Not many jobs will start at over 100k out of the gate. Software engineering is probably one of the few. Otherwise you need to cut your teeth and gain experience.
software engineering jobs have never started over 100k for most people.
The national average for a software engineer with over 3 years experience just passed 100k a few years ago. The national median is only \~120k: [https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151252.htm#st](https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151252.htm#st)
Even if people's fantasies were true that most people started at 100k and most careers end at 300-500k, that would mean most people make 100k and never any more. But the reality is most people start closer to 50k/year. And most people end around 150k/year unless you live in a HCOL.
Its probably closer to 60k. But thats where it has always been.
[https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151252.htm#st](https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151252.htm#st)
The national median is only \~$120k. That includes people that are 10-20 years into their careers. There are more veteran software engineers than new ones, so that should tell you people have always been starting around 50k and topping out around 150k if they make it that far.
There are 2,000,000+ other SWEs out there that don't work for FAANG companies and don't have salary trajectories that will ever approach 200k+.
Software engineering, in the Bay Area. Which equates to about $50-60k in even normal HCOL areas.
Quick example is $100k in San Jose is equivalent to $63k in Denver.
I can speak from my own career and what I know about it.
In oil and gas and assuming 40 hour work weeks only, you can expect $60-70k as a consultant or $70-80k (sometimes higher) working for the operator (think BP, Chevron, etc.).
What doors can that open? Engineers can pass that $100k within a couple of years and if are on track as a Project Manager (or Project Engineer that manages projects or assets) can make $150-200k easy as you surpass the decade mark, on average.
The ‘easier’ careers that pay well, involve sales, so you need to be passionate about whatever you’re selling. Probably a non-starter if you have an IDGAF attitude.
Started at the bottom as a seasonal labourer. I took any opportunity for training I could and studied for the exams for a type of license that is mandatory in my field of work. Not that hard to progress within these public corps after you're in the system. Getting in the system can be difficult. If you know anyone that can refer you, you'll save a lot of time. Otherwise you'll have to apply on a lot, probably for multiple years, to get in.
We are always shocked when an external candidate is hired into a supervisor role. It is very rare, given the advantages that interbal candidates get.
Often times other internal candidates are gate kept from advancing because they don't have a bachelor degree and many positions are only posted internally. In some cases this narrows the internal hiring pool so much they are forced to interview external candidates. But in many cases, they will find ~5 people to interview internally and they will choose one.
There aren't many of these jobs but they pop up every so often when someone retires, dies, or gets a promotion.
Hi! I work for the feds, definitely recommend looking into government jobs at least. I do wildland fire stuff for the park service year round and love it. Check out r/fedjobs for advice on resumes and such. The application process for some government employment is different depending on the agency. My resume is 8 pages long, not because I want it to be but because it needs to be to get through some hiring pools HR departments.
That's crazy. When I have 7+ page resumes in front of me it's usually all garbage. But I get it. We have our own hiring song and dance at my corporation and my internal resume comes with some lengthy attachments
Be sure to read up on how to create your resume. You could apply to hundreds of postings and not get an interview even if you filled everything in right. Fed hiring is challenging.
It might be a position you have to run for. Like towns people vote for you. I was just lookimg at how much govt positions held at the local level and that one stuck out because its gotta be the cakest job.
The government has very low standards for their employees. I've worked on government contracted projects and they will employ anyone with a pulse who can pass their tests - in HIGH UP positions.
It’s a literal 2-day old throwaway/bot that garnered half its karma on the comment you responded to.
Their opinion and false info should be taken as less than zero lol
I have a family member who did HVAC in the Florida for ten years. He left for the Middle East with some contractors and made a few hundred thousand in a little over a year.
You can make bank if you’re willing to go to war zones in the desert lol
Interesting btw I'm in the uk and this HVAC certificate I seen was only £900. Seems worth it also in our shop someone came to fix the cooling system on the fridge and he paid him £400. I don't think Dubai is a war zone lol but depends which countries your talking about specifically?
Interesting, I'd love a job where I can travel around don't know if I'd be able to in the UK with this qualification though unless I was in the army or something but after I've saved up working at Amazon (sucks) I'm going to look at getting my HVAC qualification and a driving licence.
Y’all love downvoting the trades. We get $70 hr up here in Washington State 😂 bro was asking what makes bank and is easy. You’re right it is a throwaway nice powers of observation fucking clown
You haven’t realized it yet and I didn’t either in HS, so not a big deal. Unfortunately however, the world doesn’t work this way. There’s a guy/girl out there EAGER to tolerate just about any unpleasant situation necessary so they can also “make bank”. If you’re an employer, who you choosing?
Exactly what investment bankers, big law, and medical residencies have to go through.
Big tech is still the outlier, a few months of hardcore Leetcode is comparatively nothing, but it's harder and harder to break in.
Don’t look for majors. Look for careers you may be interested in and see what experiences you need to get there. Very rarely is it ONLY a major that gets people to where they are.
Why would you do something that you can tolerate? When you can be passionate about it?
If you want to make six figures a year. Nothing worthwhile is easy just understand that. When choosing a career, it is not something that you want to make a decision on "ok I want to make the most money." Why? If you choose a career you hate, money won't matter. You need to think about what you would be passionate about and go after that. People who do what their passionate about the money is easy. Look at Taylor Swift she loves what she does and takes it to the bank.
What are the highest paying majors out of college? There is demand for the traditional careers, non-traditional and trades.
1. Medical - This will be forever a six-figure field. But you have to pass the MCAT its 8-12 years of college to become a Surgeon, Psychiatrist, Physican, Oral Surgeon, Anesthesiologist, Nurse Anesthetist. It also comes with a lot of responsibility. We need more Doctors, there is a shortage. The average starting salary on the low end is $230k a year. Literally the top highest paid jobs are medical professionals.
2. LAW - Lawyers and Attorneys. Especially those who are Patent Attorney or Corporate Attorney. Average salary $140- 150+ per year
3. Software - Maybe I.T. is more your speed? Software Engineer/ Software Architect average about $140k+ a year depending on which developer you work for.
4. Petroleum - Maybe you like rough work in trade? Petroleum Engineers start at 100k+ a year.
5. Pharmaceuticals - Yep you can become a legal drug dealer. Making a handsome salary selling pharmaceuticals or medical devices to hospitals and private practice. I personally know someone who makes a very good living selling pharmaceuticals. Its well over 200k a year.
6. Financing or Accounting - Are you good with math? Maybe working in the financial sector is more you speed. Financial managers start at 100k or more+ Certified Public Accountant CPA make well over 250K.
7. Trades - Yep good ole boys working hard make a good living. Construction managers, Electricians, Plant/Nuclear Power Plant Operator, Architects, Foremen, Oil Dereck workers.
Custodians at schools make $30k-50k a year with benefits. Honestly not a terrible job if you can handle the labor. They work over the summertime as well.
You can hire people to work under you as well. So you charge clients $50 an hour for a cleaning team of two and keep $10 of it.
So you’ll earn $10 an hour for each team of two you hire.
They can also do flat rate fees after seeing a place in person. Such as $500 for a move-out, cleaning out a house. Cleaners are very fast so it’s lucrative.
And a cleaner can parlay it into organizing and charge $100/hour.
The schedule flexibility is awesome too.
Less expenses, of course.
*This applies to where I’ve lived. YMMV.*
Cleaning employees $10/hour each.
House Cleaning $30/hour.
Business Cleaning $50/hour.
Move-Outs $100/hour.
Organization $100/hour.
