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The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z

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Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z

#301

Post by WalterBright »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #278
WalterBright wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They were one man shops. 20 years ago, the going rate for installing a socket in an existing wired and ready to go junction box was $50. It's about a 5 minute job. I know it's about 5 minutes because I've done a lot of them myself. I'm sure prices have gone up a lot in the last couple decades.

The electrician is not charging to do a 5 minute job. They do not know that when they accept the job over the phone. They are charging for their time to drive to and from you, the possibility that the job is more involved than described, and the liability from doing the job. And the opportunity cost of not accepting a different job due to your job.

That's the price I was quoted to do the whole house, not one socket. $50 per outlet.

If I hired one to come out and do one socket, I'd be sure to get a $200 site visit charge added on.

Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z

#302

Post by asdff »

tayo42 wrote: post #214
t-writescode wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a few thousand dollars when something like half the nation can’t afford a $500 surprise bill, right?

The target worker in this case is people in Gen z? They're young out of school and own nothing. It doesn't cost anything to move in that case. I moved across the country with a suit case. My only cost was the plane ticket

So that didn't cost you nothing then. Then what did you do when you got off the plane? Presumably you paid a security deposit for an apartment and didn't just camp on BLM land. For someone with no credit history, a landlord might ask for 4 months rent as a deposit these days.

Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z

#303

Post by nemo44x »

UncleMeat wrote: post #33

"We need more tradespeople" seems to be an evergreen news article. My brother in law is an electrician. He is paid alright, enough to live on. But there are HUGE downsides. He does not receive health insurance. He does not get paid vacation. In order to match decent white-collar pay, he needs to work overtime. His company pushes hard to get jobs finished fast, causing people to cut safety corners. Many of his coworke…

Here's the problem with it all, tradesmen are all too eager to undercut each other for some reason. There's so much work, especially for trades that require a license that anyone that isn't charging premium money is a fool. And there's lots of foolish tradesmen with short term thinking and eager to sell their services as a low price option. Often with low price work to boot.

You rarely see older guys going for cheap and it's because they know it's a foolish thing to do.

Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z

#304

Post by badpun »

convolvatron wrote: post #161
jaredandrews wrote: post #38

Any former software developers here who transitioned to plumbing/electrician/etc? If so, what did the steps look like?

welder. learn to weld. take a community college class to get certified. somewhere in there get a job at an abusive shop making $30 migging tube fences and grinding all day. try to find any lifeline to a higher paying less brutal work environment hopefully without assholes constantly doing hinky shit for a laugh

Isn't welding especially nasty? You're essentially breathing toxic gases and dust all day long.

Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z

#305

Post by jjulius »

WalterBright wrote: post #295
jjulius wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? Yoga poses are purposeful, they're supposed to be beneficial. Contorting your body all sorts of odd ways while performing a trade is an entirely separate thing from a yoga pose.

Have you ever tried yoga? You might change your mind if you had. It's not a joke.

I've done it many times, even hot yoga. I also have extensive experience wiring up and decommissioning data centers, involving lots of odd contorting. Yoga felt a lot better for me than contorting my body in odd ways.

Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z

#306

Post by [deleted] »

UncleMeat wrote: post #33

"We need more tradespeople" seems to be an evergreen news article. My brother in law is an electrician. He is paid alright, enough to live on. But there are HUGE downsides. He does not receive health insurance. He does not get paid vacation. In order to match decent white-collar pay, he needs to work overtime. His company pushes hard to get jobs finished fast, causing people to cut safety corners. Many of his coworke…

[deleted]

Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z

#307

Post by UncleMeat »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #149
UncleMeat wrote: post #33

"We need more tradespeople" seems to be an evergreen news article. My brother in law is an electrician. He is paid alright, enough to live on. But there are HUGE downsides. He does not receive health insurance. He does not get paid vacation. In order to match decent white-collar pay, he needs to work overtime. His company pushes hard to get jobs finished fast, causing people to cut safety corners. Many of his coworke…

> are no meaningful raises Doesn't the career path in the trades lead to owning your own business? Obviously, not for everyone. But the scope for advancement and riches is certainly there.

Not by default. A huge number of people work for corps. And they don’t teach you small business management in trade schools.

Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z

#308

Post by baremetal »

nullsense wrote: post #220
SoftTalker wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

New home/residential wiring jobs are basically the entry point for electricians. It's about as mindless and simple as it gets. I'm not sure what the licensing requirements are but those are the sorts of jobs that an electrical contractor puts their new/junior people on.

I know nothing about the industry, but out of curiosity... what are considered the more interesting jobs?

Industrial.

Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z

#309

Post by nemo44x »

eddsh1994 wrote: post #48
UncleMeat wrote: post #33

"We need more tradespeople" seems to be an evergreen news article. My brother in law is an electrician. He is paid alright, enough to live on. But there are HUGE downsides. He does not receive health insurance. He does not get paid vacation. In order to match decent white-collar pay, he needs to work overtime. His company pushes hard to get jobs finished fast, causing people to cut safety corners. Many of his coworke…

This is why Unions exist, no? Personally I sometimes wonder if I'd have enjoyed plumbing water more than plumbing code as I'd be meeting more people face to face, physically active, and it can get surprisingly complex (Berkeley, I think, offers a postgrad cert in plumbing buildings like sky scrapers which I saw advertised the other day)

There's plenty of tradesmen in unions. And plenty of other tradesmen willing to undercut them.
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