<p>unless you’re a genius, you won’t be able to retire at 40 if you don’t want to associate with people. have you considered investment banking? i heard they have the potential to make a lot and can retire by 40, though the work probably sucks. you might have to talk to people though. good luck. :D</p>
<p>I normally don’t like it when people make this sort of observation, mostly because it seems so unnecessary, but…</p>
<p>You certainly remind me of another recent poster around these boards.</p>
<p>So, you might want to do a search for threads started by “wbksoft”. The advice you’re getting here is largely the same as he was given about two weeks ago, and you seem to have quite a lot in common. From the original post in his “Would you approve of your kids hanging out with someone like me?” thread:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Just a thought.</p>
<p>(If the implication here is a fair one, then, well…take a hint. If it’s not, then I apologize, but the suggestion was a sincere one. Much of the advice given in response to wbksoft’s posts could be relevant to you, and if nothing else, his threads might give you an idea of how your lackadaisical attitude comes across.)</p>
<p>Best of luck.</p>
<p>$50k is not the limit; I know an operating engineer who makes $200k a year, but that’s with a lot of OT and he was pretty skilled and driving this very specialized piece of machinery. That being said, I know a few guys who had college degrees that went to do a trade, and now they’re trying to find something else to do. And don’t forget that you can pretty much be laid off at any time. Don’t expect to make more money over your lifetime without a college degree than with a college degree.</p>
<p>And yes you do start out as an apprentice for three or four years, depending on the trade, and assuming you’ll be union. The pay is not that good…</p>
<p>math is AWESOME</p>
<p>why don’t you get a teaching job? it’s not as physically draining and you still get paid a lot after a while</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I don’t like teaching.
I don’t like public speaking.
I am not good at communicating my ideas.
I don’t want to put up with disrespectful kids.
I don’t want to put up with disrespectful parents
I don’t want to put up with idiotic school personnel.
I don’t want to waste my time getting a degree in education.
I’d rather do something else.</p>
<p>In that case, teach english abroad 
you teach not only kids but adults as well in the same class, and you won’t even understand their complaints!
As for not communicating your ideas well and public speaking, that’s something you might want to work on, as they are major assets to be well in. I used to be afraid of public speaking, but I decided after giving presentations weekly for a year in a class., that I enjoyed it, since I’d kinda get an adrenaline rush that I’d feel after presenting, so I just associated public speaking with feeling good in my mind. I’m still wary of public speaking, but I wouldn’t mind being in a situation where I can improve on it and try to kill that wariness(also I’m still kinda aggressive at it, I want to eventually become more laid-back).</p>
<p>Moire, look into being an actuary.</p>
<p>My daughter, who is a math major in her senior year, is pursuing that. She says you just pay to take a series of tests after you study some books. There aren’t any actual actuary classes that she is taking, it is mostly self-study is the impression I get, although some universities may offer this specialization (just not her university). I presume you need a math degree to sit for the actuary tests, but it sounds like something that could be done in the evenings after work.</p>
<p>juststoppingby, I thought about being actuary. They say that if you have a degree in math, and pass the first two exams, you pretty much have a job guaranteed. But I am still not clear as to what being an actuary actually entails. (Please don’t send me to beanactuary.org). Do I just sit in a cubicle from 9 to 5 making statistical charts? “Here: a list of numbers. Find patterns.” Is that what the job is like? And once I’m done playing with numbers, am I required to give presentations explaining my findings? Is this a job an introvert could do? Or do you need the attitude of the stereotypical finance major eager to wear a suit and a tie to work?</p>
<p>So what exactly is your dream job? Maybe that’s a good place to start from. </p>
<p>You don’t like: </p>
<p>-giving presentations
-siting in a desk
-working with statistics
-talking to people
-wearing a suit
-working in an office</p>
<p>You like: </p>
<p>-being outside
-seeing a project hands on</p>
<p>I don’t know about this - but maybe you could work in construction, and do night school to get a master’s in Civil Engineering. I’m sure there are civil engineers that manage construction companies, work outside, and get to do some hands on stuff occasionally. </p>
<p>My advice would be to decide what your perfect job would be than work from there.</p>
<p>I want to know more about what being an actuary is like. Anyone?</p>
<p>Yeah, what about engineering? Probably wouldn’t have to give much presentations, just pretty much work on projects.</p>
<p>An older thread, but I thought I would give some input. You guys do realize that construction is a pretty large field. In addition, lets say you start in construction as a tradesman, you can branch out later on and become your own contractor. Not all contractors do work. A lot of them are in the supervisory role. </p>
