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Today's version of "learn to code" is "learn a trade." There is a dearth of electricians, plumbers, carpenters, welders, etc. right now and there are well-paying jobs available for those who choose to enter those fields. The other part of the answer is just that the last generation of coders came of age during a gold rush and now those mines have run dry. Not everyone is born in time to be a 49er.
All the same, the US is probably still the best place in the world to start a business doing whatever you can imagine. Want to breed exotic fruit trees in Florida and sell subscription boxes to rich patrons with adventurous palates? Want to figure out the secret recipe for Roman concrete and start a construction company building docks that don't degrade in seawater? Want to build a fleet of nuclear-powered asteroid mining robots and take control of a functionally infinite supply of rare elements? Want to join the Vesuvius challenge with your superior ancient scroll-deciphering algorithm, become the greatest classicist who ever lived, and then go on tour with your AI buddy Plato reciting all the lost works you discovered to a captive audience? In the rest of the world they ask why, but in America we ask why not?
Think what you will about the migrant caravans knocking at our southern border, but the fact that so many people choose to make that perilous journey, not only from utterly destitute countries, but from China, with its gleaming cyberpunk "cities of the future" and zero crime or homelessness and growing power and influence throughout the world, tells you what the American Dream still means to people.
I don't have any specific advice about long-term prospects. I'm preparing myself mentally for the singularity, societal collapse, and everything in between, and just count myself lucky that I'm around to watch the fulcrum around which the rest of human history will turn. We're all stuck on this crazy ride together and might as well enjoy it.
This was one of the paragraphs I almost added in the initial thing. Tradesman is sort of an option. It's not as bad as coffee barista, but breaking six figure incomes seems pretty difficult.
I'm not quite willing to go bug my neighbor across the street about how much he makes in his plumbing business. But he is living in the same neighborhood as us, having bought his house thirty years ago. His land use lawyer brother is definitely richer.
It feels like tradesman is a sort of compromise where we say "no! You don't have to be poor in America if you try hard. It's just we are gonna gate off the middle class." It's a bit of a fuck you. Even Mike Rowe who laudes this kind of work made his money in entertainment.
The US is still great and still the richest. But it also leads the way. Are all nations headed towards this kind of stagnation? We can't quite figure out what to do with everyone. Even skilled workers are likely to get left in the cracks.
HVAC tech here. In general, tradesmen make similar money to average college educated workers(so less than six figures but not a bad salary), or to law enforcement, once they’ve been doing it a few years. First year apprentices live with their parents, but second year can live on their own. Six figure jobs are either for the union(more like a guild in this case- the plumbing or electricians union is technically a temp agency that lets out workers to employers) or at the top of the trade(meritocracy, yes, but also seniority and people skills), or just have an insane number of hours/travel requirements. It happens and is by no means rare but it isn’t a default.
I'm in situation with kids and wife's earnings that anything less than 80k will probably lose us money as we would have to hire additional childcare help. And that additional expense would eat all my take home income. Unless I can find something part time or work from home with flexible hours.
But it sounds like tradesman salaries are topping out around where software developer salaries start. Unless just living in an expensive area ups those salaries significantly.
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Done any installs of r32 units yet?
No, and I haven’t had ‘installer’ as a job description since I was an apprentice- it’s shit work for newbies and jailbirds, you might have a full tech doing a little when it’s slow, or showing up to finish technical parts or something like that, but you don’t do a lot of it in your career with experience unless you screw up.
Most jobs still use 410. The industry in general won’t switch until actually forced to do so.
Ah, that explains why Barclay says "installer" with a hard r, and how they manage to install units with casings live at 240v to earth.
Yes it does.
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The trades are the way to go and making money isn’t a problem for the same person who could write software. My personal dealings with the trades goes like this: I make a meeting for a bid. They don’t show up. They show up but never give a bid. They don’t show up for the job. They do absolute shit work and I make them do it again. I’ve picked up quite a few skills having been forced to do stuff myself when contractors didn’t show up.
If I would do it over again, I’d be a GC and I would make way more money than a software engineer. Clear and frequent communication, keeping appointments, and honest work lets you charge a 50-100% premium in any trade.
These jobs will be the last to be automated away.
Are you sure you'd make more money? @hydroacetylene up above suggested it was less money. And my perfunctory googling all has it at less money.
A GC isn't a tradesman in the electrician/plumber sense of 'does skilled labor'- he oversees and manages an entire construction project. He's a manager of managers, that is, someone who will pretty much always be paid very well regardless of industry. Most GC's are college educated professionals who also have construction experience.
But your median mid-career tradesman makes basically teacher money with higher inequality.
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If you work for someone else, you will make less money. On the flip side, I’ve dealt with people putting up fences at over $100/hr because they showed up and cut straight lines. I’m not exaggerating, the bar is that low. The default fence contractor is someone who speaks literally no English, using a skill saw to cut hundreds of pickets, measuring every one by hand to the same length on site.
You don’t want to be a contractor, you want to run a business.
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Absolutely, a lot of businesses are just waiting for someone who isn't a corrupt asshole to show up. Uber so massively trounced cabbies because cabbies absolutely fucking sucked.
General trade and contracting work, lots of things to do with cars.... you could make a killing by getting into these things and not being corrupt assholes.
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On the ubiquitous internet advice to do this, after getting fired from my tech sales job I applied and worked as an electrician's apprentice for two months last year.
It was absolutely awful. Backbreaking work, in extreme heat. Digging ditches all day to run pipes and wires. Being in crawlspaces, just the worst. Long, loooong hours.
Also, all of the older men had horrible health, tons of injuries, were addicted to drugs and missing teeth, etc etc. The trades are not nearly as glamorous as they are made out to be online.
Different companies are different and electricians are known for hazing their apprentices.
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My uncle worked as an electrician his entire life and he was none of that. He's in his 70s now and still does regular part time work for fun and money. Perhaps you just worked for a terrible company?
I mean, it's not glamorous but it's not that bad either. Something like firefighting on the other hand... Now that is truly backbreaking work and everyone is physically worn out decades before retirement and there are only a few desk positions available for dozens of aging firemen.
I dunno about all that tbh. Structure departments in wealthy US cities/counties seem to take pretty good care of their people and most of the work is, like, lift assists on medicals. Retirement eligibility is usually quite a bit before age 65. These jobs do tend to be a bit of a tournament to get in at first, though.
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IDK, my dad owns an electrical company, and while there aren't a ton of old people involved, that does sound about right. Trenches and crawlspaces and dealing with extreme weather because the heat/air can't be turned on until after you've done your part... and also he's the only one there over 40 without either a current or historical substance problem that had conspicuous physiological effects.
He also has gotten in the habit of splurging on an annual company trip to the beach, but that only sounds like an incentive if you don't already live close to a beach.
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