>Don't even bother getting an apprenticeship bro, it's not worth it!!
>It's LITERALLY impossible to become a tradie without family connections bro!!!
>You're just going to frick up your body and die an early, agonizing death!! Don't fall for it!
>Labor shortage doesn't exist, all of the jobs in the trades are full and you will never make it!!!!!
Frick the paid shills. Post tradie whitepills.
I worked for a single crew framing company and never went for my cert, nor asked for apprenticeship. FFW 9 years later and I'm fairly sure I know a lot more than any union carpenter since I made sure I had a wide range of experience. I work on residential and industrial sites. I stay away from towers because I hate stairs
I lift, am healthy at 12% bf, never had an injury from work
>I lift, am healthy at 12% bf, never had an injury from work
That's the best part. You still made time for number one. For your health and well being.
I worked at a bunch of places and now I know a bunch of stuffs
I'm currently a union electrician i also have a foreign electric engineering degree, i know more than anyone i met in the field but i keep it to myself and just laugh internally at their frickups, apprenticeships are good only if u're 18-25 yo looking for a decent stable career if u don't like it u still have time to switch career and use the credit for college education but expect to work in the worst conditions with the most moronic people u ever met in ur life where 90% are immigrants
where do you live? I live in Toronto where it's literally migrant central and it's 99% white construction workers here
Not him, but the east seems to be very union centric, and also totally depends what trade. Here on the west coast its all mexican concrete finishers, pajeet drywallers and roofers. The siding guys are russian. Electricians seem to be half white and half asian, the few nogs we have are either rodbusters or union carpenters
that's interesting. It's most just white guys here except for some Hispanic and Filipino working in reno
the only indians ive ever seen do construction in ontario are the ones who work for indian contractors that only employ indians
also doesnt help that the majority of indians ive met/worked with are actively scared of picking things up
Do you have a state-issued electrical license?
Im getting my ET card in a month, will you hire me?
We don't hire aliens.
>whitepills
you get to work with hands
you are doing actual real work
the pay can be really good
lots of different trades/jobs/opportunities
zoomers are scared of trade work
you aren't stuck behind a fricking screen all day, having worked 10 years in programming/IT before fricking off this one is huge
It's good for your body so long as you treat yourself well.
women low-key love tradies
there are plenty of nice things about the trades
>blackpills
lots of tradies are wienersucking morons
management can be pretty terrible or great depending on where you work, sometimes shopping around is required
trades can’t get eaten by AI
They totally can, bipedal robots and advanced automation will wreck trades but tbf that’s probably like multiple decades of technical progression away so you’re ultimately right for now
More like 200 years
Robots don't like anything related to welding
Robots already weld all kind of shit, dude.
In-shop and to a limited extent on the pipe line, but tricksy shit like boiler and other field repairs will be a b***h to automate and while welding robots just weld a human millwright can do much more in conjunction with the welds they make.
People who say this usually cite drywalling or concrete as trades. Those are trades for dumbasses. No better than assembly line workers
Drywall is certainly mindless work, and it is super dependent on new construction. The pay is absolutely bonkers if they lack guys to do drywall.
Concrete can get more technical depending on the size of foundations.
The forming itself can be difficult, pouring and finishing not really. If a mexican can do it, its not challenging.
Depends on how big the foundation is. Anything above 10k+ square feet is an operation.
>if a mexican can do it
Anon you do get that there are mexicans in every trade now too right
Yes and they are not that great at them. Same with indians. Every mexican carpenter (read: non-concrete laborer) I've met here is simply a formwork carpenter who does only slabs or tilt ups, which takes frickall amount of brains
Sorry if this is a common question but I've literally never been on this board before
Stop hijacking my thread anon.
Please be nice. /CAJA/ has room for any thread about careers or jobs. As long as you don't stink up the place with diy crap.
what is caja
I cant find it
I worked for 4 years as a mason apprentice then went straight into working for myself. I do small jobs, a lot of it is just bullshit repairs on things but I still charge a full day's rate even if the repair only takes me a couple of hours. I have the freedom to work when i want, i can start late and finish early if i want or i can do 10 hour days. I can easily make $1500 in a week just working like 25 hours. I don't have any employees, i just listen to podcasts at work and it's pretty comfy. I'm not making a tone of money but i can still afford to be pretty comfy and i have a lot of freedom in my life.
