Contemplating the future

[Jericho941]

Where do you want to live when you get out?

I work for a major steel manufacturer that has mills in a bunch of places, and while there is a certain amount of getting dirty and bustin' knuckles, mostly it's not very hard work, and is one of the best-paying blue-collar jobs in the state. And they love to hire vets!

Shoot me an email, and I'll get the contact info, if you're interested.

I won't turn down good money. I'm tentatively interested. Trouble is, I've already had all my stuff sent back to Washington this week. So far, my least underpants gnome-ish plan is:

1.) Go home, recharge batteries in the Puget Sound region
2.) Go to college. For what? Dunno, take a couple electives to buy time to figure that out.
3.) Degree.
4.) ???
5.) Profit!

My main reason for creating this thread was because I have no idea what I want to do, and I kind of need a better plan than "just, ya know, wing it."

https://www.usajobs.gov/

As a vet, I believe you get some degree of hiring preference with the Fed.

Yeah, we went over that in TAPS. Which is mandatory to leave the military now.

As is submitting a 12-month budget and an "individual transition plan." Congress reacts to complaints about unemployed and homeless veterans in strange ways, so now anyone leaving the military has to turn in their homework to prove they're ready.

But more to the point, I feel weird about working for the government anymore. Maybe it's better in the civilian world, but I'm so done* with being hovered over by the tinkle fairy.

*as the kids say these days.

North, to Alaska. North, the race is on.

Todd Hoffman always seems to be looking for a new mechanic/operating engineer.

Funny, I'm watching the first two episodes of the new season right now, and I can't help but think that todd fouled his own nest. It would be a cool balmy winter day in hades before is give todd hoffman any of my life.

Okay, I have to confess that I don't know who Todd Hoffman is, as most of my TV intake these days is pirating The Walking Dead and watching [spoiler]anime via Crunchyroll. Panzer vor![/spoiler] So after some Googling, he has some kinda gold rush thing going?

While I'm not opposed to following the money to Alaska, the prospect of needing an external heater for my car makes me think that if life in southern Georgia has nearly proven I'm incapable of functioning on my own, how the hell can I survive Alaskan winter?

"I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that."

Heheh. Yeah, I realize how unrealistic my OP is at face value. But one of the lesser motivations I had when joining the Air Force was to get away from customer service/tech support, and they had me do exactly that for F-15s and A-10s. I'm hoping there's something out there that's different, interesting, and when it gets frustrating, it's in ways easily explicable to the layman.

...are there any jobs that are doing at least marginally okay right now, where you don't have to repair, build, maintain or otherwise service anyone else's garbage?

Banking looks good. They seem to have the hooks in. Anything "too big to fail" must be doing something right. So yeah, banking looks good until the pitchforks come out.

The pitchforks always come out in the end. Or go up the end in the end. One way or another.

After reading Griftopia I'm fairly certain I could succeed as a banker by humping a doorknob for eight hours a day.

Do not come to Alaska unless you have already secured a job. Plenty of people have moved up here, only to have their savings depleted by the higher cost of living. I know you don't want to work on stuff, but if you have an A&P, jobs are not too terribly difficult to find here, especially if they guy in charge of hiring is former military. My current boss falls into that category; during the time he's been in charge, out of all the mechanics he's hired, only one was not former military. I'm not exactly a fan of this, but it can work in your favor in this industry. Also keep in mind, that a number of guys I have worked with have successfully made the move to the oil business for more money. So if you want to do something along those lines, it can be an alternate path.

I appreciate the tip. Believe you me, I have heard the Elmendork horror stories. For what its worth, everyone I know who's been stationed both there and here at Moody would go back to Alaska a heartbeat. All of them have a highly specific reason for doing so, though.

That said, one has a guaranteed job lined up when they PCS. I don't have my A&P because I got a lot of very bad advice while I was here. I still thought it might be a good idea, but military aircraft maintenance left such a bad taste in my mouth that I my have shot myself in the foot. (I.e. if keeping shitty aluminum tubes in the sky is what I have to do for a living, I'd rather just chow down on my Glock). I figured I'd better save my educational benefits for something less insanity-inducing.

Whatever you do, don't get into aviation....aw crap, too late.