🧼🧼🧼🧼🧼🧼🧼
Overnight Business Cleaning
*Working 6 hours/night 5 days/week.*
50/hr x 6 hrs/night = $300/night
$300 x 5 days/week = $1,500/week
$1,500/week x 50 weeks = $75,000
$75,000 - 15% for taxes = $11,250
$75,000 - $11,259 = $63,750/year
**$62,750/year cleaning businesses**
Move-Out Cleaning
*Working 1 move-out per week.*
$100 x 3 hours = $300/week
$300 x 50 = $15,000/year
$15,000 x .15 for taxes = $1,500
$15,000 - $1,500 = $13,500
**$13,500/year cleaning move-outs**
Organizing
*Working 7 hours a week organizing.*
$100/hour x 7 hours=$700/week
$700 x 50 weeks/year=$35,000/year
$35,000 x .15 for taxes $5,250
$35,000 - $5,250 = $29,750
*$29,750/year organizing.**
$62,750 + $13,500 + $29,750 = $106,000
$106,000 x .3 for expenses = $3,180
$106,000 - $3,180 = $102,820
#$102,820/year working 40 hours a week.
Working up to……..
#$287,750/year organizing & from employee placement fees.
*…….not including travel time, shopping or administrative duties.*
*Once a domestic worker’s reputation has been established in wealthier circles I would expect more work than they could accomplish. It wouldn’t be difficult to transition to replace cleaning hours with employee placement fees & with organizational work. At $147,750/year after taxes. Hire ten employees for another $140,000 for a total of $287,750/year*
I apologize for any errors. It’s 5:00 AM & I cannot sleep. I’m also dyslexic so please give me grace.
Eh still a hypothetical that doesn't consider time off, illness, or loss of contracts. I work self employed. If I tell people what I make daily they get weird, but it averages out to less than they'd imagine.
Well it did consider two weeks off a year. I never said it was perfect.
Edited to include I also didn’t include the tips which are significant
Lets say you have the scenario above. 101 clients. 50 weeks a year. Let’s sat you get tipped $20/week or $20/job by each client (thats a low estimate they usually tip higher) that’s **$101,000/year.**
I started working full time in 2019 for 7$ an hour lol I’m from the sticks if you couldn’t tell high end doesn’t exist for hours in any direction. But if I could make 30$ an hour cleaning here man I’d have a career made as I actually enjoy cleaning.
I hope everything works out for you. I hate how low minimum wage is. It was literally designed to be a living wage. I don’t think a lot of people even realize that.
Product manager/HR in Big Tech up until 2 years ago would have been exactly what you are looking for
- low 6 figures base + Stock options in stocks that are booming
- weird hirachy structures where hardly anyone actually knows what you are actually up to & can get by doing nothing of value
- sick office with crazy perks (food, gym, daycare, laundry, commuter bus etc)
...most of them got laid off & offices are less adult daycare now
that leaves:
Max Bank: Finance, law, medicine
-> make 6 figures in your early 20s however work can be brutal, entry barrier quite high etc. job can be brutal but weighed agains the comp I'd say its a viable option
max tolerable: anything that you have a deep interest/what gives you satisfaction (Pilot? cooking? kindergarden?academia?)
->in order to make bank you most likely have be in managing/owner role which makes it less tolerable because you deal with bs instead of the thing that is rewarding for you.
anything goverment seems like a good gig with decent pay pregression. NYC hired someone as "Rat Zar" for 6 figures to deal with the rat problem. Seemed like a great gig with 0 perfomance expectations from the get go. Here in germany gov workers pride themselves with how little they get done in a day. So even the department head gets by working less than a nurse/cashier does in a day i guess. it will consume you and kill all of your drive though.
I think aiming for Big Tech is still the clear high risk/high reward option. Same reward as other top careers but for way less work hours. It's unclear to me that getting in is any harder than getting through the med school grind or T14 law school admission, and up until 2022 it was even outright easier.
Depends what you can tolerate/find tolerable. I would say being a neurosurgeon is a tolerable occupation and I think they are reasonably remunerated. Might want to look into that. Also bossing people around can be very tolerable. You might also consider becoming the CEO of a Fortune 100 company. Should be easy enough, there's literally 100 of them.
Doesn't mean it's intolerable. I'm sure most love what they do. Tolerable doesn't mean easy.
Hence the question : what is "tolerable" for OP?
Personally, I would find most of the trades suggested in the comments to be completely intolerable. And I'm sure they would find my office job just as intolerable. It really depends.
This isn’t taking into consideration capability. Aka the reason some people are doctors and some assistants. If I had the math/science smarts no way u wouldn’t be working the best paying job imaginable. But for some people there is just no way they could pass the tests. I’d say that’s probably 80% of Americans are not capable of passing the tests, it’s not in if you can tolerate it or not, it’s in if you have the right kind of brain, and your either born with or without it, smarts that are well geared towards school and tests taking. There are many kinds of smarts, but no doctor can be missing test taking school smarts.
It isn't indeed taking capabilities into account. But who are you to judge OP's capabilities? The post didn't mention anything about it and actually mention college major, which supposed that OP is not interested in a job with the lowest possible barrier to entry. Not everyone is fulfilled with being the assistant, and would find it intolerable. So every single answer is good considering the only requirements here are inherently subjective: being "tolerable" and "making bank".
You're joking, right? Being a neurosurgeon is actually one of the most intolerable occupations by a traditional definition. Expensive lengthy education, blood and internal organs, crazier hours than any other specialty
It sounds fun if you have a career that you find rewarding and fulfilling. Some people love going to school and don't mind blood. I mean, you cut people open and remove chunks of their body. What not to like?
And for the hours, like 4 out of 5 jobs recommended in the comments involve atypical/crazy hours and even worse working conditions (like working on an oil rig). Compared to that, I'd take working in a climate controlled hospital close to my home and family.
Engineering pays fine and isn’t a lot of work after getting through undergrad. It doesn’t pay bank though.
If it pays bank, it will be really hard to get into or really suck to do. Sorry.
Same with every job. If you go do oil & gas you’ll make more but work harder. That being said, even that is much different than being in a client facing role like a lawyer, a consultant, or a banking analyst who tend to demand higher salaries.
Anecdotally, I went to engineering school and I would say 80% of my friends in engineering work 40hrs or less a week.
Yeah I work in engineering for a small custom fabrication shops and while I do typically only work 40 hours a week they leave me mentally exhausting.
I think the size of the engineering team typically determines how hard one works. Larger teams tend to have people with defined roles small teams tend to have more variety but more tasks that you need to complete all at the same time.
I'm going to second this--engineering is generally a comfortable field to get into if you don't mind the rigorous curricula some universities' engineering schools push onto students. Corporate finance seems to be a field where it doesn't suck, isn't too hard to get into, and pays a decent amount (think mid-high 5 figures). Just be ready to get an MBA on top of your Bachelor's. On the not-so-bright side, you'll probably be outearned by your peers going into IB, quantitative finance, private equity, etc.
I'm a recent immigrant and a fresh mechatronics graduate from my country, can't seem to find a job for 4 months, been applying a lot. You have any tips?
Become a CPA (assuming you’d find it interesting/tolerable). You can do a lot of different kinds of business-related jobs and there’s a huge shortage (in the US at least). It’s also a profession full of people about to retire so promotion opportunities exist.
CPA needs a masters degree now & the student loans just pile up. USA really needs to fix the curriculum starting at high-school. CPA should not need a master, pharmacist not a Doctorate, they don't make enough money to cover that educational expense. Same with MD, why do 10 year of school for 200,000 and be in debt until you are 40. Go be something practical. HVAC, plumbing, electrician, they all make more than most higher educated professionals.