So you don't really have to put that much time in to have a semi-comfy career that allows you to escape any woke shit that would come from working in a corporate environment. You could do the same with lots of trades too, especially electrical/plumbing. There is a big demand for guys who will do small residential jobs right now, most of the contractors in my area won't touch these small jobs.
I don't know what /caja/ is but if you go to reddit and post in the construction sub they will legitimately be more helpful than here, even if 50% of them just give the generic response of 'go to your local union hall'. I think most people on this board are just diyers and tools spergs, not many actual people working in construction here.
anon which trade do you work in, sounds comfy
Masonry. I kinda specialize in stonework. Here's an example of a job I did last week. But you could have a similar lifestyle to mine in a lot of different trades, definitely electrical or plumbing because you can just do service work, do a couple of service calls a day and you can make $1000.
Very nice, but I would have topped it with something else besides a flat metal panel. Maybe an angel statuette or something.
Nice work! Is that dry lay or did you use adhesive to keep it together?
Listening to people hype up the trades is like listening to people shill for a “career” in grocery bagging. It’s a great option and potentially your only option if you’re literally moronic. The people taking and giving the advice are moronic. Just something to consider
This is a stupid analogy and you know it's stupid.
Not really. The money just isn’t there. If you’re in a union state you can make decent money after 4-5 years but to make good money you have to open your own business. If you’re in a non union state you’ll never make more than 60-70k which is poverty level anymore. And if you open your own business say goodbye to your quality of life. So again, if you’re broad between the shoulders but thin between the ears get into the trades. The world could always use more ditch diggers
this is the jist of the issue, if you arent union you are barely making above general labour in the majority of situation; which for the level of effort/skill/knowledge required in some trades shit doesnt really add up
just keep acquiring knowledge and listening for opportunities. There are many guys who make tons of money in the trades doing random niche shit (much like in every sector of the economy) and they always have lots of work. Never stop learning stuff and remember that the man with the bigger library generally wins.
>t. Makes 75k
>If you’re in a non union state you’ll never make more than 60-70k
FALSE.
Electrician here in non-union Georgia . I grossed 122K in 2023.
>I grossed 122K in 2023.
What was your net?
Are you the fool that claimed a non-union tradie makes only 60-70K a year?
No, but if you are a tradie, there is going to be significant expenses against your gross income: tools, truck, etc. 122k gross for an electrician is a hell of a lot different than 122k gross with office hands.
I work for a large global corporation. All of my tools, equipment, and any conceivable resources I need are provided to me as well as an excellent compensation and benefits package. I have a friend that owns a commercial electrical contracting type-S corp here in Atlanta and he grossed 2.92 million last year with less than 30 employees. I went down that road before. I had a bunch of vans, tools, guys, an office, expensive insurance policies WITH a fricking umbrella, gasoline cost of ~6K monthly, the list goes on. I basically had to become a salesman, accountant, as well as be a commercial electrical pro. Thankfully i sold that business prior to the 2007 crash. The electrical industry has been a great career path for me.
On the flip side I have a dear friend that has advanced degrees in social work and art/music stuff and she works in a coffee shop. The tables have turned. The pendulum is swinging the other way. Trades are in. Desk work is out. Opinion work is on the way out. The at-home workers are being weeded out. The price of pussy has stabilized and is now slowly declining. DEI is dying. AI is undermining the unskilled, white-collar, desk jockey sector. Soft men created hard times.
>All of my tools, equipment, and any conceivable resources I need are provided to me as well as an excellent compensation and benefits package.
Nice.
Boomer hubris the post. This thread was started by a guy asking if he should get into the trades, you’re some 50~ year old schmuck who tapped out of entrepreneurship and now works for as an employee in their 30th something year proclaiming that the trades have been good to you. Glad you played your cards right but your personal experience doesn’t dictate reality for the 95% of trades workers who will just be broken down and chewed up by globo homosexual corps like the one you work for or sell out businesses like the one you operated. good luck at your next cardiologist appointment
You sound bitter, poor, and obese.
Yeah, thats a typical tradie
Even if you don't become a contractor there are trades jobs such as being a maintenance electrician for the school board where you literally don't do shit but drive around and replace the occasional ballast or maybe troubleshoot some contactors and just sub it out if it's a big job, fricking brainlets lol
If most people could do it there wouldn't be a demand for tradies because college educated types aren't willing to eat shit for a few yrs during their apprenticeship.
