Life/Career in the mountains

As others have said:
Nursing isn't bad if you can take it (not for everyone, plus you'll have to spend a few years in a sucky place to get experience unless you have good connections)
IT/Tech is the easy way, just need an employer that's flexible. Again - likely have to put in a few years to be trusted (though that will likely change by the time he's in the workforce)

Desk jobs are great if you're a mountain person, as risking your livelihood on every jump isn't very comforting (I can't imagine doing electrician/plumbing work while rehabbing an ACL is any fun)

Colorado Mountain College. Take a look, one of the least expensive colleges in the country, some majors specific to mountain town needs. Has Bachelors now, and placement is pretty high.

Local gov't work.

The most steady jobs in small ski town are teaching/medical/government/ologist if you wana get the schooling

Trades/ firefighting / ski patrol are good if you don't

Having several gigs or job diversification is the key to sucess

That or being suave enough to marry an Medical pro/ ologist/ government woeker/ teacher

Mechatronics. http://www.realskillsrealjobs.com/
What requires electronic, computer, and mechanical engineering skills? A ski lift. The first year Sierra was graduating people the resorts were hiring them right out of the final exam.
Or if he wants to be in the real mountains glaciology. The biggest scam job there is. Better than a no-show job in Jersey.

explain the concept of arbitrage to your 12 y.o. The key is not to focus on a job 'in' the mountain town; that limits you to the jobs listed above. Manage a hotel property and ski <20 days a year? What's the point of that?

Get a white collar job in city X kinda near Mtn town Y and after a year or two start working from your mountain home most or all of the time. Earn the 150k or whatever salary that barely enables your coworkers to buy a 3 bedroom house in the city. Insulate yourself from the boom/bust cycles of a ski town economy. Work from the chairlift, or the lodge if it's an important meeting.

Mortgage brokers, marketing consultants, engineers, etc etc. The list is much longer these days.

No commute. Get a reputation for agreeing to 6:30 am meetings so you can be skiing by 8:30.

I just read this to him....thanks to all that have taken the time to comment. Hopefully this thread will be a resource for others.

Colorado Mountain College is a great suggestion. He's considering Colorado School of Mines and Colorado Mesa (family friend is playing lacrosse there). He's also considering taking summer classes in high school so he can graduate mid-year of his senior year and go to the mountains. Luckily, we have good friends in the Vail valley that can take him in and be surrogate parents to him...and even employ him. His mother isn't happy about him leaving, and I'll definitely miss him...but I know that the mountains have made a connection with him like they did with me.

He's smart, but not the smartest (top 10%) and athletic (top athlete in 3-4 sports) in his class. I can see him potentially getting a partial athletic scholarship to a RMAC level school. He knows athletics is a way to make college cheaper, not a path to the pros.

Medical field is a great suggestion and so is the DOT avalanche/slide detection (he immediately was drawn to that due to it being scientific-based). Maritime and Mining are great when young and without spouse/kids. Ski patrol is a possibility....as he's been around patrollers all his life (I'm 5 years in and a shift captain and his grandma is 35+ years).

X-ray or ultrasound tech. Not that much school, and guaranteed business. Babies, breasts, injuries, etc. The one's I know kill it on all ends of the spectrum.

Mining is down right now but people always get sick

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Originally Posted by flowing alpy

I have a 12 year old
his job is to get all A's
his reward is 100 ski days
higher education is the goal
deciding where and how he lives
that can wait till he's had some kid time

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I too have a 12 yr old
his job is to do his best (as a teacher....i don't care about letters...i care about learning and problem solving skills).
his reward is sports (he plays 6 - camps, teams, 20 days on the hill if he's lucky in the midwest)
higher education is the goal
he likes to strive to reach "his" goals
he's enjoying kid time more than most

It's slightly problematic, but wildland fire/forest service did it for me - should have a forestry degree or similar to make a career out of it. Patrolling after retirement.

My plan B was male escort.

My experience and observation is the ability to live in the mountains and have a flexible lifestyle is directly related to amount of debt accumulated from age 18 to 22-ish. That's directed towards parents.

Generally, I agree with the others about letting a 12 yo be a kid and let the lifestyle ideas be in the realm of fantasy and fun.

The people I know who have done well sticking it out in mountain towns are common sense type smart, jack of all trades types that are willing to do whatever they need to do, know how to get by on very little, and have a super strong work ethic. And they have all wanted to stay rather than move around every year or so.

Whoever said learn construction was spot on. Teach him to do everything.. fix cars, home repair and maintenance, landscaping...

That along with a degree in something he is interested in, suited for and likes with limited debt, or learn a trade if hes more suited for that, and he will do fine no matter what.

In watching all the people I grew up with grow up, and not having a kid so I don't have any of that special snowflake ambition for a child most of you have the biggest mistake parents made is pushing college/career/future planning right out of high school.

