Work in security/as a security guard
The baseline pay is decent, and if you want you can get certifications that up you're wage by a bit
OT is plentiful and the job is a joke TBH all I did was walk around and wave to people for the most part
this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2026
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Look for local governments, maybe parks and rec, waste water, transportation. Learn to type fast to pass the typing test, learn word and excel, and if possible systems like workday or other time and personnel software. You sometimes do not need a degree for those assistant positions
my condolences OP
jobs are bullshit and public-facing ones are especially brutal
Check if your state requires a guard card. If so spend 100 bucks get one, it not go apply to a security company.
Make anywhere form 20 bucks an hour to 30 bucks an hour depending on where you are.
The work is basically brain dead and has zero physical requirements beyond being able to stand, walk and breath at the same time.
Security work is mostly paper work and staying awake. If you want to invest into it then armed work can make 30-40 an hour and if you REALLY invest into it the nicer companies with high end contracts basically have no upper limit on how much you can make.
But for your run of the mill guard, your basically just a modern day butler. You just watch shit, fill out reports and call the cops for the property owner when things actually happen.
Spend a few months in Vocational school > massage therapist > pass all the licensure tests > earn around $500/day working at a spa.
I worked retail and retail adjacent for almost 20 years. I just started a corporate job for a very big electronics company. The answer?
Know people.
I know it sucks to hear, but it really truly is who you know. I got lucky once but it’s seriously all about the connections you make. Your best bets are from informal friends. People who know you well enough to say you’d be good for a job, but they’re not invested in you either being there or not.
The only reason I am where I am now is because I made connections. Read the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” if you’re an introvert. It helped me understand how people view each other’s interactions better.
There’s a lot of remote jobs too that you can start looking into. Use your retail planning and selling experience for remote sales roles or remote account management.
This is kind of the most useful part of secondary education too. I'm very introverted but by chance I ended hanging out with a group of very extroverted talented guys who got me in at 3/4 of the companies I've worked for in my professional career
My experience is very late 2010s and early pandemic era tech industry focused though. I'm unemployed right now but not even my connections are able to get me on anywhere since nobody's hiring it seems :(
Know people.
This aspect cannot be overstated. I landed my biggest* jobs because of my professional network. Moreover, I landed those roles during some serious labor market carnage: Dotcom Bust, Great Recession, and the current knowledge career uncertainty.
*Highest salary, longest running, best environment, most career growth, or some combination thereof.
My first job was pizza delivery for a local shop. My mom knew someone who worked there, and I got the job through her. They weren't exactly hiring for the position yet, but they knew they were going to need someone seen because their current delivery guy was going back to college in a couple months. She knew I was looking for a job, floated my name to the owner, and he called me.
Second job was a warehouse shipping/receiving position. Again, got it through a family friend who was their accountant or something. He mentioned they were looking for someone, I said I might be interested, and he basically set everything up for me to come in and interview and I was basically hired on the spot.
Now I work in 911 dispatch. This is basically the only job I actually found and applied for myself, I saw they were doing some sort of hiring event and I thought it was something I could do. Still though, I worked my connections, my brother in law is a firefighter, and knows a lot of people in local public safety/first responder circles, so I got him to ask someone he knows who works here to put in a good word for me. It could be that I just really impressed them, but I only had one interview and a lot of people who got hired at the same time as me, some arguably with more impressive resumes, had to go through an additional round or two of interviews.
So as the old saying goes, it's not so much what you know as who you know.
When I was applying for jobs on my own back at 16-18 years old, even shitty retail gigs, I never seemed to get anywhere, online, paper applications, etc. never seemed to go anywhere, occasionally I got an interview but they never panned out. But when I know someone, or know someone who knows someone, I have a 100% success rate of getting hired and I've gotten to skip some of the bureaucracy to boot, and they've turned out to be pretty stable, reasonably well-paying jobs given my level of experience and such.
This sucks sooo fucking much, but it's true. I don't network, and the only way I've had decent jobs is by the people in the company getting to know me and moving up. My current job is at the place I did security for, for 3 years while getting my degree.
Another thing to consider: learning a trade.
