I am 25 and a college drop out. I dropped out during COVID because my mom got sick and I am her only family. I had to take care of her as she recovered, and assist her with things since she also has rheumatoid arthritis. But it was a blessing in disguise because I had wanted to drop out for a long time. I have been working since I was 12 and one of the things I have always done is work outside doing basic landscaping. A year ago I got on with a company that does residential landscaping and construction. Including building decks, patios, stone walk ways, boulder walls, and laying brick. It is fucking awesome. I regret not getting into it sooner especially since I have always loved working with my hands, art, being active and building things. But I was chasing other stuff. My mom is a blacksmith and jewelry designer too so should have been a duh moment. Anyway, I really am interested in carpentry, electrical, and plumbing. I have done carpentry as far as decks, wooden patios, and stairs go. I have no electrical experience and only minor plumbing (mostly fixing my own toilet after I honk out a vicious dirt snake.) I love landscaping but I am not confident about its recession proofness. Thing is, math isn’t my strong suit and I am not sure what my strengths besides just being strong are since I am still relatively newish to the trades (idk if landscaping counts?) Should I just take the first union apprentice job i get or what? how did you choose? tell your story
>>2583100Electrical. you work after the roof is on and the windows are in. Plumbing is just hard.
>>2583100>I dropped out during COVID because my mom got sick and I am her only family. I had to take care of her as she recovered, and assist her with things since she also has rheumatoid arthritis.cope>I had wanted to drop out for a long timethe real reason>blacksmith and jewelry designermake an Etsy store and get to work, better to learn these skills from your mom before the arthritis renders her unable to do any of it>landscapingminimum wage work, not a career unless you own the company>carpentrylowish pay and not a lot of room for growth>plumbing and electricalhigh pay and if you play your cards right you can run your own company
>>2583191i like hard desu, i dont mind digging trenches and getting dirty but yeah i hear how its really intensive shit. i think i would like electric but im worried bout the math>>2583200i think of it more as a happy accident (besides my mom getting sick) but yeah i want to make jewelry and make knives under her tutelage. with landscaping, i make &25/hr but i want more especially since i want a start a family at 30 with my fiancee. is carpentry really that low paying? would it be as low paying if i did carpentry AND landscaping AND something else? but thanks for the feedback and tips
>>2583191The answer is always electrical because if you're intelligent your upward mobility is near endless. If not, you've still got a decent gig as an inside wireman. Go electrical.
>>2583100Electrical. You are needed for sooo many things, tools are mostly compact/able to fit in basically any car, and you can fuck off to any part of the country. T.HVAC guy
Big union trades:Carpenters: Kicked out of the major union org. They speak of themselves as "builders" compared to "trades". Many are carpenters until their body gives out, then they become general contractors. Commercial carpenters are typically those who build the concrete formwork or they erect metal studs. Resi carpenters do custom home builds with actual wood.Subfield of Carpenters: Drywallers, Mudders, Tapers. Huge part of carpentry. Hack work typically although some guys better than others. Work can be found anywhere. Ironworkers: Workers who install field for high rises. Good union in my area. Hard work, especially rod busters. Also involved with rigging.Electricians: Trade which stays on the job the longest. Pretty much the "brother" of plumbing, from the varied materials encountered, the scheduling on new construction. Mostly new construction. Can't figure out what works? Demo and install something new.Concrete workers: Hard as hell, pay is better now, work in teams. Mason workers and bricklayers: Hard as hell, pay is not great. Work can be aesthetic.Linemen: .Painters: Overhead spraying everydayOperators: Good pay, operate heavy machineryPlumbing: The prototypical trade. Very similar to electrical work. Sees more type of work in service, residential.HVAC and Duct Workers (Sheet Metal): Primadonnas on the job. There's two types. Those who install in the field, and those who work in the shop. Much of the work in the field is pulling measurements and installing prefab. They typically dominate overhead work and ignore other trades. They don't do underground work, they typically don't do slab on grade work. HVAC is refrigeration which can be separate, but all encompassing in running copper line set, and huge part of them are controls, startup, and building automationFine Carpentry: Many fields. Could be door guys, cabinet makers, or just installing trim. They're in the field as much as they're in the shop. Delicate, fine, detailed work.
>>2583289Electrical is on it’s way OUT.t. Cordless tools user
>>2583100Are there ANY trades that not break you down and isnt full of retards, crazy rednecks and boomers?
>>2583405Very niche electrical jobs. Specifically working in a maintenance role in manufacturing. Usually indoors, higher pay than ibew scale, most places run solely on control logix so most of your t/s is done on a laptop. I enjoy it.
