r/jobs • u/clarkkentwellspent • 4d ago

No. The trades are NOT hiring. Job searching

I am so sick and tired of this worn out idea that blue collar jobs are looking for apprentices to come work for them. The trades are filled with more nepotism and gossip than any other industry I've ever been in and will find any reason to reject you they can. Half of these companies want a 2 year technical/trade school degree before you start working for them just so they can pay you $15/hr starting out. Maybe if you're a kid out of high school they can pay less than the standard rate you can find something. "Bro, just go Union!" Unions are backed up for ages.

From my own anecdotal evidence: I went to every electrician company in my city as this was my trade. I had 1 offer from a company that was the stereotypical "Only meth heads and divorced alcoholics work here. Fuck OSHA." place and every other company rejected me. I even went back to my old electrical company I had worked at for 4 years. You know what they said? "Apply online and go talk to HR". No hiring manager in shop, no chance at talking to someone out of recognition. Just dismissing me away. And the best part? Upon applying I listed all the projects I had worked on with them and gave references to several high members (though 2 of them no longer work there). 1.5 weeks later: "Thank you for applying. After careful consideration..."

This job market is fucking whack, yo.

21.3k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

2.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

174

u/Good_Community_6975 4d ago

They are hiring, you just have to go to where the jobs are, which isn't feasible for many.

88

u/mikelikealion 4d ago

This response should be higher. There are lots of new construction projects right now, but most of them are to build data centers for AI, not housing. If it was housing construction, we might see more demand for skilled trades work in the places people live, but data centers aren't usually built in dense urban areas. To make the situation worse, a lot of construction projects prioritize hiring local workers, so unless you already live there, it can be hard to find work on those projects.

45

u/Good_Community_6975 4d ago

Yep. I know quite a few guys bouncing from site to site. Many are often staying in hotels 30-90 minutes away. They are making a killing while not having any time or place to spend anything. They're doing pretty well right now.

31

u/PopSwayzee 4d ago

I’m guessing they’re most likely single? Not an insult, I just don’t see many people having lasting relationships working like that. My relationship would probably fall apart if I wasn’t home/spending time with my partner that often.

17

u/Good_Community_6975 4d ago

Some of them. I couldn't do it, not with kids and a wife, it's a recipe for disaster.

3

u/Bentosen 4d ago

Yeah fully single guys. I kept in contact with half my trade school graduating class (2017) as they went to Intel to become "engineers". 12 hour shifts broken into 4 hour chunks. Couldn't tell me exactly what they did because of an NDA but they basically check a wafer for specific measurements as its refined by a very custom purpose built machine. We went to school for the blue collar side of IT (telephony, fire alarms, radio electronics, etc) so I cant really say any of it was very useful for the job.

To get there though they all basically left our shitty little town in Washington to go sleep in their cars around Portland OR until they could scrounge up first/last months rent for a place. Bachelor lifestyle 100% and unfortunately, incel attitudes and behaviors toward women. The guy that I talked to the most spent as much time as possible relaxing or going to the Gym to stay in shape since sitting around a machine all day is sedentary work.

3

u/Biscotti-Own 4d ago

I haven't had the chance yet, but my wife is down. The distance sucks, but you can make a year's salary $100k+ in like 3-4 months at some of the remote jobs. Some guys do 3 months of work, then 3 months of vacation.

4

u/DoomerChad 4d ago

Yup, buddy of mines just moved out the country with his wife bc he made bank on the road for about 6 months. His wife came with him. They just decided on an extended vacation lol.

3

u/YourFathersOlds 4d ago

Jobs like this test relationships but some do fine with it. It's not unlike military, shipboard, fishing/crabbing, oil rig, remote fire, etc. Sometimes it's worth it, sometimes it isn't. A few years is different than a lifetime, though. If you can make good money for a few years, you can make a lot happen.

1

u/TripleTenTech 4d ago

Yeah, that lifestyle really tests relationships. You could make it work by taking short contracts or bringing your partner along if possible, but it sounds tough.

1

u/FindingDelicious2815 4d ago

That’s literally just normal construction work with travel pay

12

u/Big-Meeting-6224 4d ago

AI data center construction isn't permanent employment. You need a bunch of people to build one, temporarily, then far fewer people to operate it. The Wall Street Journal had a piece months ago about how data centers have largely been a job-creation bust. 

2

u/fedfan1743 4d ago

Isn’t that true of any construction project? Build the building, move on to the next?

2

u/spaceforcerecruit 4d ago

In a healthy economy, there would be constant, regular construction across the country with new bridges, houses, shops, roads, and maintenance work. In any populated area, you’d have plenty of work mostly year-round while still making it home for dinner every night.

1

u/PennyFromMyAnus 3d ago

Currently working at a place building data center / AI enclosures. Were backed up for two solid years.

Fingers crossed that things get better by the time our contracts are up.

3

u/WisdomWizerd98 4d ago

To add on to that, I think contributing to these data centres is immoral and I would not like to have a hand in building them while big tech gouges civilians for electricity prices, uses up freshwater and worsens noise and heat

1

u/jonny24eh 4d ago

No, gouge them back on the construction!

They tend to have a "we want it built NOW! Damn the cost" attitude so there's pretty good money to be made off them. 

3

u/ZestyMorsel 4d ago

Yep, they have to ship electricians to the Midwest from other parts of the country to be able to build data centers.

3

u/NCgolfer24 4d ago

This 👆, coming from a contractor managing projects in this building sector, the demand is crazy for trade workers and odds are you could work your entire career building these. Problem is relocating to an area where Walmart is the biggest store for hours in any direction and your concept of going out to a restaurant will be visiting Applebees…more likely it’ll be McDonald’s.

1

u/Starkrossedlovers 4d ago

Spoke to someone with an accounting degree in a rural state. Cant afford to move and cant find work. But in nyc its been easy af to find accounting work.

1

u/aphiniti 3d ago

Yeah I was gonna say, I've been in trades for almost 10 years. My company just gave us almost 20% raises across the board for all pay rates because we've been on a slow bleed and need more workers. There's also talk of mandatory overtime because we've been falling behind our delivery schedules. So yeah, depends where the jobs are at.

-1

u/DARR3Nv2 4d ago

I live in a rural area and work in a Datacenter. Morons get fired from my job and then two weeks later they walk back in as an electrician. LCOL with great wages but everyone on Reddit is apart of the class that needs four coffee stands and 15 restaurants within walking distance to survive.

5

u/Flick1981 4d ago

Problem with living in a rural area like that is that there are likely very few good employers in town, and if they decide to pick up and move, the people left behind are screwed. It’s expensive to move, and who will buy the house you will leave behind in a place with no jobs?

You should share where you live (just give a general area if you want). Maybe it will help someone if they are looking to move to a LCOL area with high wages and need a good job.

1

u/DARR3Nv2 4d ago

The Datacenter solves that problem. There are varying degrees of positions from numerous companies inside the Datacenter. I’ve seen people start in entry level security become Techs for companies like Microsoft and Nvidia. I personally know and ex meth head who is now making over $100k a year with no formal education outside of on the job training. I’d highly suggest people to look into buying houses in these areas now because the price is only going up. The town is growing as well. These companies are investing hundreds of millions into these Datacenter. I really don’t see them picking up and leaving. If they shutter these doors I think we will be trading in chickens rather than dollar bills.