Bacame an electrician, entry level job at a utilities firm, now team leader at utilities firm, went as a stop gap 21 years ago, never left

Honest question:

Have you been assessed for any learning disabilities?

The reason why I ask is that your post is well written. It is grammatically correct, spelling is good and even proper use of commas. Which is well above average for most people on social media.

My oldest has a lot of issues with reading. Fortunately, my wife and I picked up on it quickly and got him assessed. It turned out he was dyslexic (from his mother) with an auditory processing issue (from me). We put him in a program specific to teaching dyslexic people to read. Fast forward to today and he will be transferring to Northwestern in the fall to start his Sophomore year.

There is a lot of assistance and accommodations available to people with learning disabilities. Not all are free, but it’s worth looking into.

I don’t think you’re “dumb”, I think you need learn how to learn.

The best decision in my life was to get a trade/industrial degree after school. I met some great people, I met some horrible people, and most importantly, it taught me to show up every morning with a clean T-shirt and an appropriate greeting. Sounds banal, but isn’t.

Then I went to college, out of a mix of “I don’t want to do this for 40 years” and no good offers in my region. But I still wonder how I would have ended up if I didn’t go. I was happiest in tech support, believe it or not. We were pretty free in what we did as long as the tickets were solved. If the queue was zero, nobody asked where you were on a Friday afternoon. Good times.

Dropped out of college and I work as a web developer. I went to a 6 month coding school so I have some educational experience but not a lot.

a) I think there are plenty of hints at ADHD in your post. That doesn’t make you dumb, it just means your brain is wired differently that most people expect.

b) Dropped out of my classes half way through my 1st semester for computer science. A few years later, I got an associate’s degree in “New Media Production” or something. Building websites. Hated working with a client for my final project. Went BACK to my original school for a few more semesters. Still never completed my bachelor’s.

I’ve been with the same company now for 20 years in a slew of roles that have led to me being a Salesforce Administrator. For me it’s been about wanting to know more stuff, working hard, and taking opportunities as they come along. I’m not career driven, but hell if I’m not going to apply for positions that I know I can do and will make me more money.

Now I have a kid who is 19 (with ADHD) who just finished her first year of part-time community college and definitely didn’t pass all her classes. She’s moving to Florida soon to work in the Disney College Program. I wish she put more focus on school, but I suppose that’s how my parents felt too. She’s smart and a hard worker, and I’m sure she’ll figure it out eventually.

I was a graphic designer and department manager for many years. But, the work I there did went far beyond that into product design, and I also had to understand both the offset printing process, and screen printing pretty well. I also set up the shop’s first network, because I was the only one who had a clue how to do it.

My first “real” job just out of high school was office machine repair tech, I have a high mechanical aptitude and took apart my toys and put them back together starting when I was a young kid.

A side story: When I was very young, I got both a mechanical toy helicopter that rolled around on the floor with spinning blades and flashing lights, and a tool set. The first thing I did was take apart the helicopter. But, I couldn’t put it back together. It was years later that I realized my dad put it back together and saved it to give to me the next Christmas. When, I did exactly the same thing. He said I did that three times before I was able to put it back together again.

I’ve failed to some degree at every sales job I’ve tried. I tried more than once because of the potential earnings lure, but I just don’t much like talking to random people.

IMO degrees are overrated for all but people like doctors etc. Learning on the job always worked fine for me and at one point I was managing a division of over 40 people. These days I went back to my more “passion” career as freelance and couldn’t be happier. I plan on finishing my days as a woodworker (because we all know I ain’t getting retirement).

Purchasing/procurement remotely for a very large manufacturing company.

Not having a degree isn’t as prohibitive as people make it out to be. The biggest difference is the time it takes: most of my colleagues are 10-15 years younger than me. They got to get real desk jobs straight out of college, while I spent a long time working in warehouses and doing logistics. So in the long run, they’ll probably earn more money than me and they were able to start saving for retirement sooner, but I’ve gotten more varied experiences, better anecdotes, and I’m not steeped in debt. Worthwhile trade to me.

I used to teach middle school, now I wait tables.

I drive an 18-wheeler for work. The industry’s been pretty good to me, although it’s taken me several years and plenty of companies for me to find a place where I comfortably fit.

There’s money to be made here, though, especially if you’re willing to specialize. By which I mean, pull a more complicated trailer than a standard “dry van”. Flatbeds, tankers, stepdecks, automotive haulers. Removable goosenecks for oversize freight. The list goes on.

If you want to also go home every night, there’s foodservice, beer/soda distributors, or less-than-truckload companies like ABF or Old Dominion. Some of these companies are even unionized.

Should you decide to go this route, don’t get your CDL through a trucking company, and dear fucking god, don’t lease a truck through them either. Go to a standalone school. Companies will try to recruit you there before you even come close to graduating.

Look into the trades: electrician, plumber, hvac…I retired from Walmart last year making $125k/year as a refrigeration tech. The trades won’t be replaced by Ai any time soon. When your ac doesn’t work or your drain’s clogged or you need some power run, ai can’t do it. Although Walmart’s got some pretty slick ai to flag stuff that’s running out of spec.

you be surprised people who have degrees basically are in jobs that is for people without degrees. not everyone with a degree will get a job in thier field, for multiple reasons.

Job title: Cloud implementation specialist.

Actual job: Network Engineer

I have no clue how they go to that title…

First of all you are not dumb, just because you are bad in school. School often sucks for people as it’s way too standardized and cannot take into account the needs of all students. The fact that you are thinking that hard about it shows that you are quite a smart person. Also language barrier often makes things more complecated.

Now a question you have to ask yourself, do you really like going to collage that much? Or are you there because of social preasure and the fear of not making it in life if you don’t get a collage?

Once you can honestly answer that question ask you this: is there focational programs in the country you are at? If so, what trades can you see yourself working at? Are there trade schools on that specific field, to keep climbing the leader? How difficult is it to start your own business once you are experienced in that trade?

If you are unsure about all these question, maybe look for a career counselor, so they can help you find something you can do.

In anycase, good luck and stay strong and remeber you are so much more worth than just a career choice.

If you judge a fish by how well it can climb a tree, it will spend its whole life thinking it is dumb. You are not dumb, other issues aside.