# Have the skilled trades become overrated as career options?



## Jbrow327 (8 mo ago)

Everyone and their mom and dog goes on and on about how good the trades are. Usually it's people who don't even work in the trades who recommend them. They will use a tradesmen in an example and not even mention:

1. They live in a very HCOL area. 


2. A lot of times these tradesmen own their own business, making them an entrepreneur, not a tradesmen. That skews the wages.


3. They don't mention how many hours they work per week to get that salary. If Jim the programmer makes 65k working 40 hours a week and John the plumber makes 75k working 60 hours a week, that's huge. John had to do a far more laborious job for 50 percent more hours a week only to earn 10k more than Jim did.


4. Unions and union workers often try to fool people by including their benefits package into their hourly wage. 


5. BLS median salaries tell the real story.

Tired of hearing non tradesmen tell people to just go learn a trade. Mike Rowe is probably the most at fault for this. Discuss. 

I'm not saying these jobs aren't important or not needed. They have just been glorified by people.


----------



## Lone_Hunter (Oct 25, 2017)

People are probably pushing trades for 3 reasons (i'm guessing)
1. Can't be offshored
2. Won't have your head reprogrammed at a college or saddled with college debt/student loans.
3. Beleif that more tradesman will get the country back on track to how it used to be before NAFTA in terms of the products we buy.

For my part, I never worked a trade as a civillian, but as military. Very different world. No unions, no small business, etc. All I know, is how much work it can actually be. Got paid the same no matter how much, or how little I worked. Be it 14 hours a day 6 days of week of heavy construction in a foreign country, of a leisurely 10 hours a day four days a week doing building maintenance in the states, or something in between with a lot of building renovation - i got paid the same. There's a big difference between constantly dealing with a sore body in the morning, extreme fatiuge, tendonitis, and cut fingers, then sitting in a computer chair getting vinyal butt. That much I know VERY well, and it's one aspect I know people don't talk about.. how much work it can actually be. I like to say that "Manwell La Boor" and I used to be close personal friends. Most millennials can't even be bothered to show up to work on time, let alone bust their ass.


----------



## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

The tradesman are dying off/retiring and there isn't the numbers of "NEW" tradesman moving into those vacant positions. I know welders are of them and that's tuff hard work. Especially pipe welders, and they are paid very well as they should be. 

It seems in todays world, a BS degree is like nothing. You better have that Masters or PHD to get that job, and even then, the pay may not be that great. A ton of focus 10-20 years ago was about getting an education and that piece of paper saying that you spent 150K for it and have debt, and need BIG salaries to offset the cost of living expenses while paying back that money for the colorful paper in the frame hanging on a wall. 

I work in the Environmental Science industry. One of my duties is reviewing submitted plans from engineering companies for projects. Amazing to see simple errors from an individual that possesses 6-8 years of college education and still cant get it correct. Even after redlining deficiencies that need changed to fit/work for the project to follow EPA/DEQ regulations, I still have had the "updated" plans sent back without addressing those items that I mentioned. It can be a tennis match with the back and forth bullchit at times. They seem to get it after I call the individual that has drawn the plans and chew on them for a minute. 

Trades are a necessity! I'd like to see the quality home a IT Geek would build or any other office chair sitter. Not saying it cant be done, but not all of those individuals in that line of work could do it. 
Look at the word "TRADESMAN". I'm sure way back when, one would trade their talent (trade) for another talent (trade) to have something completed. Money wasn't paid, it was trading work, even better I think. But, YES.....we need more trades people to keep the world/country moving forward.


----------



## Lone_Hunter (Oct 25, 2017)

taxidermist said:


> The tradesman are dying off/retiring and there isn't the numbers of "NEW" tradesman moving into those vacant positions. I know welders are of them and that's tuff hard work. Especially pipe welders, and they are paid very well as they should be.


