Job or Trades

[Villain]

Construction typically is day time hours with most weekends off. Definitely closer to 9-5. The trade off I’ve seen is lower starting pay in construction and more lay offs. You get into manufacturing or industrial maintenance type jobs the starting pay is higher and it’s more stable. But you wind up with shifts to meet the demand of the industry your servicing and it’s all different depending on the place. Some places do rotating swing shifts like 3 shifts of nights 4 off back to work on days. Other places will have permanent shifts and you usually chose jobs based on your seniority. All in all if you’re good at construction you have the potential to make a lot more money and eventually be your own boss. It’s harder work usually and if your into bodybuilding getting your meals in doing construction can be tricky.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it almost seems like it’s all one big organization as compared to individual jobs or companies. I understand the Union aspect of it, if you join but even what I’ve been told and what you’re saying, my perception is that this is like one huge employer.

 

[Elvis755]

The individual unions act like a hiring hall, benefits, protection from the employer by making them follow a contract things like that. The union isn’t your employer. In construction the jobs tend to be shorter so you’ll have many employers that the union will keep sending you out to. Manufacturing is different you’ll typically apply to work at the factory or whatever and then join a union after a probationary period unless it’s a non union company.

I didn’t join a local construction union, I worked in a factory at night and went to college during the day to get an associates degree in electrical construction and maintenance. It was set up similarly to the unions training school. At that point the local construction union was paying first year apprentices around $15/hr. The factory was paying me closer to $29. Over time as a journeyman in the local construction union you’d be closer to $40 with additional benefits on top of that but that’s 5 years of school. Bigger cities pay much more. And locals tend to lay off journeyman because they’re paid more and keep lower apprentices working because they’re paid less. There’s trade offs in everything. Construction is more useful for sidework, maintenance tends to be more niche to the specific factory or equipment you service every day.

 

[Villain]

The individual unions act like a hiring hall, benefits, protection from the employer by making them follow a contract things like that. The union isn’t your employer. In construction the jobs tend to be shorter so you’ll have many employers that the union will keep sending you out to. Manufacturing is different you’ll typically apply to work at the factory or whatever and then join a union after a probationary period unless it’s a non union company.

I didn’t join a local construction union, I worked in a factory at night and went to college during the day to get an associates degree in electrical construction and maintenance. It was set up similarly to the unions training school. At that point the local construction union was paying first year apprentices around $15/hr. The factory was paying me closer to $29. Over time as a journeyman in the local construction union you’d be closer to $40 with additional benefits on top of that but that’s 5 years of school. Bigger cities pay much more. And locals tend to lay off journeyman because they’re paid more and keep lower apprentices working because they’re paid less. There’s trade offs in everything. Construction is more useful for sidework, maintenance tends to be more niche to the specific factory or equipment you service every day.

Thanks King!

 

[Eman]

HVAC. Opens you up to a lot of the other trades. You'll learn plumbing, electrical, welding and can even branch off into specialty trades like building automation.

Not everyone can wrap their head around the technical parts of it though. I've had guys go to school, apprentice, more school, thrown into the fire... and still not get that good at it. Takes a certain kind of mind for the diagnostics aspect of it... but doing the installation side isn't usually quite as technical and can often be a little better in many respects.

Almost any tech school has night courses to get a certification, federally you only need an EPA license... which isn't a real hard test. States have their own licensing requirements... but you'll find that many don't require licensing at all unlike pretty much every other trade.

6 figures isn't too hard to hit, but a lot of that can be OT money unless you get into a union. I know of unionized companies near me that pay over $60/hr. I know of non union ones that pay $40 for experience and $30 for guys right out of trade school.

 

[Anonymous_5283746]

6 figures isn't too hard to hit

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[jJjburton]

HVAC. Opens you up to a lot of the other trades. You'll learn plumbing, electrical, welding and can even branch off into specialty trades like building automation.

Not everyone can wrap their head around the technical parts of it though. I've had guys go to school, apprentice, more school, thrown into the fire... and still not get that good at it. Takes a certain kind of mind for the diagnostics aspect of it... but doing the installation side isn't usually quite as technical and can often be a little better in many respects.

Almost any tech school has night courses to get a certification, federally you only need an EPA license... which isn't a real hard test. States have their own licensing requirements... but you'll find that many don't require licensing at all unlike pretty much every other trade.

6 figures isn't too hard to hit, but a lot of that can be OT money unless you get into a union. I know of unionized companies near me that pay over $60/hr. I know of non union ones that pay $40 for experience and $30 for guys right out of trade school.

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