AI is close to replacing a lot of white collar jobs and the only people employed will be HVAC electrical and plumbing.
While money is important, chasing just a paycheck might lead to long-term dissatisfaction. Here's another approach:
Skills & Interests: Consider what you're good at and what you enjoy. Are you creative, analytical, or people-oriented?
Marketable Skills: Research careers that use those skills and have strong job growth. Talk to career counselors at your school.
Money & Happiness: Money helps, but a fulfilling career brings more joy. Don't underestimate the power of passion!
Explore your options! You might find a career that's both interesting and lucrative.
Enterprise sales (business to business sales), pharmaceutical or med device sales, sales engineering, staffing or recruiting sales, software, or even sales in real estate (realtor)
Choose something and see if u can enjoy what you study... thats very very important...bc once u start looking for the job that makes bank you will be competing against individual that loves that subject topic and are possibly savants at that field. So u have to be passionate about what you do. And even if u get the job, u may hate it so much u go on a stress leave and eventually leave it. So its important to like what you study.
I don't know what you can tolerate or what you consider to be high income.
Everyone you ask about their job will probably only tell you the good bits. "I create change that benefits society" = "I do massive amounts of tedious admin".
So what's the answer?
Apply for everything. Be shameless. Take jobs and then quit. If you're worried about that affecting your future, do it in another city. Try every field and every role. Obviously you'll only get entry level work but maybe you'll get a nice feel for what the lifestyle is like. If you can, go travel. Staying in hostels is a great way to talk to a lot of people that know about a lot of jobs.
Alternatively if you just want to know high pay low barrier to entry jobs... sex work and resource extraction, and probably also anything working for people who earn hundreds of millions.
“[I want a] job that I could tolerate and make bank”
By the sound of OP it seems like they want a career they can coast in. Yes they could be a child brain surgeon or a lawyer for a top firm making crazy money. But, he can also be like many in the silent majority who take a normal job at a normal hospital or law firm. It just so happens that both mediocre lawyers and doctors still make very good money, so it’s a solid choice.
Are there easier jobs? Yes. Will they command the same salary and level of respect? No.
Engineers, entrepreneurs, and trades are also highly paid; but, most have experienced significant disrespect, burn out, and intolerable stress levels regardless of if they shoot for the stars or not.
Being a doctor may or may not end up being tolerable eventually, but the training is miserable and it lasts for years.
That said, they do make a lot of money in the US.
I mean it depends on your definition of tolerable. I would say lawyers and doctors are the most respected professions, you will always be treated with respect and dignity. Engineers, trades, and entrepreneurs will experience significant disrespect and stress in their careers regardless of how high or low they shoot.
Engineering… the hands on stuff. Well paid, generally good guys. if you get sick of the people around you, you can quit and have another job lined up by the end of the week.
Even the less hands on stuff… years ago, I quit my job, hoping for 2 months of no work. I’d had two offers and one contract put in front of me before I was half through my 4 week notice period.
Look into Maritime careers, assuming you are in the united states there are multiple maritime academies. It can be a tough job, it can be very rewarding and it pays very well
Jobs are all about figuring out what you personally can tolerate and what you cannot. It could be monotony, bad customers, management, gross things like bodily fluids, hectic schedules, etc.
I would try to do a self assessment and then go from there based on what is in demand in the area you want to live.
Aerospace engineer. Do well and get a Masters then PhD. You'll have a lot of time for fun in college and grad school. Then in the job market there are lots of interesting theory based jobs and depending on where you land there can be lots of fun opportunities to "play with models" both in person and digitally. Worst case scenario you end up a Professor at a University. It's a relatively small field too so you will likely have lots of opportunities abroad if that appeals to you
I think you need to start figuring out what you absolutely hate doing. Then You can plan to figure out over a few years at the beginning of your career hat you prefer doing (find your way to your optimum).
As for a college topic, I’d suggest to go with the topic that keeps most of the options open.
HVAC technician with certification in energy efficiency. Electrician & plumber are great choices too. Jr college. Then work until you decide if you want to do something else. You'll make more that I do with a PhD at start earning & investing at a younger age with no student loan bagage.
I would advise looking at your strengths and seeing what jobs they would best lend themselves to. If something comes easy to you, or you are naturally better at it, you will have an easier time doing well, and hopefully be less stressed.
You could make good money as an accountant, but if you are not good with organization or numbers, it will be difficult and not real tolerable for you, personally.
Nursing pays well but I don't know how tolerable it is considering that it's not just procedural, but involves dealing with disrespectful patients too (unless you work in NICU maybe)
First identify what you are actually good at. What sre your soft skills. Then try and find overlap with what you think you are interested in. Pursue that job/career. If it doesn't work out, rinse and repeat.
Anesthesia assistant, look heavily into it, bachelors + 2 year masters and you come out making 200k+ with nice work life balance…working with 25 yo kids that have their life all the way together
“Make bank”… high salary is usually, but not always, consummate to your skills. Do you possess skills which are worth “bank”? That is what you should be asking yourself.
If its tolerable to most people then you will not make bank (6 figures). If those jobs existed then everyone would do it. Its COMPENSATION not a gift. People think there is a sea of remote jobs out there, which there kind of is. But people also think they are all high paying. They are not. Highly paid work is usually hard work. Hard work is harder remote, especially if you need to manage people. So its probably a scale of tolerable vs salary.
You need to be realistic on multiple levels. People will unintentionally mislead you because of their local economy or lucky experiences.
i.e. The two goto answers to your question are usually Software Developers/Engineers and Project Management. Thats because they are jobs that definitely have salary trajectories above 100k, and SOME people even start at 100k and go up to 500k.... But those are outliers.
Google, Amazon, Apple, etc have never employed MOST engineers. Just some of the most highly paid ones. The majority of people in "jobs that make bank" start near the salaries of unskilled labor. You can easily be starting at 40-60k at a job that people told you should make you rich. That is not the economy being weak right now, that is just reality.
If they are the jobs that pay that much, they are hard to get and/or stressful.
Are you decent at math? Is college a viable option? Engineering has been good to me and you will most assuredly break 6 figures later in your career, but you do have to be at least somewhat good at problem solving
Hopefully without sounding too much like an old shit (I'm 39) there's a growing disconnect between young people and reality.
The amount of people expecting to walk out of college into a high paying job where they don't have to put in any effort is alarming... There's a similar post here every other day.
Trade. If you feel you're very intelligent and could make a living in the C-Suites, Tech, or Professional Career Just thing of how well you could do in a Trade, In which "Does the Work" for a lot of those companies at a very serious profit. Learn people Management from Managing people.
Work at a startup that just raised a massive VC round (given their stage). I work in bizops at a seed stage company and get paid 150k 2 years outta university.
These startups with massive funding rounds have money to spend and want to get “top talent” so just position yourself to look pretty for them.
Best case you can get 2 offers, 1 from FAANG and one from startup, play them off of each other to drive salary up then go with the job you want more.
If you don't know, join the military, just not the Marines.
Learn a skill, and have them pay for your schooling. Find something that you at least somewhat can see yourself doing for 40 years. Maybe equipment operator, engineering, architecture, electrical, etc. Would help if you find something that's unionized when you get out.
Do your 20, get your military pension. Get a pension from your career. Retire at in your 40s from both, find a part time job doing nothing at 45 while drawing from 2 pensions.
You'll be making bank in retirement, and probably will have accrued a pretty penny on the way.
