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404nf
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12 Feb 2015, 3:52 pm

So around a year ago, I dropped out of high school. I am currently living with my parents, with them taking care of my expenses, and they'll continue to do so for maybe the next 5-6 years. I need to find a way to be able to support myself and take care of my own expenses.

I do not want to get a job. I'd rather jump off a cliff than work a job, and I mean that literally. One of the reasons I quit HS is because I didn't want a job, with the 9-5 lifestyle, and all the crap that comes with a job. I am pretty good with technology, and I'm good enough to start a computer repair/sale shop, however, dealing with people would suck, and shops aren't going to be around much longer with online shopping becoming more and more popular.

I'm currently learning programming, and I'm capable of making simple web applications atm, so I guess freelance work is something I could do.

What I really want is a stress-free lifestyle, with more free time on my hands than work time. I want to work for like a couple hours per day and be done.

What should I do? The thing that really sucks is that even with freelancers, you require experience to get hired, but you can't get experience without being hired. And I'm not a good enough programmer just yet to be able to work on most freelance projects.



Homer_Bob
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14 Feb 2015, 7:09 pm

I don't mean to sound cold or insensitive but I am going to be very honest with you.....

To me it sounds like you want to live in a fairy-tale because your life is going to be extremely difficult if you don't at the very least get your G.E.D. There's no way you're going to go anywhere in your life if you feel like you can just get a technical or programming job without at the very least finishing high school. People with college degrees have a difficult time finding work because of their lack of working experience so you're going to be way behind them and the best chance for you to make money would most likely be working under the table for family or working the dreaded retail, fast-food or cleaning jobs. If you want to live off your parents and be on disability, then so be it but you are going to have to make an effort if you hope to be able to make a living. Even if you do gain skills as a programmer and have the skills, not one employer will give you a chance. Why would they when most of their applicants have degrees? Your applications will go right in the trash barrel every time. Good luck, you'll need it.


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Last edited by Homer_Bob on 14 Feb 2015, 7:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

alex
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14 Feb 2015, 7:13 pm

just get a job or start your own business.

Homer_bob is wrong about there being no way you're going to go anywhere in life without finishing high school. i know plenty of people who never finished high school and are very successful and wealthy.


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Kiprobalhato
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14 Feb 2015, 7:20 pm

if you honestly think you're good enough to open a repair shop, then take the risk and do it. yet if i were looking through applicants, i would take the guy who worked a meager job over one who worked no jobs and is inexperienced.

alex wrote:
i know plenty of people who never finished high school and are very successful and wealthy.

such people exist. do you think they are in the majority?

Quote:
and shops aren't going to be around much longer with online shopping becoming more and more popular

obviously some are closing, but i really doubt all shops will die. there will always be people that will get off the couch to buy stuff.


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Homer_Bob
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14 Feb 2015, 7:29 pm

alex wrote:
just get a job or start your own business.

Homer_bob is wrong about there being no way you're going to go anywhere in life without finishing high school. i know plenty of people who never finished high school and are very successful and wealthy.


There of course are a few exceptions for people with unbelievably talented entrepreneurial abilities but they are in the very rare 1% cases. I am looking at the remaining 99% of people who need to play by the rules by finishing high school, get a college education, join the military, or learn a trade (most which at the very least require a G.E.D or vocational training) I also happen to know many people with college degrees who can't even find any work in their related fields because they don't have experience so is a high school dropout with no work history in comparison going to do better? Absolutely not. It's not fair to the people who spend all their time and money. I am looking at the big picture here. If college grads have difficult time finding work, then high school dropouts are going to have a much harder time. That's a fact. Again, the people who are wealthy high school dropouts are one in a million.


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Last edited by Homer_Bob on 14 Feb 2015, 7:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

AspieUtah
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14 Feb 2015, 7:31 pm

Having dropped out of high school myself, I can say that, unless you complete a GED test successfully and enroll in college for at least a few classes, life will become increasingly more difficult than it seems now. While it is true that those without college degrees end up earning about the same incomes as those with degrees after about 10 years, those 10 years can be brutal if you can't prove to employers that you have completed high-school in one way (graduating) or another (completing the GED test successfully), they will almost always hire the applicant who has done so. Also, as you age without the commensurate workplace experiences that are expected for someone like yourself in five, 10 and 20 years from now, that deficiency will be abundantly clear to prospective employers as time goes on.

