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[arkhamguy123]

WARNING: LONG STORY

Could definitely use some good old fashioned career guidance here.

Basically the situation is this, I did a corporate internship in college and it was... alright. Ya know whatever. A corporate sales internship mind you. Then graduated and was a sales rep for a big Fortune 500 company making 60k at like 22 years old. Only problem was that I hated it. I hated most of my waking hours being work. I hated having some dickhead boss nagging me 24/7. I hated the long hours, (60-70 hour weeks). Only thing I liked was driving around and meeting people (to sell product) and sitting in meetings in nice AC

I quit that job and took a paycut to 45k in a remote job I thought would be less stress and more work life balance. WRONG. I had your typical boring stock corporate 9-5 office job at a big investment firm thats signature color may or may not be green. And it SUCKED. I hated it just as much if not more. 5 days a week is so archaic, I had a dickhead micromanaging boss (multiple of those actually), it was so dry, so sterile, so boring. I felt myself mentally withering all throughout. Everyone on my team was miserable and hated it too.

It became very clear to me that corporate was not for me at all so I quit again and went to door dash and do uber eats and pet sitting which I LOVED. Yeah I know the pitfalls of a delivery gig app. I know its looked down upon by everyone but I didn't give a fuck honestly. I was making $700 or more a week for like 20-25 hours or less of labor. Made my own hours, was my own boss, no one breathing down my neck. I'd just hop in my car, turn on the app, listen to my music, my podcasts, drive around on beautiful sunny days and nice nights in the city. So relaxed, I was honestly the happiest I had been and I realized quality of life and mental health was so much more important to me than money. As long as I have enough for rent, utilities and groceries, with juuuust enough left to buy my video games/hobbyist stuff and go out to eat here and there with my gf, and invest some money in my Roth IRA I am completely happy.

Unfortunately, it got oversaturated with drivers. Seems like eventually a lot of people had the same idea I had. So I slowly, or actually quickly went from 700 a week to 500 to like 400 to like 200 to... nothing basically. Fortunately I had a huge savings so I'm okay for a bit but im about to dip below 10k in savings down from like ~16-17k a few months ago. I have basically no income. I remembered I worked a demolition job a summer in college I really liked at the time and thought, "oh yes! whats the opposite of corporate 9-5s? Contractors!" So I got myself a manual labor blue collar job and it fucking sucks too. Im out in the scorching Texas heat, you're on call a lot of days, the hours are random, sporadic, and loooong. The work is good and honest but hard. My back hurts, Ive injured myself, its grueling.

So now I'm left adrift and I don't know what to do. My friends say I just "haven't had the right corporate job" and I should just plug back into the matrix and suck it up. My friends are up making 80-100k now and one even offered me on as his role and I declined. I see what they do and it could be almost any dollar figure I'd lose my mind and be depressed and unhappy doing what they do. So here I am, 25, my resume is just corporate sales stuff. I have a huge gap on it now. The antithesis of the office/remote job also sucks. If the delivery apps were still busy id still be happily doing them. If I had a magic wand I'd be writing comic books or video game stories and dialogue but that seems kind of a stretch. Is there anything were I can just be a delivery driver or find one of those fabled high paying remote 60-100k jobs where you do nothing all day and work like 10 hours a week? I'm at the point where it seems like short of winning the lottery thats all I have left.

TLDR: Young guy, 25, aimless, tried corporate, despised it, tried blue collar working with my hands, also not for me. What can I do to make a living?

 

[NecrosaroIII]

Sex work

 

[arkhamguy123]

Sex work

2.5 year serious gf who im moved in with would take issue with that im afraid

 

[Hudo]

Hitman

 

[kanjobazooie]

Beggar

 

[diffusionx]

start your own business

 

[arkhamguy123]

start your own business

Looked into it, seems like you need immense capital, a healthy dose of luck, and there are a million and one barriers to entry from my research

 

[diffusionx]

Looked into it, seems like you need immense capital, a healthy dose of luck, and there are a million and one barriers to entry from my research

If you're asking is there a way to make a good amount of money doing not much work and at no risk with no barrier to entry, the answer is no. If there was, everyone would do it. I'm sorry. There's no perfect path, I wish there was. The good thing is that it sounds like you more or less figured out what you value, it's just the apps don't pay enough. Well, the apps are run by rapacious companies that are nothing more than middlemen, so of course they'll drive down wages. But there might be something out there that would offer the things you value without those horrid companies. I don't know what that is though.

