Dunno if this violates rule 3 but here I go: I am a 21 year old male currently living with a family member, I only have a DL and a High School Diploma and nothing else. I’m in the deep south so trade unions are hard to get into. I have a disqualifying condition so I can’t join the military. Getting a job is difficult because they never respond. Question in title.
Learn a trade? Do you like working with wood, metal, electronics? Gardening? Construction?
The best advice I can add to what has been given already is to just try out a few things and feel if something resonates. You can ask companies to go along for a day to see how the work is done to learn, help them for a day without pay to learn, for instance.
Does take some initiative and social skills, can lead to a nice career.
To add to this with my own anecdotal experience: I got into a trade at 18, right outta high school. Had mediocre high school grades, and decent college grades for electrical. Got a job in a place I didn’t wanna work for about a year, but made good connections and got good experience. Used that to get a job in my home town, and literally jumped from job to job, or was able to keep my job through intense layoffs by being a good bullshitter.
Some of the best advice I ever received was “it’s not the grades you make, it’s the hands you shake”
Get into something that might interest you, and network with people. Networking for me from a trades background as a young guy got me a work from home job doing IT in my 30s.
Best of luck mate, you’ll figure it out. Time is on your side, just don’t be idle for too long if you can help it. Older you will thank you.
This is the correct answer. Also, try to find areas where there is a labour shortage. Those might not be the most attractive options but it may be a way to get a stable job with a decent income.