I don't know what the trades are like in the USA but here in the UK, once you have a tradesperson you like and who does an above-average job, you go back to that same person until they retire.
It could be anything people need. Electrics or plumbing are high-skill trades and really well paid. Cleaning is a good low-skill trade, it's hard work but it's a job for life. Buy some tools, get good at it. Start with windows, they're easy and basically everyone needs it, and all you need is a squeegee, a clean towel, and a bucket. Get a dedicated business phone number and email address. Print up some flyers with fixed prices (find out what other local businesses are charging and undercut them slightly until you get on your feet) and your business phone number on, and distribute them as far as your legs will carry you.
In the US very few employers in licensed trades are willing to apprentice anyone anymore so it can be difficult to find your way in
The trades are run by white supremisist gangs
mmmkay
If you like working with your hands, look into education for the trades. People that do trade jobs are only getting more and more rare these days so theres a good chance you can get a job that way and it pays waaay better than retail in a lot of cases.
Also like others said, knowing someone is also ideal.
The union trades are run by white supremisist gangs.
This right here. I know so many people who got into the trades and made $100-250k per year here in the Midwestern US. That's after just 5-10 years in a trade. Starting out it might be half that, but you get raises as you advance in the trade and if it's a union trade you usually also get good yearly raises. So some trades will advance your pay every 6-12 months as you step up through the apprenticeship. So you move up quickly and you're getting paid for nearly all your training (minus some studying you do in your personal hours).
If you're willing to work overtime, plenty is available. As others have said, there's a large demand for people in the trades.
Check local union halls. Many of them will even help you with job shadowing people in the different trades so you can check the jobs out beforehand.
I just paid someone $500 to do a simple water line to my dishwasher. Huge rip off. But they get paid well. $200/hr.
Its only gonna go up. Fewer and fewer folks know how to do real work.
Exactly. I'd recommend everyone try and fix things themselves at least sometimes. I try and fix small things I don't want to have to buy again if I can.
Sometimes it makes sense to pay someone, but its a good skill to have.
I stay away from plumbing and gas in my house because I don't want to blow up or get flooded. But I do all my own electrical because I know what I'm doing!
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If you can swing the time and tuition, every urban hospital needs CNAs. It’s probably the least schooling for the most job security. Phlebotomy as well. Hospitals also, historically, offer cheaper/better health care if you stay in house.
Mileage will vary a lot by location, in terms of pay and such, but it’s worth looking into. In adfition, it shows you options and offers tuition reimbursement.
Hospitals, not long term care. The latter is awful, in most locations.
Barring that, there’s no schooling options like EVS and logistics/supply runners. The latter will be among the first cuts if Congress allows further cuts to Medicaid or Medicare.
Nursing?? But OP said "lets me work on a consistent schedule. I'm so sick of having my hours constantly whipped back and forth. I just want to go to bed at the same time every day."
I don't think nursing is very forgiving in that regard. They alternate 3 shifts, 24/7, constantly changing it around. No consistent schedules, and say goodbye to going to bed at the same time every day.
You’re right. Granted, consistent rotations or lack thereof will vary by both employer and manager. RN or CMA at a clinic will have consistent weekday scheduling. Same with the non-degrees roles.
Patient registration is an option. Retail experience will likely count in her favor.
What about customer support?
That can be a launching point as long as it's within the company. I know several people who started in those sorts of positions and moved up quickly to non-customer facing roles.
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Get on as a construction helper. Zero experience required, just show up on time with some basic tools every day.
Emphasis added.
what would basic tools be. Seems wierd they expect the person to show up with tools for a general helper job.
Measuring tape, speed square, pencil, bags, durable and weather appropriate clothes/shoes. Lunch. Water. It's just the industry standard.
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If youre super green (no experience at all) they wont expect much. You wont need much for the first year other than being able to show up, listen to directions, and not hurt yourself or others.
A framing crew will expect you to have basic hand tools more than a general construction company would. One is teaching you a trade and the other just wants a laborer.
Being a good helper gets you started toward something better. A lead, a contractor, whatever. I work for myself now, and that is very achievable for anyone.
