OT: Good on Bruce Irvin

Well, I'll say this: Bruce can afford it. You’ve probably heard the scary statistic: Americans owe over $1.48 trillion in student loan debt, spread out among about 44 million borrowers. That's up 6% from last year. Student loan delinquency rate of 11.2% (90+ days delinquent or in default). Crazy. And a decent percentage of that are students who's degrees either pay little or mean very little in the real job world (like Bachelor's degrees in Communications, Business, Marketing, etc.). Yet apprenticeship programs in county and city jobs (utility lineman, electricians, etc.) remain unused and unwanted by new high school grads. Too mundane, not exciting enough. 

Didn't mean to hijack your feel good story here, but the only degrees that are paying for themselves are STEM degrees. Mr. Irvin could do this as a luxury, but congrats to him nonetheless. He overcame some long odds.

@"StickyBun" said: And a decent percentage of that are students who's degrees either pay little or mean very little in the real job world (like Bachelor's degrees in Communications, Business, Marketing, etc.). Yet apprenticeship programs in county and city jobs (utility lineman, electricians, etc.) remain unused and unwanted by new high school grads. Too mundane, not exciting enough. 

Didn't mean to hijack your feel good story here, but the only degrees that are paying for themselves are STEM degrees. Mr. Irvin could do this as a luxury, but congrats to him nonetheless. He overcame some long odds.

@"Mark Janda" said:

@"StickyBun" said: And a decent percentage of that are students who's degrees either pay little or mean very little in the real job world (like Bachelor's degrees in Communications, Business, Marketing, etc.). Yet apprenticeship programs in county and city jobs (utility lineman, electricians, etc.) remain unused and unwanted by new high school grads. Too mundane, not exciting enough. 

Didn't mean to hijack your feel good story here, but the only degrees that are paying for themselves are STEM degrees. Mr. Irvin could do this as a luxury, but congrats to him nonetheless. He overcame some long odds.

Hey, now.  I have a degree in Philosophy and work in Marketing, buddy. 
Just kidding.  You're right.  But being a high school dropout as he was before he decided to make that life change is a far worse issue, both personally and likely societally.

I told my kids... cold hard fact of life.. adulthood is not an extracurricular activity that you can quit if you dont like it,  you have to prepare for the realities of it and one of them is that all the jobs that are fun and interesting typically have very low pay and/or are extremely competitive.   Some may find good stable jobs that they truly do enjoy,  but most will find careers they can tolerate as long as the pay, bennies, and work conditions are good.   paying the bills IMO is more important than getting excited about what I do...  with that said, you cant hate what you do either,  but i cringe when I hear kids/young adults whine about their job not being any "fun".