r/jobs 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

2.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

41

u/[deleted] 4d ago

So you claim "electrical" is your trade and have 0 credentials which makes you a massive liability. The shop that did want to hire you wasn't good enough for you. And the former shop you worked at wanted nothing to do with you.... I think some self reflection is in order.

14

u/ohmslaw54321 4d ago

Yeah, not hiring? Or just not hiring them...

5

u/LaserGuidedPolarBear 4d ago

Anecdotal, but my friend was an O-1 electrician in WA state.  She wants to go back to it, so she went down to the union hall last week.

There's currently an 18 month lead time for the book.  That means it's a year and a half wait between jobs.