So if you weren’t doing whatever you are now, which trade or new trade would you consider?

• HVAC
• Electrical
• Plumbing
• Machinist
• Automotive
• Diesel Mechanic
• Construction/Carpentry
• Pipefitter/Steamfitter
• Welder
• Crain/Heavy Equipment Operator
  >Other?

I have been a machinist/toolmaker since 1967. Was out of work for ONE week in all that time. I have been on the same job for 48 years and am 77 years old and still working full time. I hope this answers your query.

Electrical, HVAC & plumbing. Construction carpentry.

If you have a child who show's aptitude to do these jobs they can potentially make more money than going to college and taking a lot of the white collar jobs.
Especially if they start their own company.

Do y’all consider trucking blue collar?

Electrical. I believe I could pick it up quickly.

Retired coal miner...30 years in the hole!

Electrician or machinist

Heating & Air conditioning
Electrical
Pipe Fitting (plumbing but only things that have pressure on them - and definitely not Sewer / drains) as well


Welding & Machinist are hard on you ..

Welding without a question. It is a personal preference and what I wanted to do when I was in High School until I took the path that I am on now.

Machinist. Like the challenges of taking on new projects/designs.

I suggest considering for a trade that you can do on the side as well. Plumbers, carpenters, electricians are never out of work.

- Some trades pay better than others. Be aware of that. Some are unionized.
- Look into pension, benefits.
- Some work is sporadic. This is when those side jobs I mentioned come in handy.
- What about travel for work? Some trades require a lot of that. Are you willing to move closer to the work? Travel is very hard on your marriage.
- Can you do this trade into older age?
- Some trades can be hard on your health.

I do NDT in the local refinery and nuke plant. It's a very good trade that can take you anywhere in the world or stay at home. AFAIAC, we have the best trade in the refinery all factors considered. Why be the welder when you can be the guy who inspects the welds?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nondestructive_testing

You and I are aliegned on this subject. My middle kid has a BA, but after going through 3 jobs in 4 years she is starting an electrician apprenticeship program next Monday.

Does that mean I'd have to get a job and actually WORK ???

Taxidermist

I was a printer for 35 years. If I had to do it over again I would be a machinist.

Pachyderm Vet

Castrating elephants at the zoo! Pays not great but tips are good!

I didn’t see marijuana cultivation

That’s a damn hard ass job.


You ever carried 4-5 gallons of water 1/2 mile into a briar patch?

I've already done several on your list but would still be open to becoming a bra fitter for Victoria Secrets.

Sounds good……FEEL better!!

Yes

I can tell you here in FL, HVAC for residential services would be hard to beat, very few people are willing to go a day or two without AC in the summer which begins in March/April and runs through October. Schedule seasonal service during the winter and take time off to hunt.

Electrician. Particularly if the person has a good work ethic.

GreggH

I worked as a carpenter full time for 16 years before becoming an electrician. Have been an electrician for 11 years now.

I would encourage anyone wanting to get into construction to consider electrical work.

I’ve been a machinist and a welder/fabricator in the past. I love welding and building metal stuff but wouldn’t go back now, too hard on you and you realize this when the old broke down hands on jobs are 55 and look 75.


Nobody wants to be a residential plumber around here but they make great money. As a buddy told me when he started doing plumbing work, “nobody argues price when they have turds floating in their basement”. As long as people live in houses with running water they’re going to have to have a plumber. Same can be said for electrical but I cannot seem to grasp the theory.

I have a fellow here at the house right now working on my heat pump. Those guys are busy all year round. AC in the summer, heat in the winter.

Good clean trade and another trade that one could do on the side.

Electric for the win. The demand is much greater than the supply of electricians.

If I wasn't a carpenter I'd be a carpenter, but I am a carpenter so I'm good there.

Electrical is a fall back in case we run out of wood.

Ive been an residential electrician and a commercial/industrial electrician for 35 yrs. The later has been much better for me. I dont really like working in someones else's home. It has been a very good career.

Spend 6 hours in an attic in the summertime attempting to fix someone's unit and you may sing a different tune. Or in a crawlspace with 18" of clearance and full of black widows and wolf spiders.

Waiter at a high end steak house

Should add nursing to that list. Much easier money than electrician.