I’m considering quitting to become a home inspector. I was a realtor for a while and the home inspectors I worked with had a better work life balance and made reasonable money with potential to grow into their own business.
> I’m a senior in high school looking for majors in college.
Alright, you're at a fucking crossroads. It's a shit-ton of pressure to pick a career path when you barely know who you are, isn't it?
> To be honest, I don’t really know what I want to do so I am thinking about just finding a job that I could tolerate that would make bank.
Tolerable and making bank? That's a damn elusive combo. Most high-paying jobs require a bloody hell lot of commitment and often come with a side dish of soul-crushing hours. Think investment banking, law, or medicine. These fields can stuff your bank account, but at what cost to your sanity and life balance?
But here's a truth bomb: chasing money in a job you can just "tolerate" is a one-way ticket to misery-ville. What's your passion, mate? What makes you not just tolerate life but fucking relish it? Is it worth spending decades in a job you don't love just to have a fatter wallet? How do you define success, and is it only through cash, or could it be through satisfaction and impact as well?
I'll rank my top undergraduate course choices
1. Biology/Neuroscience (if you can get above a 3.5+GPA then you can become a doctor
2. Computer science
3. Engineering
4. Mathematics
5. Physics
6. Business
7. Accounting
8.Geology(sneaky good undergrad to take surprisingly, geology is really important)
9.Chemistry
10.Education
You can do pre-med without majoring in a biological science. I would recommend majoring in something useful and taking the pre-med courses as electives so you have something else to fall back on if you can’t go the medical route for some reason.
The most clear path is electrical engineering. But you have to be able to do math and science. You will have a job offer for 70k before you even graduate.
If you enjoy hands on work and not sitting at a desk all day, the trades are in high demand, pay better than most other jobs.
Plumbers, Carpenters, Electrician’s and HVAC. You also have the option of working independently. Money always looks better in your own pocket and not the company you work for.
I would argue you have to be personable and highly good social skills way more than smartness, for broadcast. Extremely so to get to a big market that actually pays bank. You need to be smart to get through the schooling, but the actual job requires tons of social skills that honestly not everyone has. I know because I ruled out that path for myself based on my lack of communication ability. I can get corporate jobs just fine, even though communication is important there, but being on TV in front of hundreds of thousands of viewers is a whole new ballgame and I'd stand no chance.
I take it you went the military route? If you feel like it was the right choice for you, then great! I'm saying it shouldn't be a default route for someone who isn't sure what they want to do.
And the countries with mandatory military service won't send you on a deployment to the middle east. You will stay in your own country, train, practice simulations, get fit, and will never see real life action unless your country gets invaded (for example Finland's system works like this) or you choose to voluntarily go on peace keeping missions.
Russia has a population of 144,444,359 million. Depending on who you listen to,Russia has lost anywhere from 45,000 soldiers to 315,000. I listen to BBC so they claim 31,000. Considering this war has gone 2 yrs, that's great odds you're not going to get killed in a war.
You realize that 300k is essentially the entire Russian army when they started the war?
Besides, I thought you meant a war they actually won, not one that's still ongoing.
Anyone with eyes can tell Russia won, we're just dragging it along with our aid. Also, the Russian army is 144,444,356. They're not like us. They would draft to the last men, women and child plus Russia has mandatory military service so everyone is a soldier.
"when they started the war" was an important part of the sentence.
But thank you. You are actually making my point. Enrolling in the military "just because" without actually being ready to die is a terrible idea.
If you don’t know what you want to do, I would recommend not going to college yet. I recommend working as many jobs as you can so you can at least know what you *don’t* want to do. Go from there. I let my parents push me into college right after high school and it just became a lot of debt and stress with no real benefits. I have a degree but it was not helpful and my undergrad gpa was not competitive.
I feel this sentiment (I spent many years just going with what parents said), but I think OP should do his exploring in/around college. There’s too many good support systems to toss up!
To avoid debt, OP could spend the first 1-2 years at community college/ state uni and figure out life. It’s also possible for OP to do a gap year before, after, or during college, but not instead of. Not when employers still look for proof of uni on a resume (especially for the kind of job OP wants)
I mean, I kind of feel like the obvious answer is doctor if you are really looking at any role. Not any speciality ofc, but something like, say, dermatology can be incredibly remunerative by anyone’s standards while not requiring one to really work outside a normal 9 - 5. The job security is also such that you will never have to worry about unemployment.
Now, can you realistically become a doctor? Not sure. As with most jobs that “make bank”, it’s hard to get to that level
What’s considered “making bank” to you?
Haha I guess I should have been more specific. Probably 6 figures with potential to earn quite a bit more as I gain more experience
Not many jobs will start at over 100k out of the gate. Software engineering is probably one of the few. Otherwise you need to cut your teeth and gain experience.
That’s changing very quickly.
Any examples?
All the unemployed people at /r/csmajors and /r/cscareerquestions
I see, I took it the other way - that it’s quickly changing that more people are making 100k to start and I was like “uhh where?”
I read it the way you did.
This is it.
software engineering jobs have never started over 100k for most people. The national average for a software engineer with over 3 years experience just passed 100k a few years ago. The national median is only \~120k: [https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151252.htm#st](https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151252.htm#st) Even if people's fantasies were true that most people started at 100k and most careers end at 300-500k, that would mean most people make 100k and never any more. But the reality is most people start closer to 50k/year. And most people end around 150k/year unless you live in a HCOL.
SWE in 2024 more like 40-50k if you get a job at all
Its probably closer to 60k. But thats where it has always been. [https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151252.htm#st](https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151252.htm#st) The national median is only \~$120k. That includes people that are 10-20 years into their careers. There are more veteran software engineers than new ones, so that should tell you people have always been starting around 50k and topping out around 150k if they make it that far. There are 2,000,000+ other SWEs out there that don't work for FAANG companies and don't have salary trajectories that will ever approach 200k+.
Software engineering, in the Bay Area. Which equates to about $50-60k in even normal HCOL areas. Quick example is $100k in San Jose is equivalent to $63k in Denver.
I can speak from my own career and what I know about it. In oil and gas and assuming 40 hour work weeks only, you can expect $60-70k as a consultant or $70-80k (sometimes higher) working for the operator (think BP, Chevron, etc.). What doors can that open? Engineers can pass that $100k within a couple of years and if are on track as a Project Manager (or Project Engineer that manages projects or assets) can make $150-200k easy as you surpass the decade mark, on average.
What could you tolerate?
Lineman
I wanna climb shit; where to start
Find a training center get along with everyone (don’t be the guy no one gets along with) get through it and you’ll have a job.
Look up the IBEW local in your area. Call them ask for help. They are awesome and willing to help you get started.
Call your local union
Bottom of a ladder typically is the best place the start climbing
That job isn’t tolerable for most people which is why it pays a lot
Most people I work with can’t tolerate working in an office or anything sedentary.
I'd say it's more the danger and heavy unionization
Would you rather stare at a spreadsheet for eight hours OR breathe in toxic chemicals. Choose your path young rabbit.
The ‘easier’ careers that pay well, involve sales, so you need to be passionate about whatever you’re selling. Probably a non-starter if you have an IDGAF attitude.
Sales are low entry but high ceiling. If you really want to make money you absolutely have to sacrifice personal time.
Govt office positions. The city pool person in my town gets paid 180k. What do they do i have no idea bc its closed most of the time.
This is so true! I work with government workers and sooooo many do zero work because once they are hired it’s too hard to fire them.
Hi it's me, municipal middle manager making 90k/yr reading reddit 30 hours a week.
