I am very fond of PUGs, be it a part guild run or complete group of randoms. I get to meet some characters I might not have chatted to before and usually have a bit of a laugh along the way.

I found myself in my current guild because I came along with them in a few PUGs I really enjoyed their layed back atmosphere and requested to join their guild, for which I was thankfully allowed :)

To keep it short, a PUG holds all kinds of opertunities, sure some of them can be a little unsavoury.. But in my experience I have had more positive PUGs then negative ones.

Although this isn't including Naxx 25 PUGs back in the day, where Thaddius would just turn into a big pile of sad face and bitching would commence followed by a side of raid disband ^^.

This would be true if (and only if) all the guilds were made of "a bunch of high school boys." There are plenty of mature, relaxed/casual guilds out there. I'm in a 25+ guild myself and (mostly being a healer) unequivocally prefer running with my guild than a PUG.

Sounds to me like you need a new guild Jay. There are guilds out there that center around working adults who have limited play time but want to hang out and see the content they pay 15 bucks a month for. As an example, my guild has mostly working adults that don't have nearly as much /played time as the younger high school kids do, but still want to do heroics and raid dungeons. Just yesterday we did 10 man OS and did pretty well (no one died :D). It may not seem like much to those people who play 8 hours a day running 25 man Ulduar, but it sure meant a lot to everyone that we were able to get our guildies together and run a raid and have a hell of a time doing it. This isn't meant to be a guild recruitment message, just to let you know that there are guilds out there that center around the working adult that wants to see endgame content. The trick of course is to find that guild.

The 'high-school' raiding guilds generally fail. All current content can be completed by guilds who raid 4hrsx3days a week. I have been an evening/night raider for the past four years now and the caliber of players in such guilds seem to be higher, although I tend to be the youngest person in the guild (I'm in my early 20s). Your safest bet is to check sites like wowmatcher.com or if you feel like picking a needle out of a haystack, check the wow recruitment forums. I assume if you're unguilded you probably don't have a terrible attachment to your current server.

To me PUGs represent everything that a "Massively MULTIPLAYER Online rpg" is. It's about other people. Meeting other people, getting to know them. Interacting with people. Working with what you get.

Only sticking with your guild or worse ONLY ever soloing is really pointless if you think about it.

I used to hate pugs until I changed my attitude on it slightly.
1) Be extremely polite, but don't put up with people's crap. If somebody is talking trash, engaging in bad behavior (rolling need when they can't use the item/pulling before the tank is read etc), warn them once, boot them the second time and get somebody else.

2) Talk to other people in the PUG. Joke about stuff. Ask them about their gear/character/news whatever. Obviously you don't have to blabber on constantly, especially not when the group needs to focus on fights, but whatever you do, engage with people. Don't just sit there and treat the other players like NPCs.

3) Be polite. Use full sentences and words where you can. People tend to respect you more and have more confidence in you when you type like a mature human being.

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Quick tip:
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This may be obvious to some, but I figure a few newbies out there don't know about it. When you need say just 1 or 2 additional party members and there is nobody in your LFG, there is another way to get somebody.

Work out the level range of the instance. Let's say you're doing Drak'Tharon Keep. It's around L74-78.

In the chatbox type: /who 74-78

This will give you a list of all players on the server in that level bracket. You can then start selecting classes that would be a good fit for your group and POLITELY, I mean ULTRA POLITELY ask them if they would like to accompany your group. Tell them you already have say 3 or 5 members and what you need.

DO NOT just spam invites. Look at people's locations. If they're already in an instance, do not bother them. Explain what you need them for clearly.

e.g. talking to a shaman you would like to heal for you: "Hi there, sorry for bothering you, but would you be interested in healing with us? We already have 3 DPS and a tank."

If they decline, send them a whisper saying thanks for the reply and wish them well.

Very often you can find the last few members for a group in minutes this way and you'll likely make some new friends along the way.