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Why would anyone want someone who didn't do well in school to be working on their plumbing or electrical system? Those are not specialties for simpletons or the lazy. There's a lot of math involved in the electrician trade and construction in general.
A student who has a high GPA and SAT score is not likely to go to trade school.
I believe the stress level and job satisfaction in trade jobs can be better than most so called office jobs.
Trades have a project or a job to get done. When they are done they can see what the did or produced. Nothing like a pretty quick visual representation of the fruits of your labor. Less politics too as the build things world has rules of nature that must be adhered too not what some boss's opinion of what is right way to do things or what to do next.
Im not saying trade jobs are easy and do not have stress. Dealing with clients has to be stressful but can be rewarding too.
Might be some truth to this, regarding the stress level. But the trade-off as others have mentioned is that the physical demands of the job offset that advantage. Electricians and plumbers, it really take a toll on their bodies over the years. Lifting, stooping, crawling, climbing, it is a young person's game.
To add to the perception that trade jobs don't get benefits, etc... My husband worked for about 7 years as a line mechanic at a BMW dealership. He had all medical and dental paid, started with 2 weeks paid vacation, sick days (I can't remember how many), and because of the flat rate system, it was the type of job where someone who was energetic and knew their stuff could easily make more than 8 hours in a day.
After 8 years, his dad and dad's business partner asked him to come work at their independent BMW shop, as they had just lost their one employee. At first, he took a pay hit for that. But fast forward a few years, and first his dad retired, then the partner retired, allowing my husband to buy them out and become the owner of the business. Let's just say that although it is very hard, tiring work (and we now have to pay for our own health insurance policies!) he easily supports our family of 5 here in SoCal and we are not financially struggling at all.
Meanwhile, a man he worked with at the dealership, originally a line mechanic too, stayed there and is now the shop foreman at one of the largest BMW dealerships in SoCal. He's not doing too badly either.
Hard work, yes. Physical labor, yes. Special skill set needed, yes. Not everyone can excel at it. But this kind of business can be very, very good to the right person.
Yearly physicals are for airline pilots. While I'd actually LIKE to see DRUG physicals for long haul truck drivers' and bus
drivers, I can't believe that, and you're not posting what state/province/canton this is required. And I seriously doubt the Teamsters would ever allow THAT.
1st class medical certificate holders ... the required level of medical fitness for a passenger-carrying pilot flying for hire (ie: airline pilots) ... are required to take extensive physicals every 6 months, which can involve tests such as stress echo's (treadmill testing). If you're not current on your medical certiification, you're out of work ... one of the hazards of being in this line of work; fail to pass a medical exam and you're not able to fly. You can be on a great career path and have it terminated by something as common as contracting an illness requiring the use of treatment or a medication which the FAA doesn't approve.
Ever heard of DOT physicals? Pro truck drivers are required to have a current one to drive with that commercial driver's license. That's in all the USA states. Not as rigorous as a Pilot's 1st Class Medical exam, but somebody with obvious drug dependency will not pass a DOT physical. The Teamster's don't get anything to say about that, it's the law for a commercial driver.
Thank you! I have a lot of respect for trademen's talents and really hate when people assume they went into that profession because they weren't as intelligent as college goers. I have known so many college graduates that cannot even construct a grammatically correct sentence.
A good many tradesmen that I know are third and fourth generation in their line of work. My current plumber--his great-grandfather worked with my grandparents in the 1930s. Friend who went into propane tank work skipped college to go straight to work in his dad's company. These are not dumb people, these are strategic thinkers.
People assume the schools have some kind of anti-trade bias. No, they don't. There's an implicit bias in the school system for college-->career because that's how teachers and pretty much everyone in a school system got their jobs. You can't be a teacher without a degree. People who work in school systems without a degree are the janitors and secretaries who will never move up.
So why is it any surprise that it's what people who work in schools implicitly believe that college is a path to success? Of course they do. But they are not anti-trades. In my high school, there were a variety of vocational programs and classes. There was a technical college in my town and the high school heavily promoted it, we'd take field trips to it, etc... I just didn't pursue those options.
Speaking for myself, as a teenager I tended to disregard most adult advice about careers. Didn't matter who it came from. There's a scene in Gilmore Girls season 2 or 3 where Luke is arguing with his 17-18 year old nephew Jess about what he's going to do with his life and Jess's response was something like "I'll work when I need money." That was how I was.
I didn't think much about the future at ages 15-20, and I really did not care what adults had to say about it. For me, age 25 seemed like a lifetime away and ages 35-45 might as well have been outer space.
Why would anyone want someone who didn't do well in school to be working on their plumbing or electrical system? Those are not specialties for simpletons or the lazy. There's a lot of math involved in the electrician trade and construction in general.
Amen. I think there is assumption that is unwarranted that if you cannot do well in college than you would be a good fit for a trade. That has never been particularly true.
Much of the success that people experience in life is not so much a function of what they learn or are taught. Its a function of aptitude. Many people are just not cut out to pursue trades. I don't put them down at all. My observation is that those who succeed in trades tend to have a particular aptitude that most do not have.
I knew a man well who owned a machine shop. He employed several dozen machinists and he was always looking for new ones. The problem was he learned early on that the skillset required to be a good machinist is not one that the average person possesses. He learned what to look for and told me. He always asked applicants if they did work at home. The ones who were the best could usually show him photos of cars they had customized or rebuilt. At the very least, they could point to other projects where they have shown a creative use of their talents.
