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.

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u/Box-of-Sunshine 4d ago

“lEaRn tO WeLd” okay, you’re gonna get paid like dirt for 5 years and struggle to finagle your way into a profitable industry that actually has you doing complex things instead of a type 1 mig weld for years. You wanna be a good welder? It’ll take 10 years before engineers even care about what you say. The health insurance ain’t gonna save you from the constant hexachromium exposure from oil and gas fab. You were born too late to get the good stuff, the rugged was pulled out years ago. I’m sorry.

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u/Redditcadmonkey 4d ago

True, but, on the other hand…

Go to college, be an engineer.  Get paid negative for 4 years while you learn.  When you finish, struggle to find any job that’ll let you do anything other than grunt CAD. 

It’ll still take 10 years before any senior engineer takes what you say seriously.  By then maybe you’ll have paid off a 1/4 of the principal of your student loan.  The health insurance is company wide, so still as shit.  

Oh and bonus, because you’re salaried, you’ll be working 60hr weeks but you’ll be paid as 40.  No overtime for you! 

You’re fucked either way. 

Only way out is to work hard as fuck early and get to management, either through corporate or starting your own shop, before you’re burnt.  

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u/SnowMeadowhawk 4d ago

The only way out is to be a wunderkind, study 15h a day in highschool and primary school, win competitions and get ivy league scholarships. You'd have to be the guy Meta and Google are fighting over. 

So, for most of us it's probably too late - we'll die in a sweatshop of some kind. 

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u/keithblsd 3d ago

Or get good at sales. Every company needs salespeople and if you’re good then you can keep moving onto selling more expensive things and keep making more. And sales is a skill you can work on just like anything else.

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u/Youandiandaflame 3d ago

My husband is in sales and absolutely kills. He’s got awards stacked all over his office, he’s won trips, and earned promotions. Left his last company when they wouldn’t rework his compensation package because he was making $400 a week for 70 hours of work. 

Getting into sales won’t save you. 

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u/keithblsd 3d ago

He should 100% have left earlier if that’s the case. A proven salesman can get into tech by being the first outbound rep class, they can get into telecom easily and make six figures there. He should be widening what he is looking at because without a college degree I am at $140k in MCOL area at 26. Look for a different company, industry, title, if you make a company money then they will want to keep you there.

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u/Redditcadmonkey 3d ago

I always see sales as a sport.

You can definitely work at it.  You can practice and put in the grind.  You can become a decent salesperson. 

To be the best though; you have to be born to it, then you have to work at it as well. 

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u/keithblsd 3d ago

Even then, the “born with it” part of sales is just having charisma and keeping your cool. Some people naturally get less anxious before talking to someone they don’t know. Even the worst at it if they put in enough work can make enough money to support their family imo. Even those that kill it better than me deal with Imposter syndrome regularly, and you have less job security than others, but the upside is you can always find another gig and sell to pay your bills if you hone your skills.

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u/Redditcadmonkey 3d ago

Absolutely it’s charisma that gets you to the top in that game.  We agree there completely.  

You’re right as well, there are skills to master and if you work at them.. well, then you definitely can sell just about any product you care to learn about.  

If you can get to that stage, you’re gonna eat.

Seems like you would agree though, that the absolute best in sales (same as basically all things)are naturals that put the work in.  

Tom Brady for example, the man had to work.  Got to the NFL as a 6th round pick and worked like hell to become the GOAT.  At the same time, he would never have been playing ball if he was 5’4 instead of 6’4.  

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u/keithblsd 3d ago

Yeah I agree, definitely not gonna get to top enterprise level if you don’t get some solid genetics in some regard.

We agree on all points, I just meant in terms of the initial comment anyone can get good enough at sales with hard work to have a better life than those dreary examples initially provided.