Running a business comes with its own challenges, but I was really only referring to the work directly related to farming. Maybe my brain is just better wired for computing tasks, or something, but it has always seemed so much easier to me.
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it easier to obtain work as a farmhand than as a software engineer, in terms of credentials and experience required?
You're going to have trouble finding a engineer's salary (it's possible) on the farm without tons of experience and a proven track record, but you are right that "green" employees are often hired for little pay with hopes of making them good at the job.
Farming is interesting is that it is highly constrained by time. When the crop is ready to come off, it must come off now. You cannot wait for six months to find the best employee like you often see in other fields. Most farmers would rather have the highly trained people – I think I hear about farm talent shortages more than I hear about tech talent shortages – but in the absence of talent, you have to hire somebody, else the work isn't going to get done at all.
Because of the time constraints, you're often left hiring anybody you can find and hope their lower pay makes up for the mistakes they will inevitably make. Engineering firms, on the other hand, would rather wait for someone who isn't going to make those mistakes. They tend to have that choice, farmers do not. If we had more skilled farmhands, so that farmers could actually be picky, I expect it would become far more difficult to find a job on the farm without skills though.
I see what you are saying though. I will note that educational requirements usually indicate that you have too many people competing for the same job. You'd need a PhD in agriculture to get a labouring job on the farm too if everyone wanted to be a farmer. Most people believe it is a horrible job though, so they run as far away as they can from it.