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Skilled Trades

Rail Tracer

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Has anyone been in one? You know, something like construction worker, carpenter, plumber, etc? How did you get in? Really physically demanding?

I'm sooooooooo confused of where I want to be in the next 5 years. But I'm trying to stick to something coherent. A conversation I had a few weeks ago piqued my interest. I started researching skilled trades that were in "dire" need. I also started researching apprenticeship programs around my area. I found one that isn't too far from me and thought "Hey, as long as I do really well in the math portion and the interview, I might be a candidate for apprenticeship.)

I understand the job is physically demanding, but strangely enough, I started liking the demanding work (it's like free exercise.)
 

Coriolis

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Has anyone been in one? You know, something like construction worker, carpenter, plumber, etc? How did you get in? Really physically demanding?

I'm sooooooooo confused of where I want to be in the next 5 years. But I'm trying to stick to something coherent. A conversation I had a few weeks ago piqued my interest. I started researching skilled trades that were in "dire" need. I also started researching apprenticeship programs around my area. I found one that isn't too far from me and thought "Hey, as long as I do really well in the math portion and the interview, I might be a candidate for apprenticeship.)

I understand the job is physically demanding, but strangely enough, I started liking the demanding work (it's like free exercise.)
I have never been in skilled trades myself, but can share some of my neighbor's experience. He has been in construction and roofing his entire career, and now is in his 50's. Sure, there is all the technical know-how and "skill", but eventually many of these folks end up working on their own, essentially running their own company. This requires them also to have some business know-how, which they can pick up working with an experienced trade master along with the other stuff. Point being, after being in the business for 20+ years, when you might be finding the physical demands getting a bit burdensome, you may very well have a successful small business with employees who will do this for you, while you line up the jobs, do the purchasing, permitting, and other administrative matters, and go hands-on mainly for the most challenging or tricky jobs. Seems like a decent career for folks like my neighbor who enjoy it and are good at it.

I'm not sure where you live, but skilled trades are seriously underrated and undervalued in the U.S. If you are interested, you should go for it.
 

Rail Tracer

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I have never been in skilled trades myself, but can share some of my neighbor's experience. He has been in construction and roofing his entire career, and now is in his 50's. Sure, there is all the technical know-how and "skill", but eventually many of these folks end up working on their own, essentially running their own company. This requires them also to have some business know-how, which they can pick up working with an experienced trade master along with the other stuff. Point being, after being in the business for 20+ years, when you might be finding the physical demands getting a bit burdensome, you may very well have a successful small business with employees who will do this for you, while you line up the jobs, do the purchasing, permitting, and other administrative matters, and go hands-on mainly for the most challenging or tricky jobs. Seems like a decent career for folks like my neighbor who enjoy it and are good at it.

I'm not sure where you live, but skilled trades are seriously underrated and undervalued in the U.S. If you are interested, you should go for it.

Yah, I've read that skilled trade jobs across the board in the U.S. are increasing in age and needing younger workers to replace them(even jobs where machines cannot completely replace people are increasing in average age.) I don't know if it is because there isn't enough training going on, or if it is compounded by the fact that people don't want to do them.

I live in a steadily growing metro area in Northern California (it has been steadily growing for decades now.) Before the housing crisis that followed the financial crisis, there has been a lot of development in the area (it's still going on, but not as rapid as before.) Like, a decade ago, part of the area that I lived in was still mostly grass. Two decades ago, this area was more farmland than it was housing.

I was thinking more along the lines of Electrician as a trade as there is always a need for an Electrician with each advancement in wiring and machinery(whether residential or industrial.)
 

ceecee

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My son is a journeyman electrician with a local power company. He is in his 4th year and does mostly outdoor lines and especially deals with power outages so, travel to surrounding states is frequent year around. He loves it, makes very good money, excellent benefits and retirement through the union. I would say that if you are interested, look around. There are so many skilled trades, probably in areas you have not thought of before. Check the unions in your area, they can certainly point you in the right direction, that is where my son found his job and they did the first 2 years of his training.
 

