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The vast majority of training programs for the skilled trades, on the other hand, last from
6 months to 2 years, and will cost just over $30,000. Even if that cost is entirely financed by
student loans, youre looking at a total of $40,000, which is still a savings of at least $110k!
This makes for a huge opportunity cost for those going to 4-year colleges. Youre spending an
extra 2-3 years in school, paying tens of thousands per year, while the tradesman is already
graduated and earning money (in some cases, making six figures as a 21-year-old).
One final factor is simply that some 18-year-olds arent ready for a college environment. Youre
thrown off the cliff from your warm and comfortable home life into total independence. Its not
an easy transition for anyone; in fact, about 40% of all undergrad enrollees will drop out before
earning a degree.
Trade school offers a nice on-ramp to independence. Youll often stay close(r) to home, you
receive real-world, hands-on training from the get-go, and you arent spending every waking
moment with folks your same age and in the same position in life (which can make for a difficult
social transition once out of college). Again, there are certainly benefits to attending a 4-year
university (weve outlined the pros and cons here), but the big pros of trade school are that youll
save a lot on tuition, start being able to make money sooner, and can start taking measurable
steps towards adulthood more quickly.
and let me tell you, I dont know a single bachelors degree holder who started out at that high of
a salary!).
Remember, those are the most common blue collar jobs. If you look at the higher end of trades
work, youll see wages that are much higher than college grads:
Remember, these are base salaries that come just as a result of your having the proper skills. Just
like with white collar work, there are many trades fields in which you can move up the ladder
and earn far more. If you show management skills and big picture vision, youll receive
promotions and raises, just as you would in an office setting. You can also start your own
business, and use your entrepreneurial, creative, and customer service skills to set yourself apart
from the pack, at which point your income potential is as high as your ability to hustle.
You may be surprised to learn that being a tradesman could get into that somewhat hallowed sixfigure salary range in far less time, and with far less money spent on schooling, than just about
any other field of work. And you could possibly make even more than that; think a plumber cant
make a million bucks a year? Think again!
Beyond wages, there are many other factors that actually play a more important role in
workplace satisfaction. Which leads to our next point
Compensation is important, but only the third most important factor in overall job satisfaction.
The first is actually opportunity to use skills and abilities (more on that below) and the second
is job security. So while pay in the trades may be commensurate with white collar work, for
some, these other factors will boost this type of work ahead of occupying a cubicle.
In our new economy, complete job security just doesnt exist. Anything can happen to any
company, and you can be let go. But some jobs are a lot more secure than others. Information
and tech jobs are particularly vulnerable to being taken over by robots or moved overseas, but
even once-secure jobs in the medical and legal sectors have begun to be outsourced as well.
The trades, on the other hand, simply cannot be outsourced. While the world may not always
need bloggers, it will always need mechanics, electricians, plumbers, welders, etc. When youre
locked out of your house, you wont phone a customer service line and deal with robots trying to
resolve your issue, youll call a locksmith (unless of course you can pick your own lock!). The
roads and bridges in this country will always be built here. Our skyscraper projects wont be
constructed in France and shipped over (that was a one-time deal with Lady Liberty). While jobs
in the information/tech/customer service sectors can always be shipped away, the careers
that require literal hands-on work cannot be.
One of the points that Mike Rowe hammers home in his book, Profoundly Disconnected, is that
Americans are disconnected from the things that keep our lives and society running on a daily
basis (hence the title of the book). Without the trades, our society would literally crumble.
Roads/bridges would go into disrepair. Cars would break down and not be fixed, and new cars
wouldnt be made to replace them. Our electrical grid would shut down and wed lose power.
Plumbing would break down or back up, and wed all be swimming in our own waste. Not a
pretty picture, is it? It may seem sort of dystopian, but in fact our infrastructure is falling apart
before our eyes. The American Society of Civil Engineers rates it as a D+. 60 Minutes, just this
week, did a feature on Americas crumbling infrastructure. This is an incredibly salient issue.
Without more skilled tradesmen, it will only get worse.
Of course, as 60 Minutes points out, politicians need to fund these projects, to pay these
tradesmen, to fix our decaying roads and bridges, but thats a whole nother subject. Yet even if
these projects dont get funded for a long time
Above, I mentioned that the number one factor in overall job satisfaction is being able to use
your skills and abilities. It was in 2012 when that factor overtook job security for the first time,
just four years removed from the economy crashing. People are quickly discovering that feeling
happy and fulfilled at work is incredibly important.
Do you want to spend 40 years of your life bored and dissatisfied for most of your day?
Obviously not. But thats what 70% of Americans feel at work, with highly educated people
actually being more likely to be disengaged with their workplace. While boredom can obviously
happen at any job, the tradesman whos working with his hands all day simply has less
opportunity for disengagement, as boredom at work often happens when there just isnt enough
to do. Idleness is not often a problem for the blue collar man.
In the last article, I mentioned the false notion that one has to follow your passion in order to
be happy at work. This is often taken to mean that you should find something you enjoy, then
acquire skills in that field. Actually, it works the other way around; find a way to use your skills,
no matter what those skills are, and youll be passionate about your work. I wont go into that at
length here, but give that section a read from the previous piece.
Other intangibles to be mentioned are things like autonomy at work and work/life balance. In an
age where most peoples jobs are accessible by internet and smartphone, disconnecting from
work is hard to do. You see emails come in at night, and you respond almost without thinking
about it. You hop on the computer for a second, and it turns into an hour or two of work because
its right there, and seems urgent. You become a slave to email, and to your higher-ups, even if
thats not the intention. When you work with your hands, you can come home at night and
actually disconnect from your job. You arent always plugged in, which gives you a better
chance to refresh your body and mind for the next days work. Of course, you can choose to
work after hours if youd like but youll also be able to charge your customers a premium for
your services if you do!
One final factor is simply the satisfaction that can come from doing something tangible and
concrete with your time. Fixing things, building things, seeing the actual, physical fruit of your
labor; this is often far more personally fulfilling than spending 8 hours on an excel spreadsheet.
As author Matthew Crawford notes in a great article in the New York Times, Many of us do
work that feels more surreal than real. Working in an office, you often find it difficult to see any
tangible result from your efforts. What exactly have you accomplished at the end of any given
day? Where the chain of cause and effect is opaque and responsibility diffuse, the experience of
individual agency can be elusive. In fact, in our modern economy, 40% of jobs are related to
coordinating and mediating rather than actually doingsomething directly.
The woodworking hobbyist pursues this pastime because it feels really good to build something.
The tinkerer of cars loves doing it because he can see something dead come to life, as a product
of his own two hands. There is a satisfaction and fulfillment that comes from manual work
that simply cannot be achieved in any other setting. For some folks, manual work will remain
a fruitful hobby, but for others, it can blossom into a meaningful and long-lasting career.
Conclusion
When were weighing which types of jobs to apply for, or even which to accept from multiple
offers should we be so lucky, the differentiators often come down to benefits. Pay, job security,
balance, work environment, etc. For too long the skilled trades have been neglected as not
having any benefits. Thankfully, the tide is turning, and people are starting to see that blue
collar work offers some real advantages over white collar work. There are jobs available, pay is
good, job security is excellent, and the satisfaction may be greater than being in the information
industry.
In some cases and for some people, better jobs and benefits will come as a result of a 4-year
degree and being in an office setting. Thats just fine. But for some folks, thats just not the case.
My hope is that the young men reading this, as well as the seasoned men considering a career
move, will weigh all their options, and determine whats best for them and their future.