 

[Crayon]

Fact: bottom of the totem pole is alot of work for little pay. For the most part you want to find a thing where the 40 year olds (I know that seems like forever away) look like they have a lifestyle you can jibe with. A good way to do this is to find someone you can ask some questions to. Like if there are openings in insurance, find an older insurance rep and ask them a few questions like if climbing the ladder sucked, was it inevitable or did they have to fight for it, do they think that would be different today, etc.

 

[GHG]

Looked into it, seems like you need immense capital, a healthy dose of luck, and there are a million and one barriers to entry from my research

Wrong and wrong.

But with a defeatist attitude like that you're far better off not starting a business, that's for sure.

So with that out of the question, unless you have an artistic talent, you don't have any other options other than blue or white collar work.

 

[arkhamguy123]

If you're asking is there a way to make a good amount of money doing not much work and at no risk with no barrier to entry, the answer is no. If there was, everyone would do it. I'm sorry. There's no perfect path, I wish there was. The good thing is that it sounds like you more or less figured out what you value, it's just the apps don't pay enough. Well, the apps are run by rapacious companies that are nothing more than middlemen, so of course they'll drive down wages. But there might be something out there that would offer the things you value without those horrid companies. I don't know what that is though.

Well I wasn’t trying to say like, starting my own business requires effort and risk therefore I don’t want to do it. I was more saying from my research and attempts it takes more capital them I have in totality. Making it impossible for me currently. Which is unfortunate because I’d love to do it.

As for the apps I mean honestly man there was a time where they did pay enough but now they’re shit. You’re right thought about the perfect path being nigh impossible to discover. Which is daunting in and of itself.

 

[arkhamguy123]

Wrong and wrong.

But with a defeatist attitude like that you're far better off not starting a business, that's for sure.

So with that out of the question, unless you have an artistic talent, you don't have any other options other than blue or white collar work.

This isn’t even a case where I have any inclination to defend my position or be combative with you, I’d love to be wrong here so please dear god dear lord tell me how I’m mistaken about that lol

Because unironically it would be helpful if you expanded on your statement. You seem more informed than me if you know some way to start your own business without 5 figures money to throw around

 

[Crayon]

There is another buzzword we've been throwing around. "Green collar" I work in an analytical lab and many of our analysts are quite young. You need some kind of degree in sciences, though. So there are some jobs out there that are not quite white collar and not quite blue collar. Our clients also have younger field geoligists who work outside but are not exactly doing hard labor.

 

[diffusionx]

Well I wasn’t trying to say like, starting my own business requires effort and risk therefore I don’t want to do it. I was more saying from my research and attempts it takes more capital them I have in totality. Making it impossible for me currently. Which is unfortunate because I’d love to do it.

As for the apps I mean honestly man there was a time where they did pay enough but now they’re shit. You’re right thought about the perfect path being nigh impossible to discover. Which is daunting in and of itself.

there are ways to get small business loans, especially in the USA, although I dont know the exact details or anything. you also could start a business that doesnt require tons of capital.

The only reason why I bring this up is because if you work, I mean there are an infinite ways to work but the terms "blue collar" and "white collar" basically cover every type of job. If you don't like either, then you can start your own business and do whatever you want. I really don't know of another option, I really don't.

 

[Bry0]

I feel you OP. I am 27 and asking myself the same questions. I’m not a blue collar guy, and you’d think I’d have it made with gaming QA work in AC all day. Lots of independence, and a cool boss. Yet I am mentally distraught. Unfortunately I don’t have a ton of advice as Im still trying to figure it out myself. What I can say is I do some eBay flipping in the side and I honestly really love doing that. I really love restoring old computers and game consoles too. So i feel like I can sympathize with how you enjoyed your app work. Being in control of your work instead of feeling like a servant to someone else ticks that box that makes you feel good. I totally get it.

 

[Rentahamster]

Sex work

Good ol' brown collar!

 

[GHG]

This isn’t even a case where I have any inclination to defend my position or be combative with you, I’d love to be wrong here so please dear god dear lord tell me how I’m mistaken about that lol

Because unironically it would be helpful if you expanded on your statement. You seem more informed than me if you know some way to start your own business without 5 figures money to throw around

I was short with you because fundamentally your attitude needs to change in order to be successful in starting a business but I'll entertain you anyway:

You scale up from zero (one man band), but you need a skill that is in demand that you can go out there and market in order to win work. I've successfully scaled a web/app development business to the mid 6 figures over the last decade (which now practically runs itself thanks to the people I have in place) and I'm now in the process of transitioning to begin to scale another business from zero (I just need a couple more qualifications which I will get later this year and I'm good to go).

