CareerAdvice #CreativeJobs #HandsOnJobs
Looking for a career that allows you to get your hands dirty and be creative? 🛠️💡
Here are some ideas for jobs that combine building and creativity:
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Carpenter: Crafting furniture, cabinets, and other woodwork projects.
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Chef or Baker: Creating delicious dishes and pastries in the kitchen.
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Mechanic: Working on cars, motorcycles, or other vehicles.
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Architect or Interior Designer: Designing and creating spaces that are both functional and beautiful.
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Craftsman or Artist: Creating handmade goods like pottery, jewelry, or paintings.
- Electrician or Plumber: Building and fixing electrical or plumbing systems.
Do you have any other suggestions for hands-on, creative careers? Share them below! 🙌
As for the math classes, maybe try showing him how math can be practical and applicable in hands-on jobs like engineering or woodworking. Practical examples might make math seem less intimidating! 📚✏️
Good luck to your son in finding the perfect career path! 🌟
Drop out of college and do a trade apprenticeship instead.
Carpentry, construction, welding, boat building.
If he really wants to do college, since it’ll be free, he can go for architecture.
this is kind of random, but I was chatting recently with one of my friends who happens to be a surgeon and I had a minor epiphany that he actually had a “working with his hands” type job. he is a literal brain surgeon. super cool guy and obviously super smart and focused. my kids call him uncle and they love hanging out at his place with tons of retro video games. interested and conversent in tons of stuff, all kinds of interesting hobbies and passions, all around crazy goofy guy. For comparison I’m a corporate drone – I make my money by using my hands to type and attending endless meetings. I don’t know how much creativity his job entails, but he does seem to be having fun. maybe address whatever math trauma he experienced.
some things i can think of are sculpture/pottery — perhaps he can make a career out of teaching it to uni students! (Some of my fave classes btw) or carpentry/woodwork!
or auto mechanic? (for the working with the hands at least)
Construction management? Architecture?
I don’t think you should pressure him to take more math classes or be an engineer. He’s already told you repeatedly that he doesn’t want to do it.
I’m a barber and it’s a fun career but be prepared to realize the hardest part is getting people to trust u and build clientele unless u work at great clips but don’t do that.
Carpentry for sure. He needs a trade school. I don’t know anything about the trades, but he can work for a furniture store building chairs, tables, desks. My only other exposure to carpentry is crating, like building a crate to store fragile and very expensive furniture/artwork for shipping so the object doesn’t break during the long transit anywhere across the country or to another country.
Why doesn’t he like math? Is he good at it and simply finds it boring? Or is he really bad at it?
By the way, it sounds more like YOU want him to be an engineer even though he said no to math.
He’s going to have to take some math classes with any degree. It’s part of general education.
I have a lot of friends who got into things like building exhibitions for museums. All you need for that are some trade courses. I also have a number of friend who are simply “wood workers,” working in fabrication warehouses. They are paid well.
Industrial design is a great major.
What about art preservation? Couple that with art history or anthropology and that could lead to some interesting musuem work as well.
Building/restoring custom furniture?
This post resonated with me on a personal level, so my answer will be long and heavily reliant on my life experience. I’m currently an engineer student.
First, if he doesn’t feel confident with math at a high school level, I don’t think he’s going to do well in engineering. I was always “good at math”, but I still found college level calculus and beyond to be orders of magnitude more difficult than anything I learned at school. I’ve seen less “naturally talented” people get emotionally destroyed trying to pass engineering math. Many try and fail.
Second, a STEM degree is not a guaranteed ticket to success. At the end of the day, whatever degree you get, drive and motivation is what will get you ahead, and it can be pretty difficult to remain disciplined if you don’t truly care about the subject matter.
I learned that the hard way: It’s taken me several extra years of misery to get my engineering degree mainly because I dread the idea of having to do it for a living. I’m convinced that I would have been better served by learning a trade or studying architecture, as I originally wanted to do, and was advised against.
Actually, Architecture might be a good fit for your son, if he’s aesthetically inclined. He will definitely be doing a lot with his hands (at least during school, probably not so much if he decides to work in the industry).
Truth be told, I hear architecture can be a rough way to make a living. School can be very time consuming and, even if you don’t pay tuition, you’ll need arts and craft supplies and quality ones can be pricey. Working conditions in the industry aren’t great either: oversupply of profesionales makes it so that only the top few actually make it to the point of leading a design project, and it can take decades to get there. Long hours and low pay seem common too. Truly, architectural practice as a career is probably best pursued only by those who are genuinely passionate about it.
However, he doesn’t necessarily have to work as an architect if he studies it, a lot of graduates transition into all sorts of design roles in different industries. Good design principles are universal and CAD/BIM software skills are always nice to have. I personally know an architect who went into woodworking and now designs furniture for a living.
I wouldn’t completely rule out trade schools. There’s been many-a-nights in which I’ve wondered if I wouldn’t be happier working as a carpenter or as a cobbler. As your son, I do feel a certain drive to work with my hands and “see” the effects of my work in the real world, in real time. Sadly, that doesn’t really happen in most white-collar professions.
Even engineers are rarely actually “working with their hands”. Most of the time, they’re in charge of designing (in an office) whatever it is that it’s being built or supervising/managing the tradesman who actually build it. Regardless, I do understand that if he has the opportunity to get a college level degree for free, then it is kind of a no-brainer to do so.
I fully understand that you don’t want him to waste this great opportunity he has, but don’t push him into anything. I truly cannot stress this enough: if he doesn’t have a strong intrinsic drive to get whatever degree he’s pursuing, he will struggle.
Tbh, if I could do it all over again, I would have taken a year off and worked any random entry level job between graduating high-school and enrolling in college. I truly didn’t know enough about life or myself to be making that sort of life-defining decision when I was 17. I’ve found that you learn a lot of “real-life knowledge” during your first job, even if it has nothing to do with you’re interests or long term plans. Idk if that would be possible while maintaining the grants.
I know I’m not really providing a clear answer, but I don’t think I can. It has to be HIS decision, all you can do is guide him.
Cheers.
I work for a theme park and work with my hands, though my position doesn’t require creativity there are a lot that do. That could be an option for him. A theme park needs every job under the sun to keep operating and it’s a fun environment.
May be worth looking into?
Industrial design +/- model making?
Regardless, college is the time for him to learn and figure things out. He might take advantage of his college’s career resource center to explore different career paths. I highly recommend informational interviews so he can connect with people in different fields to find out what their jobs are like and how they got to where they are in their careers. Hopefully he can take some electives that will help him narrow down some interests.
Mathematician here. He might consider Elementary Education. Kids are a hoot to work with. Men in Elem, especially lower Elem, are still a rarity.
Architecture