Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What trade would you recommend a young man get into?

Two types of things in this world ......things God made or things Machinists made.

And if they didn’t make them. They made the tools to make them.

Those pilots don't work a lot of hours and get paid really well. Probably start with the military to get the hours. A fishing friend is a senior corporate pilot and does well. The wife's niece flies for Fed Ex because packages never complain and she wants for nothing. An ex military helicopter pilot tenant of mine quit at a local paper mill to go fly a helicopter with Minnesota execs into the Dakota oil fields.

Plumbing, Heating & Air, Electrical all pay well. The Electrical industry was good to me. Which ever one is chosen, try to get away from Residential and into Commercial or Industrial. And keep up with the current technology.

Our local, IBEW 369 was organized 100 years ago with 15 members. When I got into the apprenticeship program we had somewhere around 500 members in the early 80s. Today the local has 2600 members and can't accept everyone applying for the program. As long as we can get the same amount of work done with better quality with about 1/2 to 2/3 of the manpower on the job as the non-union tradesmen, I think we can control our own destiny. At least that has been the way in has worked in the 40 years around the Greater Louisville area. We routinely work travelers from other locals to supply workforce demands. Right now I make $42.03 /hr not including medical benefits, 401K match and retirement annuities. For that kind of money around my area, you are expected to carry your share of the load or you are sent back to the bench to work for someone else. If you have a reputation of being a poor worker, you just won't get steady work. Kind of self regulating.

I'd throw in CNC and if that doesn't fit his needs electrician. But, robots and repairing them is in the future. If you are really smart, programing them.

kwg

go in the service 1st and go see some of the world,then go into a trade.

Good God. $42 an hour for the electrician, plus benefits.

When I was driving the Big Rig, earlier this year, I made $29 an hour, driving down I 10 at 65 mph.
The problem was, when I got to the terminal for a five hour unload, I got paid nothing. Over the road truck driving is a brutal job.

Try finding a job that has a pension for your retirement without a union.
I lost a union job 30 years ago and could never find another one. Now I have retired on Social Security.
Try retiring on that.

But you rarely have a happy customer.

For someone with IT skills, take a look at getting medical IT certification. It opens a lot of doors.

Be sure that the union's pension fund is actually funded. There are thousands of former unions members out there who found out too late that theirs wasn't. It's become a crisis for public sector unions. I was a teamster for 18 years, long enough to be fully vested. My union conference is fully funded and I've been drawing it for 6 years now. Other conferences weren't funded and the members get nothing.

I'm a project manager in ship repair and we are dying for pipe fitters and welders. A young man with good work ethic who is a good combination pipe fitter/welder can make BIG money working power plant outages if he wants to travel and make very good money working in ship repair or shipbuilding if he wants to stay in one location. If I could find a good pipe foreman with ship repair experience right now, I would back up the money truck to get him.

I'd skip HVAC and carpentry as the technicians don't get paid all that well unless they own the company, but plumbers and electricians do. I've worked as a controller for all these companies, so I do know how the wages vary.

My uncle was a truck driver his entire life. Drove and unloaded local in Louisville KY. It would have driven me mad, the way small vehicle don't respect 80,000 lbs of rig sharing the highway. A good truck driver never is paid what he is worth in my book. Beat to hell all day and putting up with minivans with women putting on their makeup. Always appreciated the service they provided. For $42.03/hr, I don't mind paying my fair share of Union Dues. Never missed them in the 33 years I've been paying them.I 'll get a $1.02 raise first week of November.

Non government, non union jobs that offer defined pensions to new hires are getting more and more rare every year, offering instead a employer specific matching X% to employee's personal 401k contribution.

Many of the older, still existing defined pension and retired employee benefit programs (including gov't and union) are/were underfunded and often being challenged in courts, asking commitments be reduced substantially or released from some or all commitments, including even those of already retired.former employees.

That's very good info. to know.

We are offered a defined annuity as well as a one time payout ranging from $420K to $600K depending on years of service. I plan on retiring in four years and seriourly considering the one time payment. I believe I can invest and do more with the money myself and not have to worry about what you speak of in the way of future annuity payments.

Look into the Johnson O'Connor Institute. pm sent.

Where are you located elelbean? Or should I say where is the young man located?

Tug boat work can be quite a profitable way of making a living. Drawbacks are living on a boat for days/weeks at a time. Working "watches", which ain't for everyone. Being away form wife and family if one has those. If a kid is single and looking to get a start though, one can make some decent bank in a few years, especially a kid with a good work ethic willing to put in OT.

Hard outdoor work, good food generally provided by the company (not sure about little mom and pop outfits, but the bigger companies feed their crews very well). Newer boats are luxurious for sure, older ones can be "interesting" to live on. And depending on the company, work for a week or two, off for a week or two. Planned right, lots of time for hunting, fishing, vacationing.

If a person works hard, is interested in getting a license and being a Captain or Pilot, they can really do well. Especially in a bigger Union outfit.

Again, good luck to your nephew.

Geno

Four years ago I built an addition onto my log cabin. I did all the carpentry, and also did all the wiring. Good thing because, these electricians are getting about $70 an hour around here, for these little jobs. Besides, it is hard to get an electrician to even show up to do a bid on a log cabin they just don't like 'em.
I did the wiring and it turned out real well this is the fourth log cabin that I have wired. I love to do wiring.

But I don't like plumbing. We had one bathroom for the addition, with, one washing machine, one shower, one toilet and one sink. Pedestal sink.
The plumber came out and said he wanted $70 an hour, here again hard to get a plumber to show up, to drive way out into the country and drive our 3/4 mile driveway for a little job. He said he would do a bid for $2200 but it would come out to about $70/hour.

We clocked the guy, he worked at our house for 9 hours. He came out 3 times, one hour per trip. And he probably spent 2 hours at the plumbing supply store. I picked up the shower, and the sink, and the toilet at Lowes all he had to buy was plumbing stuff. Also, I installed the shower, the fiberglass part, and he plumbed it up.

So this guy spent about 14 hours, counting travel, for $2200. $157 per hour. So, if you live in the rural mountains of North Carolina, would you rather be a carpenter at $15 an hour, or a plumber at $157/hour?

He said he preferred to be paid in cash, said it was "easier on the book keeping." I didn't just fall off a turnip truck, that means, no book keeping, no pesky income tax.