You left out the part that said “unless you start your own business”. You mention gross profits so you must run your own business. If you’re an employee working under someone else’s license that would work out to something around $63/hr at 40 hours a week and no overtime. There’s a couple of people in every town who make this much because they’re master electricians working under someone who needs the help and can’t afford to lose them. In union states an electrician with 5 years or more of experience can make nearly this amount working anywhere. In a non union state if you’ve been an electrician for 5 years you’ll still be lucky to crack 30/hr. You’re a homosexual for chiming in when you’re literally the exception to the rule, assuming you aren’t lying or misrepresenting your income
>FALSE, THIS HAS BEEN DEBUNKED
have a nice day you histrionic Peter puffer
If you're a non-employee that's pretty true for the majority of guys unless you're in a highly technical position. Regular carpenters, masons, electricians, plumbers are all around the 60-70k mark in california
Is machinist a trade? Mine is roughly $37k/year gross . I still have to buy my own tools in California
how do you afford snap-on tools on 37k a year?
My bills are paid by my wealthy parents so any money I make is for fun money
It’s only like $300 for a set of sockets and $200 for a wrench so you can see how fast you can get a collection going
Post pictures
This isn't true at all. I'd say if you are in a non-union state with little to no industry you certainly are not going to be paid very well... but that would be true in a union state with no industry too (Rhode Island).
If you look closely the people that hyp up trades are just social media influencers I’ve never seen a real tradesman that wasn’t in management or the owner hype a trade
some dude at a concert offered me a joint and hyped up carpentry
You make more than the median college graduate and don't have to deal with office culture. You can also work for yourself in a much shorter window. That's good enough for me.
>don’t have to deal with office culture
Lol no.
Everyone in the office is ranked above you.
I have more work experience and a degree none of the office girls have any work experience or any college they’re just “buyers”
You not only have to deal with their office bullshit but imagine being bossed around by girls with less education, less skills and less work experience who make more than you just because they interact with the boss more and sit in the office
19 year old girls become your boss when you work trade
>19 year old girls become your boss when you work trade
hot
>working for someone else
lol
lmao
I worked for years before I got into the trades starting from basically zero. I'm the guy anyone I know calls if they need something done, so it isn't a big leap to start an s-corp once I'm licensed. I can put up with anything for 5 years. For life? Frick that.
for myself*
The "office" at my trade job is one little side of the warehouse with a folding table, laptop and printer
I can assure you no girls are there bossing people around lol
the closest we ever get to that is a clients wife being picky about paint colors
God I wish this were true. But in my experience instead of getting bossed around by cute girls, you’re getting bossed around by some snot nosed MBA who has no know-how, no real understanding of how his business functions, all he knows how to do is look at numbers on a spreadsheet and point his finger at people who do actual work, and everyone in the office has to treat them like the sun rises and sets on their ass.
Where are these companies where my management staff are 19 year old girls? Asking for a friend
>Listening to people hype up the trades is like listening to people shill for a “career” in grocery bagging. It’s a great option and potentially your only option if you’re literally moronic. The people taking and giving the advice are moronic. Just something to consider
It's moronic to say work in the trades without suggesting for one to get their contractor's license.
NEETchad's knights
I went to community college for a year and now a fortune 500 company pays me $60k a year to browse PrepHole all night
> 60k
poverty level wages in the west
> browse screen all day
High fat, low muscle. Some jamal in your city will jump you and take what worthless trinkets you've accumulated. Or just do it for petty violence, because that's their way.
> browsing..
Not exercising your mind and body together. You have to go to the gym for an hour a day and do disconnected exercises to keep your body in some kind of shape. Meanwhile bricklayeranon is getting kettlebell-like exercise as part of his daily activity. Learning to listen to his body, because he can't ignore it. Don't get me wrong, you both would benefit from yoga and kettlebell exercises, but stoneworkanon is way ahead of you.
My only dig at stoneworkanon is stay away from grains. They cause so many problems including arthritis. And as you know, arthritis will significantly reduce your ability to do work: you may already have your crew or multiple crews developed at that point and not have to as much manual work, but it sucks to have it either way. Tradie welders get it also, from exposure to heavy metals from the fumes.
Stoneworkanon is keeping his mind sharper: every job has to be priced. He has to examine multiple variables to price out his work. Including the person ordering the work. He may have to negotiate a bit on price, at times. He may have to open Liens on unpaid work. Stoneworkanon: protect yourself with an LLC. Gives you tax advantages and if you don't own anything yourself, personally, you're a poor man on paper. I could share some funny second-hand GC stories I heard from the horse's mouth, about how it saved his ass, his house, his vehicles, etc. And arbitration clauses - SWA has to be multidisciplinary in a highly integrated way.