<p>Sure, construction was hit as hard as real estate in this recent recession, but that is how the business is… cyclical. When it picks up, there is room to make a lot of money as a contractor. We just finished construction our house from wildfire damage that occurred in 2008. I managed the project because insurance reimbursement was tight, which meant keeping an eye on my contractor, scheduling the subs I needed to schedule (outside of my contractors contract), ordered the necessary materials, figured out the aspects of building and explained the specifics to the accoding subs, etc. It isn’t rocket science, but if you like not being attached to a desk all day, it is fun as well. I didn’t do any physical labor, and enjoyed seeing something built from the ground up, knowing I had a role in it. </p>
<p>We have approximately 8 homes in our neighborhood that were just rebuilt from the wildfires. All of the contractors are still in business, obviously, and since they provide an excellent quality product (in this case rebuilding $1m homes), I am assuming this downturn effected them less than others. The biggest thing I noticed about these guys is they operate like real business, with marketing budgets, subs for every part of the construction (not jack of all trades), accountants, site supervisors, etc. A lot of them work with insurance companies which keeps them busy year round. Most contractors do not operate in this manner. I am in CA and we have a lot of sh**** contractors.</p>
<p>Restoration Contractors that work with insurance companies do very well from what I was told as well. It does takes a little bit of time to break into working with insurance companies, but I think construction is a broad enough field where you can make it if you use your head. Remember, most of the people in the field, at least at the residential level, aren’t college graduates, nor businessmen. They are tradesmen who happen to be managing a business. </p>
<p>Where I love, a lot of people are self-employed in the residential construction / management field. They do quite well, not to mention their homes are pretty decadent.</p>
<p>My husband has been in construction his whole life. Not residential, but large commercial/industrial. He is familiar with residential as the companies he has worked for have done residential also, but he’s mostly done the big jobs.</p>
<p>It’s boom and bust. You can do everything right but go out of business anyway because the contractor you work for screws you over and holds your money - while you still have to pay your own labor, your subs, your materials, equipment, insurance, and overhead, you aren’t getting paid and then you have to spend the money to take the jack*** to court which takes forever and you might not collect even then. While staying in business in the meanwhile, being out tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. We have friends who this has happened to. </p>
<p>Or your sub can rob you blind and vanish leaving you contractually obligated to fix something some one else screwed up but the money to do it is gone.</p>
<p>Or a thousand other scenarios.</p>
<p>If you are risk averse, it’s not a happy field. If you can get ahold of enough capital to float through the slow times, and the people who drag their feet paying you, and bid with enough profit to stay afloat and still land a job when you are competing against lots of other companies who will bid at a loss just to keep the doors open (that doesn’t sound like it makes sense but the way it’s figured, it’s possible) or who hire illegals and pay them cheap, when you won’t, you can do okay. That’s if you in management or development and are not just a laborer. As soon as you win one bid you have to be looking for the next one. You only eat what you actually kill in this game; there is no survival without serious hard effort.</p>
<p>The “hands” (construction workers) are old men by the time they are in their 40’s. It’s hard work and they get laid off frequently while work is slow which makes it hard to accumulate and invest money - the exception are the guys whose wives are nurses or something with a steady, regular and fairly lucrative paycheck to offset those times.</p>
<p>They make better money than flipping burgers, but it’s not an easy way to financial security. Here in Texas where they have pretty much run unions out of the state completely, they can start at a few bucks above minimum wage and stay there a long, long time - so whether or not you live in a union state will make for a different scene. Unions come with their own issues, though.</p>
<p>My husband is the best money manager that was ever born - he works miracles with a budget and we are both frugal and careful - and he’s managed to never have been laid off, and has by dint of his excellent reputation and work ethic and a whole lot of luck to currently have a job making more than what most in his field in this area make.</p>
<p>And it still is insane to think he could retire any time soon, and he’s past 50. We wonder if he will even get to retire. </p>
<p>All fields have their good and bad qualities. Those are some of the downsides of construction.</p>
<p>Why is construction management being suggested to someone who is an introvert? Interaction with others is one of the main aspects of the job.</p>
