Critterhunter
New member
Thought it would be fun to hear where you guys live and what you do for a living. This would also be a good time to get a few of you lurkers who never post to at least come out and tell us a little about yourself.
I live about 10 to 20 miles south of Cleveland, right near Hopkins airport if you know where that is. I like this area (suburbs). Wouldn't want to live in the city, and if I head south 10 miles or so I'm already getting into the country with farm fields and such. Best of both worlds. Funny thing is I've lived here all my life but I'd say I've only been to down town Cleveland maybe 10 or so times in my life. Nothing there for me. Plenty of suburb cities around to do shopping in and not have to deal with the Cleveland traffic.
I'm blessed with a large Metropark system that goes on for miles and has history to it. Found a lot of good coins in the woods along the river down there and in the picnic groves. This park system runs for MANY miles as it follows the river and is in a valley, and has many picnic groves and such along it's roadway. There used to be gritmills on the river in places back in the 1800's so it has it's history. We have several nearby towns who's history goes back to the early 1800's and some towns I'm sure date back to the 1700's. None of these are very far away, either. Like 10 to 20 miles to get to many of them.
What do I do for a living? Nothing at the moment. I used to own my own window cleaning business for about 15 years. I got burned out at that and went to a heating and air conditioning school. Graduated top of my class in 2008. Haven't looked hard for a job in it that whole time. Been waiting for the economy to get better so I'd have better odds. They say there is a great demand for HVAC techs but most of the help wanted ads I see want 5 years of experience or more. Nobody seems to want to give you that experience.
Had to file for bankruptcy this past year. Now I've been looking hard again for a job in this field as they tend to higher new guys in the spring to do clean and checks and such. When I apply to these jobs my resume says I've been self employed all this time waiting for the economy to get better before switching careers, so it doesn't look so bad.
I'm thinking of going to another HVAC school in my area that is twice as long (14 months) as my school was and has job placement. My school didn't have any job placement. This place has companies that hire directly from them. Supposed to have 73% job placement this past year right out of school, which is pretty good in this bad economy. Found out I can get a government backed student loan and a pell grant even though I had the bankruptcy as it's based on need and not credit history. Hoping that's true and I can borrow enough to go to school there with enough to pay for gas and such while attending. I'll find out in a few weeks about that.
I hope you guys haven't had it as hard as me in this bad economy. They say we always come out of a depression but what scares me the most is those were the days when there were good jobs to go to that you could raise a family on. The manufacturing base in this country is just about gone so how are people with no college degrees going to make enough money to live on. Having spending money is what makes the economy move on, and I just don't see those jobs out there for people these days who get back in the work force. They are working for $8 an hour at a retail store or worse. Heck, even these kids with college degrees aren't finding jobs. A lot of those jobs were at companies when they made things in this country.
Enough rambling. How's this economy been treating you? What do you do for a living and how did you fall into that profession? Always interests me to hear these kinds of stories.
I live about 10 to 20 miles south of Cleveland, right near Hopkins airport if you know where that is. I like this area (suburbs). Wouldn't want to live in the city, and if I head south 10 miles or so I'm already getting into the country with farm fields and such. Best of both worlds. Funny thing is I've lived here all my life but I'd say I've only been to down town Cleveland maybe 10 or so times in my life. Nothing there for me. Plenty of suburb cities around to do shopping in and not have to deal with the Cleveland traffic.
I'm blessed with a large Metropark system that goes on for miles and has history to it. Found a lot of good coins in the woods along the river down there and in the picnic groves. This park system runs for MANY miles as it follows the river and is in a valley, and has many picnic groves and such along it's roadway. There used to be gritmills on the river in places back in the 1800's so it has it's history. We have several nearby towns who's history goes back to the early 1800's and some towns I'm sure date back to the 1700's. None of these are very far away, either. Like 10 to 20 miles to get to many of them.
What do I do for a living? Nothing at the moment. I used to own my own window cleaning business for about 15 years. I got burned out at that and went to a heating and air conditioning school. Graduated top of my class in 2008. Haven't looked hard for a job in it that whole time. Been waiting for the economy to get better so I'd have better odds. They say there is a great demand for HVAC techs but most of the help wanted ads I see want 5 years of experience or more. Nobody seems to want to give you that experience.
Had to file for bankruptcy this past year. Now I've been looking hard again for a job in this field as they tend to higher new guys in the spring to do clean and checks and such. When I apply to these jobs my resume says I've been self employed all this time waiting for the economy to get better before switching careers, so it doesn't look so bad.
I'm thinking of going to another HVAC school in my area that is twice as long (14 months) as my school was and has job placement. My school didn't have any job placement. This place has companies that hire directly from them. Supposed to have 73% job placement this past year right out of school, which is pretty good in this bad economy. Found out I can get a government backed student loan and a pell grant even though I had the bankruptcy as it's based on need and not credit history. Hoping that's true and I can borrow enough to go to school there with enough to pay for gas and such while attending. I'll find out in a few weeks about that.
I hope you guys haven't had it as hard as me in this bad economy. They say we always come out of a depression but what scares me the most is those were the days when there were good jobs to go to that you could raise a family on. The manufacturing base in this country is just about gone so how are people with no college degrees going to make enough money to live on. Having spending money is what makes the economy move on, and I just don't see those jobs out there for people these days who get back in the work force. They are working for $8 an hour at a retail store or worse. Heck, even these kids with college degrees aren't finding jobs. A lot of those jobs were at companies when they made things in this country.
Enough rambling. How's this economy been treating you? What do you do for a living and how did you fall into that profession? Always interests me to hear these kinds of stories.
Jim