I may have related this before, pretty sure I have, but it's worth repreating.
My Dad's a machinist. Been a machinist almost all his life I think. He's about 69 or 70 years old now. What he would create from scratch, was machines that sealed the lids of cans with the product already in them. From cans of corn, to coca cola, odds are they used one of the machines he worked on. They often spit out 1000's of cans a minute. The company he worked for had floors like "fabrication" and "assembly". He worked both. Creating parts out of solid blocks of aluminum or steel with incredibly tight tolerances. So, logistically, from a national perspective, I think his trade was was incredibly important.

Now, I forget when exactly, but his company was bought out by a larger corporate. Berry wehmiller I think. What they did then, was lay off all the skilled machinists, guys who'd been doing this sort of thing for 20 years or more, and replaced them with what is tantamount to unskilled labor. They broke things down into widgets for lack of a better term. They took the machinists role, and made like 10 low skilled jobs out of it, each one of these jobs doing something very specific. No one guy having an overall larger picture of what was going on. After that, they unbolted everything and moved the factory to Akron Ohio. What machinists were left, they laid off. My Dad worked his way up to foreman, so they kept him. It's worth noting that previous to this point, there wasnt much going on in the way of apprentices. Now therre REALLY isn't anything going on with apprentices.

Fast forward to today. My Dad has been pulled out of retirement... twice. Travels to Ohio every so often to set things straight. They would spend two weeks working on a problem, couldn't figure it out, so they call up my Dad. He fly's in, and fixes it in two hours. From my Dad's account, nobody over there has a clue, and not many have any work ethic to speak of.

That's where we're at with trade skill from the looks of things. I hope it isn't like that everywhere, or we are screwed.


----------



## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

The trades will never be over rated, and if you ask me it is the college degrees that are way over rated. 

I started out as a electrician and worked along the Wasatch Front, I then headed out to the oil fields in the basin. Once I had my journeyman's license I was loving life. Sure it is hard work at times and the hours can be long but you are paid quite well. But I was young and found that I could work the winters and then play all summer until after the hunts and all was well. That was until I got married, then I found out that you need that check to show up every couple of weeks. The wife didn't want to travel so that meant that I had to find a job that would allow me to sit in one place, and at the time there wasn't any. So I went to work for the phone company. It ticked a lot of others off that I started 6 months off of top wage but because of my experience in the electrical field that is where they started me at. I stayed there for 35 years. But it still ticked my wife off that I worked all the OT and out of town assignments that came up, so my marriage didn't last.

Fast forward to today's world. I have a nephew who is a master electrician. He is working 6 10's on the job that he is on out Eagle Mountain way. I have no idea if it is the Facebook building or what but he is stuffing all the cash that he can into his retirement account and savings. He has 5 siblings, two with master degrees that are working as school teachers. Two others are just plain old teachers with degrees in teaching. But compare their wages. Sure my nephew is working his rear off but when he retires in 3 more years he'll be able to do just about anything that he wants. Those who are teachers will also be able to retire but there will be a vast difference in what they are getting during their retirements. 

You also have to look at who is going to build your house, the office building that you are sitting in, who is going to repair that AC when you are sitting there sweating your rear off, how about the one who takes care of your vehicle? 

In my book more kids need to look at the trades for a vocation. Right now anywhere you look they are looking for tradesmen to do the work and I don't believe that it is going to slow down any time soon. 

It's a lot like a meme that I saw the other day. There was a person sitting at home with a masters degree who is unable to find a job with thousands in student debt, in the next picture there is a person who is working for the power company earning good money with a steady job shutting off the power to the gentleman with the masters degree for non payment.


----------



## one4fishing (Jul 2, 2015)

Jbrow327 said:


> Everyone and their mom and dog goes on and on about how good the trades are. Usually it's people who don't even work in the trades who recommend them. They will use a tradesmen in an example and not even mention:
> 
> 1. They live in a very HCOL area.
> 
> ...


I don’t know how you think they’re being overrated. In my whole extended family my brothers and I are the only ones in the trades and we do pretty well for ourselves. 

