Atmos is great to work for so I'm told. Construction or service. Then move up.

Most good police agencies that pay require some college to a degree

Plumbing for the ability to moving around and not be stuck in an attic

With the handle, " skinnerback", I'm sure you would do very well.

He needs to find a field he finds challanging and has talent to excel. If the trade is regulated or licensed, there should be some effort required to obtain and mantain certification or license. Like they say, if it is easy anyone can do it. And soon everyone will be doing it.

Commercial trades are less likely to be overpopulated than direct to consumer trades.

Example, Uber and Lyft gutted the taxi type businesses.

If I wanted to be a mechanic I would be a gas compressor mechanic. There’s way more money in that than being a diesel mechanic. Other than that the money is in welding.

My son went the HVAC route. Year long school. 13 started he was the only one to finish. Got a job pretty quick for $9 an hour which was the standard rate around here. Was put on an installation team building ducts and installing systems. After one year of climbing in attics and under houses he decided there are better ways to make a living. HVAC is not all that good unless you have years of experience.

He could be maintenance for multi-family making triple that.

Has he considered Cop, Fireman, or Medic? Federal LEO?

That's not trade school and requires college education. Plus you have to be accepted into a nursing program. It's not for the faint of heart.

Working a couple years in a trade might change his attitude towards college....

West in the oil n gas, save and invest
Airframe & Powerplant mechanic, working on airplanes is awesome, trade school or Tarrant County college, PM if you want more info

Pipeline Welder on the repair side.

He has had some computer programming in high school, but he didn't like it. Like most millennials he knows a lot about technology.


Agreed, I know it worked for me. I got into college thanks to basketball, but when that ended I gave it up. Went to work as a farm hand. 14 hours a day, 7 days a week in the summer heat made me think college didn't sound so bad, especially since I only needed another year to finish. Wasn't easy working my way through it, but I guarantee at that point I was a lot hungrier.


Definitely on the list, thanks.

Thanks y'all for all the info and feedback. If I had to guess, I'd think some sort of mechanic would be what he is most interested in. He has a few friends that actually know a good deal about cars. He helped one of them pull an engine and rebuild last summer and enjoyed doing it.

If he finds something he likes he will pass the exams. He has always done great on aptitude tests. It's the only way he got into college because his grades weren't that great and there is no quota for Christian white males. The daily work for things he doesn't care about is his downfall.

All I know is when he gets back home I'm giving him a week or so to decide, then it's go time. Reality is about to set in.

you might look into all the different skills classes at TSTC, they have a very good and reputable program for all sorts of various topics. All their classes are fairly well focused on the skill and not so much on all the typical college required courses (history, english, etc.).

X2

Medics don't make crap for pay.

I'm hard headed took me 15.

I doubt he wants his kid to be a DB.

Crane operators make a killing, and they don’t do jack.......

I went the trade school route with Machine Shop Technology and Practice (wish they had CNC and Programing) and had a job offer before I even finished. Finished and took the job but decided to get a job in Texas and put in an application and interviewed and was working a week later all due to the skill set.
If he doesn't mind traveling the NDT industry pays pretty well with lots of hours. He can start out with a company and get his basic skills (MT, PT, UT) and hours and be studying for one of the major API certifications such as API-510, 570 or 653. They are not college courses but do require good math skills, the ability to learn and a good memory. Once he gets these he can hit up a major refinery or chemical plant and work there till retirement.

Don't know what you mean by DB but I have two friends that do this. One is 23yo. making 250K a year living in a man camp. Not for a married guy but by the time he is 35 he can retire. The other guy is 40 with a family and also makes 250+K a year with a lot of paid down time. And as far as not doing jack, not for me as the day goes by too slow.

One of my clients is Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita. They make fuselages, wings, nacelles, etc for Boeing, govt and others. They partner with the trade schools to find workers as there are way more jobs than skilled workers. Go to the trade school for a few months then hire on $30-$40k to start, or more depending on the track you start and how long you go to school. They'll even pay for college after a relatively short tenure.

Wichita isn't D/FW, it's shift work and a union job, but airplane building will be around for a while, skills that could transfer to Bell and Lockheed locally to name a few.

At one time the Texas Parks & Wildlife site had job openings all over the state that didn't required a degree. The pay for some of the jobs may not sound like much. But these days health insurance benefits mean more than any time I can ever remember.

Also, state or federal jobs still have Defined Benefit Pension plans. How well funded or solvent they are is anyone's guess. But most other places only offer 401k plans, which is nothing but a savings account, nothing more, nothing less. And I've read that many people have raided their own 401k plans thinking they would recoup the funds, but never do. A state or federal job will have insurance benefits after retirement as well.

Apply for a process or mechanical position in any refinery around the ship channel. Will not need a degree or experience for a lot of the mechanical positions as they like to teach you THEIR way and like people fresh and green.

I have worked for a major refinery 30 years. Started instrumentation/ electrical. Now Analyzers. Hiring in house is really tough now days if your a white male. Hate to bring that up

If I knew then what I know now. It would be get your contractors liscense on residential electrical and plumbing. Retirees moving out to the country want there homes built and or remodeled and out in the country it’s tough to get home builders / lisensed electricians and plumbers. You can write your own ticket working for yourself. Get a name for yourself and the builders will call you . Or work directly for the homeowner or both. Get out of the crowded city life and start a new life out in the country. For a real adventure move out of state to a growing rural area.

We had an AC issue last year way out west and called a guy. He worked commercial during the week in DFW and did residential calls out west on the weekend. Got $90 for a 20 minute call. His daughter drove for driving credits. Not a bad deal. He probably made $500 cash that day as no locals would work weekends if you can put the miles in...