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I come from a long line of distinguished mechanics (seriously, when I entered the trade I was nicknamed 'The Golden Child').

There is a lot of potential for a proud living, working on cars. You'll be practically everyone in the family's best friend. Employers are typically lax about every aspect of your work. Nearly infinite solitude, and the people shops do attract are delightfully strange. You'll never have to pay someone to keep your stuff going again.

And the money's really good. My dad cleared 117k this last year.

I would skip trade school. Every major manufacturer has their own training and certification program. Hire on as a maintainance tech and work what you can from there. Most training is online. Periodic live courses are offered for more technical aspects of auto repair, and the company will pay for travel/expenses. Dealerships are the way to go, or a well reputed independent shop willing to train.
 

Rail Tracer

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My son is a journeyman electrician with a local power company. He is in his 4th year and does mostly outdoor lines and especially deals with power outages so, travel to surrounding states is frequent year around. He loves it, makes very good money, excellent benefits and retirement through the union. I would say that if you are interested, look around. There are so many skilled trades, probably in areas you have not thought of before. Check the unions in your area, they can certainly point you in the right direction, that is where my son found his job and they did the first 2 years of his training.

There is a partnership between LBEW and NECA (both Electrician unions) .........which they have a facility (in my area) that is used to school apprentices while they are also working on the job. It's like a 5 year program if I decide to go this route (they pay you for learning on the job and working.) I gotta submit an application and do an aptitude test though (apparently mostly algebra and reading comprehension.) I don't know how many people apply to these unions though. (I think the two that I mentioned are two of the bigger ones.)

I come from a long line of distinguished mechanics (seriously, when I entered the trade I was nicknamed 'The Golden Child').

There is a lot of potential for a proud living, working on cars. You'll be practically everyone in the family's best friend. Employers are typically lax about every aspect of your work. Nearly infinite solitude, and the people shops do attract are delightfully strange. You'll never have to pay someone to keep your stuff going again.

And the money's really good. My dad cleared 117k this last year.

I would skip trade school. Every major manufacturer has their own training and certification program. Hire on as a maintainance tech and work what you can from there. Most training is online. Periodic live courses are offered for more technical aspects of auto repair, and the company will pay for travel/expenses. Dealerships are the way to go, or a well reputed independent shop willing to train.

Yeah, most school for skilled trades are just there to take your money without a guaranteed proper training for a company or union. So a trade school isn't something that I am looking at.
 

Coriolis

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Yah, I've read that skilled trade jobs across the board in the U.S. are increasing in age and needing younger workers to replace them(even jobs where machines cannot completely replace people are increasing in average age.) I don't know if it is because there isn't enough training going on, or if it is compounded by the fact that people don't want to do them.

I live in a steadily growing metro area in Northern California (it has been steadily growing for decades now.) Before the housing crisis that followed the financial crisis, there has been a lot of development in the area (it's still going on, but not as rapid as before.) Like, a decade ago, part of the area that I lived in was still mostly grass. Two decades ago, this area was more farmland than it was housing.

I was thinking more along the lines of Electrician as a trade as there is always a need for an Electrician with each advancement in wiring and machinery(whether residential or industrial.)
Electrician is a great trade, that leaves you open for other options in future. Yes, there aren't enough younger workers, and the ones there often lack the necessary patience and work ethic. They are not likely to be taking over the business when the boss gets older or wants to retire. If there isn't much training, I suspect that is because there isn't enough demand for it. There is such an emphasis now on everyone going to college -whether it makes sense for them or not. This slights other career options and makes people who might be interested feel like it isn't good enough. Still, recently I have been hearing about an increase in training opportunities, in response to the need for skilled trades plus the unemployment resulting from the economic downturn. One program targeted women in particular, a group especially unlikely to consider skilled trades like these.
 