Unions don’t need to fluff their wages. Occasionally I’ll hear from someone in my trade that actually makes more on their check than me but without any benefits but most of the time there is no comparison, half the wage with very little or no benefits. 

It’s sad to me how bad we push college on all the kids now. College isn’t for everyone. Most who graduate will be paying off their student debt for ten years or more. 

My sons school doesn’t have any kind of shop classes. I don’t know who everybody thinks is going to keep building our country.


----------



## Lone_Hunter (Oct 25, 2017)

Critter said:


> The trades will never be over rated, and if you ask me it is the college degrees that are way over rated.


I sat here and thought about that for a minute. Your absolutely correct. As time goes on, given the way things are going these days, trade skills are going to become more and more valuable. Looking back, after I got out of the service and did the "go to college" thing, nothing I did after I graduated had anything to do with the wallpaper i received. Trade skills I've learned in my 20's I _always_ come back to, at some point, or another, even though I no longer do it professionally. But nothing I learned in college, I _ever_ come back to.


----------



## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

one4fishing said:


> I don’t know how you think they’re being overrated. In my whole extended family my brothers and I are the only ones in the trades and we do pretty well for ourselves.
> 
> Unions don’t need to fluff their wages. Occasionally I’ll hear from someone in my trade that actually makes more on their check than me but without any benefits but most of the time there is no comparison, half the wage with very little or no benefits.
> 
> ...


We oversold college for the last 30 years with no interest in the consequences. 

We really should even out how many kids go to a university, community college, trade school and/or certificate programs. 

The trades will be needed for ages as they adapt to current systems and techniques. My brother is doing the best out of all of us and he's an electrician that studied in high school and spent his life mastering his skill. He's now a VP, though he misses the actual electrical work. 

The chickens are coming home to roost in this country and it's going to be turbulent for a while regarding life after high school graduation.


----------



## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

I do think it has been a mistake for our society to push college as the only way to success they way we have the last couple of decades. College is not for everyone, just like a trade is not for everyone. I say do your best to figure out what you want to do, then go make it happen. For the career I chose I didn’t have any other option than to go to school for way longer than I would have ever really wanted to. But there is no back door into the field, so I did it. Had I wanted to do something that didn’t require a degree, I very much would not have gone to college. 

There will always be a demand for those skilled trade laborers out there. The challenge at this point is keeping those people employed in that market. Mechanics, machinists, construction, welding…etc, etc, etc are all having one heck of a time keeping folks long term. Hire someone and a couple months later they are quitting and going to do something different. The impact is being felt, and will no doubt continue to be felt for some time.


----------



## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

All I will say is that if the pandemic tried to teach us anything, it is that every profession is important and no one is "dispensible". Remember the early pandemic when the people considered "essential workers" were doctors, nurses, grocery store workers, trash collectors, and truckers? While it is human nature to do so, nobody should look down on anothers occupation. 

The job market is such now that if someone has an aptitude in a given field and is willing to work, he/she can make good money, regardless of it being white collar, blue collar, or other. Remember that you now need an "IT nerd" to get your truck fixed anymore.


----------



## bowgy (Oct 10, 2007)

If it's not fun find something else.


----------



## Jedidiah (Oct 10, 2014)

College is for morons and the mentally ill. If you look at it as just simply a process you go through in order to have a few letters next to your name that give you the ability to apply for jobs that you normally wouldn't be able to apply for, then sit down and do the math to figure out the rate at which you will acquire the net resources needed to repay your student loans at the average rate of accumulation of said resources, in many cases you will find that going to college is going to put you in poverty for 10-15 years of your life for a piece of paper that has nothing to do with the job you have. What's more, this really escalated 20 years ago so many of the people in both associate and tenured professor positions are the glue sniffing idiots who fell for this scam and had the dumb luck to fall into teaching positions at these indoctrination camps for the criminally insane. Learn a trade, ignore all colleges (even online), and be happy.


