u/Accomplished_Horse20

I'm 26, live in SoCal (Redondo Beach, CA)and just graduated college in May with a business management degree (BS). Honestly during my last two semesters of school I realized I might've messed up because I have no interest in sales or sitting at a desk all day. I love working with my hands and have installed stereos, amps in my vehicles which doesn't excite me but i've always tried to make it look clean and professional. I also work on my dirt bikes and trucks installing suspension, parts, and general maintenance. Even though I hate sales I've made a lot of money flipping dirt bikes for profit, usually 800-1000+ profit each time. I also love how rewarding it is to build/ fix something and look at your finished product, I love seeing something start at the bottom and looking at it completed and looking amazing. (like legos or even minecraft) I tried getting into the electrical field through local 11 and other private companies for the past 6 months with no luck. WECA still hasn't contacted me for testing and its been a year and a half. I pretty much gave up on that. Then I started looking into plumbing and HVAC. All the companies I call aren't looking for a helper or gopher that will work me everyday like I need/want. I have a fantastic work ethic and am willing to start from the bottom up but I need some advice on how to get into a trade, preferably a rewarding hard working trade job. Anyone have advice for me? I feel like I'm running out of time, and would drop everything for a long term career. Seems like no one wants to hire in CA right now with no experience and I get it but damn. If anyone reads all this can you please point me in the right direction of what I may enjoy doing in the trades? Right now personally I think I would actually enjoy doing HVAC and plumbing. But I want to fully commit to one and go after it. I just don't want to fee like I'm wasting my time again like how I feel about going to college. My BS degree is meaningless right now... My true end goal would be to be a work horse for 5-10 years and then have my own company

Been trying to get into a trade for a long time. Getting an electrician apprenticeship in SOCAL is tough. Took the aptitude test at local 11 with no luck, WECA will not get me in even 1+ year waiting. Finally someone taking the chance on me with no experience in the trades, but they have really bad reviews on indeed and I’m just worried about them not training properly and I’ll be a helper forever. Helper at $19-24 per hour which I know is horrible but it’ll get my foot in the door. I really like the idea of this trade because I can learn a bunch of trades and be well equipped. Anyone have any advice or another route to go?

Has anyone ever had AT&T completely fail to activate a new iPhone?

I've been with AT&T for over 15 years and have never experienced anything like this.

Friday: I paid about $800 to pay off my cracked iPhone 17 and upgraded to an iPhone 17 Pro. The setup was already difficult—I couldn't transfer my eSIM normally and had to manually get cellular and iMessage working. Everything seemed fine afterward (data, texting, etc.), except I hadn't tried making a phone call yet.

Saturday: I discovered every outgoing call immediately failed. I spent over 3 hours with AT&T chat support, and after following all of their troubleshooting steps, my phone lost service completely and went into SOS mode.

I went to the AT&T store, where they tried multiple eSIMs, QR codes, and activations with no success. They told me to come back the next day because they thought the phone might be defective.

Sunday: I returned and spent several more hours at the store with the manager and AT&T support. They told me to wait 1–2 hours for activation, even though I'd already tried that multiple times. Sure enough, I got an "eSIM failed to activate" notification. I went back again, and at that point neither my old phone nor my new phone had working service.

The one bright spot was the salesperson who originally helped me (Jerry). He escalated my case and even loaned me his personal backup phone so I could make calls for work, my dog's vet appointment, and other important things. I also had to spend $60 on a prepaid SIM just to have a working phone.

It's now Tuesday, and I still don't have service on my new phone, haven't received any updates, and AT&T's compensation offer was only $20, which I declined. Because of this, I missed a job opportunity, my insurance policy was canceled because I couldn't call to renew it, and I had trouble scheduling my dog's vet appointment.

Has anyone had something like this happen with an eSIM or account activation? If so, what ended up fixing it? I'm mainly trying to figure out whether this is some rare account issue or if anyone has gone through the same thing.

I just want to get some advice for my situation because it is my first minor ticket, although I’ve gotten a DUI about 3.5 years ago. I didn’t make a “complete stop” today going to work, it was in a downhill so I made a safe stop being aware but yeah, could’ve been better. The officer was very cool he said I could go to court, traffic school, or pay the fine. I asked what do you think would be best because I never got a ticket for speeding / stop sign, etc. He said I can always go to court it will just take some time out of my day, said maybe he “forgets about it, doesn’t show up because he doesn’t remember.” That sounds like he’s telling me to go to court. But I also have seen some things saying it could be a waste of time. He also said I have no points on my record, which was strange. But what would be better, ask for a continuance date for court, go to it, hope he’s not there, or just do traffic school so I don’t have a point on my record. My insurance just went down and I would hate to just pay the fee and insurance goes up again. 😬

Applied this April 6th and just completed the required videos for the application process for LAETI. I’m confused about when I’m going to find out what date I’ll be sent for testing. Should I start to study now? I have no experience and don’t know how realistic my chance is since it’s highly competitive. I have my bachelor’s but I’m no good at math. Also been waiting to hear back from WECA, my application got accepted 9 months ago but no update from them, said spring and summer most likely. Should I just be studying everyday hoping that I get called in my for testing soon? I’m also going to try and apply for the local 40 tomorrow