It can be done but you need to be ready to be flexible and make huge sacrifices (particularly on the social side of things with friends/family/significant other) in the first couple of years when you're getting things off the ground.

I started with one years worth of living expenses saved, initially I was doing everything, the marketing, sales, finance, and the core development all by myself until I was sure it could be scaled without taking on debt/venture capital. To give you an idea I run very lean (I still run it from home, my "office" is a single room in a building downtown and only exists for legal purposes) and all of my employees are overseas which creates huge advantages from a currency exchange perspective. It's a bit of a nightmare from a timezone perspective for me but it's a more than worthy trade-off considering how profitable it is vs employing people locally (there are always trade-offs).

For what it's worth, my career straight out of university was also sales. Provided you are successful in that area (which it sounds like you were) then you have the fundamentals in place to start a business because the sales part is the only differentiator between myself and most of those whom I employ (along with attitude). I was better at selling my skills than I was at executing when I started out but you do what's necessary to make sure your clients never know that's the case.

Once you start to get out there and talk to other small business owners you begin to realise most people are in fact winging it and learning as they go. The first step for you would be finding or developing a skill that you would be confident and comfortable in presenting to a potential target market and then going from there. Create recurring revenue opportunities for yourself, take advantage of globalisation and don't be afraid to ask for referrals. It won't be easy but if you have the right attitude combined with the right skillet then it can be done.

 

[Bry0]

I was short with you because fundamentally your attitude needs to change in order to be successful in starting a business but I'll entertain you anyway:

You scale up from zero (one man band), but you need a skill that is in demand that you can go out there and market in order to win work. I've successfully scaled a web/app development business to the mid 6 figures over the last decade (which now practically runs itself thanks to the people I have in place) and I'm now in the process of transitioning to begin to scale another business from zero (I just need a couple more qualifications which I will get later this year and I'm good to go).

It can be done but you need to be ready to be flexible and make huge sacrifices (particularly on the social side of things with friends/family/significant other) in the first couple of years when you're getting things off the ground.

I started with one years worth of living expenses saved, initially I was doing everything, the marketing, sales, finance, and the core development all by myself until I was sure it could be scaled without taking on debt/venture capital. To give you an idea I run very lean (I still run it from home, my "office" is a single room and only exists for legal purposes) and all of my employees are overseas which creates huge advantages from a currency exchange perspective. It's a bit of a nightmare from a timezone perspective for me but it's a more than worthy trade-off considering how profitable it is vs employing people locally (there are always trade-offs).

For what it's worth, my career straight out of university was also sales. Provided you are successful in that area (which it sounds like you were) then you have the fundamentals in place to start a business because the sales part is the only differentiator between myself and most of those whom I employ (along with attitude). I was better at selling my skills than I was at executing when I started out but you do what's necessary to make sure your clients never know that's the case.

Once you start to get out there and talk to other small business owners you begin to realise most people are in fact winging it and learning as they go. The first step for you would be finding or developing a skill that you would be confident and comfortable in presenting to a potential target market and then going from there. Create recurring revenue opportunities for yourself and don't be afraid to ask for referalls. It won't be easy but if you have the right attitude combined with the right skillet then it can be done.

This is a great post. Attitude, skill set, hard work, confidence, and you can’t be afraid of failure. If it was easy everybody would be their own boss.

 

[AJUMP23]

I guess you could be a YouTube shill. Just push product on YouTube.

Sounds like you don’t like sales. Depending on your degree there are lots of other white collar jobs that don’t require sales skills.

 

[arkhamguy123]

I was short with you because fundamentally your attitude needs to change in order to be successful in starting a business but I'll entertain you anyway:

You scale up from zero (one man band), but you need a skill that is in demand that you can go out there and market in order to win work. I've successfully scaled a web/app development business to the mid 6 figures over the last decade (which now practically runs itself thanks to the people I have in place) and I'm now in the process of transitioning to begin to scale another business from zero (I just need a couple more qualifications which I will get later this year and I'm good to go).

It can be done but you need to be ready to be flexible and make huge sacrifices (particularly on the social side of things with friends/family/significant other) in the first couple of years when you're getting things off the ground.

