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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

#681

Post by AngryData »

SideQuark wrote: post #99
Ancalagon wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’d be surprised. Sometimes quality of life is better spent not working when you can lean on family and friends Or your own small retirement fund. Not saying someone’s life choices are right or wrong one way or the other in this case. I’m very grateful for my position but would be lying if I didn’t say I day dreamt occasionally about quitting work and living like a backpacker.

>Sometimes quality of life is better spent not working when you can lean on family and friends Or your own small retirement fund. And then when enough do, and the result becomes a lifetime of un/under-employment, then they want the retirements or lives of those before or around them, who do you think will pick up the slack? Sure, quit and be a backpacker. Doing it a while is fun, probably even healthy, but a lifetime…

That seems like society's problem more than their own problem. Society failed to incentivize them to live a lifestyle that is best for society, and society will pay for it. If it gets bad enough these people won't roll over and die in a ditch, starving people become violent and will take by force what they aren't getting by what they deem is a fair exchange.

Humans aren't the ones changing, society is. And its failures are its own.

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

#683

Post by AngryData »

bluedino wrote: post #195
stonogo wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it isn't. You cherry-picked that single report, which was based on 76 turbotax returns. I suspect their data is wrong or corrupted, because making $160k as a journeyman lineman is only achievable with a decade experience and a truckload of overtime. Look around a bit further, or talk to actual linemen or unions, and you'll see the average salary for a lineman is about a hundred thousand dollars a year less than th…

Read some Reddit posts where people ask linemen how much they make. People reply with over $200k.

Tradesmen are some of the first people to inflate their actual wage because otherwise they not only have a "lower class" career, but they are also not doing as well as everyone else and it makes them feel like shit.

I would not accept their personal anecdotes over documented tax returns.

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

#684

Post by [deleted] »

MarkMarine wrote: post #582
Avshalom wrote: post #36

A lot of these threads devolve into "have you tried paying more" but I'd also like to highlight "have you actually tried telling Gen Z that". I'm 35, from basically as early as I can remember until sophmore year of college I was told constantly by every adult (and I mean every adult not just the ones that had degrees) in my life to go to college, get a degree, any degree. So yeah I went to college. It was aggressivel…

If we have a free market, or any functioning market for labor, pay more is the answer right?

[deleted]

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

#685

Post by dinkumthinkum »

meetingthrower wrote: post #360

Man, I'm in PE buying these companies and if you want to get rich in America be competent in skilled trades. If you have a little bit of management skill it is very doable. I've been offering 40 year old high school grads $30M in cash for their companies (and they would get that much again as we are doing rollups and they maintain significant equity.) What is amazing is that these guys just do this again and again. Y…

What does this mean? So the tradespeople are all the ones with the Lambos. I’m not even sure what you’re taking about but whatever is must be a tiny minority of tradespeople. By this logic, we should tell people to skip the trades and study hard for Ivies and get jobs in investment banking because these are the people that own Islands.

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

#686

Post by brewtide »

acdha wrote: post #590
Bloating wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$1.5M+ homes is not a bad area

It can easily be a bad area for freelancing: imagine if it’s an area where you have big developments and maybe some large commercial or agricultural sites but not a ton of smaller places. The bigger contracts tend to go to the big companies who can handle a ton of work so there might not be that many people looking for small jobs - someone who just bought a new $1.5M home probably isn’t going to be doing much electri…

Often these houses will have immediate renovations to suit the new owners aesthetic --- oftentimes major. Lots of trades needed for such things.

Fair point about scale of jobs however. Things need done and eventually a real world timeframe.

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

#687

Post by IIsi50MHz »

dugmartin wrote: post #654
sbaiddn wrote: post #616

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dont know about residential buildings, but working on live circuits is a thing, and there are techniques to do it safish-ly. Namely dont touch two wires and dont be ground. Linesmen do it quite a lot. Linesmen is also one of the most dangerous jobs

The YouTube videos of linemen hanging off helicopters to work on high tension lines make me glad I have a desk job.

Those linesmen are kept at the same electrical potential as the line, if I recall correctly.

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

#688

Post by brewtide »

brightball wrote: post #661
mfer wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't the case for all trades people. It might be a bad area or a bad employer. I've know trades folks who are electricians, plumbers, carpenters, work in road construction, etc. They typically work reasonable hours, have medical, and are paid at or above the median income for where they live. They didn't rack up debt getting into this either. This is not a bad deal for many people.

Especially if you are remotely trustworthy and have good people skills. The good tradespeople I know are recommended by everybody else I know and constantly backlogged. Plumbers, HVAC, Electricians, General Contractors, etc

I'm a house painter, and I'm about a year out from now. It's better than no work, but it's rather insane.

"I'd love to but it will be 8 months or so and I can't imagine you'd want to wait that long".

"Oh no, well wait!".

And the list grows longer.

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

#689

Post by spacemadness »

vl wrote: post #515
falcolas wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It isn't a bad career But there is a finite end to the career - when your body gives out. That's the biggest problem with the trades, you're selling your health and body. And eventually the body parts will wear out, on a schedule decided as much by genetics as how you live.

But you are doing exactly same stuff as software developer - sitting all day at computer is not healthy for body or mind either.

You don’t have to do this and let yourself degrade. Many engineers I know including myself don’t. You have to prioritize your health and there is definitely room to work on software and stay healthy if you make it a priority. The first step is not to work for a hellish company that wants you slugging away 80+ hours a week.

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

#690

Post by qwerpy »

balls187 wrote: post #471

Gen Z’s work ethic is a constant source of discussion among my peers (GenX/Elder Millenials)

What’s your conclusion? It’s hard for me to make generalizations. The ones who work at my high end FAANG company are all hard-working and driven. But they’re the cream of the crop.
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