Helicopter mechanics. Those fricks sit all day doing nothing but routine maintenance while I bust my ass on 12h+ shifts pulling mangled people out of car accidents and other activities. The people on the airplane division say the same, so go do that, the pay is good.
So don't frick up and unless you actually ARE an aircraft mech or tech shut your hole.
Best gigs are in the Air Force to get that beautiful early retirement which I'm currently enjoying muchly. Vested retirements with inflation/recession-proof packages are everything so if ya don't do military find a government job state or local. Nobody regrets government retirements.
I'm doing an apprenticeship in instrumentation and have a pretty handy job in a pharma factory doing maintenance, we spend about 75% of the shift getting paid to drink tea. Clean rooms are a pain in the ass to work in but it's clean at least.
I have learned a lot about electrical/electronics and plumbing and it's all very useful and interesting stuff to know, you learn a lot about physics and automation too so it's very broad and a good base to go forward and do lots of different jobs or get a college degree in a wide range of stuff.
I got inspired to do it from browsing /DIY and went from knowing nothing to being able to fix appliances around the house and in the future I will be looking at making my house self sustainable for generating electricity and want to look into creating an autonomous hydrophonic farm too, I have the knowledge to get started but no time as yet.
Thank you /DIY and all the geniuses who have been posting their wacky ideas down through the years.
Don't know about "best" but finish carpentry has some nice benefits as far as being able apply and adapt your skills to a number of job situations whether you do that out of necessity or just to avoid being in a rut.
The attention to detail it requires also makes you a good candidate to oversee other people whether it's on a jobsite or in a production shop setting, or doing things like warranty inspections of things like doors and window installations.
It's reasonably clean work, if you're good at it people give you time to work, it will never go out of style or be replaced by robots and unlike something like plumbing if work is slow or you want a side hustle you can make things on spec and sell them.
A lot of the skills and equipment also translate to other materials pretty readily so you can also adapt to things like plastic sheet fabrication...you can also process scrap and raw materials into usable moldings and lumber and other stuff that you can use and pocket the savings or sell to/make for others.
Plumber here.
Be a residential electrician. Not much schooling, not too hard on the body, get paid well.
Don't be a plumber, even if you dont clean drains (I refuse to, that's for the drain cleaners) you still get waaaay too dirty and nasty everyday.
Also plumbing wrecks your body even if you do all the proper PPE. I'm 5 years in and under 30 and I'm in pain every day. No wonder it seems most plumbers drink themself stupid every night.
>electrician
Just looked up their salaries in my state. On average, a journeyman makes $500/yr more than my salary. I have a work-from-home writing job that is easy and fun, at a great company with good management and benefits, and I only work 10-15hrs (sometimes up to 25-30) per week. My wife, who's a teacher, makes a little bit less than I do and we have a nice suburban house with one kid and are planning to have at least 2-3 more.
Why in the frick is an electrician paid so little? I thought they'd be paid (on average) much closer to 6 figures.
Always take "average" salaries for trades with a huge grain if salt because cash in hand is a big part of residential work. What your report on your taxes and other agencies and what you actually pocket is typically not the same in any trade. Sparkies in Ontario will make six figures no problem if they even hustle a little bit.
Chemist here, if I could do it all over again I would go steamfitter in a heartbeat. I have a senior position where I work. I had to get a four year degree in a STEM field, have worked in chemical manufacturing several years and learned most of our equipment inside and out, can fix most of our shit that doesn't require glassblowing, and still get paid the same as journeyman steamfitters who come in on contract work.
Electrician is a good path. Understand that it takes intelligence and hard work. Also, you have to get a state-issued license to get the title of Electrician. Without it, you would be nothing more than a helper.
Electrician is a wonderful career if you get certified for commercial and industrial buildings. Even if you stick to laying wire for residential developers it's a decent gig.
i've found the fastest way to get rich and well-renowned in a trade has been being born the son of a board member or chief executive. it's not easy but it's honest work at least
Electrician is a good path. Understand that it takes intelligence and hard work. Also, you have to get a state-issued license to get the title of Electrician. Without it, you would be nothing more than a helper.
Is there any decent way to job shadow trades or anything like that? I looked at my state’s list of licensed trades and there’s about 400, most of these require only a high school diploma and if there’s schooling they pay for it.
Is there a catch to this? Even if it’s hard work it seems too good to be true. My problem is that there’s just too many, I don’t know what I’d be good at, if I pick the wrong one I’ll be stuck with it.