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Nepotism. Who's your daddy and what does he do?
My dad's a gynecologist. He looks at vaginas all day long.
And if he bites you, you get rabies and die
It’s been decades now, but when I was still in school I worked for a temporary employment agency for a couple summers. I had an interview with them so they could get a feel for my qualifications, then they would line me up with random office jobs that could last anywhere from one or two days to a month or more. For most of one summer I worked in the mailroom of a law office.
If you can find an employment agency like that near you it might be a good way to get your foot in the door. Keep your eyes open wherever they send you and see if there might be chances for longer term jobs. The experience of being a temp with a good work ethic can also look good on a resume.
Temporary agencies was always how my wife always found work. She had old school office training in high school, so she could always get a temp job, and sooner later she'd find one that would last a few months, and eventually they'd just want her to stay on permanently. It never failed to get her job somewhere.
Try some sort of construction or electrical installations.
Then you learn useful skills, AND youll likely be one of the smarter people there (Lotta folks are the kind who drink a 30 pack of Busch and go to the strip club daily. Not exactly geniuses). so eventually you can get into designing drafting or management.
Or just look into drafting. Read up on how factories work. We need smart engineer type people.
Otherwise , movie theater or bowling alley? Arcade? Those jobs are hell of a lot better than Walmart. Pays shit tho.
Or, janitor. We always need people to clean. Hell, even with my full time job, I cleaned offices on weekends because it was so easy and gave me extra cash. In my case I did it alone which was great, headphones in and just clean.
If you're reasonably good at using computers (you probably are if you're posting here?), you should be able to find office jobs where your job is to enter information into computers or do similar "secretary"-like tasks. But I don't know what it's like in your area.
You need education. Either a college degree or a licensed trade skill. You also need experience in a related field.
You also need to know what you want to do. You can't just magically walk into a high paying job with good pay without paying your dues, unless you're a nepo-baby who has a parental/family hook up.
This is good. But "need" is perhaps too strong. Lots of highly successful people without education. Lots of highly educated people who couldn't cut it. Plus it too has barriers of it own (costs, loansharking student loans)
It's good, but isn't the only way.
This right here.
Annecdotal, but I have never worked for a company nor in a team that did not have a fair share of people that took the work experience route instead of the school route. It took them longer to get to the jobs fresh college grads were applying for and they had to work some shit jobs on the way, but that real-world experience gave them a perspective that college never could and it was a valued resource that provided immense benefits to the teams they worked with.
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Try a temp agency. Many have temp to perm positions in offices and factories, some staff trades and labour. Is it ideal? No. But my current job pays me $26/h and I started as a temp 10 years ago.
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Don't know where you are. But look at the directories for business parks and office buildings around you.
Landscaper, tree worker, construction.
I see "hiring" signs for these jobs all over the place.
Go to EMT school. It's a fairly short program. Shouldn't be terribly expensive.
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In country out-sourcing, i.e., Quest Global, Cyient, Belcan. Bigger Companies use outsource labor for certain work, and doesnt pick the resources (people) the outsourcer uses to accomplish the work. if you can do Excel and are reliable, theres hope.
All happens locally often having you work on site at Bigger Company with a different color badge. Less resistance to hiring underqualified people this way. Typically small contained scope tasks not worth having a company man do, but excellent industry exposure. Once youre there you could see if its viable to apply to Bigger Company later, or what you need to be able to. Worth a look if you have something like that nearby.
You could look into a government job. It’s kinda fraught with the current administration, but there are lots of entry level government jobs with regular schedules and decent benefits.
Another possibility is care work or whatever it’s called. I have a few friends who work in housing for the developmentally disabled and I’ve seen listings for jobs in psych wards/mental health type places that don’t have any degree requirements. There’s probably similar jobs in elder care too that don’t have any degree requirements.
Find what sector you want to work in and start educating yourself about it. Even online certificates help. Most jobs work on a consistent schedule.
If you are dead set on going at this with no education and nothing of value on your CV, look into factory and warehouse work. It's boring and repetitive though. Another option is municipal work, they sometimes have good paying jobs with little experience needed.
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