>stay away from grains
QRD? I weld occasionally but I always wear a mask
Ventilator DIY https://youtu.be/cX-glTu6tz0
> qrd grains
Grains have a natural anti-digestive layer, and glyphosate has made those issues worse, helping to open the gut wall and cause food allergies. The obsession with gluten in barley, wheat and rye, is not applied to corn, or rice, though both also contain it. Gluten has a morphine-like compound: A low-level narcotic, nearly freely available, everywhere.
Just touching on the issues that cause auto-immune and arthritis: it's food - food is medicine. Only 1/6 experience effects as obvious gut issues. Suggesting to someone to quit, has the same response as trying to get someone off drugs. They have to want to quit. It also makes you appreciate that nearly everyone you encounter is a low-level drug addict.
I replaced an electrical main panel for a couple that, bought a single wide where the prior tenant had removed the damn box. She was recovering (clean though, and working) from various narcotics. As we talked a bit, I interjected the above. It puts a different spin on sobriety, when you realize most people are addicts.
I have a physics degree and i can't get hired.
>I have a physics degree and i can't get hired.
Don't talk about your physics degree and take that shit off your resume if you want to work in the trades.
i literally have nothing else. how do i explain my years spent from 18-27.
I'm in the same situation. I don't get why a degree would be a mark against you in the trades. I've done endless physical labor all through college and handyman work for a year. Is a degree really some unforgiveable blacklist thing?
no. the bosses don't care. why would they.
the apprenticeship system is designed to keep journeymen in low demand. In about 20 years there is going to be a glut of journeymen and no room for new apprentices, with that wages will be depressed.
I did the boomer firm handshake shit and got an electrician apprenticeship. No nepotism whatsoever just went to the contractor closest to my house saw a electricians wanted sign and walked in
> labor shortage
Ugh last labor shortage was a 3-month stretch in 2021… once it opened up they started layoffs again
Some trade jobs absolutely do kill your body. Good luck having a decent back after 40 if you spent your life laying tiles.
>Some trade jobs absolutely do kill your body. Good luck having a decent back after 40 if you spent your life laying tiles.
By then if you're not running jobs then you're doing it wrong.
I couldn't afford to work for apprentice wages, not for four years, not for one year, not for three months.
qualified tradespeople exploit labourers who arent allowed to compete with them.
Just save up that’s what I did, I knew I was going to be the green guy, having to buy new tools and living on min wage for years until I learned the trade
The Apprenticeship system is trash. Figure out a way to slowly ease into the trade while saving money. Mechanics usually have a pretty good learn and earn setup as you can get a job as a lube monkey part time and use that to slowly build up shop experience until you can land a better paying job while keeping up with your school and current work. From there if you are pretty good with vehicle repairs and troubleshooting it isn't impossible to move into an industrial maintenance job or electrician position.
If you want to start as a lube tech, do it now though… in California soon there will be no ICE cars to change the oil on … and there really is no lube tech tier apprentice position for electric vehicles
Really only room for master techs so you need to get those ASE certs asap
wtf are you talking about. new setups are using mineral oils to control temp and those degrade with heat/time. That will guarantee lube shops have business for decades to come.
These are all true
I'll let you in on a "secret". Yes, there is a big labor shortage, look at all the delays and the costs of construction around you. Here's the thing though: it benefits the trades and the unions. They are gatekeeping newcomers because they profit from a shortage. It means working 40 hours every week, along with overtime. You'll have to push hard to get in. The industry is in dire need of competent workers (that's the keyword) so eventually you'll get in if you are worth it.
Can you do a trade if you are over 30 years old?
yes homosexual
I trade my time for money, does that make me a tradie?
>over 35
>doing an apprenticeship
Frick it. The future is bright.
Just turned 30. Too late for me?
It will be extremely painful with £10.42 the first 3 years but after that the world is yours.
I make more money than any of the homosexuals I knew in uni (was a music major for a bit, median income of my state at only 25)
I don't have to censor myself, can be as offensive as I damn well please. Worked across three plants in my current company, namely CNC, automotive fixture building, and fabrication, and consequently I could likely work in any other shop in my area in most positions.