Applied to my local IBEW, waiting on my test date. Wish I would have known what i wanted to do out of high school, could have been on my last couple years of apprenticeship now.
good luck, which local? I tested with IBEW Local 58 in Detroit, it was piss easy and I qualified for all the different specializations. Bombed the interview because I didn't know shit about tools and was upfront about it. Supposedly there are hundreds of people applying right now, including guys with fancy degrees in engineering, so the waiting time to get a callback is absurd.
For all the talk about needing people in the trades they sure as frick take their sweet time finding apprentices and training them. Years and years of b***hing and moaning, and now they want people to wait up to 2 years for a response. Now I work from home doing some shitty IT gig and never have to leave my apartment, frick if I'm going to respond to their summons.
Been a desk jokey for decades now and before I go on a nervous breakdown dealing with the constant menial office bullshit, I’ve been toying with the idea of taking some NDT training.
What are the odds of making a living as an NDT tech these days?
>Drug Dealer
Never crossed my mind, considering your customers would gladly snitch on you to avoid jail time and your completion would probably kill you.
Nah, I’m good in my cubicle, mate.
Industrial electrician that actually knows about PLCs and instrumentation.
Did my apprenticeship in industrial construction, so learnt about motors VSDs, PLCs, instrumentation ect
But still did lots of manual labour and got handy asf with all sorts of tools.
Then went and did 6 months of night courses after my apprenticeship to specialise in PLCs and instrumentation.
Now work as an "Electrical Technician" where I barely to any manual labour, it's all just using my knowledge, a multimeter and a screwdriver.
Great pay, work/life balance, interesting work, job security and an easy path to move into management or engineering if I feel like it
Machining because you'll end up a CNC operator sitting on his ass all night browsing PrepHole
>Operator
They really should change this position to Black personator
Machine guys get laid off in mass, frick that.
Then don't work in Mass., dumbo
I wouldn't want to live en Massachusettes
Collect EI then. Enjoy your time off until you get rehired when work speeds up again.
Helicopter mechanics. Those fricks sit all day doing nothing but routine maintenance while I bust my ass on 12h+ shifts pulling mangled people out of car accidents and other activities. The people on the airplane division say the same, so go do that, the pay is good.
>high supply since aviation is cool
>low demand since aviation is expensive
>if you make a mistake, people die and you're legally liable
Nah.
So don't frick up and unless you actually ARE an aircraft mech or tech shut your hole.
Best gigs are in the Air Force to get that beautiful early retirement which I'm currently enjoying muchly. Vested retirements with inflation/recession-proof packages are everything so if ya don't do military find a government job state or local. Nobody regrets government retirements.
Military is now just 2% per year served with the blended retirement. There's TSP matching, if that's any consolation.
Pussy
>if you make a mistake, people die and you're legally liable
no the inspector is because they have to sign off on everything you do.
I'm doing an apprenticeship in instrumentation and have a pretty handy job in a pharma factory doing maintenance, we spend about 75% of the shift getting paid to drink tea. Clean rooms are a pain in the ass to work in but it's clean at least.
I have learned a lot about electrical/electronics and plumbing and it's all very useful and interesting stuff to know, you learn a lot about physics and automation too so it's very broad and a good base to go forward and do lots of different jobs or get a college degree in a wide range of stuff.
I got inspired to do it from browsing /DIY and went from knowing nothing to being able to fix appliances around the house and in the future I will be looking at making my house self sustainable for generating electricity and want to look into creating an autonomous hydrophonic farm too, I have the knowledge to get started but no time as yet.
Thank you /DIY and all the geniuses who have been posting their wacky ideas down through the years.
Also a good gig since pharma is forever. Mechatronics courses are good prep and our students were often hired at the local Becton-Dickenson.
>drink tea
kek
in the night-shift all the machine operators and maintenance just get shitfaced drunk
Don't know about "best" but finish carpentry has some nice benefits as far as being able apply and adapt your skills to a number of job situations whether you do that out of necessity or just to avoid being in a rut.
The attention to detail it requires also makes you a good candidate to oversee other people whether it's on a jobsite or in a production shop setting, or doing things like warranty inspections of things like doors and window installations.
It's reasonably clean work, if you're good at it people give you time to work, it will never go out of style or be replaced by robots and unlike something like plumbing if work is slow or you want a side hustle you can make things on spec and sell them.