>>2583100Youve certainly worked harder than me but I relate to you a lot on the college front. I was born to immigrant hispanic family so I always had some sort of internal pressure I gave myself to not end up like them, I got accepted to good unis after HS but just did CC at my mothers request to avoid debt that would fuck me over since I didnt know what I wanted to do. Godlike advice because it turns out while I do well for myself in school what always happens is I lose my interest a quarter or halfway through and want to leave, teachers, students, and course material is all perfectly fine too I just dont see a purpose to all this. Throughout the entire time I was always working a job though from starting as a cashier to Fedex, nothing stuck but I did that far more consistently. Recently started a electrician apprenticeship and liking it so far though its barely even started. Sorry for giving my life story here but what Im saying is that if you like working hard definitely give electrician a shot especially if you like learning things, Im not experienced in terms of knowledge on other trades but if youre more the type that likes making stuff maybe something like carpenter is your speed but Im not sure. Either way I'd say choose one of those unless you have a big interest in some other one. Also see it as an investment, for example I want to have my own business one day working on electronics of all sorts, electrician doesnt directly help with working on computers but it helps giving me a valuable skill and gives me a new perspective on how computers and other electronics work, so look at your future goals for help in making the decision. In any case from what my co workers tell me pivoting between trades isnt too hard anyway. Just remember Im a rookie though this is just my two cents
>>2583100Go with carpentry. No on call or after hours work and no emergencies. Fuck plumbing and electrical and a/c
>>2583269how intelligent? i am slow with math and could probably fine tune my mental math skills. thanks anon>>2583289thanks, it definitely seems versatile and needed. i also do indeed hear how tool wise, you’re not lugging around as many tools. electrical seems so cool too. i would love to be able add on an addition to a home, wire it up, and then build a patio or walkway around it>>2583388thank you for the in depth reply anon, that is really helpful. with the subfields of carpentry and fine, am i wrong to think this kind of work i would be able to cultivate on the side while doing other stuff? painting too? with electrical vs plumbing, im leaning towards being an electrician but it gets so highly reccomended that i worry it’ll be like lawyers where its so overcongested with them >>2583455sounds like you have done lots of hard work man and dont apologize for the life story, its helpful! thank you for the response and like you i would always sort of tap out a quarter way into things especially school. for the first time in my life i am really applying myself instead of just coasting off of being able to wing it and all. im glad you are enjoying electrical work, it seems like a really rewarding profession and skill that can be applied to so much. i do enjoy hard work for sure, and also just using my body. all my hobbies like boxing and bjj and climbing involve it. building stuff and fixing it though has totally enthralled me so in a way i am feeling confident that as long as its one of these then it’ll be a good time>>2583687i will admit, doing maintenance as a landscaper can be really boring. edging, leaves, mulching, etc. i like new construction mostly so i do think about that when considering these jobs. thanks man
>>2583687>WAAAAAAAAA DONT GIVE ME BUSINESS DURING MY SPA TIME AND BEAUTY SLEEPyou sound like a huge faggot
>>2583100Check my HVAC thread OP. We continuously mog and cuck all the other trades. IYKYK
>>2583746>so desperate he needs to go into other threads.
>not good at mathTime to get good. You don't need high level math to do this shit. As you learn the trade, you will learn the type of math you need to use. The more you do it, the easier it will be. For carpentry and plumbing you will mostly be making measurements for h/w/d and angles. Electrical has its own math involved, but again you can learn that and being "not good at math" is a cope.
>>2583746my buddy is in HVAC and also speaks to its advantages. i will look more into it, but it just doesn’t scream to me like the others do. thanks man>>2583932ok gotcha thank you, good to know its not too advanced. i was thinking about looking at khan academy and shit like that again like back in hs to refresh myself. theres a small company in my city that does a “trade math” workshop i was thinking of doing too
>>2583100machining trades. specifically aerospace
>>2583388>Subfield of Carpenters: Drywallers, Mudders, Tapers. Huge part of carpentry. lol no. These guys know fuck all about carpentry. Most of them besides the foremen are crack addicts and can't use a circular saw properly
>>2583405Low voltage technician. You literally run Cat5e/6, troubleshoot networks and work on phone systems. Super easy, super chill, pays easily 65/hr depending on experience/clients/projects.
>>2583723>how intelligent? i am slow with math and could probably fine tune my mental math skills. thanks anonyou need to be able to remember a lot of little things, it's very detail-oriented and if you make a mistake you could kill people or break things, and by "things" I mean "entire buildings"
>>2583388>Pretty much the "brother" of plumbingwouldn't that be pipefitting?
>>2583100I'm a pipe layer and loves it. It keep me in shape, pays well and I spend my winter out of wagecucking and do project for myself. It's like a plumber but we do man things.