However, I agree with Alex that, while you are working toward those goals, you could own your own business. If you are good about budgeting yourself and your time, and know how to pay taxes, you can actually do well working for yourself. I have done this frequently in my life between my employments by others. It isn't, however, something I would choose to do for long without the plan to work somewhere with more assurance of daily and weekly income.

Whatever your choice(s), I wish you luck! :)


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bacun
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15 Feb 2015, 5:18 am

IF you really don't want to work go see a therapist and lie about how bad anxiety/autism/depression is . Then use them to get SSI ,should get like $800/month



404nf
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15 Feb 2015, 8:31 am

Homer_Bob wrote:
I don't mean to sound cold or insensitive but I am going to be very honest with you.....

To me it sounds like you want to live in a fairy-tale because your life is going to be extremely difficult if you don't at the very least get your G.E.D. There's no way you're going to go anywhere in your life if you feel like you can just get a technical or programming job without at the very least finishing high school. People with college degrees have a difficult time finding work because of their lack of working experience so you're going to be way behind them and the best chance for you to make money would most likely be working under the table for family or working the dreaded retail, fast-food or cleaning jobs. If you want to live off your parents and be on disability, then so be it but you are going to have to make an effort if you hope to be able to make a living. Even if you do gain skills as a programmer and have the skills, not one employer will give you a chance. Why would they when most of their applicants have degrees? Your applications will go right in the trash barrel every time. Good luck, you'll need it.


For what it's worth, Google hires plenty of people without degrees. If I wanted to get a job, I would have gone to school, but I don't want to, and I even noted that in my OP: "I'd rather jump off a cliff than work a job", so I'm not sure where you're getting all this about finding a job and employers and applications.



404nf
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15 Feb 2015, 8:38 am

alex wrote:
just get a job or start your own business.

Homer_bob is wrong about there being no way you're going to go anywhere in life without finishing high school. i know plenty of people who never finished high school and are very successful and wealthy.


Yes, I agree. High school is not the be all and end all of life. I've been interested in IT since I was 10, and I could easily work a IT job of the kind where you handle the infrastructure of a company, or as a sysadmin, and in a while, as a programmer too. But I do not want a job. I'm working on starting my own business as I type this, and have been programming the software for 4 months now. College is mostly helpful for getting a job, and there isn't really much you'll get from a college which will help you if you start your own business(I mean, sure, you learn stuff, but you could learn that stuff on your own too).



404nf
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15 Feb 2015, 8:42 am

Kiprobalhato wrote:
if you honestly think you're good enough to open a repair shop, then take the risk and do it. yet if i were looking through applicants, i would take the guy who worked a meager job over one who worked no jobs and is inexperienced.

alex wrote:
i know plenty of people who never finished high school and are very successful and wealthy.

such people exist. do you think they are in the majority?

Quote:
and shops aren't going to be around much longer with online shopping becoming more and more popular

obviously some are closing, but i really doubt all shops will die. there will always be people that will get off the couch to buy stuff.


Opening a repair shop is like the last in my list of backup plans, so if all else fails, I could at least do that.

Such people might be a very small minority, but it is because most people complete school, and of those who quit, very few have any skills they could use to make money. I have interest and skills in IT, and I enjoy the work, which is why I quit HS.

About the shops, I know a few people who run them, and they all say that business is not good these days. I don't think they're all going to go out of business anytime soon, but its not the best thing to do right now.



404nf
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15 Feb 2015, 8:45 am

AspieUtah wrote:
Having dropped out of high school myself, I can say that, unless you complete a GED test successfully and enroll in college for at least a few classes, life will become increasingly more difficult than it seems now. While it is true that those without college degrees end up earning about the same incomes as those with degrees after about 10 years, those 10 years can be brutal if you can't prove to employers that you have completed high-school in one way (graduating) or another (completing the GED test successfully), they will almost always hire the applicant who has done so. Also, as you age without the commensurate workplace experiences that are expected for someone like yourself in five, 10 and 20 years from now, that deficiency will be abundantly clear to prospective employers as time goes on.

However, I agree with Alex that, while you are working toward those goals, you could own your own business. If you are good about budgeting yourself and your time, and know how to pay taxes, you can actually do well working for yourself. I have done this frequently in my life between my employments by others. It isn't, however, something I would choose to do for long without the plan to work somewhere with more assurance of daily and weekly income.

