The OP reminds me of another poster in his age bracket who occasionally posts “I need a job!” threads on another website. Said poster never takes anyone’s advice or manages to skewer suggestions with “but…but…” He’s been since banned because the moderators discovered that he was just posting for the sake posting and wasn’t serious about job prospects.
I’m not saying the OP here is the same person but his magic unicorn way of thinking sounds vaguely familiar…
Try starting a career in stand up comedy:
"Hello Tampa. You guys got the internet right? You’ve all seen those message board things. Blah, blah, blah. I just found out both my friends (ages 18 and 21 respectively) both landed FULL TIME jobs in portland oregon making 12-20$ an hour respectively. So on this one real egghead message board I say I’m gunna ask again, how do i make reasonable money quickly? With minimal experience?
I explain that both of these kids have similar experience to me (working minimal level jobs) but yet their situation is tremendously better then mine.
How do i get a full time job in general? As well as something higher paying? I understand a lot of the folks on here are older and have the " you gotta work reall realll reall hard and if you’re lucky you’ll get a nickel!" mindset but i know for a FACT there has to be some shortcuts as these kids are living breathing proof and i’ve seen evidence of them making this much as well. They don’t have any kind of degrees or anything.
And you won’t believe what I had to put up with from this supposedly smart audience…
There is this thing called “luck”. Don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t a factor in life.
All the luck in the world won’t help you if you aren’t prepared and ready to take advantage of a chance opportunity.
Yes, that’s one way to do that – did your friend mention that such jobs also include dealing with things like a 3 am plumbing emergency?
Well, there you go – he’s “smart and charming”. Don’t underestimate the value of people skills for getting ahead.
There is no FOR SURE guarantee in regards to be hired, not in any profession. The good news is that you can increase your odds of being hired considerably.
^ I did this for several years when I the OP’s age. It was a good way to get job experience. And I did get hired permanently twice while doing temp work.
That said, you have to treat temping as a job to be successful and make some money – show up on time, work your butt off, work on improving your skills, etc. Don’t treat it as a placeholder, treat it like a real job because it is, or at least it can be.
For better or worse, though, the temp field has changed considerably since I was first in it. Temp agencies are getting choosier about who they employ, at least the quality ones are.
Er… with two out of three sleeping in something other than a bed I question your statement that they’re making a good living. And making “a grand” in a month puts you at the Federal poverty line. Your friends are not making “good money”, they’re poor. Which, by the way, is OK, I mean, you can live on a decent level from the standpoint of having adequate food, shelter, and clothing at that, but don’t fool yourself.
Pretty much… yeah. Oh, sure, you could win the lottery – that’s basically what you’re asking for. The only jobs at your skill level that pay “good money” immediately would be ones with a level of personal risk – hence, oil rig jobs tend to pay more, as does things like asbestos removal or crime scene clean up which entail some personal risk. If you’re smart, conscientious, and follow the safety rules/wear the gear the risk is considerably reduced but it’s not zero. Are you strong and fit? You could do something like roofing work (if you can find it) but you run the risk of falling off a roof and winding up crippled or killed, that’s why roofing can pay “good money”. Around my area the steel mills pay well (when they’re hiring) but people get killed every year in that industry because hot, molten steel is effing dangerous stuff.
Now, no one here wishes you harm and no one wants to see you get hurt, which is why we’re saying things like “if you can’t get full time then get part time and work your way up” because that’s a heck of a lot safer than, say, robbing banks or dealing drugs.
I dunno – look into a job servicing septic tanks. It’s a vile and disgusting job, doesn’t require a college degree but not many people want to do it but it is needed so maybe it pays well.
Right now the choices ARE ass. That’s not fair to anyone trying to get ahead, and my recollection is that at your age when I sounded like you I wanted to scream when my dad would tell me “life isn’t fair” so I won’t do that to you, even if my dad was right.
Maybe you should stop assuming all those people with full time jobs making more money than you are idiots.
Don’t lie to get a job, that usually backfires in a spectacular way.
YES. At some times and in some places it really can be hard to land a decent job. That’s one reason that when I was 18 I relocated from Detroit to Chicago. I couldn’t get work in Detroit.
How does the fact your parents are alcoholics prevent you from get a bartending job? You don’t have “drunk cooties” on you, you know. If you think bartending is an option go ahead and try it.
Waiting tables at a popular restaurant pays well and requires few qualifications. It sounds like you look decent enough for “front of the house.” Chains are usually not too picky about experience, but you may have to bus or host for a bit to prove yourself.
Commission sales can pay the right person well. Are you near any time shares?
Moving companies tend to pay well, plus you’ll be getting a free workout.
Roofing pays well, thought it is backbreaking. Ditto for laying tile or other flooring. These skills are easy to learn and do not require much experience. Painting is easy and pays okay.
Being a plumbing assistant will not pay well at first, but you will learn the skills needed to be an actual plumber pretty quickly, and then you can make very good money.
Detailing cars or installing tint, if you are good and work fast, can pay well.
Tree trimming and removal pay well, if you are comfortable operating a chainsaw up high.
If you are bright, eager to learn, trustworthy, and willing to work hard, there is plenty of money to be made at your age. Absolutely do not settle for a minimum-wage-type job if you are willing to do what it takes to get something that will allow you to make an actual living.
How stuck are you on staying where you live? Oklahoma has high-paying entry-level jobs in oil, I hear.
Do you have a valid DL and a clean record?
Save your breath, guys. The OP already asked this question and ignored all the answers.