Add farming, logging, fishing.

I think I'd want to be a surveyor or lineman

my bud was a surveyor, gave him a 4WD and he'd get out in the country figuring out new ways to get it stuck, knows every back road and diner in the south.

Only bad part of the job was dealing with landowners over easements.

Either electrician or heavy equipment operator. I enjoy running big equipment and think I could enjoy it enough to not get too bored too quick. Our son is working towards being an electrician and enjoys the multiple avenues for various specialties available within the trade itself.

Has Longshoreman been mentioned.
Had a friend move to Seattle he ended up running a crew that cleaned out tankers and he made big money.

Farmer.

Physically, maybe. Stress-wise, nowhere close. My brother is a nurse - made big money right out of school, but that job will kill ya!

Nice thought but unless you family is already in the business, the cash outlay to buy all the land and machinery and everything else needed would be astronomical.

I grew up on a farm. My dad was chained to it 24/7 but he and his brother got the farm from their father. There are some benfits, but starting from scratch would almost be impossible.

I think a lot of folks confuse or don't understand the difference between a true skilled trade and an occupation. All skilled trades are occupations, but not all occupations are skilled trades. Everybody's a "professional" now too, at least the ones who haven't been reclassified as "heroes." (No I'm not a grumpy old man!)

For myself, I did a tool and die apprenticeship in the early '70's. It's a great trade and I love the work. A lot of the work has gone away, however. With CNC a lot of the fixturing has been eliminated for production machining and grinding form tools for production turning is a thing of the past as well. Press dies, die-casting dies and plastic molds are still important, but much less work is entailed in making them now with CNC capabilities in the toolroom. There's still some gage work, but CMM's have taken over most of what was done with gages in the past.

If I were looking to get into a trade today I think it would be electrician. Absent any unlikely and truly astonishing technological breakthrough, we're going to be using electricity for some time. It's one of the trades, also, that doesn't take a huge investment to go independent.

I've done quite a bit of welding, and I like it, but it's not something I'd want to do day in and day out. Guys I've known who've done it for years all seem to have had some sort of health issues.

airline pilot , 'cept it doesnt pay what it did once.

My dad was a builder and he also owned a plumbing shop that my oldest brother worked at and eventually bought. So , I had the choice when I got out of the Army to go to school on the GI bill, go into plumbing, become a builder, or something else.. I also learned to weld in high school and had a couple welding jobs after high school to pay the bills until I figured out what I wanted to do..

I chose something else and became an electrician. It is very hard work at times and can be hard on your body but I wouldn't consider anything else. Now that I'm retired after 40 years of it I sometimes miss the work and the challenges of some of the installations we had to do, but my body finally said enough about the time I turned 65 so I gave it up. My son is an electrician also and he makes great money but he doesn't love it like I did. One thing about the electrical trade, you need to have a pretty good aptitude to keep up with it as it continually changes and most states now require continuing education to keep their license current.

You and I could start a business. Good money and work inside.

Electrician, AC tech, commercial plumber in that order. Welding is a good trade if you like the fire of hell raining down on you. I welded gas, fire and AC pipe on and off through the years, it be my last choice of the ones I named. It’s good to know for building your own crap or part of another trade, but full time, not!

It would be an easy choice for me. Machinist.

I spent thirty nine years working in the Toolmaker trade. My second choice would be an Electrician specializing in the commercial/industrial environment. I'd restrict residential to new builds only.

Industrial plant I&E (Instrument & Electrician). memtb

Electrical since I know more about that than the others. I was an electricians helper during the summer when I was in high school and college.

Machinist or cabinet maker, but I am retired now and don't plan to do much

Electrical, plumber, pipefitter - in that order.

Son is working as a plumber's apprentice now. Back when I was his age - spent time working insulating homes and then as a finish carpenter with my step father. Frame of reference for why/what I selected in that order.

Machinist / welder in equipment and machinery repair or millwright.

I've done both for the past 30+ years, have done a lot of cool stuff. Of the two I would choose millwright.

Lineman is another one that I believe I would like, but have never done it.