A lot of the skills and equipment also translate to other materials pretty readily so you can also adapt to things like plastic sheet fabrication...you can also process scrap and raw materials into usable moldings and lumber and other stuff that you can use and pocket the savings or sell to/make for others.
This guy knows what he's talking about
t. finish carpenter
If you’ve got a deathwish and like hitting shit with a sledgehammer we always need more ironworkers
Probably chemical metering skid manufacturer
Plumber here.
Be a residential electrician. Not much schooling, not too hard on the body, get paid well.
Don't be a plumber, even if you dont clean drains (I refuse to, that's for the drain cleaners) you still get waaaay too dirty and nasty everyday.
Also plumbing wrecks your body even if you do all the proper PPE. I'm 5 years in and under 30 and I'm in pain every day. No wonder it seems most plumbers drink themself stupid every night.
>electrician
Just looked up their salaries in my state. On average, a journeyman makes $500/yr more than my salary. I have a work-from-home writing job that is easy and fun, at a great company with good management and benefits, and I only work 10-15hrs (sometimes up to 25-30) per week. My wife, who's a teacher, makes a little bit less than I do and we have a nice suburban house with one kid and are planning to have at least 2-3 more.
Why in the frick is an electrician paid so little? I thought they'd be paid (on average) much closer to 6 figures.
Because they want you to fricking die on the job usually.
Always take "average" salaries for trades with a huge grain if salt because cash in hand is a big part of residential work. What your report on your taxes and other agencies and what you actually pocket is typically not the same in any trade. Sparkies in Ontario will make six figures no problem if they even hustle a little bit.
Steamfitter
Gods of the trades
Chemist here, if I could do it all over again I would go steamfitter in a heartbeat. I have a senior position where I work. I had to get a four year degree in a STEM field, have worked in chemical manufacturing several years and learned most of our equipment inside and out, can fix most of our shit that doesn't require glassblowing, and still get paid the same as journeyman steamfitters who come in on contract work.
Electrician is a wonderful career if you get certified for commercial and industrial buildings. Even if you stick to laying wire for residential developers it's a decent gig.
i've found the fastest way to get rich and well-renowned in a trade has been being born the son of a board member or chief executive. it's not easy but it's honest work at least
Electrician is a good path. Understand that it takes intelligence and hard work. Also, you have to get a state-issued license to get the title of Electrician. Without it, you would be nothing more than a helper.
Underwater welding
Delta P is a myth
Is there any decent way to job shadow trades or anything like that? I looked at my state’s list of licensed trades and there’s about 400, most of these require only a high school diploma and if there’s schooling they pay for it.
Is there a catch to this? Even if it’s hard work it seems too good to be true. My problem is that there’s just too many, I don’t know what I’d be good at, if I pick the wrong one I’ll be stuck with it.
Applied to my local IBEW, waiting on my test date. Wish I would have known what i wanted to do out of high school, could have been on my last couple years of apprenticeship now.
good luck, which local? I tested with IBEW Local 58 in Detroit, it was piss easy and I qualified for all the different specializations. Bombed the interview because I didn't know shit about tools and was upfront about it. Supposedly there are hundreds of people applying right now, including guys with fancy degrees in engineering, so the waiting time to get a callback is absurd.
For all the talk about needing people in the trades they sure as frick take their sweet time finding apprentices and training them. Years and years of b***hing and moaning, and now they want people to wait up to 2 years for a response. Now I work from home doing some shitty IT gig and never have to leave my apartment, frick if I'm going to respond to their summons.
Been a desk jokey for decades now and before I go on a nervous breakdown dealing with the constant menial office bullshit, I’ve been toying with the idea of taking some NDT training.
What are the odds of making a living as an NDT tech these days?
>What's the best trade to work in
drug dealer
and why?
money is great and you work maybe an hour a week if you work your way up
>Drug Dealer
Never crossed my mind, considering your customers would gladly snitch on you to avoid jail time and your completion would probably kill you.
Nah, I’m good in my cubicle, mate.
Industrial electrician that actually knows about PLCs and instrumentation.
Did my apprenticeship in industrial construction, so learnt about motors VSDs, PLCs, instrumentation ect
But still did lots of manual labour and got handy asf with all sorts of tools.
Then went and did 6 months of night courses after my apprenticeship to specialise in PLCs and instrumentation.
Now work as an "Electrical Technician" where I barely to any manual labour, it's all just using my knowledge, a multimeter and a screwdriver.
Great pay, work/life balance, interesting work, job security and an easy path to move into management or engineering if I feel like it