Not sure what your definition of a good job is.
But most career type jobs require knowledge and experience first.

Then it's often a case of it's not [i]what[/i] you know rather than [i]who[/i] you know.

Great question and something I reflect on all the time in light of my experiences.

Process A

1. go buy a welding machine
2. go on craigslist or find a friend who knows how to mig weld
3. practice in the apartment parking lot or a storage facility
4. once you are good do the same to learn how to tig weld (skip stick welding, this is for old people and on the way out)
5. keep your best examples

Process B (to run concurrent with Process A if possible)

1. buy a small MANUAL milling machine (preferably a Bridgeport but you may have to go to a makerspace to get access because these can be large and expensive)
2. learn how to machine simple parts
3. buy a small CNC milling machine on Amazon
4. learn how to machine some more complex parts
5. keep your best examples

Process C (to run concurrently with Process A and B if possible)

1. learn how to use CAD software that has a free version online like Creo
2. watch videos about drafting on youtube
3. take a cheap course on Udemy on GD and T
4. keep your best examples

Now you are a mechanical engineering technician without a degree but you have sufficient knowledge and a big enough portfolio to be useful to any small business manufacturing. Not only that you are also a welder and a machinist.

I wish I knew this when I was in my 20s.

As an added bonus, move to an oil town in west Texas when its in full bloom with these skills and you can easily clear six figures. You will earn all of that money and be tired for it but you will live comfortably when not at work.

Sometimes, it’s who you know. Which is why networking was such a big deal. My sisters got pretty good jobs because of customers they served when they worked at Starbucks.

I wasn’t good at networking. But I got higher paying jobs when I started applying to things I didn’t think I was qualified for. Worst they could do was reject me, so I made it my hobby to apply to the most random things I found on Indeed.

If you work your way through a trade school and get jobs that are in your field of study and work your butt off you can get good referalls. This is what my brother-in-law did. He started working part time for a heat & air company when he was 16 doing grub work and then decided to go to trade school for it. A two-year trade school qualified him to get a contractor’s license. He worked several heat & air jobs till he started his own business..

You can't have a good life but you can work for corporations that together oppress us all.