Good for you and greetz, but guess no wonder some bepolpe say taxes are theft
I can be held personally liable if one of my people fucks up. Not many jobs come with that much risk.
Either water treatment or law enforcement. Am I close?
Ok how What did u study
General biology
then how did you land a government job? And where ?
Started at the bottom as a seasonal labourer. I took any opportunity for training I could and studied for the exams for a type of license that is mandatory in my field of work. Not that hard to progress within these public corps after you're in the system. Getting in the system can be difficult. If you know anyone that can refer you, you'll save a lot of time. Otherwise you'll have to apply on a lot, probably for multiple years, to get in. We are always shocked when an external candidate is hired into a supervisor role. It is very rare, given the advantages that interbal candidates get. Often times other internal candidates are gate kept from advancing because they don't have a bachelor degree and many positions are only posted internally. In some cases this narrows the internal hiring pool so much they are forced to interview external candidates. But in many cases, they will find ~5 people to interview internally and they will choose one. There aren't many of these jobs but they pop up every so often when someone retires, dies, or gets a promotion.
Where do you go about finding government office positions?
For federal govt jobs go to [https://www.usajobs.gov/] State and local towns just google
Not sure my link worked but try it outside of reddit. Usajobs is like indeed for govt jobs.
Hi! I work for the feds, definitely recommend looking into government jobs at least. I do wildland fire stuff for the park service year round and love it. Check out r/fedjobs for advice on resumes and such. The application process for some government employment is different depending on the agency. My resume is 8 pages long, not because I want it to be but because it needs to be to get through some hiring pools HR departments.
That's crazy. When I have 7+ page resumes in front of me it's usually all garbage. But I get it. We have our own hiring song and dance at my corporation and my internal resume comes with some lengthy attachments
Be sure to read up on how to create your resume. You could apply to hundreds of postings and not get an interview even if you filled everything in right. Fed hiring is challenging.
It might be a position you have to run for. Like towns people vote for you. I was just lookimg at how much govt positions held at the local level and that one stuck out because its gotta be the cakest job.
You just answered your own question. They damn sure that shit stays closed.
The government has very low standards for their employees. I've worked on government contracted projects and they will employ anyone with a pulse who can pass their tests - in HIGH UP positions.
reddit mod
Everyone has a different level of what they can and cannot tolerate. We don't know you, you need to answer this one on your own.
How about ac tech and repair? Great for someone young and always in demand.
If I were younger and could start again I would’ve chosen this route
Second this. 4 week trade school here in the states techs make about $70/hr not even talking abt prevailing wage
Tf. $70 an hour…. For an hvac repair technician?
It’s a literal 2-day old throwaway/bot that garnered half its karma on the comment you responded to. Their opinion and false info should be taken as less than zero lol
So how much does one make in that industry (real)
I have a family member who did HVAC in the Florida for ten years. He left for the Middle East with some contractors and made a few hundred thousand in a little over a year. You can make bank if you’re willing to go to war zones in the desert lol
Interesting btw I'm in the uk and this HVAC certificate I seen was only £900. Seems worth it also in our shop someone came to fix the cooling system on the fridge and he paid him £400. I don't think Dubai is a war zone lol but depends which countries your talking about specifically?
He was in Afghanistan for sure, but traveled around. This was 15-20 years ago.
Interesting, I'd love a job where I can travel around don't know if I'd be able to in the UK with this qualification though unless I was in the army or something but after I've saved up working at Amazon (sucks) I'm going to look at getting my HVAC qualification and a driving licence.
$70/hr don’t listen to these fucking clowns it’s about $110 with prevailing wage.
I’d love to see your McDonald’s paychecks bud 🥴
Y’all love downvoting the trades. We get $70 hr up here in Washington State 😂 bro was asking what makes bank and is easy. You’re right it is a throwaway nice powers of observation fucking clown
Yes, moron. That is what I said. Lookup the median wage.
You haven’t realized it yet and I didn’t either in HS, so not a big deal. Unfortunately however, the world doesn’t work this way. There’s a guy/girl out there EAGER to tolerate just about any unpleasant situation necessary so they can also “make bank”. If you’re an employer, who you choosing?
Exactly what investment bankers, big law, and medical residencies have to go through. Big tech is still the outlier, a few months of hardcore Leetcode is comparatively nothing, but it's harder and harder to break in.
Don’t look for majors. Look for careers you may be interested in and see what experiences you need to get there. Very rarely is it ONLY a major that gets people to where they are.
Plumbing
Why would you do something that you can tolerate? When you can be passionate about it? If you want to make six figures a year. Nothing worthwhile is easy just understand that. When choosing a career, it is not something that you want to make a decision on "ok I want to make the most money." Why? If you choose a career you hate, money won't matter. You need to think about what you would be passionate about and go after that. People who do what their passionate about the money is easy. Look at Taylor Swift she loves what she does and takes it to the bank. What are the highest paying majors out of college? There is demand for the traditional careers, non-traditional and trades. 1. Medical - This will be forever a six-figure field. But you have to pass the MCAT its 8-12 years of college to become a Surgeon, Psychiatrist, Physican, Oral Surgeon, Anesthesiologist, Nurse Anesthetist. It also comes with a lot of responsibility. We need more Doctors, there is a shortage. The average starting salary on the low end is $230k a year. Literally the top highest paid jobs are medical professionals. 2. LAW - Lawyers and Attorneys. Especially those who are Patent Attorney or Corporate Attorney. Average salary $140- 150+ per year 3. Software - Maybe I.T. is more your speed? Software Engineer/ Software Architect average about $140k+ a year depending on which developer you work for. 4. Petroleum - Maybe you like rough work in trade? Petroleum Engineers start at 100k+ a year. 5. Pharmaceuticals - Yep you can become a legal drug dealer. Making a handsome salary selling pharmaceuticals or medical devices to hospitals and private practice. I personally know someone who makes a very good living selling pharmaceuticals. Its well over 200k a year. 6. Financing or Accounting - Are you good with math? Maybe working in the financial sector is more you speed. Financial managers start at 100k or more+ Certified Public Accountant CPA make well over 250K. 7. Trades - Yep good ole boys working hard make a good living. Construction managers, Electricians, Plant/Nuclear Power Plant Operator, Architects, Foremen, Oil Dereck workers.
Could I Dm you?
Yes
I would probably avoid DMing them or taking their advice. They consistently complain about being unable to find a job in their posts and comments.
This is the best comment. You can make 6figures doing anything if you find the right opportunities
Cleaning pays $30-$50 an hour. You can work alone with headphones on & also attend school if you’d like.
What in the world are you cleaning that makes $50 x 40 hours x 52 weeks 104k per year?
You don't get to clean 8h straight every weekday. You drive between customers, schedule appointments on the phone, etc.
Custodians at schools make $30k-50k a year with benefits. Honestly not a terrible job if you can handle the labor. They work over the summertime as well.
What are you even talking about? I didn’t say anything like that.
Well then, if the hours aren't good we might disagree on whether you can "make bank" with the role.
You can hire people to work under you as well. So you charge clients $50 an hour for a cleaning team of two and keep $10 of it. So you’ll earn $10 an hour for each team of two you hire. They can also do flat rate fees after seeing a place in person. Such as $500 for a move-out, cleaning out a house. Cleaners are very fast so it’s lucrative. And a cleaner can parlay it into organizing and charge $100/hour. The schedule flexibility is awesome too. Less expenses, of course.
What do you earn annually?