----------



## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

I'm critical of the university pipeline situation but I may have to start substituting "indoctrination camp" into conversations just for the sheer ridiculousness of it. Gotta have some fun every now and again.


----------



## middlefork (Nov 2, 2008)

I guess I have a problem with people who think there is some utopia out there that has everything provided for and doesn't require human intervention. People with skills will be needed for a long time. The trick may be determining what those will be. It amazes me that no matter how advanced the construction trade gets there seems to be a guy with a shovel needed to make sure it is done right.
People who can combine "book smarts" with practical knowledge of how things work will always be more successful than those who have just one or the other.


----------



## Jedidiah (Oct 10, 2014)

I didn't say it explicitly but the point is that dumb people are the ones attracted to a scheme where you take a loan out for four years of an education that only allows you to pay off the loan at a rate that takes a quarter of your income for more than 10 years. It doesn't matter what book smarts they have picked up when they're already dumb enough to have fallen for the scheme. If it's a full scholarship situation that's a little different but not by much because they're still going to a school that has degenerated in quality from what they used to be 30+ years ago. Student loans are an epidemic because colleges have figured out that stupid people make better customers and when those stupid people get out of college they're still too dumb to make enough money to pay off the loans. They'll never stop being stupid, and generic four year degrees have become an earmark of that mental deficiency.


----------



## Lone_Hunter (Oct 25, 2017)

Smart people can make stupid mistakes out of desperation. In the process they turn themselves into indentured servants. That pretty much sums up how I feel about student loan debt, not that I have any. I just know someone who does. They only way they'll get out of it, is to own and run their own practice.

College has become a racquet. All that sweet gov backed money they get, they spend it on stupid stuff to make it more "prestigious". LIke bronze statues on park benchs, or some fancy pool nobody asked for. Then they go, "look how nice it is here!" and raise their tuition, or actions to that effect. Meanwhile they make money hand over fist, pumping out more indendtured servants to the government; because that's who ultimately ends up owning most of, if not all of, the student loans. Oh and watch out for that compounding interest.....


----------



## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

*People who can combine "book smarts" with practical knowledge of how things work will always be more successful than those who have just one or the other.*

Perfectly stated middlefork! 
I have seen many times while looking over plans from a PE that what they have drawn on a plan, will not work in the field. I respond back to that section of the drawings and ask for something other than what is proposed. It has almost created a hostile situation when they "think" they are correct, and how dare I tell them they are wrong.
One project, the design engineer refused to make the changes asked for. When the construction came to that point where I asked for a change, the contractor called me and said it wasn't going to work per plan and would need an engineering change order. They submitted the CO, and funny how they were delayed two weeks for approval because of a simple fix that could have been taken care of in plan review. Needles to say, the entire project went 6 weeks past completion date. The "owners" weren't happy and they were head hunting the cause of the delay.

I dealt with another individual that hadn't a clue what was going on on a project, and would call me daily asking questions that related to simple tasks. After a month of this, I found out that the individual was hired because they had a Masters Degree. The degree was in Phycology and not a lick of experience in the field of work they were trying to manage.

IMO....I'd hire someone with 10 years of experience before an applicant with 0 experience and a BA.


----------



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Jbrow327 said:


> Everyone and their mom and dog goes on and on about how good the trades are. Usually it's people who don't even work in the trades who recommend them. They will use a tradesmen in an example and not even mention:
> 
> 1. They live in a very HCOL area.
> 
> ...


What's a "BLS"? Bureau of Labor Stats?


----------



## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

The O.P. is casting a far too big of a net on this subject. Kind of like asking people if they think big game hunting is overrated. Need to be a little more specific.


----------



## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

Jbrow327 said:


> Everyone and their mom and dog goes on and on about how good the trades are. Usually it's people who don't even work in the trades who recommend them. They will use a tradesmen in an example and not even mention:
> 
> 1. They live in a very HCOL area.
> 
> ...


