I am not planning to go career, I just need a better job to save money for 5 years to invest, and ultimately go back to college
Dad is giving me one last support for trade school I weighed some of the benefits and negatives
Machinist (cnc operator)
Dad works at a really good company (being a machinist himself) can guide me through the process, and can get me in the job after experience but he said I have to be an apprentice in some smaller shop, work my way up switch companies, get experience before I go to his company. All the actions i need to take seem like a lot of work for something I do not want to go career wise.
-The machinist job itself does not seem at all appealing to me.
X ray technician
-This job seems more good to me, but i have heard it takes two years to get a certificate, that is too length concerning I want to start earning money and saving as soon as possible. People have told me this job is harder to get over all also.
If your goal is to make money over a 5 year plan, neither one of those seems like a wise move to me.
With the CNC operator job you are going to spend a lot of time training. There’s a lot more to learn than just how to punch the buttons on the machine. You basically have to learn a bit about computer modeling just to be able to program the machine.
With the X-ray technician job you are going to be spending 2 of your 5 years basically getting an associate’s degree which you are then going to throw away. X-ray techs make decent money (at least around here) but there are only so many jobs and it is competitive. It’s not like they are opening new hospitals every day. There’s a lot of coursework involved as well (biology, physics, etc) so it’s not like they just show you how to operate an X-ray machine and that’s it.
In other words, both of these are going to require not only a couple of years of training, but also quite a bit of effort on your part, and you’ve already stated that your heart isn’t in either one. I predict five years of misery, and you may end up more in debt after you are done than when you started. No one is going to want to hire someone who barely scraped through the coursework and clearly isn’t passionate about doing the job.
Q: How durable is the CNC manufacturing business in your neck of the woods?
I would suggest over 20 or 40 years, you are more likely to have a demand for X-ray techs… until they trust machines to have the smarts to run like a Xerox machine (just push the button, wait for result, don’t worry, it won’t accidentally kill you) and until doctors or other professionals can read the pictures and work as cheap as xray techs…
One way you go to school pay for a lot of classes and then hope to get a job.
As an true apprentice you have a job get paid, your class are at your employeer’s expence and when you graduate have a some what better chance of a job.
but no matter if you get training in a field that holds no interest the next 30 to 40 years are going to be hard and you will keep asking yourself how you got into “this field” and should have chosen different. I have to listen to my boss often wishing he was working in a different field. (and he should really get into one that he understands)
My best friend recently graduated as an X-Ray tech. She went through 2 years of school and received a degree for her efforts. She is paid pretty well at her current job. But what I want to know is, why don’t you just go to school now? I know personally it is diffucult to pay for classes, but it would seem like a waste to go to school for something other than what you want, just so you could go to school again after working in a job you don’t want for 5 years. Try to find alternate income sources, loans, grants, or anything to fund your school now.
What’s your eventual goal? Both these jobs are seen by most people as long term careers that take years of time, effort and sacrifice to acquire the necessary skills, not short term cash flow generators.
If dad is willing to pay for trade school why not just have him co-sign a college loan or get a Pell grant? Have you burned those bridges or is that door open?