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Was skeptical about trade school until my buddy Mike made $80k his first year out
I went to a community college first and got nowhere, just debt. Then my buddy Mike enrolled at a local trade school in Phoenix for HVAC, finished in 10 months, and landed a job making $80k his first year. It got me thinking about how many of us sleep on trades as a real career move. Has anyone else seen big success with trade school over a traditional degree?
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victorb7412d agoMost Upvoted
Yeah I actually read something about this a while back, how a lot of the big trades like electricians and plumbers are getting older and retiring soon so there's gonna be a ton of openings. Like 30% of them are over 55 or something like that. My neighbor's kid did a two year welding program and started at like $28 an hour right out the gate, no experience needed. It's wild how everyone pushed college so hard but guys in trades are making bank and not even having to fight for jobs. Your buddy Mike's story doesn't surprise me at all honestly.
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jennysullivan12d ago
Not sure it's quite that cut and dried though. I've known a few guys who went into welding and they didn't all land that $28 an hour right off the bat, some of them had to move pretty far or take jobs in rough conditions to get that kind of pay. And the retirement wave thing has been a story for at least ten years now, but it seems like a lot of those older guys just keep working part time or on the side, so the flood of openings hasn't really hit like people predicted. Plus those trade jobs can be hard on your body, you might be making good money at 25 but by 50 you could be dealing with back problems and worn out knees. I'm not saying it's a bad path, but it's not a slam dunk for everyone.
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spencerm4611d ago
Actually my nephew just finished up a welding cert last year and I was kind of in the camp that thought he walked into a guaranteed 28 bucks an hour with no trouble. But after hearing some stories from the guys in his class, I think I was way off. Some of them spent months driving two hours each way to a shipyard job just to get their foot in the door, and the ones who didn't want to move had to settle for like 18 an hour at a local shop. The retirement thing also makes me wonder - I've got a buddy who's 62 and still welding part time on pipeline work, says he can't really afford to stop. So maybe the whole "free ride" idea is more of a best case scenario than the norm.
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