University or government job?

[BOWHUNTER]

Government job all day. At 24 you coudl retire full pension after about 25-30 years and be laughing with no student debt.

I work for the goverment its a sweet ass gig man trust me.

 

[Ibis]

Choose college if you have an actual career path in mind--particularly if it's a growing field.

 

[phipps66]

Gov job hands down. I had planned to get a bachelors degree, but ended up landing an internship with the DOT while going to school. So I got an ASEE, pulled the ejection handle on college, and ten years later, I shine bright like a dyemond.

 

[Higus]

If you start at $24/hr, what could you reasonably go up to by the time you retire?

 

[ralphc1]

This really depends on the individual -- their drive, ambition, creativity, (inter)personal skills, networking abilities, etc (among other qualities), not to mention what the diploma/degree is for.

I've known several people who have graduated with a fairly standard degree like a Bachelors in English/History/Art/Social Sciences and can't find work, because a degree like that isn't the same ticket into a job like say getting a college/technical diploma in the trades, or say mechanical engineering/design or tool and die making. If you can graduate a technical program like that obviously you have the technical abilities and knowledge to do the job, so as long as you aren't a bumbling idiot in the interview you've got a good chance of getting the job. If you graduate with a Bachelors in English or General Arts and realize you have no idea what you want to do, you could be looking for work for awhile, because there's probably somebody with more specialized training or more experience than you applying for the same job.

I've seen tons of intelligent people with a university degree, but they were followers (not leaders), and were stuck in entry level positions, waiting for people to tell them what to do next. That said, I'm the Quality Supervisor at a food production plant, and the plant manager has a Bachelor of General Arts. But he's in his early 30s and looks like he could go to the top of the company because of his knowledge of the business, and his drive and ambition are unmatched. Most people who go to university for a generalized degree don't see themselves managing factory, but this guy graduated, found something he was interested in and was good at, and went from a supervisor to plant manager within a few years. He's well on his way to a senior management level, overseeing several production facilities in the company.

Also, do companies in the US not offer pension programs or something? I put 3% of my annual salary into a retirement plan, and my company throws in an additional 6% for a total of 9% of my annual wage going into a retirement plan, which is basically invested in money market/low risk mutual funds. I don't have to participate, but to set aside 3% of my pay to get a free, additional 6% invested for my retirement is a no brainier. The program is even extended to the unionized, hourly workers working on the production lines.

Companies in the US are mostly run by bean counters who know nothing about building a business. Most companies are management top heavy and don't offer many benefits. The ones that do offer anything usually offer a 401K where you put your money in tax deferred account [you don't pay taxes on the money until you start drawing it out] and they might match a certain percentage of it, usually 1/2 as much as you deposit. Many employees don't do it. The affordable health care act forces employers to offer health insurance and the employees pay a portion of that. Many employees chose not to do that either which was why the penalties were put into the act. If you don't get insurance, you pay a penalty depending on your income. Emergency rooms in the US have to treat you whether or not you can pay them or have insurance so that drives the costs up.

 

[Oblivian]

Office work for the city is typically political and not as secure as you think.

 

[Hank The Tank]

Another thing that is nice about most govt jobs is your ability to do something different easily. Its not a traditional (typically) you are an accountant, you move up the accountant tree only. Usually its ok, you have been an accountant 3 for 2 years, you can promote to accountant 4, or lateral to field officer (whatever) 2 with the same or similar pay, then promote from there. So within govt work you can have a single career but work 2-6 completely different jobs/specialties.

 

[Primitivo]

I have both.

 

[lapollarecords]

City job fo sho. I want to be like that Spanish guy who got paid for years and never showed up to work.

which one of them? that describes a lot of spanish people lol

 

[Literally Bricked]

Do people who retire to collect pension in their 40s usually end up working somewhere else? Or do they just live off that and never enter back into workforce.

They use both. I have a tenant who worked for a hydro company for twenty years, retired from that and collected his pension. He then went and started working for another hydro company and worked there for twenty something years and just retired and is now collecting two pensions.

 

[Literally Bricked]

To answer OP. I'd go with the city job.

 

[bufetadanacara]

Job, make money now. Schools don't close, so if you lose your job, you can then go to school.

 

[Higus]

If you start at $24/hr, what could you reasonably go up to by the time you retire?

Also, are there any government jobs that pay $24/hr that you could qualify for at 18 years old with a high school education?

 

[groo]

Let's say you are 18 years old and you just graduated high school. You have two options:

1. Go to college.. the sky's the limit

2. Family member offers to juice you into a city job. Office work, $24/hr to start, pension, healthcare, etc..

After you choose one or the other, the other option is no longer available. If you choose go work for the city, you can never go to college and vice versa.

Which would you choose?

Why not University job. Best of both worlds. Never can get fired unless maybe you kill someone.......on camera! Still get all the pension and benefits too.

 

[BangersAndSmash]

I would find out if the city has any tuition reimbursement programs, and if it does, then take the job, wait a short time to get used to it, then go to school as well.

If you do opt to go to college, even if you enroll into a STEM major, you need to graduate with some kind of experience in the field you'd like to work in, whether it be extra projects, internships, or something else. Don't graduate with nothing but your diploma because you will find it insanely hard to get a job. The truth of the matter is that Universities have graduated so many bachelor's degrees that it has become nothing more than a box to tick off which disqualifies you from getting a job, but doesn't help you stand out from the other qualified applicants at all.

 

[Rhett Henley MD]

$24/hour is about an annualized $48,000.00 - not bad for a first job out of college AND you get four years of earnings/tenure and you don't have to pay dat tuition.

Unless you want to go to professional/grad school, graduate degrees are not the best investment in many cases.

 

[Brodels]

government job.

pension and healthcare, oh lawd.

Both of which you pay for