I have experience in:
>Sheet metal fab
>Assembly
>CNC setup, offsets, and operation
>Manual machining
>Benchwork and fitting
>General fab
>QI
>Maintenance on smaller machines and welders
>Material handling
Also some basic welding, gd&t, and PLC education. Also a cert for CNC
I thought cnc machinists got paid dirt and spend most of their time cleaning coolant and shavings out of a tank
is that not the case? I love cnc but the pay just doesn’t seem to be there
It depends if you're as dumb as sieg. He took the worst of both worlds, the shit cnc pay and he just got an arts and crafts degree from.uni so he wasted his life there too
>cnc setup and operation
That guy isn’t a machinist
He’s a machine operator or a shop hand or a temp by the sounds of it..
If you can’t program you’re not a machinist
How do you become "one of the guys" in these settings when you have been raised by a single, pushy, neurotic mom?
I just ignore them, or you can just act like a dude bro. They like basic humor and football and shit. If they're young they like videos games because they don't have time for a social life.
Holy frick, they chat about football and I am so confused. They literally watch regular TV with a licence. Everyone is married too except me. I am an outsider impostor.
So throw on some nornie shit as white noise so you can joke with them. Ask if their wives have singlr sisters or friends. Normies are easy. They generally just want simple chat that wont rock the boat
You gotta make a joke about someone being gay. Gotta make a joke about yourself as a homosexual. Inuendo about a tool and your dick. Its easy.
Being a tradesman sucks ass, I make 41k a year after almost 5 years and I'm always filthy and doing all the work because my coworkers are lazy nigglets so the bosses just dump everything on me. This is my third job too and the best pay I've gotten so far, steel industry is shit where I live. And now I can't get a job in a new field because all I know how to do is trade shit. So I'll just be doing this for the next 40 years or whatever because I chose this shitty career path because some boomers lied to me in high school I guess.
The boomers lied to me too but I listened and for a useless degree instead.
how hard are you trying to get the next job. I'd be at least putting out 2-3 applications every month if you aren't actively searching.
>my coworkers are lazy nigglets
>steel industry is shit where I live
>Being a tradesman sucks ass
or maybe you just picked the worst place to live for the trade that you chose, and need to move. nope, the trades are the problem.
Moving up in the trades means you just get a office job… the girls straight out of college start at office jobs
Funny how the answer to getting treated well in the trades is just work your way up to office jobs bro
While downplaying college
Enjoy sucking dick under the desks with your new BA in basket weaving sieg you fricking piece of shit
>look at my supervisors
>they are just on the desks, planning and timing things
>only way to go up
I don't enjoy this.
Driving a forklift to a semi truck, getting a RAW piece of metal off that track programming a CNC machine setting up that CNC machine editing the program that you made to make a good part that is intolerance on the first article. Every time is considered a minimum wage skill.
Coming in in the morning with a Starbucks in her hand opening up Microsoft office responding to a couple emails, typing some basic data entry into excel and not knowing how a printer works or how to repair a printer is considered a highly valuable skill set that is invaluable than the company and are often consulted on which members of the shop for should stay or leave at their discretion
That is how modern companies work in America right now
Your too dumb to understand how money works so you're frustrated.
You add $20 of value to this piece of metal because that's all the part sells for.
Your boss makes you $10 more per hour than you would otherwise be, or you wouldn't even working here. He takes like $5 though.
He manages 20 guys and takes $5 from each of them.
He's not producing parts. He's producing people that produce parts.
You're a whiney reddit communist b***h though so please frick off back there where no one minds the name gay shit
Drop a couple of bucks on the dream
https://gogetfunding.com/welder/
Thanks for this thread anon, been super blackpilled about all this stuff recently because I'm so close to actually doing it, I finish trade school soon with multiple offers lined up and I'm going from NEET to 5AM wakeups and 8 hour days and can't say I'm not a little scared. I know I'm gonna make it bros, I have to!
if a moron like me can become a journeyman electrician who's on his way to working in automation, I'm not even smart or hardworking but I am persistent which is key.
>Even tradies are in need of whitepills
o-oh...
fricking union moved me from operations where I knew everything to refinery mechanic/machinist over some dispute in the last negotiations. 40 is too fricking old to re-learn everything, I fricking hate it. no two pumps or turbines are alike and there is shit material to learn on out there, not to mention all the senior mechanics always have a stick up their ass about something. you could literally hand them a hundred dollar bill and they would still find something to complain about