Qre:us

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Here, in Canada, the government sees such a need for human resources in skilled trades, that it has developed an Apprenticeship Incentive Grant.

I wonder if there are any such programs there, that you can take advantage of?
 

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Im a machinist(only learned manual, not cnc) by profession and have done that for like 5 months altogether, also like 1.5 years of assembling large water pumps and also got to repair(and assembly) some furniture in my last job. Machining is something i hate above all, it gets really boring after a while because its so repetitive and requires next to no thinking compared to amount of work you are doing. And its not really physically demanding other than that you can stand on your feet all day long and roll some wheel, some places you might need to lift something that weights a bit once a while.
Assembling stuff was better, but that got boring too after a while. That was bit more physically demanding at times(some rotors that had to be put on this thing to put bearings on it and then carefully placed inside the motor weighted like 50 kilos, 10 of those in a row and it starts to feel like working out). But then again some assembly is really light work that you just do on a desk(have done that too a bit and it was boring as hell).
Fixing and assembling furniture was pretty fun, because it was always different, had to troubleshoot and figure out how to fix them with what i had etc. also it wasnt my main job in that work place, but i just did it because i was the guy who could do it the best.

I must warn you that if you dont like repetitive work, you might want to look the other way or be really careful what you choose, because most stuff(like 95%+) in physical labour is doing large sets of the same thing(with maybe like few variations depending on what the customer wants) over and over again. But if you happen to find some apprenticeship from for example some wood shop that makes custom stuff, it should be much better than some big factory.

Also dont go into painting if you dont want to get asthma, and if you do have asthma or dry skin, dont go into carpentry(lots of wood dust involved).

Ps. im not going to do that kind of work again, but am considering of getting into micro mechanics school or trying to find apprentice work as a jeweler/gold smith.
 

miss fortune

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I'm studying toolmaking and cnc programming... work is paying for it so I decided that I might as well go for it, after all, it pays well and I don't have to deal with people I don't like as much :)

as has been said, most people in trades are older and reaching retirement age, so even the occupations that don't tend to hire a lot of people end up having quite a few openings as the current workers retire.

decided to study it after realizing that most people actually aren't good with machines and that I am (I'd thought that everyone could figure things out and fix them... apparently they can't, who knew? :shrug:) and there's something calming about working on something with your hands. plus, physical labor of any sort gives you time to think... time to yourself in your mind
 

kyuuei

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Here, in Canada, the government sees such a need for human resources in skilled trades, that it has developed an Apprenticeship Incentive Grant.

I wonder if there are any such programs there, that you can take advantage of?

There's a lot of grants and such around the US all over the place that'll pay for your education, give you grants and stipends and supplies just to get into a high-demand field.
 

ceecee

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There's a lot of grants and such around the US all over the place that'll pay for your education, give you grants and stipends and supplies just to get into a high-demand field.

My son got around 2/3 of his classes paid and his books. We picked up the rest but it wasn't much at all, maybe a few hundred a term.
 

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My son got around 2/3 of his classes paid and his books. We picked up the rest but it wasn't much at all, maybe a few hundred a term.

I thought it was just universities and other 3rd grade schools that cost money, but secondary schools as well? :huh:
 

ceecee

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I thought it was just universities and other 3rd grade schools that cost money, but secondary schools as well? :huh:

Oh yes but it was very little when compared to university, or even community college level classes. Fortunately, if he wants to go on for an engineering degree or something else in the field, his tuition would be covered by his employer and partially by the union.
 