I have represented journeymen electricians in my law practice and frankly I think --in many ways--they are brighter people than I am. Although their intelligence runs in a specific direction. I could not do--and would not want to do--many dangerous things that their occupation requires.
The trades are very important, but it is not true we can just send all the people who do not do well in college to trade school. Many would fail there too.
Last year in the middle of the pandemic we couldn't watch the news for 15 minutes without a sob story about someone out of a job, waiting for the unemployment check, not getting it, and facing homelessness and hunger.
It was always a marriage counselor, travel agent, financial advisor, trade show coordinator, bartender, dog groomer, hair stylist, interior decorator, wedding planner, and so forth.
We watch the TV news daily, several channels, including the big three, ABC, CBS, and NBC. I read the Paradise Post and The Sacramento Bee daily on the Internet.
Not once, I repeat, I had not seen even once a story of a carpenter, roofer, A/C installer, electrician, auto mechanic, farmer, plumber, elevator repairman, truck driver facing hard times.
I spent 22 years as a Honda tech in Southern California. The longest I was unemployed was 3 days, because I thought it would be neat to have 2 extra days off in the middle of the week.
Auto mechanics are either learning how to work on electric cars or they will be laid off in less than 10 years. I've seen stories about that. Last time I went to service my car, I talked to an auto tech at my local Hyundai dealer that the company has told them that work on internal combustion engines in their service departments will eventually be phased out. Not tomorrow, but it's coming. Their bread and butter cash cow has been things like oil changes for the last several decades so they are having to figure out the future.
In my town, every construction-related business laid off half or more of their staff during the 2008 recession because building ground to a complete halt. I have one contractor friend who did not get work for almost 3 years from 2008-2011. My town lost about 5000 people short term because of the housing crash.
Auto mechanics are either learning how to work on electric cars or they will be laid off in less than 10 years. I've seen stories about that. Last time I went to service my car, I talked to an auto tech at my local Hyundai dealer that the company has told them that work on internal combustion engines in their service departments will eventually be phased out. Not tomorrow, but it's coming. Their bread and butter cash cow has been things like oil changes for the last several decades so they are having to figure out the future.
In my town, every construction-related business laid off half or more of their staff during the 2008 recession because building ground to a complete halt. I have one contractor friend who did not get work for almost 3 years from 2008-2011. My town lost about 5000 people short term because of the housing crash.
I left my job working on Honda / Acura in the year 2,000 and spent the next 15 years in a different business which means I never had to work on EVs.
Having said that, I remember well the overwhelming complexity of late model cars, the automatic transmissions, the engines with their fuel systems and emissions systems, the heating - A/C systems etc. I'm sure that by now, 21 years later these systems are even much more complex.
Compared to that the new EVs must be quite simple, that is why they are nearly maintenance fee. I'm pretty sure that for an experienced tech today learning the work on EVs is going to be like a walk in the park. I had to work on golf carts and they were amazingly simple - more simple than my Stihl leaf blower.
Fixing all these Teslas - glorified golf carts ? - you will need computer skills, a special plug-in tester - and a few wrenches and screwdrivers. Then again, the brakes, tires, suspension system, drive shaft and CV joints, body hardware, steering components, audio system, lights, A/C, seat belts and power seats are all inherited from the ICE cars. I wouldn't worry about the current techs going hungry, but there could be less need for new techs in 15-20 years.
People assume the schools have some kind of anti-trade bias. No, they don't. There's an implicit bias in the school system for college-->career because that's how teachers and pretty much everyone in a school system got their jobs. You can't be a teacher without a degree. People who work in school systems without a degree are the janitors and secretaries who will never move up.
So why is it any surprise that it's what people who work in schools implicitly believe that college is a path to success? Of course they do. But they are not anti-trades. In my high school, there were a variety of vocational programs and classes. There was a technical college in my town and the high school heavily promoted it, we'd take field trips to it, etc... I just didn't pursue those options.
Speaking for myself, as a teenager I tended to disregard most adult advice about careers. Didn't matter who it came from. There's a scene in Gilmore Girls season 2 or 3 where Luke is arguing with his 17-18 year old nephew Jess about what he's going to do with his life and Jess's response was something like "I'll work when I need money." That was how I was.
I didn't think much about the future at ages 15-20, and I really did not care what adults had to say about it. For me, age 25 seemed like a lifetime away and ages 35-45 might as well have been outer space.
No matter what anecdotal evidence people produce of plumbers and welders making this and that, there's a pay gap between trades and white collar workers.
It's a gap that IMO shouldn't really exist or at least be lower.
The truth is that most white collar work is highly subsidized. In my field of work, padded government contracts allow for engineers to bill hundreds of dollars an hour doing sometimes ... lord knows what.
In my girlfriend's field, government money pays the owners to facilitate senior care. And in times like this ... they lay it on. Those are public examples, but the private sector is similar. You think corporations would pay lawyers or banks hundreds of thousands of dollars for acquisitions and transactions if there weren't crazy regulations all over the place saying they had to?
Trades OTOH are largely dealing with the cheap, wallet tight public.
Their salaries largely come directly from our pockets, and obviously, nobody here is going to overpay for a brake job or shower recaulk when they're trying to get to a million dollars retirement.
That is one of the negatives of working in private trades, but it's good satisfying work.
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