>>2583910Can't help it's the slowest board in the history of the internet. Also, mogged. >>2584209Realistically, I wouldn't look at anything other than HVAC, plumbing, or electrical. I did shit tier trim carpentry and cabinets for about 6 years and that trade is a dead end unless you really enjoy it IMO. There's definitely opportunity but from my experience on average it's an underpaid field. Can't speak much for the other trades. HVAC has a massive shortage of workers. Average age of an HVAC service tech is like 57 years old. And although I joke about it, we really do a little bit of everything. You'll deal with electrical every day. Some people weld/braze every day. We do simple plumbing with drain lines. And install has basic carpentry cutting in shit. Highly recommend it.
>>2583100I went carpentry because I enjoy it. Trying to go more cabinetry now because its more satisfying. I was dog shit in math during highschool so I was worried when I went to college for it but the math can be worked out easily. If you really struggle get help and practice the worksheets but you'll only really need fractions and angles for the most part both things I was bad at but time plus experience.
>>2584426IT is essentially a trade, you also won't break your body down as hard as the other trades. Being an electrician is fucking hard on your hands and back, constantly going up/down ladders and stripping/splicing romex. There also the possibility of getting... electrocuted.Plumbing involves turds. HVAC involves dust, more dust, lots of dust, did I say dust? Dusty musty ass basements, fridges, etc,
>>2585072>Being an electrician is fucking hard on your hands and back, constantly going up/down ladders and stripping/splicing romex. There also the possibility of getting... electrocuted.there's many different types of electricians, not all of them are running romex through a house every day
>>2585072>There also the possibility of getting... electrocuted.Just don't touch the hot wires dummy it's literally that easy
>>2584351i have pretty good memory, it could be better though. thanks man>>2584414thank you, i will look i to it. i am good at laying pipe>>2584426thanks for the feedback bro, i will absolutely look more into HVAC. >>2584711i really love the carpentry i have done so far, and i don enjoy woodworking. i like it so much in fact that i would almost take a paycut to do it. i have this shaky dream rn where i do carpentry, smaller scale landscaping and hardscaping, bladesmithing, and jewelry. a little art and also a little bit more technical shit. with electrical experience i would love to wire up my own shit and build houses or even tiny houses
>>2585204>just don't forget that you switched the breaker off for the 5th time when troubleshooting
>>2583200land scaping is certainly not minimum wage, maybe depends how many spics are around
>>2583100Aircraft mechanic. I only know about police. They make good money, very specialized work and you can not fuck up or you'll kill at least 2 very expensive Officers and at least 2 support crew, but the work is very chill most of the time. But you need a strong mind, washing some mangled kid blood and gut remains takes a toll in your mind. 8/10
>>2585558Got any pictures anon?That sounds bitchin
>>2585487in my mind this is the same as saying "don't suddenly jerk your wheel while going 80 mph on the highway and crash into the opposite lane"like...yeah, I know, thanks
>>2585247If you like water and hard work you could become a diver, wich I am studing right now. Working conditions are though; cold, low visibility, dangers... so it must be something you really want to do.You are so nice, i hope you have it good in life whatever you do
>>2583739Or a real man wanting to spend quality time with his family on regular basis. Back to discord you absolute tranny faggot also you have to be over 18 to post here
>>2583100>which trade to choose?HVAC or plumbing>verification not required
To be honest, look at the companies that offer around you and find the one where the boss and the colleagues aren't faggots and who do the most interesting "reach of work".You can work in a shit HVAC company that and in a great carpenter company and the other way around. Just get started in something, you can't go wrong as experience will always help you out.Electric work (putting in cables into construction sites, preparing fuse boxes, connecting lamps) is boring in my opinion. HVAC/plumbing can be very hard and complicated but its rewarding if you like that kinda shit. Woodworking is something neat if you have company that does shit like furniture or unicum shit lik custom built kitchens. Building walls and plastering is exhausting but you can keep working like on a assembly belt. Just get started, the only thing you can do wrong is starting in a shit company that makes you waste your time for cheap labour. But if you get a semi decent or good one every experience will be worth its weight in gold.t. finished 3 years certified apprenticeship car technician mechanic and electronic systems and almost finished 3 years HVAC, there's nothing I can't fix
>>2583687Commercial electrician and I've never done a service call
>>2585893>t. finished 3 years certified apprenticeship car technician mechanicDid you just walk up shop and asked them for a position like the boomers or did someone introduce you?
>>2585964The first shop was shit and I left it as soon as I passed tests for certification. Back then I sent letters and shit because I was inexperienced. Now I walk up straight with my documents and ask them if they hire. When the boss is a slave-owner or the shop is unprofessional I notice it first hand and scratch them off my list.
Want to make some real money? Get yourself a cdl class A and become a lineman
>>2583723Algebra II and basic trig. I failed algebra in high school and college and still managed to get a meter/relay gig after working my way up. If you're actually retarded you'll probably be stuck as a narrow back but if you can learn you'll be fine. Even braindead linemen have to use trig every once in awhile.
