This thread is no different from most highschool reunion gathering, everybody has a mindset "hey, my life is better than yours, now bow to me" It was like this 10 years ago, it will be the same 10 years later. That's why the number people attend this type of gathering usually drops every single year.

drop-outs really that bad? Chinese people have this saying "70% hard work, 30% luck" you do well at school does not mean you become success at work. School is only a place to train your logical thinking and equip essential knowledge skill. Experience and how you performance at work determine your career and future. Just my thought after working for many years.

Does the saying come with a Chinese accent? Reading that in my head all i could hear is a fob trying to say exactly what you wrote.

that's a very narrow view.

what if you had everything you do now, and 100x more deep connections.
wouldn't that help you a lot more?

what about if you had to compete with other people that were your equals?
but you knew someone on the inside? or owed you a huge favor?

what if the economy was 10x worse right now?

there's a fine balance between working hard and working smart.

you seem like you dumped most your energy into working hard.


you gotta remember, no one really cares how you did it on your own, and that it was all you.

and no one cares about how the next person got a job cuz of a hookup.

all they care about is, they got the job.

if you worked harder for the same achievement as someone else.
if you feel good about it. well okay, whatever makes u feel good.


i don't know about you, but no offence (i don't mean it in an aggressive way), if i can get from point A to B catching a ride from a horse, or someone else's car or whatever. I'm going to do that, rather than walk.

the guy that walked, will meet me at the finish line. I'll be like, "that's kinda impressive? but kinda inefficient use of your energy and time? but why didn't you just call your buddy? (or did you not have one to call? or ego too big to ask someone for help?)... well whatever, i guess here's a beer and pat yourself on the back... cya at the next finish line, btw here's my number, if you ever need a ride, gimmie a call."

I've hooked people up for jobs numerous times through myself or my contacts... And should I require it, I'd expect my contacts to do the same for me...

Great if you can get in without any contacts, but if you have contacts why not use them? Why have 1 company offer you a job when you can have 4 friends each offer you a job, then you choose?

Sorry I was typing on the phone. Educate yourself is what I ment to say. you don't need to run off to school to learn a trade, or to learn certain courses.

There is free learning online, and there are textbooks at the library. I self taught myself math instead of taking the course and then wrote at MDT at Langara which stated that I had grade 12 knowledge.

Either way, fuck this thread and fuck the op. Shits a soapbox.

straight up though, why would anybody want to drop out anyways .. it just shows how fucking lazy you are as a human being
it's true - high school IS a walk in the park. teachers & counselors are there for your needs, and they practically hold your hand and guide you through it (unlike university).
i'd understand if there was a serious issue present that hindered you from graduating, but otherwise, there shouldn't be an excuse
i didn't want to say it, but to the revscene members that have dropped out, i hope you guys aren't frontin & exaggerating your achievements 'cause any teenagers who read this will think, "hey, those guys made it in life w/o high school, i probably could too"
i have a lot of naive buddies like that :lol

finish what you started. honestly, you actually learn a shit ton of useful stuff for life relevance, especially in grades 11 & 12. Law, biology, chemistry, etc ..

heck, i goofed grade 9 & 10. failed science & english 9 :lol and took remedial summer courses for them. i was careless, but i didn't want to drop out. now that my grade 12 year's approaching, i got my shit together, worked hard, and achieved A's & B's during grade 11 in the courses that were relevant to what i wanted to do for the future
sure, they're nothing but grades, but w/ a high school education + any post-secondary, a lot more doors open up for you opposed to not having them at all

just my 0.02

I like how this thread became a thread about education vs no/incomplete education.

Well, thats pretty much what it started as so......

If that's the case, then why should I even get a job? I'll just take all the money my dad passes on to me after he passes, right?

If you think nobody cares how you got that job, but rather just that you got it, you're wrong.

People will respect the person who created his business himself from the ground up far more than the person who simply took over his father's business, and hence, got lucky because he 'knew' someone.