I started with one years worth of living expenses saved, initially I was doing everything, the marketing, sales, finance, and the core development all by myself until I was sure it could be scaled without taking on debt/venture capital. To give you an idea I run very lean (I still run it from home, my "office" is a single room in a building downtown and only exists for legal purposes) and all of my employees are overseas which creates huge advantages from a currency exchange perspective. It's a bit of a nightmare from a timezone perspective for me but it's a more than worthy trade-off considering how profitable it is vs employing people locally (there are always trade-offs).

For what it's worth, my career straight out of university was also sales. Provided you are successful in that area (which it sounds like you were) then you have the fundamentals in place to start a business because the sales part is the only differentiator between myself and most of those whom I employ (along with attitude). I was better at selling my skills than I was at executing when I started out but you do what's necessary to make sure your clients never know that's the case.

Once you start to get out there and talk to other small business owners you begin to realise most people are in fact winging it and learning as they go. The first step for you would be finding or developing a skill that you would be confident and comfortable in presenting to a potential target market and then going from there. Create recurring revenue opportunities for yourself, take advantage of globalisation and don't be afraid to ask for referrals. It won't be easy but if you have the right attitude combined with the right skillet then it can be done.

Daaaaamn now that’s what I’m talking about. Actually pretty inspiring.

I’ve toyed with different ideas. Two being a small food company. Like a yogurt shop or something. “Arkhamguy123s yogurt” ya know something like that. A moving company. Because I feel like that’s a market that could be better in my metroplex. And then like fitness/physical training because I’m an former athlete personally and am likely in the top like 3% of Americans as far as physical shape goe.

 

[NecrosaroIII]

2.5 year serious gf who im moved in with would take issue with that im afraid

If you're creative enough, you can turn it into a couples business.

 

[arkhamguy123]

I guess you could be a YouTube shill. Just push product on YouTube.

Sounds like you don’t like sales. Depending on your degree there are lots of other white collar jobs that don’t require sales skills.

Interviewed and applied for a metric ton of them. The algorithm discards my resume due to it being sales focused and when I get an interview I get fuckin ghosted or they go with other candidates with more relevant skill sets so :/

 

[tamago84]

Office work isn’t bad if you know how to play it. Build automative analysis models and its literally an hour of work for a full day.

 

[arkhamguy123]

Office work isn’t bad if you know how to play it. Build automative analysis models and its literally an hour of work for a full day.

Thats what my friends tell me. Just gotta find the right regular job I guess.

 

[GHG]

Daaaaamn now that’s what I’m talking about. Actually pretty inspiring.

I’ve toyed with different ideas. Two being a small food company. Like a yogurt shop or something. “Arkhamguy123s yogurt” ya know something like that. A moving company. Because I feel like that’s a market that could be better in my metroplex. And then like fitness/physical training because I’m an former athlete personally and am likely in the top like 3% of Americans as far as physical shape goe.

At a glance I'd say start with the bold. That's something you can get off the ground with very little capital. You will need to find a niche to drill into though because general PT is too broad in scope to be scaled (along with the fact that it's saturated). As an example I have a client that focuses on pre and post natal PT and they do very well for themselves.

For your first business you want to start with something that you don't need to buy anything to get started and isn't capital intensive, you just want to be able to ideally focus on developing and selling your skill (whatever that may be).

Interviewed and applied for a metric ton of them. The algorithm discards my resume due to it being sales focused and when I get an interview I get fuckin ghosted or they go with other candidates with more relevant skill sets so :/

Stop applying for jobs like everyone else. Get your linkedin tailored to whatever it is you want to do and start networking. Contact people who are managers or even own companies in your area of interest. You will get ignored a lot but the people who you get through to will be able to offer invaluable pointers and should hopefully prove to be good contacts.

 

[Kenneth Haight]

If you find the answer let me know.

am likely in the top like 3% of Americans as far as physical shape goe.

 

[Skyfox]

It seems that you lack imagination. Maybe you need a list of jobs to go through or talk to a person with recruitment experience.

When I was a kid they used to have this computer program where itd ask you a bunch of questions about yourself and then make some job recommendations. Maybe there's an app or something that helps this way

 

[Trogdor1123]

start your own business

This is what I was thinking too, it sounds like you want to run your own business more than anything. I saw the follow up where it seems you aren’t sure about it but if you figure out something local that you enjoy it could be the start of something great. Airbnb started as inflatable mattresses on a floor or something like that.