Mechanic or welder would be my first choices

I actually came very close to becoming a bricklayer. My father-in-law was a brick mason, and taught me the trade. But he also encouraged me to finish college. I ended up becoming a software engineer. I think I would have enjoyed the work, but I am sure it would have been a lot harder on my body over the years.

Welder, gunsmith or electrician.

HVAC and refrigeration.

Friend of mine when we were just out of HS made better money than I did in a good Union wage paying job, a good chunk of it unreported tips.

I couldn't do it as the first A-hole customer that gave me grief would be wearing some gravy or such.

Or fish farming?

Which generally includes a whole bunch of those other trades as part of the regular routine!

High end muff diver!!

Some of them large girls you post pics of might enjoy you being one!

Anything but welding. Too hard on the health.

The Electrical industry was good to me. I would do it again.

Crane operator

Rancher, Jack of all trades Rio7

From the OP's original list, I've done shorts stints working in a couple of those fields, sometimes as a helper type. And I done some of them around the places i've worked and lived as needed or for "recreational" purposes. I'm hoping the Adult Ed people offer the welding class again this coming fall as I didn't learn enough in a partial school year this past winter and spring. I'd like to know more just for personal purposes.

The knowledge I've gained has led me to determine I'd not really like to do any of them on a full time employment basis.

Keeping fish alive and/or growing them is much more to my liking. Research fish work is fun too.Even in near freezing water, with snow falling around you, or walking 4-5 miles up creeks and rivers in hip boots when it's 100F beats the heck out of crawling around in oily dirt changing cylinders on a backhoe, or going under a house to fix a leaky sewer drain pipe.

And electrician? Nope, about the only thing I"m sure about when it comes to electricity is that if you do something wrong it shocks the scheidt out of you.

I guess I don't really consider skilled trades "blue collar". There's as much to learn for those skill sets as there is for mgmt types that go to college for a degree. I think that term came to be after WWII when folks either wore suit and tie to work or a "uniform" of sorts - not about what it took to learn how to do the job.

My one grandfather had a heavy equipment business. He said the world will always need ditch diggers - his was just on a way bigger scale. My other grandfather had a heating business and brother, business was good. He spent the better part of 3 decades switching folks from coal and heating oil to forced air. AC hadn't quite started when he retired. I should've done either of those businesses. It was there for taking (buying), but I have no regrets.

I was a Mech. contractor in Maine for 34 yrs.

Our main work was supermarket refrigeration, HVAC - commercial only
Never, ever had any slow periods. Maintenance, time and material,
new construction. Pay scale for this part of the HVAC trade is thru
the roof.

Quit this part of the trade, started teaching at a Maine Comm. College
for 11 yrs. Taught commercial ref., HVAC [heat pumps, gas fired
equipment] and the Electrical side of the trade.

Any one of my students that was motivated, wanted to work in this trade
had contractors, sub-contractors hiring them in the 2nd half of the year,
offers of hr. wages, benefits, company truck, GAS CARD, starting the week
school ended.

Every semester, a percentage of my students were college graduates with
degrees they could not make a decent living with. Generally around 30 yrs. old

Occasionally, there was a female student, straight A's, hard worker in the shop.

Damn good money in sweating for a living... IF you have good business savvy.

Welder by trade. I have owned my business for 17 years.

Would like to be a cabinet builder, a good one.

Welder. Make tons of money, die early at 50 in a brand spanking new Vett, going 200mph with a hooker in your lap and a nose full of blow.

In all seriousness, welders run the gambit. The real money in welding is in highly skilled repair work. Things that require you to spend 4x as much time thinking and doing complex math than actual welding.

Today I started a machining course at Lincoln Tech. I'm already retired and have a good pension. I'm getting awfully picky in my old age. I won't be working like a slave in a sweaty machine shop after school each night.

Worked in the concrete and construction trades for 40 years.

I've worked in most of the trades listed. I've always thought HVAC and/or electrician would be an excellent trade for a young go-getter.

Horses cattle farming around as a second job for the last few decades. Did auto body work as a second the first 10 years until the chemicals got to me. Paid off the first house with that gig. My full time job with benefits is multi craft Industrial Maintenance/Electronic Tech that gig has paid a lot of bills. Do gunsmith work when its too hot or cold outside. Always something to be done....Its been a good life so far. Lord willing I'll just be a cowboy when I grow up ...grin

I did my own kitchen, built the counter top, tiled , but I bought the cabinets. Installed the sink as well.