To narrow the above post a little. 
1: they live in areas that have a HCOL because that is where the work is and the area is usually booming.

2: Not that many tradesmen own their own business. There are a number of them that venture into it but overall there isn't that many.

3: Not all trade jobs require a heavy laborious job. In my trade job we had machines to do the real heavy work. Yes there were times that we needed to pick up and move heavy objects but I wouldn't of called it very strenuous. And yes we worked a lot of hours to get the job done. No different than a office worker who needed to finish a project and had to work OT.

4: That benefit package is worth more than you think. It includes medical, vacations, and retirement. It really isn't that different from the guy that sits behind a desk all day. He also includes his benefit package. But neither are figured into their hourly pay rates or what they make at the end of the year when it comes to tax time.

5: As for the BLS, I'd like to see the statistics that you are getting this information from. Starting wages for the trades is low because the person needs to be trained and doesn't jump right into the job earning top wages. But if you look at the top wages I'd wager that the trades jobs are right up there with that office worker.


----------



## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

And the tradesman I know have more opportunity for overtime than most employees I know. In fact, over the last decade, most jobs in my community switch people to salary before offering overtime. My brother would often make an extra $15-20k a year in overtime; definitely takes a toll on family life but offers a route to financial security that many lack.


----------



## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

backcountry said:


> And the tradesman I know have more opportunity for overtime than most employees I know. In fact, over the last decade, most jobs in my community switch people to salary before offering overtime. My brother would often make an extra $15-20k a year in overtime; definitely takes a toll on family life but offers a route to financial security that many lack.


I have also witnessed the Company dangling the carrot out and asking that some employees become salary. One individual took the bait without any thought of "negotiating" a wage and work hours. After 6 months of working more hours than they would have prior to taking the position, they left the company.


----------



## Brookie (Oct 26, 2008)

In high school in Utah we encourage kids to be career or college ready. CTE is what they call it, this is the trades route.


----------



## NH Hunter (Feb 4, 2008)

Jedidiah said:


> College is for morons and the mentally ill. If you look at it as just simply a process you go through in order to have a few letters next to your name that give you the ability to apply for jobs that you normally wouldn't be able to apply for, then sit down and do the math to figure out the rate at which you will acquire the net resources needed to repay your student loans at the average rate of accumulation of said resources, in many cases you will find that going to college is going to put you in poverty for 10-15 years of your life for a piece of paper that has nothing to do with the job you have. What's more, this really escalated 20 years ago so many of the people in both associate and tenured professor positions are the glue sniffing idiots who fell for this scam and had the dumb luck to fall into teaching positions at these indoctrination camps for the criminally insane. Learn a trade, ignore all colleges (even online), and be happy.


As a mentally ill moron, I resent that remark. 

I think we have a problem today. There is not enough emphasis on skilled trades. We can't hire enough millwrights, pipe fitters and electricians at work We are always short handed. I'm in Michigan and you'd think the place would be crawling with millwrights. Nope, we have to go to WI to get any decent ones. Sure there are plenty of hacks around. They have a journeyman's card, but very few skills. 

The other problem we have is a misguided thought that any college degree is worth something. They're not all created equal. If you don't have a solid plan to monetize your degree, your throwing money away. I have a four year mechanical engineering degree from a good school. Did it cost me money? You bet. Did I live in squalor for a few years after graduating. Yes. That had more to do with buying a new 87 Grand National more than the school loan repayment. Gotta have your priorities straight. But I knew I could pay my loans back based on the job market and ACTUAL JOBS IN MY FIELD out there. I was in the service before going to college (I had VEAP, not the new or old GI Bill) and I did get some scholarship money. I would not have been able to finish school without keeping my grades up to maintain my partial scholarship. Believe it or not, you actually do learn a few things that you wouldn't know how to figure out without some additional schooling. I wish I had a nickel for every time I had to stop somebody from trying to break the laws of physics. 