Whatever your choice(s), I wish you luck! :)


I do not want to work a job. I've run a business before, and I know its not easy. However, I'd rather work for 15 hours a day on my own terms and for my own business than 8 hours a day for someone else.



kraftiekortie
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15 Feb 2015, 9:42 am

You seem like a smart guy--why don't you take sample GED tests to see where you are. If you ace it, then take the GED. Pay the $100 or so bucks. Take the test. You'll have a GED. And you wouldn't have had to spend one more moment in school.



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15 Feb 2015, 9:50 am

alex wrote:
just get a job or start your own business...
This ^^^.

Your parents are not going to support you forever.

Also, while having no HS diploma will not necessarily guaranty poverty and homelessness, that's the way to bet. I've never met a HS dropout running his own business, nor have I met many unemployable HS graduates.

Right now, I suggest you start working toward earning a GED certificate. Otherwise, even starting your own business in this economy, and in an environment where practically anybody who builds and sets up their own computers is considered an IT expert, is risky at best. You're going to be competing, not only with other IT experts, but with IT experts holding degrees and certificates that you don't already have.

Good Luck.


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15 Feb 2015, 12:52 pm

404nf wrote:
Homer_Bob wrote:
I don't mean to sound cold or insensitive but I am going to be very honest with you.....

To me it sounds like you want to live in a fairy-tale because your life is going to be extremely difficult if you don't at the very least get your G.E.D. There's no way you're going to go anywhere in your life if you feel like you can just get a technical or programming job without at the very least finishing high school. People with college degrees have a difficult time finding work because of their lack of working experience so you're going to be way behind them and the best chance for you to make money would most likely be working under the table for family or working the dreaded retail, fast-food or cleaning jobs. If you want to live off your parents and be on disability, then so be it but you are going to have to make an effort if you hope to be able to make a living. Even if you do gain skills as a programmer and have the skills, not one employer will give you a chance. Why would they when most of their applicants have degrees? Your applications will go right in the trash barrel every time. Good luck, you'll need it.


For what it's worth, Google hires plenty of people without degrees. If I wanted to get a job, I would have gone to school, but I don't want to, and I even noted that in my OP: "I'd rather jump off a cliff than work a job", so I'm not sure where you're getting all this about finding a job and employers and applications.


Google hires geniuses who have to take many rigorous tests and interviews while competing with thousands of others. Your chances of getting a job at Google is about as high as being accepted for a genius grant. Like I already said before, there are a few exceptions for the very highly intelligent but you can't expect to be successful if you don't want to put forth any effort. You pretty much represent the generation that has "self entitlement" where they expect life to be easy and be able to do whatever they want. If you never want a job, that is your prerogative but I just wanted to be HONEST with you about what type of life you may have to expect if you choose to never finish high school. You may not want a job now but in 10 years, if things get really rough for you, you may have no choice and your options will be very bleak. Do you think everyone wants to work? No, but they have to. Like other have said, at least get your G.E.D.


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15 Feb 2015, 2:23 pm

well, at least you do have experience running your own business, that's great. i do get what you mean about not wanting to work for someone else.

how many years of HS did you complete?

404nf wrote:
Opening a repair shop is like the last in my list of backup plans, so if all else fails, I could at least do that.


and what are those other plans? you may see yourself sliding to that last resort pretty quickly. seriously man, at least get your GED now before your options become even less limited. i don't doubt that you have skills, but like Fnord said, it's a cut-throat environment out there for what you're doing, any greater certificate will do you nothing but good.

good luck.


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404nf
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15 Feb 2015, 4:29 pm

Kiprobalhato wrote:
well, at least you do have experience running your own business, that's great. i do get what you mean about not wanting to work for someone else.

how many years of HS did you complete?

404nf wrote:
Opening a repair shop is like the last in my list of backup plans, so if all else fails, I could at least do that.


and what are those other plans? you may see yourself sliding to that last resort pretty quickly. seriously man, at least get your GED now before your options become even less limited. i don't doubt that you have skills, but like Fnord said, it's a cut-throat environment out there for what you're doing, any greater certificate will do you nothing but good.

good luck.


I do not live in the US, and there's no GED alternative here.
I've got freelancing in my list, as well as working as a web developer(I've got experience with that kind of work, got my first gig when I was 13), there's multiple business ventures like web hosting(prior experience) that I could do, I'm going to start pursuing Red Hat certification soon, so there's sysadmin work, I've made money writing before. There's a lot of possible things I could do that I have experience with. I'm working on a business venture right this moment, the success of which will pretty much mean I do not even have to look at option 2.