About a year later the case iron cracked into the main. Plumber time. The guys asked who plumbed the sink. (I added a clean out plug.)
He said , "Want a job". These guys worked for a local plumber, never out of work. The union guys are out up to 6 weeks.

Turned out hubless is easier than plastic.

BUT I'd probably pick welder

Pipefitter/Steamfitter
Welder
Those are what I did for over 49 years

I would pick electrical, plumbing, welding with the intention to continue education and certification to rapidly upgrade to being an inspector and/or building department code guy.


On the other hand, I’ve been trying to interest an 18 year old grandson in a GIS career.

He is a computer geek and has no interest in hands-on real world occupations like plumbing, electrical, machinist, etc.

The GIS world is massive with many specialties.

There are good paying job openings everywhere.

As I told him, go look at GPSWorld.com to see the vast depth and breadth of GIS.

Google “GIS”, Trimble, Geolocation, surveying, mapping, navigation, etc.

Look up the “online geospatial education program office”.

Go to glassdoor.com and look for “GIS jobs”.

Alas, I think he plans to just keep living in his parents basement for free and earn pin money with DoorDash jobs.

I think it's funny that questions like this are even asked and I believe it stems from three generations of "You can be whatever you want to be."

No, you can't. You pursue whatever it is you're driven to pursue with the ultimate goal being the money in your pocket. The specific trade is irrelevant.

You think electricians have it any worse than HVAC guys? Plumbers vs concrete? Welder vs pulling freight for JB Hunt? Get the fugk outta here. It all fugking sucks and it's all back breaking work when you're low man. But when your goal is money in your pocket to do and choose what you wish, you don't give a fugk. Because that's what blue collar is all about.

I would never help a young person figure out what it is they want to do in life and that includes my own kids. America is capitalism. Capitalism is the pursuit of money.

firefighter/ Paramedic/PA. Good $ working anywhere in the world you wish while having fun.


mike r

Inspectors and building code guys make less than site foremen, on average. I don't know how to say that without sounding like an officious prick, but thats what it is.

I'd say equipment operator. Only because I enjoy the hell out of it doing it on weekends. If I didn't have so much crap to do on weekends, I could make decent money with quite a few friends that need work done.

Something that requires a license or something to protect your pay from the brutality of a truly free market.

I had a Hard Hat on for 35 years, did everything in the Steel Business. I have been a Rancher on family land for 12 years, work hard and stay strong, I’m proud I’ve worked with my hands and head and have all my fingers!

This month marks 25 years in plumbing and HVAC for me. If I was going to change it up, I'd consider electrical work. Being a machinist would suit my mind better except for the fact that one has to work in the same location, (job changes excluded, of course) and put up with bosses being on site daily.

I've been relatively boss free since about 2.5 years into my trade when I was given the keys to my first work van and a set of blueprints. Hard to hate the kind of freedom a capable journeyman/master tradesman has in the field on a daily basis.

I was a GIS analyst for 11 years

It can be an aggravating field. It’s hard to be in so many things and be good at it.
You have to almost just be a total inside go nowhere computer fàg.
Tough to run a farm, roofing business, manage rental property and be a govt GIS professional all at the same. Also while trying to do your own home dialysis. lol

My coworkers only had one life to live, GIS and world cup soccer. Uggggh. Citidiots that lived in town with zero responsibilities. No kids and no wife and no grass to mow.

If youre young and sharp, it’s an easy and clean field get into.
Caution though, there a lot of Indians (dot) in that field too smart, and willing to work for 30k a year.

Got 20million miles behind the wheel,but always thought it would be fun to be the guy that drives the train

Oops 2 million

Welder? not sure I know a live 70 year old that did it for 40.

Machinist? Getting replaced with a robot every damn day, a big goal of industry. Be a robot mechanic or programmer...the future in manufacturing that's already here.

HVAC? Yeah!

Electrician ? yeah!

Plumer? yeah!

Replace the top 3 with trained mechanical contractor & never be without work.

Heavy equipment operator, great pay, seasonal.

Not mentioned, but a few fields mentioned need it & always will, Industrial Maintenance.