I have (2) boys, one got his masters in civil engineering (does storm water plan review for a city in CO) and one went for computer networking on a four year degree who is working for a large health care data company. The one with the networking degree will probably always make more that the future PE. I made both of them take loans during school so they had some skin in the game. They both will be able to pay them off in full within a year or two of graduation. Why? Because they both went to school and majored in a degree they could monetize. 

That is if Biden doesn't give them both a free pass. Neither of which they deserve. I'm not a fan of rewarding poor decision making. Life has consequences. If people have such crushing loan debt, the government can refinance them to a lower rate or suspend interest or something. Don't just wipe it all out. Stupid.

That said, I'd be fine if one of them was an electrician. I could have him change out all of the illegal breakers in my house panel that were put there by a "tradesman" and passed by a government "inspector".


----------



## Jedidiah (Oct 10, 2014)

NH Hunter said:


> That had more to do with buying a new 87 Grand National more than the school loan repayment.


I would guess then that you graduated in your early twenties in 1987 and had your two sons shortly after. My estimate for your sons graduation from college would be somewhere between 2008-2010 and that puts them fortunately right at the spot before everything went insane. The speed at which the cost of a college degree outpaced inflation since 2010 is incredible in itself but the flood of college educated people with no where to go is probably just as bad...really the issue is complicated from multiple angles just like the Great Depression was. A combination of loans, already recessive economy, overproduction, lack of market. The only thing it needs is another climate disaster.

But to my point, people watching college costs increase and demand for college degrees decrease for the last decade and deciding to pay out of pocket for college are dumb. They start dumb and end dumb and no amount of education is going to change it.


----------



## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Here's my experience of being in residential construction as an electrician for almost 30 years. In my opinion, a person can make any job or career as good or bad as they want it to be, it's up to them. From day one, I've tried to learn as much as I can about my trade and to keep learning. I tell our new and seasoned electricians this all the time but most just want to go through the motions and not work hard at all. When I started out, I was making $5.25 an hour and just newly married. In my apprenticeship program, all the instructors were either commercial or industrial electricians and were always badmouthing the residential field because of "how it's a dead end field and only for the guys that can't handle the non res. work". I can't even count how many houses I've wired for these guys over the years because they don't know how to do it themselves. lol Anyways, I've been with the same company for almost 28 years and definitely feel like I've been taken care of financially. I've always had good (not great) health insurance and other good benefits. I get to take about 4 to 5 weeks vacation each year. I've been able to build my wifes dream home and my car, truck and atv are paid off. So life as a residential electrician is not all that bad. Even with the crash of 2009, when our company went from 45 guys down to 4. I never missed a day of work because of the slowdown. We just lost a guy that was recruited by his instructor at school to work at the new prison. This guy was bragging how easy the work is out there and they mostly just sit around doing nothing or playing around. Definitely sounds like a government job. lol


----------



## CPAjeff (Dec 20, 2014)

I'll bite.

I have an undergraduate degree and a master's degree in the field of accounting. Sure, economic slowdowns will happen, but nearly everyone needs financial advisors, CPA's, tax folks, etc. I'm not saying this is the route for everyone, but it sure has been wonderful for my family and I. If I could do it all over again, I would have went into education (high school) and then tried to get into the administrative pipeline.

Over the years, I've had lots of skilled workers come and perform services at my house (i.e. plumbers, electricians) and have always been amazed by their knowledge and skills - they are worth their weight in gold!

I counsel with youth frequently and tell them, "Get some sort of training that certifies that you know something. From there, outwork everyone and you'll be surprised the life you'll get to live."


----------



## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

Here's something else that's pretty disturbing. The Utah homebuilders association had a recent survey out for high school students. It asked a list of different reasons or benefits a student felt would be the reason why they would pursue construction/trades as a career. Over 95 percent answered...." There's nothing that would convince me to go into construction or trade". The future doesn't look good for future prospects but for those who choose to go into a trade, that world is wide open for them right now.


