Live data from Hacker News

Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?

old.reddit.com

191–200 of 470 posts

Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?

#191
post #64

This last summer/fall really put things in perspective for me. We did a major outdoor renovation at our house, which involved landscapers, plumbers, electricians, and carpenters. Every day these guys would show up at 8am and long sleeves and jeans and hard hats, work super hard, pee in a port-a-potty, and be exhausted by the end of the day. They worked out in the 100 degree heat as well as the rain as the job got nea…

Yet, in the deep country side if France, I regularly see former engineer, or business school guys selling fruits at the market, opening restaurants or café, repairing old bikes in a workshop, etc. I don't think it's condescending, I just think it's an actual thing.

A friend of nice from school stopped coding to open a brewery and I'm regularly considering starting a street food thing. Even started to get some of the gears sand the certifications...

Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?

#192
I took a year out and worked as a forklift driver (and general "haul things around") at a warehouse. It was a much-needed "vacation", and the social company was good. The pay was rough though .... ... but the experience awesome.

The fact I told HR (and coworkers) that this was my vacation really helped keep some silly inspiration going, especially as I could keep up with them with everything I needed to do. (I'd also snap to attention, military style, for the HR lead, the only non-military person in management .... got a lot of laughs that way) No I never served, wasn't permitted. I did go through years of cadet training though...

Anyway, went back later to say thank you and complain that my vacation was over. It was a cheerful hello.

The work itself was back-breaking hard but ... it felt good. The only regret about the job itself is I should have done work like that a lot earlier in life (instead of 30s).

Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?

#194
post #64

This last summer/fall really put things in perspective for me. We did a major outdoor renovation at our house, which involved landscapers, plumbers, electricians, and carpenters. Every day these guys would show up at 8am and long sleeves and jeans and hard hats, work super hard, pee in a port-a-potty, and be exhausted by the end of the day. They worked out in the 100 degree heat as well as the rain as the job got nea…

Your contractor, on the other hand, may well have got a few rounds of golf in during the day time. A neighbor owns a painting company. He goes around the various job sites in the morning, sees that everyone has their marching orders for the day, returns in the afternoon to check in on the progress. In between the morning and afternoon though? He does what he pleases. I believe he started the company with a buddy, the…

Depends, but I wouldn’t bet on it. My dad owned a small contracting company, and while he took the odd afternoon off to take me to a movie or cool off when it got too hot, that was more than made up for by Saturday morning client meetings, after work lumber runs, and tons of behind the scenes planning. And even if you do make it to the point where contracting becomes “cushy” job, you’ve very likely destroyed your body while working to get there. I’ve occasionally dreamt of restarting his business and growing it, but then I spend an afternoon with him fixing a plumbing issue or doing drywall and I remember how good I’ve got it.

Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?

#195
post #38

My constant daydream is machining. So far I learned the basics of FreeCAD, watched a shitton of machining videos on YouTube and researched some lathes and mills. Unfortunately it is a hobby that requires lots of space to keep the machines and tools.

What about 3d printing?

I got a 3d printer at work. I'm not saying it's worse, just less appealing to me personally.

Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?

#197
post #2

No. Plumbing is gross and wet. Carpentry, on the other hand...

I reckon both these jobs plus general building work, are much better than working on computers. We have bodies and _need_ physicality in our work, not just theory. Those sort of trades do present problems like coding does - your brain is still engaged (a bit). However, I think you are also adding/improving people's lives. Fix someone's dirty toilet? That is clearly a good thing. I can't think of one thing in my compu…

This is a very shallow view of what it means to be working as a plumber...

As someone who spent a couple years doing commercial plumbing:

1) You are lifting very heavy 10-20ft long sticks of cast iron pipe, often 10+ ft in the air. There is technology to aid with this (scissor lifts) but it is brutal work.

2) You spend a lot of time in the air - on ladders or lifts - often overhanging the edges. You are constantly drilling hangers in the ceiling, breathing in dust that will ruin your lungs permanently. And again, you are also fitting cast iron pipes in this environment. You will feel the sway and it's pretty easy to hurt yourself. OSHA is a joke. I've been caught in the middle of a huge storm, since the foreman didn't want to let us off early, and we had to run down 8 stories of scaffolding while heavy material is being thrown around like ragdolls.

3) People on job sites generally don't give a @$%^. Toxic fumes? Check. Concrete/cement dust? Check. Crazy welders that don't care that they can potentially ruin your eyesight? Check.

4) Your company will track you with apps, often not pay you until you arrive on the jobsite, but you still need to be at the shop @ 6AM to help load materials. Unpaid.

5) Depending on where you live, you can expect to listen to nothing but conservative talk radio on that morning ride. I've worked with people from all paths, so this didn't really bother me, but something to consider if you have spent most of your life doing white-collar work. You can expect to be around some hateful ignorance.

6) If you're not doing new construction, you can expect to be in the ceiling, crawling among ducts, trying not to fall through. This is generally with copper pipes, which is another ball game as far as cutting, soldering/brazing, or crimping. Otherwise, you are often trying to do this standing on a 12ft ladder.

Commercial plumbing pays better than residential (fixing a dirty toilet) and is often in more demand. It is also a pretty good way to wreck your body. Most of the older/senior plumbers that I worked with spent their time trying to do as little work as possible, and were drunk after lunch. Addictions are very common.

IME, people who often are shouting "get in the trades!" are the exact people who have never once worked in one (or they own a business in it). It ain't all that.

Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?

#198
The other thing that is wrong about this post, that I haven’t seen anyone mention, is that jobs like be a plumber also require constant upskilling to remain competitive. My plumber learned how to install ductless heat pumps, and now that is a huge part of his business. New types of boilers and other systems also require him to get certified. He listens to plumbing/building podcasts, reads different sources, and regularly has to do more training. On top of that he is on a 2-3 person oncall rotation —- where being oncall means being woken in the middle of the night by an outraged or panicking customer, driving to their house, crawling or climbing into whatever hellhole their pipes reside in, and doing a hard, dirty, and sometimes disgusting job.

There is no getting away from updating your skills, or sometimes doing work outside of the 9-5 if you want to stay competitive in ANY profession. Especially if you want the 200k+ comp so easy to get in software.

Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?

#199
post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think they want to be tradespeople. I think they want to be artisans.

I’d say they already are artisans. Guy talks about needing to constantly study up to stay current. I imagine an artist just through creating is constantly getting more comfortable with their tools. Hokusai has a famous quote to this effect - basically saying he would have to live to 100+ to really practice enough to be proud of his work.

By artisan I meant specifically the concept of a craftsperson who creates small projects on demand at their own leisure, something both like the traditional concept of a village smith or potter, or the modern day craft fair equivalent or Etsy vendor.

In software, someone with their own software consultancy or an indie app developer could be equivalent.

Re: Anyone else feel the constant urge to leave the field and become a plumber?

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your contractor, on the other hand, may well have got a few rounds of golf in during the day time. A neighbor owns a painting company. He goes around the various job sites in the morning, sees that everyone has their marching orders for the day, returns in the afternoon to check in on the progress. In between the morning and afternoon though? He does what he pleases. I believe he started the company with a buddy, the…

Well, yes, owning things is definitely the best job, regardless of what industry you're in. It's not the typical path for any job, though.

I know, but I think for most people in this thread, there is an upward path for that.

I often wonder why the other painters working for him don't go off and start their own painting companies. Perhaps a few will. But I suspect many of them would not enjoy or be comfortable with spread sheets, business taxes, work insurance and some of the other things that go along with owning the company.

I suspect my neighbor, like many of us, fond those things to be fairly un-intimidating and so he owns.

Post reply on HN