re: Gen Z will end up more successful than millennials

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Something like that but the pay starts at $42 an hour much more than my current pay. I honestly can’t anything close to that in my current career field unless I get to upper management this is the base level for the school I’m currently in

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then you chose a shitty field.

you get annoyed at me and mingo and keep saying ours isnt typical....yea because the degrees we got are not easy. two totally different fields but both are really hard. sure most cant hack it...but in our fields....interns start ~$5 less than that and starting salaries are close to that and sometimes more


its fricking sad that upper management in your current position is ~40-45 an hour, that is fricking sad for upper management pay

and as far as your original premise......

A) what you are describing is not the trades
B) i gave you the median salaries of the trades in LA. Can you make more...sure but it requires way more OT or working out of state.

if you want to go into the trades....instrumentation at a plant or becoming a plant operator are going to be the best bet. Easy work physically for the most part and certainly after 5 years and you get amazing benefits and really good pay and good opportunity to move up

bad part is its shift work for most part if you stay in those positions and you get lots and lots of overtime.

that can be good or bad. plenty of time off during the week and if you want to buy something, just pick up some shifts. but bunch of times you dont want to work but have to...like christmas, thanksgiving etc

but even those guys are 35-50 an hour. sure they can make 150-200k but its tons of OT. that doesnt include benefits which is worth another 50-60k.

I'm an older millennial (1983), but my wife and I got degrees that you can 100% have success with. I think the movement of education to trade slides back and forth. There is a need for skilled laborers, and when done correctly you can make good money. I've always pushed my students to do what is best fit for them to be successful. Not everyone is a college student, and just b/c a young man or woman is intelligent doesn't mean college is the best fit. I also think colleges got away from what their job is, and that's educating the next group of Americans. There are just too many degrees that don't allow a student to be successful after college, or the amount of money that they would make in those fields would never allow them to get back to a decent standard of living.

Labor is tough work, and while you can make money doing it there's not a lot of 60 year olds out there. Hopefully this administration can get the military tightened up, b/c that's a great way for a lot of people to get out of tough situations, and have a career.

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you can believe whatever you want....but i could go outside right now...go ask 25 people working on thier tools if they would trade jobs and salary with me right now....all 20 would say yes because working in the fricking heat all day on the arse end of a rivet buster or building formwork or pulling wire or turning pipe or climbing in an attic installing ducts, climbing under an old house having shite water drip on you while laying in said water......sucks major dick.

and until you have busted your arse in the august heat or froze your arse off in the rain in january.....your opinion means jack shite.

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Take a kid waffling between college and a trade to a pan slab, say the 10th floor, in Atlanta Georgia in either December - February or July - September. Half of the year. Make that kid spend 8 hours just standing up on that pan. If that child still wants to go into a trade hit him in the small of the back, one or both knees and at least one hip and one shoulder with a sledge hammer and have him stand on that pan 8 hours the next day. This will simulate what their back and joints will feel like every day from the age of 45 until they die. Chances are pretty damn good that the kid will realize school is a fricking cake walk. If they do not take them immediately to a shrink 'cause that kid has some issues....


Anyone who doubts this would be a pretty good representation of what working in the trades is like past the age of 40 has never done it or is incredibly fortunate....

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Something like that but the pay starts at $42 an hour much more than my current pay

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Did you start off this post with the understanding that anyone working in any trade would just roll into a new job make $42/hr because they spent 1-2 years getting a few certificates?

An engineering tech job is not a job that would be considered a trade position, and while I have a limited understanding of the engineering field this does not sound like it would be much of a blue-collar job as you originally alluded to in the first few pages of this thread.

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An engineering tech job is not a job that would be considered a trade position, and while I have a limited understanding of the engineering field this does not sound like it would be much of a blue-collar job as you originally alluded to in the first few pages of this thread.

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Engineering Tech in the construction / operations / military / government service industries is certainly not a trade position....it is usually a position that a trades person may be promoted into with some education and training beyond that of a tradesman only. Field engineer is another similar position. They usually come from the trades after a tradesman gets a degree or has somehow managed to receive some training and experience that moves them beyond a tradesman.

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I just seen too many in my position who went the same route hit the same stagnation I hit. I was left at a crossroads get a cpa or get a career change. This mainly happens post Covid where growth in this administration industries just collapsed. I 100% don’t want to be an accountant the most depressing unfulfilling job I’ve witnessed with a degree

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Well yeah dude, you were bottom of the barrel in the profession. I’m not saying that to shite on you, it’s just true.

That’s like saying working at a plant is the ticket without distinguishing the engineers from the tool helpers.

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.life in the trades sucks for the most part. It can be fun fricking around and doing crazy shite on the job but there is a reason most of those guys live off coffee and cigs and are dead before 60

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They also tend to have multiple marriages, lousy credit scores and some serious substance abuse problems. I LOVED being on the job....at 25 it is a fricking blast and some of the best times I can remember work related was when I was nothing but a tramp electrician, with no family, bumming around the nation working, drinking and chasing pussy. It is NO way to build a career....I was fortunate in that I managed to avoid any serious trouble and had already earned a degree as well as topped out so I had options....far too many of my friends, friends to this day, did not have those options and many are dead, handicapped or still trying to earn a living at 60 like they did when they were 25.

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Well yeah dude, you were bottom of the barrel in the profession. I’m not saying that to shite on you, it’s just true. That’s like saying working at a plant is the ticket without distinguishing the engineers from the tool helpers.

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Again I had alternative routes in HR or get an account degree but the pay raise was minimal and the work load tripled not worth it and something I’m not interested in doing.

I know many people would choose that route but I’ve spent too much time in careers I’ve hated.

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I’ve never met an accountant who liked their job and I worked on a few projects it’s just not my thing.

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I did accounting in college and work at accounting firm, and I like my job. But I don’t process invoices or some other useless bullshite