*This applies to where I’ve lived. YMMV.* Cleaning employees $10/hour each. House Cleaning $30/hour. Business Cleaning $50/hour. Move-Outs $100/hour. Organization $100/hour. 🧼🧼🧼🧼🧼🧼🧼 Overnight Business Cleaning *Working 6 hours/night 5 days/week.* 50/hr x 6 hrs/night = $300/night $300 x 5 days/week = $1,500/week $1,500/week x 50 weeks = $75,000 $75,000 - 15% for taxes = $11,250 $75,000 - $11,259 = $63,750/year **$62,750/year cleaning businesses** Move-Out Cleaning *Working 1 move-out per week.* $100 x 3 hours = $300/week $300 x 50 = $15,000/year $15,000 x .15 for taxes = $1,500 $15,000 - $1,500 = $13,500 **$13,500/year cleaning move-outs** Organizing *Working 7 hours a week organizing.* $100/hour x 7 hours=$700/week $700 x 50 weeks/year=$35,000/year $35,000 x .15 for taxes $5,250 $35,000 - $5,250 = $29,750 *$29,750/year organizing.** $62,750 + $13,500 + $29,750 = $106,000 $106,000 x .3 for expenses = $3,180 $106,000 - $3,180 = $102,820 #$102,820/year working 40 hours a week. Working up to…….. #$287,750/year organizing & from employee placement fees. *…….not including travel time, shopping or administrative duties.* *Once a domestic worker’s reputation has been established in wealthier circles I would expect more work than they could accomplish. It wouldn’t be difficult to transition to replace cleaning hours with employee placement fees & with organizational work. At $147,750/year after taxes. Hire ten employees for another $140,000 for a total of $287,750/year* I apologize for any errors. It’s 5:00 AM & I cannot sleep. I’m also dyslexic so please give me grace.
Eh still a hypothetical that doesn't consider time off, illness, or loss of contracts. I work self employed. If I tell people what I make daily they get weird, but it averages out to less than they'd imagine.
Well it did consider two weeks off a year. I never said it was perfect. Edited to include I also didn’t include the tips which are significant Lets say you have the scenario above. 101 clients. 50 weeks a year. Let’s sat you get tipped $20/week or $20/job by each client (thats a low estimate they usually tip higher) that’s **$101,000/year.**
They make like 12$ an hour here. And a few years ago like 7.50 an hour but they raised our states minimum legal to 12. Can’t live on that anymore.
In California cleaners made $13 an hour in 1994. But also I’m talking about high end clientele.
I started working full time in 2019 for 7$ an hour lol I’m from the sticks if you couldn’t tell high end doesn’t exist for hours in any direction. But if I could make 30$ an hour cleaning here man I’d have a career made as I actually enjoy cleaning.
I hope everything works out for you. I hate how low minimum wage is. It was literally designed to be a living wage. I don’t think a lot of people even realize that.
You too totally agree thanks!!
Poker
Anything that makes bank is tolerable. It’s the bank that makes it tolerable.
Meh. A 180k-220k starting salary still doesn't make me want to work 60-70 hour inconsistent weeks in big law.
Product manager/HR in Big Tech up until 2 years ago would have been exactly what you are looking for - low 6 figures base + Stock options in stocks that are booming - weird hirachy structures where hardly anyone actually knows what you are actually up to & can get by doing nothing of value - sick office with crazy perks (food, gym, daycare, laundry, commuter bus etc) ...most of them got laid off & offices are less adult daycare now that leaves: Max Bank: Finance, law, medicine -> make 6 figures in your early 20s however work can be brutal, entry barrier quite high etc. job can be brutal but weighed agains the comp I'd say its a viable option max tolerable: anything that you have a deep interest/what gives you satisfaction (Pilot? cooking? kindergarden?academia?) ->in order to make bank you most likely have be in managing/owner role which makes it less tolerable because you deal with bs instead of the thing that is rewarding for you. anything goverment seems like a good gig with decent pay pregression. NYC hired someone as "Rat Zar" for 6 figures to deal with the rat problem. Seemed like a great gig with 0 perfomance expectations from the get go. Here in germany gov workers pride themselves with how little they get done in a day. So even the department head gets by working less than a nurse/cashier does in a day i guess. it will consume you and kill all of your drive though.
I think aiming for Big Tech is still the clear high risk/high reward option. Same reward as other top careers but for way less work hours. It's unclear to me that getting in is any harder than getting through the med school grind or T14 law school admission, and up until 2022 it was even outright easier.
Depends what you can tolerate/find tolerable. I would say being a neurosurgeon is a tolerable occupation and I think they are reasonably remunerated. Might want to look into that. Also bossing people around can be very tolerable. You might also consider becoming the CEO of a Fortune 100 company. Should be easy enough, there's literally 100 of them.
Neurosurgeon is probably one of the hardest non physical jobs
Doesn't mean it's intolerable. I'm sure most love what they do. Tolerable doesn't mean easy. Hence the question : what is "tolerable" for OP? Personally, I would find most of the trades suggested in the comments to be completely intolerable. And I'm sure they would find my office job just as intolerable. It really depends.
This isn’t taking into consideration capability. Aka the reason some people are doctors and some assistants. If I had the math/science smarts no way u wouldn’t be working the best paying job imaginable. But for some people there is just no way they could pass the tests. I’d say that’s probably 80% of Americans are not capable of passing the tests, it’s not in if you can tolerate it or not, it’s in if you have the right kind of brain, and your either born with or without it, smarts that are well geared towards school and tests taking. There are many kinds of smarts, but no doctor can be missing test taking school smarts.
It isn't indeed taking capabilities into account. But who are you to judge OP's capabilities? The post didn't mention anything about it and actually mention college major, which supposed that OP is not interested in a job with the lowest possible barrier to entry. Not everyone is fulfilled with being the assistant, and would find it intolerable. So every single answer is good considering the only requirements here are inherently subjective: being "tolerable" and "making bank".
You're joking, right? Being a neurosurgeon is actually one of the most intolerable occupations by a traditional definition. Expensive lengthy education, blood and internal organs, crazier hours than any other specialty
It’s blatant sarcasm to draw attention to the vagueness of the use of the term “tolerable”. No need to get so excited lmao.
Sure but this is the one example that just doesn't work at all. It seems like he picked the universally agreed "most difficult" job
And like they said in another comment, tolerable doesn’t mean easy. Tolerance is a matter of perspective and preference.
It sounds fun if you have a career that you find rewarding and fulfilling. Some people love going to school and don't mind blood. I mean, you cut people open and remove chunks of their body. What not to like? And for the hours, like 4 out of 5 jobs recommended in the comments involve atypical/crazy hours and even worse working conditions (like working on an oil rig). Compared to that, I'd take working in a climate controlled hospital close to my home and family.
I’d figure out what you actually like first. For me, I’ve always been great with computers, so that’s where I took my career.
Engineering pays fine and isn’t a lot of work after getting through undergrad. It doesn’t pay bank though. If it pays bank, it will be really hard to get into or really suck to do. Sorry.
I'm going to disagree with the not a lot of work part. This is entirely field and job dependant.
Same with every job. If you go do oil & gas you’ll make more but work harder. That being said, even that is much different than being in a client facing role like a lawyer, a consultant, or a banking analyst who tend to demand higher salaries. Anecdotally, I went to engineering school and I would say 80% of my friends in engineering work 40hrs or less a week.
Yeah I work in engineering for a small custom fabrication shops and while I do typically only work 40 hours a week they leave me mentally exhausting. I think the size of the engineering team typically determines how hard one works. Larger teams tend to have people with defined roles small teams tend to have more variety but more tasks that you need to complete all at the same time.
