Why did you choose your trade/career?

[Kobalt]

I'm gonna try and keep this as short as I can, so as to not bore you to death with my life situation...

I am in the process of choosing a trade or a career path to sign up for, and while I have never had any interests in life of what I would like to do for a living, there is a particular field which has always stood out as the "obvious" choice for me (and has been my backup plan for the past few years).

I'm fortunate enough to be surrounded with a bunch of people in said field, but they all seem to sing the same song; they all point out the (many) negative aspects of working in that industry, and that sort of outbalances why I think it would be a good career choice for me.

That said, I felt like it would be cool to ask you guys that question (or those questions? ). Why did you choose to do what you do? Do you regret it? Would you discourage people to get into your field/industry?

 

[MFB]

I didn't choose the thug life, it chose me.

 

[Emperor Guillotine]

I'm about to graduate with my BA and I have no idea what I'm going to do with it or where I'm going to go in life. Never had that "obvious" choice either.

 

[flint757]

I didn't choose the thug life, it chose me.

Damn it! You beat me to it. I actually did sort of fall into my career path. I only deviated when I tried denying that it was the right path for me. Now that I've accepted it I'm much happier.

I grew up working on computers and had the guidance of a few older friends who were into all of that sort of stuff. Eventually I got pretty good at it myself, but tried to do something more grandiose instead. When that failed miserably I settled back into IT/programming and am all the happier for it.

In college I changed my degree several times so needless to say at the time it wasn't an easy decision.

Every field has its upsides and downsides though. What field is the obvious choice for you that your friends wish to discourage you from doing it?

 

[Church2224]

Currently I own a landscaping and lawn care company.

When I was a kid, my parents would often travel to my grand parent's house on the weekends in Virginia's Richmond Areas. I would often spend time with my mother's grandfather, my great grand father, while my dad and grandfather fished and my mom and grandmother shopped. My great grand dad's big hobbies were repairing old walk behind and riding mowers as well as working in his garden on his tractor. Because of this I grew to love the outdoors as well as horticulture and even cutting grass. When he passed away when I was 14, he left me his 1975 John Deere Tractor and implements. My mother also bought me a push mower when I was 14 and I began cutting grass in my neighborhood for guitar money, also bought some more mowers and tools while I was at it. I did that until I was in college at Virginia Tech, missed it, then came home to VCU in the Richmond area, got new truck, a trailer, some mowers, power equipment and hand tools, and started a landscape and lawn care business full time and I love it.

Call me naive, call me an old school delusional idiot, but I still believe in the American Dream. Rupert Landscape Group, which spreads from Pennsylvania to Georgia, started as two men and a pick up truck. I hold them as my standard. Right now it is just me, but I love owning my own company and seeing it grow and develop and I hope it keeps doing so. I hope that one day I have multiple locations in Virginia as well as other states. It is an industry I love and at the end of the day is fulfilling. There are negative people for certain, how ever these people are not the most ambitious, nor do they seem to overlook the negative sides of the industry for the overwhelming positive aspects of it.

Each industry has its ups and downs, as well as those who love it and hate it. If it is something you enjoy doing, go for it. It was one of the best decisions I ever made.

 

[Kobalt]

Every field has it's upsides and downsides though. What field is the obvious choice for you that your friends wish to discourage you from doing?

That's what I keep telling myself.

It would be automotive mechanics. It has always been the "obvious" choice for me. Not that I'm born with a wrench in my hands or live and breed this type of thing, but I've always had an interest for them. It's the only thing "I know" and the only thing I could see myself doing (or at least trying).

I feel like because I'm 26, I don't want to waste 2-3 years of my life and thousands of dollars in education and tools to end up wanting out of that field down the road - I'm kinda stubbornly looking for the one right path that I'll stick to.

 

[Konfyouzd]

Because in high school programming seemed like a lot of fun.

And I never really found anything else I wanted to do that I could support myself on while sitting on my ass all day...

 

[flint757]

There's never a guarantee that the path your on is the same one you'll be on a decade from now.

