re: WSJ: The High-School Juniors With $70,000-a-Year Job Offers

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Did you consider any of this for your kids? Very few people that advocate for trades are sending their kids that direction. We all know its an unappealing job with a lot more risks than not.

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One of them, yes. Mechanically inclined, likes to work with his hands, has taken basic welding, thought he was ready to "live his life" after HS. After just short of a year in the blue collar ranks, he went back to school in an engineering program.

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Smart kids should keep aiming for college

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I think this way too broad a brush. How many of our country's best and brightest left college before graduating? What does "college" have to do with the majority of art, construction, IT, or host of other fields?

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So not their welders with “a couple of years” of experience. Got it

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welding is a good way to get in the door. They will send you to factory schools to learn how to work on equipment along with doing stuff around the shop to school you. Once you get more certifications, they will put you on the road.

This isn't a job that involves extensive travel unless you are in a very rural state. Most part it is all day jobs and you sleep in your own bed.

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I’m not disagreeing with what you’re saying, I’m calling out Dath’s clear and obvious lie, and so are you whether you are trying to or not

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this isn't a lie.

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As for guys in the trades, welders with my company can expect to make six figures or close to it after a few years plus the benefits they get when hiring on.

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Average wages for welders in Louisiana is around $48,743 according to multiple sources including the BLS and Louisiana Department of Labor. According to the latter 75% of welders in Louisiana make $44,000 a year.

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I believe those numbers are wrong. Bureau of Labor statistics says professional engineers in Louisiana make $83k/year and I know first hand that is not accurate in my industry.

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In order to make $150K a year at $60 an hour a person would have to work almost 133% of a full time year or basically 6 days a week.

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Not when you get time and a half over 40, which most tradesmen do. Also, as I mentioned in my original post, they get per diem on most jobs which is over $100/day. Like I said before, in south Louisiana (and Texas) if you are willing to travel and work OT, tradesmen make damn good money.

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Bureau of Labor statistics says professional engineers in Louisiana make $83k/year and I know first hand that is not accurate in my industry.

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LOTS of engineers employed by the state and make less than that. Median is going to give a little better insight into the actual numbers than average, but I would surmise that number is not far off

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Not when you get time and a half over 40, which most tradesmen do.

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At $50 an hour, that’s 500 hours of overtime at time and a half. And that’s without taking one single day off

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And he will make relatively that for the rest of his life with no benefits. Not bad, but certainly not what you should strive for either

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Didn't realize a welder couldn't get a raise or a job promotion. Interesting.

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Didn't realize a welder couldn't get a raise or a job promotion

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Agreed. I think the $27/hour for a welder mentioned in the OP is accurate but its not what they will make the rest of their lives. I know for certain that journeymen welders in my area make $40+.

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To which I posted AN ACTUAL JOB WITH YOUR COMPANY that requires 3 years of prior experience and pays NO WHERE NEAR six figures

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Again proving you are too stupid to understand the concept they a new employee starting out at the bottom of the pay scale doesn’t make as much money as someone who’s been with the company with sufficient time to move up the pay scale.

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So a couple of things could be true

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The only thing you’ve proven true is that your mom should have taken it up the arse and spared the world from your existence.

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1. Welders between year 3 and year 5 are more than doubling their salary. This is almost certainly not true, you’d have to provide some solid evidence to prove otherwise as it’s so outside industry standards it’s not even worth considering

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You posted snout factory welding jobs while I was talking about shop welders and field welders. There’s not the same. But you, who doesn’t known your arse from a hole in the ground, can’t grasp that concept.

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2. Cat treats employees that started with the company day 1 in an extremely preferential manner than they do those they hire with experience. Again, unbelievable

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No welders are hired by a company like Cat without having experience in welding first.

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3. You’re full of shite and just made that up

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No. You’re just stupid and getting frustrated because you lack the mental capacity to comprehend anything being discussed in this thread. Your frustration is further exacerbated by own insecurity, which is on full display for everyone to see considering you’ve been melting since page one of this tread, trying to shite on people in the trades because you feel like you must be better than them. You have little man syndrome. I’ll bet you do something like work in some call center pestering people every day to buy something on the phone. You do it because you have no marketable skill. You’re useless. You’re no use to yourself or anyone else. If the earth opened up and swallowed you whole, it wouldn’t affect anyone. You know this and it angers you. That’s why you come on here and troll every thread you enter. You’re full of impotent rage and you bring it here because it’s the only outlet you have for it.

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You’re just stupid and getting frustrated because you lack the mental capacity to comprehend anything being discussed in this thread.

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I comprehend it fine, it’s just not true

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trying to shite on people in the trades because you feel like you must be better than them

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The trades are fine, they’re a better option than retail or other unskilled work, but the romanticization of them on this site is asinine. And as I said earlier, I could give the one example of a 23 year old investment banker making $400k to tell kids to do finance in college, but that’s so much an outlier it’s not worth discussing. Anyone with a brain understands this.

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I’ll bet you do something like work in some call center pestering people every day to buy something on the phone.

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You peddle augers and track hoes