My career: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXgJdrYss1k

In all seriousness, the oil drilling jobs in ND and most of TX are really paying really well right now, even just to drive a truck for them, but if your goal is not to fix things that are broken, that's probably not the route you want to go.

The more I think about it, the less dead-set against it I am when it comes to the civilian sector. Why, I might even get my A&P if civilian planes are built with a modicum of common sense.

I just want a contract in which I can reserve the right to go on an axe murdering spree of aeronautical engineers if I am expected to maintain a system at least 30% as retarded as the A-10's ADF antenna.

Seriously though, I just don't want to fix other people's crap.

How do you feel about selling other people's crap?

http://theguncounter.com/forum/viewtopi ... 13&t=24685

Seriously... I have been amazed by how well the whole thing has been working. And it is easy, I mean literally anyone can do it and make far more than most hourly wage jobs.

Hmm. That is interesting.

[evan price]

Okay, I have to confess that I don't know who Todd Hoffman is, as most of my TV intake these days is pirating The Walking Dead and watching [spoiler]anime via Crunchyroll. Panzer vor![/spoiler] So after some Googling, he has some kinda gold rush thing going?

The TV series Gold Rush purports to follow different people around Alaska as they try to mine placer gold in various locations.

Todd Hoffman's family was the original first series crew the show covered. In that first series they did way more complaining and stupid human tricks than actually mining gold, and got kicked off the claim in the second season.
The Hoffmans have tried their hands at other claims with varying degrees of success, two seasons ago they actually listened to people who knew what they were doing and came out with a big pile of gold, as in over 800 ounces.
So last season they decided to get out of the Klondike and try mining gold in the deep jungle of Guyana, South America. It was a total disaster. They got 2.0 ounces of gold in total. And got kicked out of the country.
Looks like the 2014 season they got some good lease land. They paid off the 100-oz minimum required by the owners and extended the lease another year.

[Netpackrat]

That said, one has a guaranteed job lined up when they PCS. I don't have my A&P because I got a lot of very bad advice while I was here. I still thought it might be a good idea, but military aircraft maintenance left such a bad taste in my mouth that I my have shot myself in the foot. (I.e. if keeping shitty aluminum tubes in the sky is what I have to do for a living, I'd rather just chow down on my Glock). I figured I'd better save my educational benefits for something less insanity-inducing.

I keep very nice, clean, immaculately maintained aluminum tubes in the sky. Getting the right parts is NOT a problem, cost is not important. I don't remember when was the last time we had to rob a part from another airplane. If I say I am not comfortable doing a job because training, or I haven't done one before, or because safety, that is that. The stupidity here tends to work in the opposite of normal, i.e. going overboard to make sure things are done right/better. Granted, the operation I work for is a little unusual in the field of aviation, but places like this are out there.

OTOH, if you don't want to do much actual maintenance, just pour oil, do walkaround inspections of transiting freighters, maybe turn a wrench every few weeks, there is plenty of that work here too. Not as much as there used to be a few years ago before the economy turned to shit, but it's an easy way to make a living, though you won't get rich at it. And if you still want to use your educational benefits for something else while you turn freighters for a living, there are a lot of worse places to get a degree these days than UAA.

Without knowing your maintenance background, I don't necessarily see any reason you should have to use up your educational benefits to get your A&P. Assuming your military experience meets the FAA's requirements, you should be able to get signed off by a FSDO. Then it is just a matter of preparing for, and passing the tests. You might have to learn to time a mag, do some other general aviation related tasks.

[JAG2955]

Where do you want to live when you get out?

I work for a major steel manufacturer that has mills in a bunch of places, and while there is a certain amount of getting dirty and bustin' knuckles, mostly it's not very hard work, and is one of the best-paying blue-collar jobs in the state. And they love to hire vets!

Shoot me an email, and I'll get the contact info, if you're interested.

https://www.usajobs.gov/

As a vet, I believe you get some degree of hiring preference with the Fed.

Yeah, we went over that in TAPS. Which is mandatory to leave the military now.

Just did that stupid thing a few weeks ago. Giant waste of time.

Listen to that old guy about the steel business. His company does hire lots of vets, and just snagged a few that went to the same fine institution that I did. I have a friend who geeks out about business as much as we do about guns. The company that First Shirt works for is one of his favorite due to some of their policies.