He should be a mess - but he isn't

My youngest son called me on one memorable August day about 3.5 years ago
and asked me if he could drop out of school. Despite being an at least
average kid on standardized testing, he never did well in school, and the
educational experience for him had been miserable for years.

I said yes, contingent on an immediate GED, which he agreed to and obtained
without breaking a sweat. Since then, he's been odd-jobbing, mostly at a
family owned bakery (maybe 20 employees total) in a small Texas town, where
he was running the inventory and shipment functions, with a handful of
people working for him.

Well, the bakery bellied up, and he was out on his own. So, he moved to
Houston, and started looking for a job.

Well, he scored an Assistant Manager's job at Lowe's (he's good with his
hands). $10.50 an hour to start, full health benefits after 90 days, and a
401K with matching.

It should be added that the store he is at hires about seven people a week.

Considering his background, how's that sound? (I think, pretty good,
especially considering it's a management-track position.)

Rita...

I have 8 children and five did college, three have master's degrees.
Those who chose not to go to college, although they could have,
have done OK but have been far outpaced by their siblings who did.
The difference between an OK lifestyle and some affluence -- and
opportunity to go up in organizations. One can go just so far without
the college it seems. A manager's job in a chain store is the
lowest rung and really these jobs are a dime a dozen.

One of my sons never actually got his degree -- he kept changing his
major and thus failed to get the proper credits to graduate into his
fifth year of college. At that point I refused to send him any more

davesvideo...

Sounds like my oldest son. Took a year or so of many things and worked
part time in a dozen areas. He never did get a degree, but has
co-authered 2 books and taught seminars in college. At 35, he finally
got a real job with health benefits, working for a computer game
company. Fortunately for him, computers is still an area where your

J.C....

Houston is the epitome of the "land of opportunity" but he sure would be
wise to enroll in Houston Community College. If nothing else, they sure got
some foxy women going there.

abilities are more important than the degree.

Thumper...

That's true if you already have a job in the industry but a degree is
rapidly becoming a necessity because so many people without degrees
have been laid off in the last several years. The degree is starting
to make the difference.

davesvideo...

When the company he worked for folded, it took my son a couple years to
get a new job, but that was partly because I would only take temp jobs
while looking for one in a smaller field of interest. He finally did
get the job he wanted, and although no degree, I'm sure having authored
chapters in two current computer text books helped.

THumper

money - he said he would show me and he took a sales job which
was heaven sent for his personality -- he stuck to it, went up in
Verizon (then GTE) was sent to Belgium and Canada to work over
their sales departments for Yellow pages, but found that company
began to stifle him and went with Yellow Book where he now is
VP in charge of western states. He still enjoys getting out on the
street and showing his troops how to sell ads -- enjoys talking to the
merchants. He does not hold it against me that I cut off my
financial contribution-- said it was the making of him.

Three others with college degrees got Master's Degrees in order to
change career fields.

I often wish I had pushed harder than I did for those who did not
want college to go. Of course one can go to college at any age--
I myself did not complete a B.A. until I was 47 and an M.A. at
almost 60 (that one was for fun). One of my daughters dropped
out of college after a year and a half. Later she went back,
laboriously doing classes while working and raising a family.
Got straight A's that time around and eventually acquired a
B.A. and then an MSW. All while working full-time. There is
always a way if there is the will.