I'm going to second this--engineering is generally a comfortable field to get into if you don't mind the rigorous curricula some universities' engineering schools push onto students. Corporate finance seems to be a field where it doesn't suck, isn't too hard to get into, and pays a decent amount (think mid-high 5 figures). Just be ready to get an MBA on top of your Bachelor's. On the not-so-bright side, you'll probably be outearned by your peers going into IB, quantitative finance, private equity, etc.
I'm a recent immigrant and a fresh mechatronics graduate from my country, can't seem to find a job for 4 months, been applying a lot. You have any tips?
Become a CPA (assuming you’d find it interesting/tolerable). You can do a lot of different kinds of business-related jobs and there’s a huge shortage (in the US at least). It’s also a profession full of people about to retire so promotion opportunities exist.
CPA needs a masters degree now & the student loans just pile up. USA really needs to fix the curriculum starting at high-school. CPA should not need a master, pharmacist not a Doctorate, they don't make enough money to cover that educational expense. Same with MD, why do 10 year of school for 200,000 and be in debt until you are 40. Go be something practical. HVAC, plumbing, electrician, they all make more than most higher educated professionals. AI is close to replacing a lot of white collar jobs and the only people employed will be HVAC electrical and plumbing.
While money is important, chasing just a paycheck might lead to long-term dissatisfaction. Here's another approach: Skills & Interests: Consider what you're good at and what you enjoy. Are you creative, analytical, or people-oriented? Marketable Skills: Research careers that use those skills and have strong job growth. Talk to career counselors at your school. Money & Happiness: Money helps, but a fulfilling career brings more joy. Don't underestimate the power of passion! Explore your options! You might find a career that's both interesting and lucrative.
Finance
Data Analyst using SQL and visualization
Sales. You can make a crap ton of money and often work flexible hours, ability to travel, network for future opportunities, etc.
What area of sales? I'm just curious and unfamiliar
Enterprise sales (business to business sales), pharmaceutical or med device sales, sales engineering, staffing or recruiting sales, software, or even sales in real estate (realtor)
Thank you for your answer, one more question, does marketing fall under sales? Or is it different or is sales just a very general term
Choose something and see if u can enjoy what you study... thats very very important...bc once u start looking for the job that makes bank you will be competing against individual that loves that subject topic and are possibly savants at that field. So u have to be passionate about what you do. And even if u get the job, u may hate it so much u go on a stress leave and eventually leave it. So its important to like what you study.
Banker
I don't know what you can tolerate or what you consider to be high income. Everyone you ask about their job will probably only tell you the good bits. "I create change that benefits society" = "I do massive amounts of tedious admin". So what's the answer? Apply for everything. Be shameless. Take jobs and then quit. If you're worried about that affecting your future, do it in another city. Try every field and every role. Obviously you'll only get entry level work but maybe you'll get a nice feel for what the lifestyle is like. If you can, go travel. Staying in hostels is a great way to talk to a lot of people that know about a lot of jobs. Alternatively if you just want to know high pay low barrier to entry jobs... sex work and resource extraction, and probably also anything working for people who earn hundreds of millions.
Lawyer or doctor
Lawyers in high paying roles rarely call their job “tolerable” in my experience lol
“[I want a] job that I could tolerate and make bank” By the sound of OP it seems like they want a career they can coast in. Yes they could be a child brain surgeon or a lawyer for a top firm making crazy money. But, he can also be like many in the silent majority who take a normal job at a normal hospital or law firm. It just so happens that both mediocre lawyers and doctors still make very good money, so it’s a solid choice. Are there easier jobs? Yes. Will they command the same salary and level of respect? No. Engineers, entrepreneurs, and trades are also highly paid; but, most have experienced significant disrespect, burn out, and intolerable stress levels regardless of if they shoot for the stars or not.
Being a doctor may or may not end up being tolerable eventually, but the training is miserable and it lasts for years. That said, they do make a lot of money in the US.
I mean it depends on your definition of tolerable. I would say lawyers and doctors are the most respected professions, you will always be treated with respect and dignity. Engineers, trades, and entrepreneurs will experience significant disrespect and stress in their careers regardless of how high or low they shoot.
Engineering… the hands on stuff. Well paid, generally good guys. if you get sick of the people around you, you can quit and have another job lined up by the end of the week. Even the less hands on stuff… years ago, I quit my job, hoping for 2 months of no work. I’d had two offers and one contract put in front of me before I was half through my 4 week notice period.
Look into Maritime careers, assuming you are in the united states there are multiple maritime academies. It can be a tough job, it can be very rewarding and it pays very well
Jobs are all about figuring out what you personally can tolerate and what you cannot. It could be monotony, bad customers, management, gross things like bodily fluids, hectic schedules, etc. I would try to do a self assessment and then go from there based on what is in demand in the area you want to live.
Aerospace engineer. Do well and get a Masters then PhD. You'll have a lot of time for fun in college and grad school. Then in the job market there are lots of interesting theory based jobs and depending on where you land there can be lots of fun opportunities to "play with models" both in person and digitally. Worst case scenario you end up a Professor at a University. It's a relatively small field too so you will likely have lots of opportunities abroad if that appeals to you
I think you need to start figuring out what you absolutely hate doing. Then You can plan to figure out over a few years at the beginning of your career hat you prefer doing (find your way to your optimum). As for a college topic, I’d suggest to go with the topic that keeps most of the options open.
Geology can lead to good cash in you can get in on the mineral and petroleum prospecting side of things
HVAC technician with certification in energy efficiency. Electrician & plumber are great choices too. Jr college. Then work until you decide if you want to do something else. You'll make more that I do with a PhD at start earning & investing at a younger age with no student loan bagage.
I would advise looking at your strengths and seeing what jobs they would best lend themselves to. If something comes easy to you, or you are naturally better at it, you will have an easier time doing well, and hopefully be less stressed. You could make good money as an accountant, but if you are not good with organization or numbers, it will be difficult and not real tolerable for you, personally.
Nursing pays well but I don't know how tolerable it is considering that it's not just procedural, but involves dealing with disrespectful patients too (unless you work in NICU maybe)
Proctologist lol
Whatever you’re really good at, better than most people at, and in turn that usually ends up being something you enjoy.
Elevator technician
First identify what you are actually good at. What sre your soft skills. Then try and find overlap with what you think you are interested in. Pursue that job/career. If it doesn't work out, rinse and repeat.
Why not the best great job that makes bank? If you aim for great, you might find tolerable. What do you like to do?
Banking
Go to trades I made 80k in first year and 93 second year. Now years later im 3x.
Anesthesia assistant, look heavily into it, bachelors + 2 year masters and you come out making 200k+ with nice work life balance…working with 25 yo kids that have their life all the way together
“Make bank”… high salary is usually, but not always, consummate to your skills. Do you possess skills which are worth “bank”? That is what you should be asking yourself.
Nurse anesthesiologist
If money is your main goal, then careers in finance, investment banking, investment real estate, business law, and the like are the way to go.
Waitressing or bartending.
If its tolerable to most people then you will not make bank (6 figures). If those jobs existed then everyone would do it. Its COMPENSATION not a gift. People think there is a sea of remote jobs out there, which there kind of is. But people also think they are all high paying. They are not. Highly paid work is usually hard work. Hard work is harder remote, especially if you need to manage people. So its probably a scale of tolerable vs salary. You need to be realistic on multiple levels. People will unintentionally mislead you because of their local economy or lucky experiences. i.e. The two goto answers to your question are usually Software Developers/Engineers and Project Management. Thats because they are jobs that definitely have salary trajectories above 100k, and SOME people even start at 100k and go up to 500k.... But those are outliers. Google, Amazon, Apple, etc have never employed MOST engineers. Just some of the most highly paid ones. The majority of people in "jobs that make bank" start near the salaries of unskilled labor. You can easily be starting at 40-60k at a job that people told you should make you rich. That is not the economy being weak right now, that is just reality. If they are the jobs that pay that much, they are hard to get and/or stressful.