Cellmold

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I'm studying toolmaking and cnc programming... work is paying for it so I decided that I might as well go for it, after all, it pays well and I don't have to deal with people I don't like as much :)

as has been said, most people in trades are older and reaching retirement age, so even the occupations that don't tend to hire a lot of people end up having quite a few openings as the current workers retire.

decided to study it after realizing that most people actually aren't good with machines and that I am (I'd thought that everyone could figure things out and fix them... apparently they can't, who knew? :shrug:) and there's something calming about working on something with your hands. plus, physical labor of any sort gives you time to think... time to yourself in your mind

Most people get stuck in jobs that offer no future except in other shitty jobs. Like working a till for example. All that teaches you is to hate humanity (which isn't so bad) and how to work on other tills.

Unless it's a different model of till, in which case square one for you.

And most really can't fix machinery, or lack the kind of mind that is engaged by doing so.
 

miss fortune

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Most people get stuck in jobs that offer no future except in other shitty jobs. Like working a till for example. All that teaches you is to hate humanity (which isn't so bad) and how to work on other tills.

Unless it's a different model of till, in which case square one for you.

And most really can't fix machinery, or lack the kind of mind that is engaged by doing so.

aww... first cash register I encountered I took apart :ninja:

I guess that I just don't understand lack of curiosity about how things work because it seems so ODD to me! Different people, different tastes though :shrug:
 

Cellmold

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aww... first cash register I encountered I took apart :ninja:

I guess that I just don't understand lack of curiosity about how things work because it seems so ODD to me! Different people, different tastes though :shrug:

I think it's possibly because the effort of doing so is alien to most people, as it possibly doesn't come naturally. Or just too hard. It's great that you have that curiosity.

I've heard talk about the great drive for understanding and search for knowledge of humans. But I think when someone is talking about that topic, they're really referring to the best minds we produce rather than all of us.

Then again I'm probably thinking about this a bit too rigidly; learning how to take something apart and put it back together is not a high minded concept, but I think it can be considered part of the same drive for comprehension.
 

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I don't know if it is because there isn't enough training going on, or if it is compounded by the fact that people don't want to do them.

A small rant to give some context to that, and then I'll answer what I can of your question.

The problem with the educational system today is that everyone is expected to get a college degree to do jobs that didn't used to (and, honestly, don't even really) require college degrees. That's a serious problem because it's turned a Bachelors into the new high school diploma. Colleges make money off of that assumption, and are under as much pressure to pass people with degrees as they are happy to take peoples' money. Now having a Bachelors means almost nothing and Masters degrees are starting to get that way too as the cycle continues.

What people don't realize is that while college degrees are fine and good (I have one, I don't regret it), they really aren't good for anything except academic careers, highly specialized careers like engineers and doctors, or science careers. And everybody thinks they're above skill trades for some reason because those don't require degrees. Those require actual labor and you take a nontraditional approach to learning them.

I know more plumbers that live in mansions than I do doctors.

They're practical, have good job security, and they're accessible to people who aren't willing to go through the extra bullshit to get a college degree (again, have one, but I had to do a lot of bullshit to get it: e.g. B.A. in Writing with a minor in Pyscholinguistics and Cognitive Psychology, but I almost didn't get it because of a second year German class... I WAS A FUCKING ENGLISH MAJOR).

To answer your question:

It depends on what route you go. There are courses in a given job you can take at trade schools or through correspondence courses, or you can shop around to local companies and ask if they take on apprentices or can give you any advice on where to get started to enter the field. The one thing I learned from when I was looking at being a locksmith was that the best people who can answer your questions are the ones doing it at the moment. They might even be willing to take you on as an apprentice someday. Some might offer you a job as a cashier or something while you take your classes, some might let you shadow them for a while to see how the job goes.

It takes a while and has lots of hands-on training on top of any other studying you have to do, but again, most trade skills have pretty high demand and good job security.

Construction is different. Contractors are better as far as I know. And both of them are very, very seasonal. Plumbing and electric work have a degree of being season-prone to them because they work with construction and contractors, but the seasonality is nothing like construction. You still need plumbers and electricians during winter, sometimes especially (pipes freeze, power goes out, etc). With construction you can do shit all during winter.
 
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