----------



## 2full (Apr 8, 2010)

CPAjeff said:


> From there, outwork everyone and you'll be surprised the life you'll get to live."



This in spades........I was 6th in a 6 man produce dept when I was 18 and starting college. A year later it was me and the produce manager. Never did finish college, but I'm glad I went as long as I did. 
10 years later I was running the store. Went on to manage stores for 36 years. Worked out pretty good for my family and I. Now I'm retired 😁


----------



## NH Hunter (Feb 4, 2008)

Jedidiah said:


> I would guess then that you graduated in your early twenties in 1987 and had your two sons shortly after. My estimate for your sons graduation from college would be somewhere between 2008-2010 and that puts them fortunately right at the spot before everything went insane. The speed at which the cost of a college degree outpaced inflation since 2010 is incredible in itself but the flood of college educated people with no where to go is probably just as bad...really the issue is complicated from multiple angles just like the Great Depression was. A combination of loans, already recessive economy, overproduction, lack of market. The only thing it needs is another climate disaster.
> 
> But to my point, people watching college costs increase and demand for college degrees decrease for the last decade and deciding to pay out of pocket for college are dumb. They start dumb and end dumb and no amount of education is going to change it.


Actually, you're off by a few years. I spent 4 years in the USAF after high school. I didn't get married and have kids until much later. Oldest was born in 97 and youngest in 99. Oldest just started his first post college job about a year ago and youngest just started his last November. He is required to have an internship before they will hand over his diploma and that requirement will be completed at the end of the summer. I would say they hit sweet spot of high college tuition. They didn't go to Harvard and Yale. They both went to state schools, although UNH costs as much as a private school. That's what happens when you have no state sales or income taxes - no services.


----------



## Ray (May 10, 2018)

I don’t think it’s an issue of being overrated, it’s just not for some people.

When I was Younger, I did commercial floor covering for four years, It required me to work out of state for two months at a time, six days a week, 12 hours a night and I might get 1-2 weeks off between jobs.

The last year I worked for the company, I remember watching my boss have a struggling relationship with his wife and a strained relationship with his kids because he was always gone. 
I also remember watching guys in their twenties already developing bad backs/knees.

A lot of those guys were stuck, they couldn’t make the same amount of money being in state, most of them are still working for the same company but for me, I knew I wanted a family and that I wanted to be heavily involved with the kids, I would someday have. I also didn’t want to run my body into the ground and I wanted to have enough energy after work to go to the gym, or train, or go for a run. 

So, I quit and started looking into careers that had high earning potential but also provided a lot of autonomy, so I decided to go into sales.

Fast forward to today, I’m an account executive for a multibillion dollar company, making 6 figures, I have 9 weeks of PTO, when I have a kid I get two months off, my health insurance is great, I get to work from home, or wherever I can get internet access, can go into the office when I feel like it (I never feel like it) and I get to watch my kids grow up. Plus, I have a ton of energy after work, so I can train and workout.

So, for me, my skilled trades experience told me it wasn’t for me but that doesn’t mean it’s not for some people.


----------



## Rasster (7 mo ago)

I'm still sure that it would be impossible to have a successful business if you have absolutely no basic economic knowledge.


----------



## bowguyonly (Dec 31, 2018)

I enjoy working, not carpet dwelling, as men ought to. Money can't buy happiness. And that is statistically accurate 🤙
Not to mention the damage a university does to a humans mind. Not a chance.


----------



## VodliyFort (6 mo ago)

I don't believe that today's young people don't want to go into those professions, which were considered respectable and high ranking at all times. I think so because I have a good relationship with my youngest son. We often chat with him about different things while fishing. As far as I know, young people nowadays also want to learn a respectable profession, make a lot of money and be good professionals. My son plans to go to asa miami college this year. But here's what I can tell you about the present time: getting an education has become much easier. Whereas there used to be extramural studies, there's now a way to learn remotely in-person using online conferences. It makes things easier.


----------