<p>Being a tradesman is a different story.</p>
<p>I was in construction, building formwork for concrete pours. Quite frankly, it’s biitch-work that’ll leave you exhausted and filthy all the time. I was making the equivalent of 30k a year right out of the gate (from trade school), but I felt that the only thing worthwhile about it was the experience. The money never would’ve been good enough to justify the exhaustion and filthiness.</p>
<p>What I can say in favor of getting at least a little experience in construction is that it’ll make you appreciate college (and white-collar work) a whole lot more. Anyways, now I’m in college (as a bio premed major) and I’m thankful for it every day. I think you should take that math degree of yours and go to some sort of grad or professional school.</p>
<p>If you insist on a trade, I recommend becoming an electrician or a plumber. Both pay decently, and can even pay really well if you go off and start your own business after you finish your apprenticeship.</p>
<p>I’m in the same boat. My current plan is to finish college, get a job, hopefully in my field, which is rare, spend ten plus years paying back loans from a private school that dropped my scholarship out of their budget which forced me to transfer and lose half my credits my junior year, and then quit so I can get on with what I wanted to do in the first place. My fiance and I both want for me to stay at home and raise kids, which I really want to do. except that we can’t have kids until we get debt paid off, which means I get to wait 3 more years to graduate, plus at least ten years of paying off debt until I get to do what I actually want to do with my life. Thank you, College, for taking my best years and throwing them into the crapper. Pressuring high schoolers to go to college because they’ll make more money is ■■■■■■■■. oh, and as for this person who is saying “what happens when you get older?” my fiance’s family are all farmers. his dad, in his forties, still working. still in good enough condition to play racket ball with my 18-year-old brother-in-law to be. his grandpa, in his sixties, still in good condition, but with no need to work because he was smart with his money. when you work a working job you stay in shape. getting old won’t affect you in a construction job anymore than it will in an office job so long as you take care of yourself and you think ahead with your money. if you want to do construction, by all means go for it bro. </p>
<p>oh, also these people who have parents who were in construction and hated it? that’s fine that they didn’t like it. even when someone is in very good condition it isn’t always for them. but i wouldn’t say this guy is arrogant or “a misguided person who has no sense of reality.” I would say it’s worth it to him to go into this lifestyle because there is nothing academic he has any ambition in. if you want to go to college, awesome. power to you. but for people like me and him, we hate school. if you hate school you’re going to hate basically any decently paying career a college degree can give you. College careers to us are what hard labor careers are to you. miserable. it burns us out. I don’t want to burn my brain out with work that I hate in the same way you don’t want to burn your body out doing something you hate. it’s all preference. we need some of both kinds otherwise no one would do either job. </p>
<p>OOOH, and one more thing. my dad graduated college. he was a truck driver for 15 years supporting a family of six on a single income and now he’s a cop. hard, but hey, he had a college degree. </p>
<p>All jobs have pros and cons, and those pros and cons are different depending on your disposition. </p>
<p>My brother is a BCM major, and I couldn’t see him in any other field (neither could he), but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things he doesn’t like about his career. He still has to deal with TONS of people, complaints, problems, etc, at his internship. He is often exhausted when he comes home (and VERY dirty.) However, he is at home among the sewers of society (no joke - he LOVES sewers and that stuff) and wouldn’t survive in a job where he wasn’t working with his hands.</p>
<p>I, on the other hand, would die from 1 day of construction work. And cry, a lot. And even though I am an introvert (like you), I would take dealing with people over back-breaking work any day. I’m going to college to become an elementary school teacher, and I am STOKED! And you might say to yourself, “Working in construction pays more than teaching!” And maybe it does…it probably does. But money isn’t everything in a career, and I’d say that contentment is far more important. (Please note that I am not saying that you should become a teacher.) 
I know that teaching the little pee-wees is definitely for me, and that I will be happy doing it.</p>
<p>You’re sure to find something, even if you have to try on a few hats before finding the right job for you. Take a swing at construction work, if you want. Who says you have to be in a field directly related to you major? If that doesn’t suit you, try other things - even if they have uncomfortable elements like public speaking. You might surprise yourself and end up falling in love with a job you had never considered before! Good luck in your career search!</p>