Diesel mechanic? The market was saturated for a while, but big trucking continues to grow. Electronics techs needed here more everyday.

Good information! My grandson just might fit your criteria: “Citidiots that lived in town with zero responsibilities. No kids and no wife and no grass to mow. “

I would park my azz on a blade and never leave the woods.

Was one of those jobs, where every once in a while. You stop and think "wow I'm getting paid to do this" I do miss it

I’ve read that millwrights do damn good, but probably have to know someone, apprentice for years, join a union.

I have the mental image that they are “jack of all trades” in that they can legally do many skills in their job.

IF (IF IF IF) they ever start bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. that would be a winning occupation.

This right here, especially anywhere on the coast. A good friend of mine mainly takes care of condos and restaurants. We've been in construction here for roughly the same amount of time. I build and fix stuff. He keeps people and seafood chilled. I just trimmed his second custom home in less than 4 years. He has worked very hard, being on call, in season. He will also be retiring soon, at a great age to have some fun.

Nursing for the win if you are suited.

2 year degree will get you in, 4 if management is a long term goal.

1 or 2 years on the job, making good money.
Right now I knoiw two local nurses that "travel".

One, has a gig 100 miles away.
3, 12 hour days pay her over $6k. (Not a typo)
Along with around $1k/month stipend for expenses.
She shares an apartment with several like her, keep the balance.

The other works wherever they place her daily, in a small radius.
Not quite as lucrative.

Both, can only work 2 13 week contracts before taking a break.
Unless, the hospital requests an extension, then it's another 13 weeks.

They work a few hours every month at their "home" hospital to maintain
employee status and benefits.
So 4 long days a week, for 39 weeks a year, plus part time for 3 months
gives them around $250k. Plus employee benefits.


Young and single or with a spouse who can move around?
Many chose jobs where they would like to visit.
Get paid damn good money to live there, and a stipend to cover
housing expenses.

I know another couple, both nurses, she travels now, he is soon going to start.
They want to live in Florida, so they plan to keep a home here, and
"Travel" to Florida. Pretty cheese deal there.

retired.

I have carried a CDL for more than 30 years. If I ever get tired of teaching HS I'd drive as long as it in in state and not long haul.

Been a Medic for 31 years and a Nurse for 13. Had it all to do over, I'd be a machinist. Couple buddies both worked years for a local industry that starts guys out with room to grow. One buddy is now gunsmithing full time, the other does it one the side, plus random jobs and makes more than his full time. Only keeps the real job for medical insurance and puts as much of that pay as he can in to the matched IRA.

Wow.


Rich, priveledged, entitled, types always give the same graduation speech.
"Do something you love, you will never work a day in your life."



Dad never graduated (dyslexic almost certainly), can't read well,
driven, mechanically inclined, hardest working SOB you could meet.

I would talk about wanting a job working on guns, or cars.....


He would say,
"I don't give a shït what you do, how much you like it. If you start
doing it for money, it becomes a job. After awhile, you won't like
it so much anymore."



That never happened to me in trucking.

Funny you mention JB Hunt. You have insight into that field.
Outdated? Swift is the Bïtch now.


Long haul trucking quickly got old.
The local stuff I did was among the best jobs I ever had.
Trucking is the one job I've felt I excelled at.
But...$$$
A factory offered higher /hr$. Overtime pay, x2 pay after 12,
overtime on Saturday and double on Sunday. Hauling gas was straight
time, no matter when or how long. Add in Pension, affordable health care......

Today, I'm just a general machine operator in a factory.
Grinding along, looking toward retirement.
Doing quality work, like Dad.
But my heart is dragging 80k down the road in a snowstorm.
That's living.

Production parts, yes. Service parts, no. I know GM is getting a$$ raped +P every day. They've gotten rid of the people and machines used to make replacement parts in-house, outside shops are having a field day charging a premium ×3 to make parts.

As far a millwrights go, the big three has combined every one into a mechanical trade. That includes millwrongs, welders, pipefitters, plumbers, tinsmiths, sheetmetal, machine repair, HVAC (less electrical work) and machinist/toolmakers/pattern & moldmakers.

