]

Now, at 38 doing a physically demanding job requiring a lot of strength, I rarely have work related pain.

That's great, but you're only 38 and haven't been doing that work since you got out of high school 20 years ago.

The other issue is not just the effects of the work but the effects of other health issues on their ability to work. High blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, lung disease, etc. When people get into their 40s and 50s and are dealing with those things, the heavy labor becomes more challenging. It's a lot easier to stick to regular meal times and a medicine dosing regimen for your diabetes, for example, when you have an office job. When you are at some construction site from sun up to sun down and have no access to a refrigerator and break room, it's a whole lot harder. If you have COPD, hauling supplies and climbing ladders can be pretty challenging. And if you're taking a diuretic for your high blood pressure, having no easy access to a bathroom throughout the day poses a problem.