People with careers; what do you do and how did you/do you get your foot in the door?

complete luck. Don't worry about a thing, I started mine at 35.

more

Hope you're okay with heights

started to be interested in finance after working for couple of years in a restaurant and managed to learn enough to later convince people to give me money to invest and ended up successfully day trading, now managing finances for handful of startups where I'm paid with stock and salary wise combined under 100k ... couldn't do anything else but go back to kitchen work which was kinda odd or money launder since I have no college it is not legal for me to be investing someone else's money in public markets hence fuck it

Anyone who calls their dumb job a career is a cunt.

Not sure this will be useful for you at all, but here goes...
Principal at a VC firm, spent three years working for a large investment bank on Wall Street. Got my foot in the door there by pulling on school and family connections (my dad had been a i-banker as well and is still in the industry in a different capacity).
Pros: Excellent money, see how the world really works.
Cons: Can be an incredibly amount of work, highly competitive, to be successful, you need to be a 5-tool player.
Salary cap: Multiple millions, I made $300K last year.

lawyer at one of the biggest law firms on the planet. Finished university among the top 10%. and I know how to talk to people, that's how I got in.

I work 45-55 hours a week, depending on what's up. I am working on interesting cases most of the time and I have an awesome team, mostly consting of people around my age, my boss is 7 years older than me and inveted me to a LAN party at his house last year, no joke, we played oldschool stuff. Also, all the parties I attended were super fucking awesom. People actually get drunk.

It's my third year, last year I made €120k + 22k bonus. This year it's going to be 130k + bonus

>school and family connections
>see how the world really works.

nah

Bought a stock for .40 this morning. Just sold it for .85. Made $450 on my day off. Not a bad Monday.

If you think those two statements are antithetical, you don't actually understand the second.

Become an xray technician. Pays at least 50K per year and only takes 6 to 12 months training. Lots of job security.

Linux System Admin

Got into this after seriously messing up my back in work accident while running fiber optics.

Got job as entry level MSP Helpdesk Support and started learning everything I could about everything I could.

Took 2 Linux courses on Udemy for $13/ea , passed Linux+ cert and started applying.

Researched and studied interview questions based around Linux admin and studied those courses while interviewing.

Faked it till I made it once I got the job.

$66000/year plus great benefits

what was it? I also made 450 today, bought 10 tesla shares @ €680, keeping them for a little longer though

Culinary school chef u need a good coke dealer and thick skin //pros: get to make the menu cons: you hate your life but you make good food

Assistant Accountant for the film industry. I started as a production assistant. It's long hours and hard work, but I'm at $60k now and if I make head accountant I can make $250k+ a year. I got the job because I had a BA in Film and electronic media.

I got a degree relevant to a esoteric field (helps to be a lone dude in a sea of woman-dominated work) and I knew the right people.
Old job's supervisor gave me a heads up about a job, and is friends with the woman I now work for. I got an interview before I filled out my application lol.

I don't make mad stacks, but I do good work, and it's a stepping stone towards either a job with the state or a job in a high paying lawfirm.

Only downside is I used to work retail which was fun, socially, and all the cute teens I could ogle. I'm decent looking and kind to them, so they all fucking adored me and I fucking miss that.

I suppose it was time to leave though, I'm not getting any younger.

I'm 36 and I am a utilities manager. When I was your age I was working construction and doing okay. Then work would dry up and I would be scared to death about how I would pay for living. Eventually I'd had enough, so I applied to 100 different entry level positions in different utilities. I lied hard on my resume but I knew my manager for construction would maintain the lie so I got an interview at one place as a temp. Despite thinking that the guys who interviewed me had someone else in mind, they chose me. When I got to work there my first day, something in me snapped. For the next few years I worked my absolute hardest. I'd see the guys get kinda ticked at me and tell me to slow down, but I refused. I would study the trade after hours and take exams. I made them hire me because I made them dependent on my work. 10 years later and all those guys are gone, they retired. I'm the only original and make 120k a year directing others' efforts. I have been able to make it and have only one piece of advice to thank for it. To end up successful, ALWAYS work harder than the guy next to you.

Currently an engineer that makes 6 figure plus.
I started as a lowly QC inspector
I learned all the ANSI 14.5y standards and just worked my way up as I was going through school.
3 thinks I think are key
-willingness to learn (hungry)
-personality
-work ethic (trust)

How the hell did you break out of academia?
I graduated in 2016 (PHD MECH) and getting dick for any callbacks.

Hes trading options or biotechs.

Fucking this as hell

>how did you/do you get your foot in the door?
I honestly have no fucking clue. My first interview was with the owner of the company. He came into the meeting 15 minutes late and was in his seat faster than I could even react. He then spent 15 minutes telling me everything I had already done wrong, to which I gave explanations for what I could and agreed where I couldn't. He said he wanted someone with passion, to which I responded with a ten minute tirade about the people in the metro and their fear of any sort of emotion, passion most of all. I told him I just want a place where I can do my job, do it well, not have to fight with people over petty bullshit, and get paid a living wage to do it.

He asked me if I could start tomorrow. I worked there for 5 years exactly, only got let go when the business got bought out and the new owners decided to fire half the staff and give pay cuts to the rest.

But hey, now I work for the state. I work from home half the week doing admin bullshit for $20/hr and I get a pay raise every 6 months without asking, plus retirement and health insurance. 11 holidays a year, all paid (double if I decide to work those days).

I made 4k today on carnival, disney, Chevron and an REIT. Not gonna sell, don't have to.

Oilfield
80k starting with a GED

figure out if you like something that can make you money like computer science or engineering (something in STEM), then get a degree in that and a job should be easy.
if nothing like that interests you, DO NOT GO TO COLLEGE because it will be a waste of money. ignore everyone who tells you it's important and go to a trade school (plumbing, welding). you can make decent money that way without destroying your body with physical labor.
i went to college for math (very broad subject), got lucky and got a job that ended up being in another state and a waste of time, but paid okay and allowed me to add bs to my resume. then i ended up at a government job back home making more money and doing actual computer stuff i enjoy.

just hire some cute teens to fuck

IT... Mostly infrastructure and Endpoint management for 5000+ devices, but don't do any individual desktop work = no users.

Some post secondary, but IT is likely one of the few careers where you honestly don't NEED formal education - getting self taught certs is how most, if not all people in this field succeed.

Honestly it's a pretty great career once you get established. Provides lots of freedoms and gives lots of power/control/responsibility if you like that kind of thing.

90k Canadian, pension, benefits, , about 5 weeks of holidays to start, etc

nice, but do you think carnival is already out of that shithole? I honestly can't see the whole sector recover this whole year

What I'm hearing is that you want the easy route. This speaks to your personal work ethic and not willing to do what it takes to succeed. I got my foot in the door by getting a degree, working to and getting 2 "resume" jobs and working my way up with one organization. I could be doing what in doing now by going a cheaper and less work route, but it's really about the work you're willing to put in. There will be good advice in this thread but im guessing you wont listen and/or not want to put in the effort

Good luck winning the lottery

What do you actually do