One thing I would remind you of is that you don’t work just for today, but also tomorrow. If you go and have a kid it would change things for you and then. You won’t always be able to be a 25 year old free spirit. It’s going to come faster than you think too

 

[GHG]

You won’t always be able to be a 25 year old free spirit. It’s going to come faster than you think too

This is the brutal truth.

Experiment and take risks while you are young, time is on your side to recover.

 

[Trogdor1123]

This is the brutal truth.

Experiment and take risks while you are young, time is on your side to recover.

I think so too. Op seems like he would thrive in those kind of situations too. A small business can be extremely nimble and provide highly customizable services, which seems to be their strength.

 

[AJUMP23]

Interviewed and applied for a metric ton of them. The algorithm discards my resume due to it being sales focused and when I get an interview I get fuckin ghosted or they go with other candidates with more relevant skill sets so :/

Keep applying. Tailor your resume toward the job you apply to.

 

[Happosai]

Beggar

I mean, that's all that's left. I'm a marketing strategist but have had quite a few blue and white collared jobs in my 20 + years working. One thing I bring up that fundamentally won't change about work, a job or employers...it's hard. If work was easy maybe we'd see less claiming disabilty (for non-disabilities) or simply job hopping. Top down or bottom up, if you want to earn a living...you'll have to labor for it.

Or...become a beggar. Even that takes some effort...

 

[TwiztidElf]

I feel your pain OP. Your main paragraphs 1 and 2 resonated with me.
Reading your situation, I reckon either go for a proper professional trade, or a proper driving job.

 

[RoboFu]

Mom’s basement?

 

[Sleepwalker]

Interviewed and applied for a metric ton of them. The algorithm discards my resume due to it being sales focused and when I get an interview I get fuckin ghosted or they go with other candidates with more relevant skill sets so :/

Lie.

I'm not even kidding, if you want to land a job and play the corporate game then it's every man for himself, you are good at sales so sell yourself by sprinkling your resume with bullshit. That delivery driver gap in your resume? Say you were working in logistics or something like that, I'm sure you can come up with something. You have friends, list them as references.

Almost a decade ago I landed a management position after not being "properly employed" for years because I put in my resume that I was in charge of managing a restaurant that a friend owns (never worked there aside from some freelance stuff lol).

Worst that can happen is you suck at the job and can't figure it out and get fired, but you can just not put that company in your resume and try somewhere else


I too dislike the corporate world and hate it with a passion, so much like people in this thread I ended up deciding to work on my own, first doing some freelancing and then forming a business with a couple associates for a couple years, then branching off on my own.

 

[Slicker than your average]

I currently work a job that I'm starting to fallout of liking. I'm studying in my own time to become a network engineer.

Network engineer is a great career path. Depending on the role or company you can work onsite or from home.
You can work for yourself or on call. But your practically running your whole day.

Look Into it.

I used to be a teacher. Now that fucking sucks.

 

[arkhamguy123]

Lie.

I'm not even kidding, if you want to land a job and play the corporate game then it's every man for himself, you are good at sales so sell yourself by sprinkling your resume with bullshit. That delivery driver gap in your resume? Say you were working in logistics or something like that, I'm sure you can come up with something. You have friends, list them as references.

Almost a decade ago I landed a management position after not being "properly employed" for years because I put in my resume that I was in charge of managing a restaurant that a friend owns (never worked there aside from some freelance stuff lol).

Worst that can happen is you suck at the job and can't figure it out and get fired, but you can just not put that company in your resume and try somewhere else


I too dislike the corporate world and hate it with a passion, so much like people in this thread I ended up deciding to work on my own, first doing some freelancing and then forming a business with a couple associates for a couple years, then branching off on my own.

Shit man are you hiring?

How did you go about starting up your own business?

 

[arkhamguy123]

I currently work a job that I'm starting to fallout of liking. I'm studying in my own time to become a network engineer.

Network engineer is a great career path. Depending on the role or company you can work onsite or from home.
You can work for yourself or on call. But your practically running your whole day.

Look Into it.

I used to be a teacher. Now that fucking sucks.

I had the idea to become a track coach because I was a varsity athlete back in the day and I love the sport.

Turns out they require teachin on the side and I don’t even know how a corporate guy/delivery driver would get in the education system anyways. But I’m disheartened to hear that teaching sucks so much now

 

[Mikado]

There is another buzzword we've been throwing around. "Green collar" I work in an analytical lab [...]

I hear green collar, I think

 

[Crayon]

I hear green collar, I think

I was laughing,

but actually op......

 

[Werewolf Jones]

OnlyFans.

Get spreading them cheeks boy.