Sure, the money might be the same at the end of the day, but the respect factor will not be, and the person starting from scratch will probably feel a lot better about themselves and their accomplishments than the guy who simply took over dad's business...

in that situation I'd rather be the graduate with the arts degree and 50k out. Working the rigs is good fast money, but you can't do it your whole life. I would also assume the majority of workers who go to the oil rigs at a young age arent very good at money management, it might seem like a ton of cash straight out of grade 11 but 15 years down the road it won't seem as much. (this is an assumption on the money management part but i'd imagine it to be not far from reality)

Once you're done with the rigs, the skills you'd acquire is also very limiting in terms of job placement. Unless you are smart with the quick cash that you've made and use it to invest or start a successful business, it' be a huge slump because chances are, you wont find another job that pays as much as easily.

With the arts degree, you might start off much slower, but it will open much more doors. Again this is all subjective and all depends on the person. On paper the degree is a much better choice, but if you are an intuitive person with a good business and money management skill, I'm sure you'd be off way better in working the rigs for a few years and using that money to grow your wealth.

I think the OP wanted to know what dropouts do and not have all of us argue about the merits of finishing education.

Agree and FWIW, I believe that what my parents told me is true and that one key to success is having a good education.

HS and university may not always teach you hard skills but it is proven that people who finished university generally have higher lifetime earnings, can reach a higher level of employment, and have greater job satisfaction as well.

Having an education also allows people to enjoy life more, appreciate culture, and become more informed and responsible citizens.

Sure there are stories about people who drop out and start their own company and become successful but that certainly isn't the norm.

I never dropped out, but I skipped most of grade 10/11, in grade 12 I decided to crack down and finished all of my grade 10/11 and 12 in one year in alternative class rooms. I also took the ace-it program for autobody repair. I didn't enjoy doing autobody repair, I prefer to only work on my own car, I dropped the program and didn't graduate highschool. I just finished Eng 12 and I'm starting douglas college for the criminology program. I'm starting post secondary two years late but I can't say I am too bummed about it. In my two years off , I traveled, made good money (bought a brand new car) and matured enough to see what I want to do in life without building student loans trying to find myself. Recently I was offered a position at my part time job, to make around 55k a year, even though its good money, it didn't seem like a career for me. I will be doing 2 years of school to meet the requirements to join the VPD, and then take a position making 55k a year till I get accepted in the VDP. I do regret not being all there in school but I am pleased with the outcome so far.

i got kicked out in gr 11, never finished school. won lottery. still unemployed but i can last till i die

:victory:

As for the comment about working on the rigs, if you have at LEAST half a brain, you will move up in most companies, you don't stay as a rig hand your whole life, unless you are only useful as such.

Although there are many successful stories here, I would not risk dropping out of high school. There is no guarantee you will be joining their ranks. Besides, high school is easy. You pretty much graduate just for showing up.

I had a small graduating class, but everyone managed to pass. However, I personally know 3 drop outs and I would not say anyone of them have better job prospects than someone that managed to graduate.

I actually found the OP's question hard to relate to. Education-wise, it's not hard to get that HS degree. You only really need like English 12 to graduate (you don't even study for that provincial!) and you can just take the easy provincials like History and maybe Geography. I think most people drop out because they come from socio-economic disparities and that is a lot more relatable since they're discouraged to graduate. Just get the damn HS diploma and let it sit somewhere until you actually need it for post-secondary/jobs.

get your HS diploma! you may not care now but in 5 years you may and its a lot harder to finish it then...

Who are you to say who's good at what? I'm so sick of these damn sample of one stories while I know many successful people who are GOOD with their money. You know why you never hear those stories? Because they aren't interesting.

Ontop of that a lot of posts about oil are "I heard" "I read" "I had a friend" which essentially saying "I read a post on a forum"

Yeah except the part that shows you can work 14 hour days, work in extreme conditions and do heavy labour. And if you are a good worker you have the opportunities to learn a trade. Many people go to Alberta to get their red seals.

An arts degree is fucking useless unless its SPECIALIZED. You know what else is a foot in the door? Working hard and never settling, and self learning and acquiring skills on the job sites.

That's why I take offense to this post. My MLA worked on oil rigs (John Cummins) my friend who is a foreman for the City worked in oil. My friends dad is a heavy duty mechanic working in oil and he loves his job, and fuck I know a girl that works on a camp as a receptionist and she takes a vacation every month while paying for a condo that she rents out here in Vancouver.

Like I said, school is only good if you are going for a trade or a skill or a specific job.

If you are going to waste your parents money don't pretend you know the value of hard work.