I'm unfamiliar with how blue collar jobs operate in Canada though. I'd be curious to hear what sort of negative things they have to say about it. I know that most everyone I know here in Texas working a blue collar job eventually wishes they weren't, whether that's 10, 20, 30 years down the road. My father's a diesel mechanic and fabricator/business owner and my uncle is a master welder. It's definitely done a number on their health as they close in on retirement age, but the field has treated them well for the most part. In the US the biggest downside to most blue collar jobs is sub-par benefits and unreasonable insurance cost.

 

[ZeroTolerance94]

Sometimes, I think the best career to go with is the one that presents itself to you with the most opportunity.

I work for a Land Surveying company as an instrument man. I'm 20 years old and make an honest $40k/year.
Nobody goes to school and says "I want to be a surveyor!" It usually kind of just happens, through opportunity.

My grandfather worked for a Florida county as a Professional Land Surveyor, my father worked for three different companies as a PLS... and the connections were around to secure me a career in the industry, right out of high school.

I don't necessarily love going to work every day. But I don't hate it either. It's just work, it's why we have hobbies. It's an interesting job, and I'm all over the place. Never in the same spot. One day I could be in the woods dividing sections of land, and the next day be in the city laying out foundation piling or measuring and establishing property lines. There really is a myriad of different kinds of field work survey company's do. From boundary and topographic ALTA surveys, construction layout and as-builts, FEMA flood certifications, foundation piling layout and as-builts... Construction layout in itself would contain a whole mess of things such as telling contractors where to put their pavement, concrete, building columns, sheer walls, foundation... etc. Then making sure the whole thing goes up straight, measuring building settlement and all.

The different amount of work is endless, you're almost never doing the same thing as yesterday.

I would recommend anybody to try applying to a Land Surveying / Civil Engineering company as a rodman, or chainman. Same job title, it's hard work, but you gotta start at the bottom to move up. Some companies will hire you if you have the willingness to learn the trade of using the survey instruments, no experience needed.

Really no school required either, just a high school diploma or GED.

It aint $100k/year. That's for sure, not unless you own a survey company or have a surveyors license. But it can make you a living wage, even by today's standards... And because you don't have to go to school, no student loan debt to pay off.

I'm probably going to be working in this industry for the rest of my life.

 

[Kobalt]

There's never a guarantee that the path your on is the same one you'll be on a decade from now.

I'm unfamiliar with how blue collar jobs operate in Canada though. I'd be curious to hear what sort of negative things they have to say about it. I know that most everyone I know here in Texas working a blue collar job eventually wishes they weren't, whether that's 10, 20, 30 years down the road. My father's a diesel mechanic and fabricator/business owner and my uncle is a master welder. It's definitely done a number on their health as they close in on retirement age, but the field has treated them well for the most part. In the US the biggest downside to most blue collar jobs is sub-par benefits and unreasonable insurance cost.

I guess you're right. Part of why I think that way is because I wasted part of my life doing absolutely nothing of it, still kinda am although I've drastically improved my situation over the past three years, and I want to make up for that by (obviously) not wasting anymore of it in that regard.

All the negative aspects of the industry I was told are things related to salary (average in my province is around $30k/y), being overworked, overstressed by bosses AND customers (who are cheap and impatient), work environment (extreme temperatures: -40 to 90+), business practices and politics (flat rate system, overcharging customers/unnecessary servicing, etc...) etc... I know a lot of these things are pretty common in most blue collar fields, but...it feels like I'm being discouraged to get into the profession based on my situation?

 

[flint757]

Yeah, that is pretty much par for the course and about right on the salary unless you move up to floor manager or something of the sort. Business practices and politics are going to be business specific. Not all shops are run in a shady fashion (at least I hope not ). If you don't have to prep for that career I don't see any reason not to try it out and see what you think about it first hand. If you like the work, but don't like aspects of where your working you can always shop around for jobs as you gain the work experience. If it's a total bust and you hate it then you could reevaluate then. That's probably how I'd handle it if I were in your shoes.

 

[Kobalt]

Yeah, that is pretty much par for the course and about right on the salary unless you move up to floor manager or something of the sort. Business practices and politics are going to be business specific. Not all shops are run in a shady fashion (at least I hope not ). If you don't have to prep for that career I don't see any reason not to try it out and see what you think about it first hand. If you like the work, but don't like aspects of where your working you can always shop around for jobs as you gain the work experience. If it's a total bust and you hate it then you could reevaluate then. That's probably how I'd handle it if I were in your shoes.

