To quote Redsy,
"However, you, personally will largely determine the level of competency to which you might rise".
I never stayed still long enough to utilize an apprenticeship program. In my early career I travelled around SC, NC, and Virginia. I was raised in a tobacco and textile town in SC so I was definitely raised anti-union. I later organized into a local, but dropped out when I became an instructor. The open shop companies I worked for in the southeast did not want to invest money in training employees that they intended to lay off at the end of each project. I wasn't political enough to get in any cliques and become a company man. I worked if, when and usually where I wanted to. But where ever I was working, I usually had my nose in a book (electrical, political, business, history, anything). I worked different times for the same people and companies without burning too many bridges. After working for one guy the second time for 9 months he told me he couldn't believe I stayed so long. I was reliable and a good worker when I was there but very independent.
My job hopping did not help build up any retirement fund, but it gave me a broad background in all aspects of the trade and a lot of different industrial processes and power generation.
That may not be the path most people take or want to take, but I've been through every state but Alaska and worked jobs in 22 of them and Canada, Mexico, and China. I've also been to the Philipines, Japan , and Holland on someone else's money. Trying to finegle a trip to Spain next.
I am working as an engineer for an internetworking company and the job may end in the next week or month. Everyone around me is scared and upset with the company. If I am cut it will just be an opportunity to find something else new and exciting. May take 4 or 5 months off and concentrate on my old cars and other assorted junk (toys).
Oh, with my lifestyle, if you can't go without working for several months, with or without unemployment you are living above your means.
