Minimal training for maximum payoff

[toonia]

What types of training requires a minimum time investment to greatest financial return? I'm looking into developing an avocation, and thought I should research it. I'm most interested in training programs which take 1-2 years resulting in 20-30K yearly income. These can post-baccalaureate programs. What options do you know about?

[Charlie Mc.]

You can get a 1year certificate for Automotive Technology and provided you work hard make 20-30k your first year. You get paid more if you take you ASE exams. It is possible to have all 8 passed by the time you get out of school. The thing about working in the automotive field is how much money you make is based on how hard and efficiently you work. Doing right, the first time quickly makes a huge difference. I know guys who have been wrenching for 15years making over 100k a year.

[Henry]

You can get a 1year certificate for Automotive Technology and provided you work hard make 20-30k your first year. You get paid more if you take you ASE exams. It is possible to have all 8 passed by the time you get out of school. The thing about working in the automotive field is how much money you make is based on how hard and efficiently you work. Doing right, the first time quickly makes a huge difference. I know guys who have been wrenching for 15years making over 100k a year.

No offense, but I'd rather shoot myself than work mechanically. No doubt its a good career for some, but mechanics just aren't my thing. Perhaps others are different.

I'm debating between getting a teaching credential, which is the low risk low reward option, and getting a PhD in economics at a mid or low ranking program. If I get any meaningful funding, I'm probably going to take the PhD option as I just don't care about money and would rather be doing very stimulating work. If I got a BS in math I could go almost anywhere. Its a meandering option that I'm considering as well.

Also, an option to do shitty work for a ton of money is insurance adjusting. Go to Xactimate school for about a month and you'll have a ton of reasonable offers. Its what I do right now. If you get directly employed with a carrier you can do 55 and a car by end of first year, if you go with an independent adjusting firm, you can do easily do 40 per hour, triple that if you're willing to go to catastrophes. I fucking hate, HATE the company I work for, and dislike a lot of elements of the work, but you can make a LOT of money in the industry with little formal education.

[GOD]

What types of training requires a minimum time investment to greatest financial return? I'm looking into developing an avocation, and thought I should research it. I'm most interested in training programs which take 1-2 years resulting in 20-30K yearly income. These can post-baccalaureate programs. What options do you know about?

Find a niche that you can take a course on, and that builds on your prior skills acquisition (unless you hate it completely).

[ShaiGar]

Developing ones own business requires simply an INTP, INTJ, ENTP approach to the world. There are a lot of good books on the subject Kiyosakis "Rich Dad Series" is pretty good mental training. If you do it right huge payoffs occur.

[Allwheelsnmotion]

You can get a 1year certificate for Automotive Technology and provided you work hard make 20-30k your first year. You get paid more if you take you ASE exams. It is possible to have all 8 passed by the time you get out of school. The thing about working in the automotive field is how much money you make is based on how hard and efficiently you work. Doing right, the first time quickly makes a huge difference. I know guys who have been wrenching for 15years making over 100k a year.

You can take the ASE exams but you won't get your certificate until you have your 2 years work experience first. Kinda hard to get a well paying job in the auto field when you have no certificates/representaion of knowledge. I was actually hired by my employer when I went there for a simple favor. He seemed overwhelmed with what I knew being only 20 at the time. A week later he flagged me down driving by and offered me a posistion. I make a crappy wage but I am not working flat rate which makes me very comfortable in that I can take a little extra time and do the job right without having to worry if I fall behind and won't be paid for what I'm doing.

I like the job and how I have to pay attention to every detail, but working in a dealership (chills up and down spine) on flat rate is where the money is at.

[Oversphere]

Most places know that ASE certifications are a joke. The truck dealership where I used to work didn't care at all about them. In the more retail-oriented shops, they're basically an advertising tool. The truckstop where I work now pays for our ASE tests (only one or two per year). They're easy enough to pass, especially with my ability to pass ANY multiple choice test (it's one of my super-powers). I'll be a MASTER TECH :rolleyes: soon enough.

As far as pay goes, 100k is probably a pipe dream. I'm sure it's possible in a few odd circumstances, but I wouldn't count on it. The place where I work now pays on a system that is a modified version of flat rate. I'm working part time while going to college. If I worked there fulltime, I'd probably make around 50k a year. This is one of the better paying shops in knoxville, though probably not the best. Because the job is so performance-oriented, most of my coworkers are some variant of SP. Generally, they think I'm kinda weird, and I think they're kinda dumb, but we respect each others' abilities to get shit done.

I'm working and scheming to get out of this line of work. I have a long and uninteresting list of complaints about mechanicing. The job has served and is serving its purpose, though. It's arguably an ok job, depending on how you look at it. You could do worse.

[Wildflower]

What types of training requires a minimum time investment to greatest financial return? I'm looking into developing an avocation, and thought I should research it. I'm most interested in training programs which take 1-2 years resulting in 20-30K yearly income. These can post-baccalaureate programs. What options do you know about?

I know that respiratory technician used to take a relatively short period of time (12 months) to complete and paid well.

Medical transcription can pay as high as 60K and my sister in law is taking a one year course to be certified.

[Charlie Mc.]

I know two guys who have pulled down over 100K for the last couple of years. Sure it is extraordinary, but they are very good, get paid well and regularly flag 120hours in a week. Both these guys are exceptional, but it can be done. As for the ASE's time spent in school does count. So does time spent as a helper. In the area I used to live it wasn't hard to get hired even if you had no ASE's. Adding ASE's just meant you got paid better. And yes, in my experience they are just an advertising tool, and any halfway decent tech should have all 8.

[banzai]

IT certification. Smart study and good exam taking skills net you industry accredition and a rather good salary.

[Mason]

IT certification. Smart study and good exam taking skills net you industry accredition and a rather good salary.

This is very true. I'm making $50k right now without a college degree.

If you're looking for ~$30k, A+ certification (PC tech) would be a good place to start.