Well, as far as prep work, I do need to get certified...which means a two-year course at a trade school/mechanic school (there are some more extensive and expensive courses, mind you). The hidden benefit of that is I believe (I BELIEVE) buying tools during the duration of your course is tax deductible here.

That said, I've always told myself that in the worst case scenario, in the eventuality that it's not something I want to pursue, at least I'd have the knowledge/certification and tools to do it as a hobby in the future (or on my own/side job) as it's always been something I've wanted to learn.

 

[sage]

I'd say go for it. Any opportunity to do something that you enjoy for a living is something you should pursue. I know dudes that vacuum the poop out of portable toilets.

As for me, I went to school to pursue journalism and ended up being a graphic designer. I took a detour for nearly a decade to be an energy consultant, but re-joined the design and print game last year and am now managing a print shop. I totally love what I do and was miserable doing energy work.

 

[Ralyks]

My Bachelors Degree is for Music, but I've been working for Banks for the past few years and... I don't know, I seem to be good at it and it pays well. Right now I work with Mortgages and seem to be enjoying it. I do want to revisit trying for my Masters degree though once my son is a little older and my new family is more financially situated.

 

[ghostred7]

I needed a job lol.

I was coming out of the military as a recon specialist, which naturally didn't have many civilian sector jobs to transition to outside of security, law enforcement, etc. So, I trained myself on Linux, DNS, Sendmail/Postfix, OSI model, etc and ended up having my own domain, mail servers, dns, etc in my house on dial-up. Got out of the Army, ended up in telecomm.

Is it my dream job...nope. Do i hate it...nope. Did I bust my ass to get into a comfortable situation...yup. It's not what I anticipated doing, still not my dream job. Working in a recording studio as a board monkey would be closer to my dream job....but, I've gotten some stellar experience from it that can't be ignored: part of the team that launched the first nationwide GPRS network in the US (GPRS is like 4G great-grandchild circa 2000/2001).

Honestly, while not my dream job...I could have it a lot worse. Not only do I sit on my ass and make > $100k/yr....I get to do it 75%+ of the time from home \m/ (translated...i play video games and guitar b/c boss isn't there to be looking).

 

[Alex Kenivel]

I didn't choose the preschool life, it chose me.

This.

 

[troyguitar]

Started in auto engineering because that's what I grew up around, didn't really care for it in the end. Since we just moved I am looking for a new job and trying to move into programming.

I've decided that the thing I hate the most is commuting, so my career goal at this point is to develop enough software experience to get a job working 100% remotely. With the internet there is no reason to waste tons and tons and tons of time and money commuting. Also the other half is likely to continue to be moved around for her career, so it makes sense for me to have a job that does not depend on being in one particular physical location.

My dream is to be able to work from anywhere on the globe with internet access.

If 'murica had the 5 weeks of vacation standard that many other places have it wouldn't be as important, but with only 2 weeks at most jobs it is impossible to have a life and a career IMO. I want to actually go places before I'm retired.

 

[asher]

Architecture - because I like a number of the skillsets used (computer modelling, photoshop, drafting) and I had no idea what the hell else to do.

Same problem now as in 2008 when I went into school for it

 

[The Q]

I got my first computer, an Amstrad 6128 when I was 8 or 9 or so.

Software devrlopment (and later, Software Engineering) came naturally to me; it allows me to make a living without moving microwave ovens or installing colour TVs*


[*Obviously not looking down on people that make a living this way]

 

[Kobalt]

I think you need to decide what you want your day to be like, and how much money your comfortable making. Want to go to an office, be stressed as hell, and make $200k a year? Go into banking/investment/finance. Want to get your hands dirty, have some fun, but rake in about $45k - $60k? Go into manufacturing.

Do you want to work for the pay, or is it more important to go to work and happen to get paid?

My issue has always been finding something that's interesting to me. If it isn't or if I don't take any liking into it, I'm afraid I simply won't go through with it. At 26, I feel like I don't want to start over a million times, as I've always wasted almost ten years of my life doing absolutely nothing worthwhile. Guess I'm looking for that perfect chance to breakthrough?

Everyone wants more money, but yeah I guess it's less of a decisive factor than taking a liking in what I'd do... I don't feel like I could be one of those people who have the jobs or careers that they have only because of better income.