Something like this would be fine for the short term, but I wonder whether the OP is taking the long view. Poverty-level income may be tolerable for a year or two, but a lifetime of freezer burritos, X-box and inescapable roommates is drudgery and doesn’t allow a person to accumulate a nest egg for retirement. your 60s/70s/80s seem a long way off when you’re not even 20 yet, but it takes a long time to pile up enough money to be able to live comfortably when you’re so old that working is difficult or impossible. If you’re extremely lucky you might stumble into something that lets you make $20/hr with only a HS diploma, but that’s slim odds. And if that job dries up, you’ll need to extremely lucky to find another one with similar pay. Luck is great when it does happen, but it’s dangerous to rely on it.
You won’t like this advice, but the smart money is on going to college and getting a degree in some field that has strong job demand. This will take 2-4 years, and you’ll need student loans to make it happen, but if you don’t go to a ridiculously expensive school, the loans should be tolerable.
This isn’t the Pit, so I’ll leave it at that.
Stop your monkeying around!! :mad:
The kid wants a gravy job that pays well, but he thinks $12/hour is good pay. This is a completely reachable short-term goal for a healthy 21-year-old with no responsibilities and there is no reason for him to resort to fast food for minimum wage.
He can get a low-paying job assisting a tradesman and learn the trade, for instance. He has to be pleasant, reliable, and eager to learn, but he could fix those things right now if he wanted to.
Finding good workers is actually very difficult. You’d think since “there are no jobs” that that would translate to an overqualified eager-to-work labor pool, but it hasn’t. If the OP cans the attitude, there are plenty of opportunities out there.
And when he is 24, he can be counted as an independent adult for financial aid purposes and get a degree. There are 2-year programs in healthcare, for example, that he can take at community college that may lead him to a decent career.
Sleeping on the floor in a shitty apartment with a bunch of your buddies is perfectly normal at 21. Unless you’re living with your parents or they’re giving you money, the kinds of shitty jobs you can get in your situation are only going to pay enough for this sort of living situation. And even if you lucked into a better paying job you should still consider staying sleeping on the floor in front of the TV and save up some cash.
When you get to around 25 you can upgrade to sharing a shitty apartment with your girlfriend instead of your jackoff buddies.
High school education, little in the way of job skills, personable, with a good appearance. Sounds like the description of a car or RV salesman. Most dealers will train you, and most will pay a monthly stipend in addition to the commissions you make. Florida is prime RV sales territory. I know for a fact that the top RV sales people in Florida make six figure commissions a year. Granted, it takes years to get to that point, as most really good salesmen make their money on return customers and referrals. If you have an aptitude for selling, RV sales is not a bad business to get into. I sold RVs in Alaska for only three months when I was out of work and grossed $20,000.
So no one brought up the fact that i can go to my community college and pay 900 bucks to get certified in phlebotomy and then get a job immediately starting at 13 an hour full time?
What’s up with that?
Instead my options gotta be working at a sewage plant or falling off roofs in the squelching sun getting skin cancer? Or working at an oil rig getting cancer from all the carcinogens.
I’ll pass that shit up! Gunna just figure something out on my own and if that doesn’t work well i’m pretty fucking fast and quick witted, my dad’s side has a huge criminal background and got away with all sorts of shit. Robbing banks it is! Or just ma and pa places! If i die oh well, better then cancer!
Sounds great! Go do that!
I’m just now getting the idea that you’re not posting entirely sincerely.
BTW, you previously rejected out of hand the idea of going to college. See below.
I suggest you win the lottery. People do it. They are living proof.
<snip>
Jesus Christ; …better THAN cancer! No one is going to take seriously a stick-up note with such atrocious grammar. 
Are we… being tested? I feel like I’m having “the talk” with the worst girlfriend ever. Tell me what I want to hear! Make suggestions, but not that kind! I don’t know what to do! Your ideas are all terrible! So you’re not even going to suggest the thing I already said I think is stupid? How dare you! Why aren’t you helping me? You’re not helpful at all!
So, yeah… OP… how about becoming a drug dealer? I hear they make good money. Maybe prostitution would be quicker to get into, though.
For anyone with a functional brain reading this that wants career ideas, the medical industry is seriously hurting for medical coders and schooling is relatively quick and cheap. It can be hard to land a job right out of school but there are companies with internal training programs designed to give graduates hands-on experience before setting them up with a position at a medical facility. Good pay, but it’s not easy work and you do have to be good at detailed tasks. Feel free to PM me for more info if you want, the company I work for has an internal program and is always looking for coders to work remotely.
I mean i can always work in sewage or on an oil rig like some of these troll suggestions.
Lmfao, i’d 100% rather rob a bank (seriously) then do some of those. Desperate times come for desperate measures.
I can’t deny that it is always good to have family with a huge criminal background as a fail-safe but the rest of your comments aren’t accurate. People, including me, gave lots of examples of jobs that can pay reasonably well ranging from bartending to selling cars and neither of those involves raw sewage (well bartending sometimes does but selling cars usually doesn’t). Some people would much rather work heavy construction rather than draw other people’s blood all day. Why don’t you do the latter BTW?
You sound connected and multi-talented though. You could work at as something like a pizza delivery driver AND sell a little extra something on the side if you get my drift. Your regular customers could code their real order by the odd combinations of toppings they select. You show up, slip them the box while they slip you the money for the pizza plus a really generous ‘tip’ and you are on your way with a wink and a nod. What could go wrong?
Go forth, young man. You’ve clearly examined all your options with honesty and introspection. You’ve left no stone unturned in your search for truth, and now you’re ready to face the job world!
Come back once you’ve started making easy money and let us know how it’s going!