You know why job prospects suck in Vancouver for unskilled people who have no post secondary? Because the economy here sucks and people are not willing to move to where the work is or get experience in a different field because they are too comfortable in their lives.

40% of the canadian workforce is in trades and I just fucking love how most trade jobs = failure at life.

Get realistic rich asian kids.

What pisses me off is all these fuckers with basic education being mortgage brokers and realtors and adding "Studied at UBC Sauder school of business" on their facebook when all they did was take that stupid realtors exam.

I am a drop out. I got dicked around alot by teachers(losing my work miss marking tests bla bla bla), Got told by a few that i am retarded and that i am going to end up on the streets. I was attending high school while holding 3 jobs living on my own at one point.Macdonalds part time, mission raceway and Valley caterers in Abbotsford on weekends and over the summer break.

I eventually dropped out as it was too much stress. Went and move back home, went to school and was surprised by being entered into an Automotive apprenticeship by my teacher and career councilors, I wasnt able to go due to the fact no one would re arrange my courses that i needed and was rejected from the program and dropped out again. I did the required courses and went away to the oil patch and was working a 24 day on 4 day off shift at 12-16 hours a day (Logged 96 hours my last week) making 18 and hour with double time on holidays. I then took 2 and a half years off and did whatever the hell i wanted. I now work full time in Richmond making 14 an hour.

Comparing what i have done to those i went to school with that have done post secondary or not, I am way head of the game, No debt, am building the car i want and I Own 3 vehicles, 2 are the same and are running projects. :woot2:

At the end of the day, it depends on the reason why you're quitting. If you're quitting because you have something else better lined up, then go for it. But if you're quitting because you can't tough it out in high school, well I can tell you that jumping into "real life" that early (before 18) is actually the harder road to go down on.

I went to my HS reunion a few years back (the 25 year one). Of all the "dropouts" I knew, two of them ended up being successful. One of them owns six Subway stores (he got in on the first one in the city and had options to buy into new ones later on). The other worked at a dealership starting as a car wash guy and after 15 years worked his way up to a manager position and makes over $100K a year.

The rest of them all have beer bellies, are divorced, don't own any assets and work shitty jobs. A couple of them have since died (one in a drunk driving crash his own fault and one suicide). Another couple have been in and out of prison (drugs users/dealers).

I then looked at all the people who went to university from my grad class. One is an anesthesiologist at the Mayo Clinic. Another is a family doctor. Two girls are nurses. Three are software engineers. One is a professor teaching at university. One is an electrical engineer. And several run their own businesses. I also know several people who finished HS and went on to trade school and all have good paying stable jobs (a couple mechaincs, a welder and a couple electricians).


While you can always find examples of dropouts who do well, or find examples of Arts degree grads with no future, these are not the norms. Most people who dropout don't go anywhere in life and most people who graduate post secondary end up doing well in life. There have been numerous studies relating average incomes to education that point this out (people with higher education make more money).

Even my buddy with the Subway stores told his kids that he was a rare case and he made sure they all finished school. I would hate to see people read this thread and hear about the "successful dropouts" and come to the conclusion that they're going to succeed if they drop out. Your best chance at a career is to finish school and pick something worthwhile to study (no Arts degrees, for example).

Ulic Qel-Droma,

I am not looking down at those who have had help getting their job, like via a hook-up. My previous post touches on my thoughts about how some people get their job because of a hook-up, who are in fact not the best man for the job. Some of them don't have the skills, don't have the education, and most importantly, don't have the work ethic. They got the job because their friend/relative/whatever told them about it, convinced the boss, and now occupy a position they may not even deserve. This sort of selection process has things unfairly stacked up against the average Joe.

Note, I said some people. If you know of a job that sounds good, where you believe you can make an honest contribution, and it's done through a hook-up, go for it. If I were that guy who got you in, believe me, I'd vet you for the position before I even told you about it. I don't want some lazy guy who cuts corners and has a crappy work ethic working next to me or any of my team. I've seen it happen. I see it everyday.

Oh, BTW, I don't mean to sound like I'm soapboxing. This is still a discussion forum, and discussions like this have a broad scope, so it's hard not to touch on other related topics.

don't sparkies need their HS diploma to get in to trade school?