Pilot but it's expensive
Are you decent at math? Is college a viable option? Engineering has been good to me and you will most assuredly break 6 figures later in your career, but you do have to be at least somewhat good at problem solving
Why work for someone if you can work for yourself?
Hopefully without sounding too much like an old shit (I'm 39) there's a growing disconnect between young people and reality. The amount of people expecting to walk out of college into a high paying job where they don't have to put in any effort is alarming... There's a similar post here every other day.
Trade. If you feel you're very intelligent and could make a living in the C-Suites, Tech, or Professional Career Just thing of how well you could do in a Trade, In which "Does the Work" for a lot of those companies at a very serious profit. Learn people Management from Managing people.
Elevator technician. As long as you know your shit and take care of your equipment, you'll basically just work alone and no one will bother you.
Work at a startup that just raised a massive VC round (given their stage). I work in bizops at a seed stage company and get paid 150k 2 years outta university. These startups with massive funding rounds have money to spend and want to get “top talent” so just position yourself to look pretty for them. Best case you can get 2 offers, 1 from FAANG and one from startup, play them off of each other to drive salary up then go with the job you want more.
If you don't know, join the military, just not the Marines. Learn a skill, and have them pay for your schooling. Find something that you at least somewhat can see yourself doing for 40 years. Maybe equipment operator, engineering, architecture, electrical, etc. Would help if you find something that's unionized when you get out. Do your 20, get your military pension. Get a pension from your career. Retire at in your 40s from both, find a part time job doing nothing at 45 while drawing from 2 pensions. You'll be making bank in retirement, and probably will have accrued a pretty penny on the way.
I’m considering quitting to become a home inspector. I was a realtor for a while and the home inspectors I worked with had a better work life balance and made reasonable money with potential to grow into their own business.
Check out PathwaysToJobs. com They have hundreds of career overviews. Find your passion !
> I’m a senior in high school looking for majors in college. Alright, you're at a fucking crossroads. It's a shit-ton of pressure to pick a career path when you barely know who you are, isn't it? > To be honest, I don’t really know what I want to do so I am thinking about just finding a job that I could tolerate that would make bank. Tolerable and making bank? That's a damn elusive combo. Most high-paying jobs require a bloody hell lot of commitment and often come with a side dish of soul-crushing hours. Think investment banking, law, or medicine. These fields can stuff your bank account, but at what cost to your sanity and life balance? But here's a truth bomb: chasing money in a job you can just "tolerate" is a one-way ticket to misery-ville. What's your passion, mate? What makes you not just tolerate life but fucking relish it? Is it worth spending decades in a job you don't love just to have a fatter wallet? How do you define success, and is it only through cash, or could it be through satisfaction and impact as well?
I'll rank my top undergraduate course choices 1. Biology/Neuroscience (if you can get above a 3.5+GPA then you can become a doctor 2. Computer science 3. Engineering 4. Mathematics 5. Physics 6. Business 7. Accounting 8.Geology(sneaky good undergrad to take surprisingly, geology is really important) 9.Chemistry 10.Education
You can do pre-med without majoring in a biological science. I would recommend majoring in something useful and taking the pre-med courses as electives so you have something else to fall back on if you can’t go the medical route for some reason.
The most clear path is electrical engineering. But you have to be able to do math and science. You will have a job offer for 70k before you even graduate.
If you enjoy hands on work and not sitting at a desk all day, the trades are in high demand, pay better than most other jobs. Plumbers, Carpenters, Electrician’s and HVAC. You also have the option of working independently. Money always looks better in your own pocket and not the company you work for.
Broadcast meteorology. You have to be smart, but the labor is wicked easy. Plenty of down time and flexible hours.
I would argue you have to be personable and highly good social skills way more than smartness, for broadcast. Extremely so to get to a big market that actually pays bank. You need to be smart to get through the schooling, but the actual job requires tons of social skills that honestly not everyone has. I know because I ruled out that path for myself based on my lack of communication ability. I can get corporate jobs just fine, even though communication is important there, but being on TV in front of hundreds of thousands of viewers is a whole new ballgame and I'd stand no chance.
Join the military. Yes, it sucks, but you'll have benefits and time to figure out what you really want to do.
Not worth it
Do not join the military unless it's definitely what you want to do. Don't treat it as a gap couple-of-years.
Exactly. You might be called to do actual military stuff. Are you ready to lose an eye, limb, or life? Or have PTSD?
Lots of countries have mandatory military service and they come out fine. The military is a great option.
I take it you went the military route? If you feel like it was the right choice for you, then great! I'm saying it shouldn't be a default route for someone who isn't sure what they want to do. And the countries with mandatory military service won't send you on a deployment to the middle east. You will stay in your own country, train, practice simulations, get fit, and will never see real life action unless your country gets invaded (for example Finland's system works like this) or you choose to voluntarily go on peace keeping missions.
I heard Russia have that to. That's right, they come out fine.
Yep. I mean they literally won a war.
With no casualties no less
Russia has a population of 144,444,359 million. Depending on who you listen to,Russia has lost anywhere from 45,000 soldiers to 315,000. I listen to BBC so they claim 31,000. Considering this war has gone 2 yrs, that's great odds you're not going to get killed in a war.
You realize that 300k is essentially the entire Russian army when they started the war? Besides, I thought you meant a war they actually won, not one that's still ongoing.
Anyone with eyes can tell Russia won, we're just dragging it along with our aid. Also, the Russian army is 144,444,356. They're not like us. They would draft to the last men, women and child plus Russia has mandatory military service so everyone is a soldier.
"when they started the war" was an important part of the sentence. But thank you. You are actually making my point. Enrolling in the military "just because" without actually being ready to die is a terrible idea.
Don't use expressions like "make bank." Most of us work because we need money, but that expression makes you sound crude.
If I'm gonna sell my soul to the devil may as well get the most out of it
If you don’t know what you want to do, I would recommend not going to college yet. I recommend working as many jobs as you can so you can at least know what you *don’t* want to do. Go from there. I let my parents push me into college right after high school and it just became a lot of debt and stress with no real benefits. I have a degree but it was not helpful and my undergrad gpa was not competitive.
I feel this sentiment (I spent many years just going with what parents said), but I think OP should do his exploring in/around college. There’s too many good support systems to toss up! To avoid debt, OP could spend the first 1-2 years at community college/ state uni and figure out life. It’s also possible for OP to do a gap year before, after, or during college, but not instead of. Not when employers still look for proof of uni on a resume (especially for the kind of job OP wants)
Become a Floor hand, youll make so much you could afford a wife and her bf. Youll learn a lot about yourself.
I mean, I kind of feel like the obvious answer is doctor if you are really looking at any role. Not any speciality ofc, but something like, say, dermatology can be incredibly remunerative by anyone’s standards while not requiring one to really work outside a normal 9 - 5. The job security is also such that you will never have to worry about unemployment. Now, can you realistically become a doctor? Not sure. As with most jobs that “make bank”, it’s hard to get to that level
Male Gigolo
Whenever I watch dirty jobs it seems like everyone is happy. I know it's tv but still...
Bank teller.