If the kid wants to go bump chairs for a winter, let them go learn how far minimum wage goes. Just don't go sending them money when they break their shit or drink up the rent.

There is plenty of time.

Apres high school if yer just some fuckup having fun not saving to be a college boy then ya start paying rent

Career with good, easy money that you have to start planning for before college and is available in nearly every small town: pharmacist.

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Originally Posted by gatorboy

I just read this to him....thanks to all that have taken the time to comment. .

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ifin it was my kid i'd make him go back and read all icemans posts and read the lyrics to every song he posted.
n hope his jeans are worthy
pex n turds don't scare me as much as gittin zapped
the paramedic, fire fightr, nurse emt with a crank out easy $$ trade skill side would be tight
cool listening to jim harrison talk about writing as a vocation on bordains mt episode
and this interview

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Originally Posted by flowing alpy

do you mean dealer?

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Sure, except you're not only legit and legal, the gubment protects you from competition!

Unfortunatly I don't know much about the "real world" since i've never lived there, but do know alot about ski towns

There is lots of opportunity in a ski town, but it's not right there easy for the taking, people are guarded and not just going to hand something to anyone who just showed up in town. You have to find and create your place in a ski town, it's not easy, but it can be done. I do regret not taking some bs job gov't job or with vail when I was a young kid, if I did I could have worked my way up to a nice desk job pushing paper around and not doing much but making good money.

As far as nursing, sure there are a ton of nursing jobs, six months out of the year, but thats it, you have to wait in line, wait your turn and hope to get an "in" somewhere and finally secure that year round stable job. There are alot of nurses in summit county co right now driving to denver to work because there are not enough jobs.

most jobs are seasonal, low pay, and hit or miss, people are always trying to protect there job, since it could be pulled out from underneath them in a second, by managment or someone else moving up the line.

The other thing to talk to your kid about is the drugs and alcohol in a mountain town. It's pretty hard to not get sucked in by all the fun. If you do end up having a "good time" it'll all be over. The amount of burned out washed up people that walk away broke financially, in spirit, and in mind every april is pretty sad. I'm now seeing alot of these people who were able to hang on for some reason or another and they are in there fifties and sixties and their brain is mush, only thinking about the next drink. I've seen alot of other young kids show up with a go get it attitude and healthy. A few years later, their gaining weight, eyes are sunken in, they are really pale, sitting inside doing bong hits drinking cheap beer and playing video games all day.

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Originally Posted by mbillie1

QFT. Also when you show up to work just having skied, and all your coworkers did was eat a pop-tart, that shit is win.

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When you work from home, does that mean you have a split personality?

[QUOTE=fastfred;4737703 I'm now seeing alot of these people who were able to hang on for some reason or another and they are in there fifties and sixties and their brain is mush, only thinking about the next drink. .[/QUOTE]

Hey that's my lifestyle yer talking about, it's not so bad, although the local wine in Bali is pretty fucking bad

Budtender.

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Originally Posted by XXX-er

Hey that's my lifestyle yer talking about, it's not so bad, although the local wine in Bali is pretty fucking bad

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wine in Bali? You are doing it wrong. Then again I guess anything & everything is needed to take the edge off the loud drunk Australians.

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Originally Posted by flowing alpy

He's 12 not 21.

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If he went to school for horticulture, maybe he could be lead bud tender by 21.

I haven't seen it mentioned yet so here it is...a job selling something that rich people buy. Life insurance, high end home and auto insurance, real estate, etc. 100% commission. You can also sell to the common folk but the money is with the rich people. Plus, if you do a good job on their personal stuff, you might get a shot on their business stuff like executive plans, commercial ins, etc. You can sell anywhere you want in the US from a mountain town but you need to access the rich people and they like mountain towns too for a couple weeks a year. Or real estate appraiser or inspector. Work when you want to make money. Do fun shit when you have enough money.

Out of high school or college, move to mountain town of choice and get a job bartending, caddying, something that gives you a chance to meet people visiting their 3rd homes. Get them to like and trust you. After a few years, start selling them something. Or, buddy them up and maybe a rich person will take them under his wing to manage a fund (not as good of hours). Reiterate-learn to tell when you have enough money so he doesn't get caught in the race and forget to live in a mountain town.

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Originally Posted by flowing alpy

Plenty of time between 12-17 but the clock starts at 18.

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I think this is a harmful way to look at it.

My advice to kids struggling with college right out of high school because that's what their parents say they have to do but the kid has no idea what they want to do, and no passion for any of it is if its the only time the parents are going to pay, stick it out even if your are just scraping together a lib arts degree.

But for parents, there really is no harm in delaying college for a few years. Go look at your high school graduating class on facebook. Look at the happy, healthy successful people. What they did right after high school is all over the map. There is not one route to happiness, health and success.