A top welder is never out of work and I welder just shy of 50 years and I'm 71 and still going strong. I'd wager that I made more money than any of the other trades listed

My boy does kitchen appliance repair, knows refrigeration, electrical, works on all kinds of commercial kitchen equipment. He works for the school district I retired from. He makes about 30 an hour after 3 years there. He is way smarter than I am, will have good retirement if he stays.



Getting a job at a state college or school district has good retirement. There were guys that started in grounds, cutting grass, got into a trade there as a helper, make 45 an hour now plus overtime. You get 2.3 percent for every year of service. This is of your best 5 year average. My average was 130,000, had 33 yrs. I worked 60 hours a week for years. Teachers cry poor, but have a good retirement.

Learn plumbing, AC, Electric or any trade, get on at a state school in maintenance. Some hospitals like MD Anderson get teachers retirement. Some doctors will have 200,000 a year retirement.

Pick a trade you have an aptitude for, make as much as you can.... then learn to invest, as your body will not hold up doing the trades into old age.

Or take up a supervisory/management position in that trade.

Unlimited opportunity investing.... not so much working for someone

The Millwrights has been good to me for the last 28 years.
Used to spend most of my time in the power houses and car plants.
Haven't set foot in either for over 3 years.
Spend my time in the food plants and soap plants now.
Kinda miss a good major rebuild on a turbine once in a while,
but not enough to go back to living out of a suitcase.

Dentist…

I could work at Goodwill, run an Ebay side business.

Alert my fams about good shît coming in.

Pretend to be a half-wit.I already have papers and a right to work slip. Progressive Directions could set it up for me. Fugg it.

Spend my afternoons looking for Depression Glass, vintage denim, Rogers silverware, Merle Haggard t-shirts

I don't know. I never really considered myself talented enough to be any good at most.

Welder. I like being burnt by the splashing bacon grease.

Come on mehn.

My pick would be construction worker, they make a tone of money.

Equipment operator

Welder.

The guy who inspects those welds has a better job.

We always joked that a NDT tech was a welder that couldn't handle the heat. Haha.

Tons of great NDT dudes out there.

I depends on the local market. Refinery operators are the best paid "blue collar" workers around here. Most of them average $150k per year with little, or no, education and no heavy lifting.

Lots of people along the gulf coast work in plants. I worked in them some fitting pipe, welding, plumbing. All that creaking and groaning made me nervous as hell. Worked at Shell and Dow mostly. I was thankful when those jobs were over!!!!

NDT = Not Doing That or Not Done Today.

We get into some hot spots fairly often while doing inspections on running equipment. There is one big U-bend pipe we inspect that is 600deg F while running. I hate that job in the summer. Lots of piping, exchangers and furnaces are over 300deg.

I'm happy it all worked out well for ya man. I'm glad I learned the trade, but I guess it just wasn't my cup of tea.

I'm a retired union electrician, IBEW #3, NYC. I loved what I did, and given the choice, I'd do it all over again for another 38 years.

If forced to choose another trade, operating engineer, steamfitter and machinist/gunsmith would be my top three choices.

You most certainly can make good money as a FF/medic, but its not big money compared to some of the other skills listed on here. I made just short of $80k last year, but working the same hours as a good electrician, plumber or something like that would probably bring in twice as much.

This! Both the wife and I have received substantial raises over the last few years, and other than food and my wife's fuel our cost of living hasn't increased substantially. Every time we get a raise, we leave our bring home pay just about the same with the new income going into investments.

Don't follow your passions; follow your opportunities. Think and work hard. Folks are always paid well for what others can't or won't do, or better yet, both. I always wanted to be a professional pheasant shooter, but the pay was terrible. ;-{>8

While not exactly blue collar I’d choose to be an airplane pilot or vessel pilot. With the short demand of pilots most companies no longer require a degree and after you get the flight hours you can get on with someone like a major air carrier or airlines and see the world.

Another one that requires training, it not a degree a vessel pilot. My neighbor’s FIL makes a very good living brining ships into port all around SC Alaska.

I spend mine, can’t take money with you, best do things you like while you can is my theory. Go all the places you can, live like today is your last, it might be! Just my worthless opinion! When I retired last December I got paid for the 191 days of vacation and sick time I had accumulated. We are going to Europe for a month, see all we can.