/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>1537247
>Is this the power of the tradie brotherhood?
breddy much.

This also works the other way, so keep your rep good.

>>1537247
Yeah, a tradie who knows his shit are sometimes even more valuable than engineers

this is peak effective capitalism.

>get engineering degree.
>All my professors write me letters of recommendation.
>Still no job.
I had an internship over summer and it was pretty nice.

>>1537264
/thread

you got skills, you got value, you get money
try working as a wagie or a libcuck with lesbian dance theory degree and cry for a min wage of $54/h to flip burgers and >muh eat the rich

>>1537247
Its not a brotherhood, I fight with different tradesmen more than my goddamn wife. There just isn't a lot of non convicts and/or Mexican trade workers anymore so it you're white (god willing) its easy to find work.

>show up at 7 with tools and a lunchbox
>tiny company with like 5 employees
>boss just wanted an interview
>is impressed with my initiative
>end up with a contract for full pay, and my drivers license half paid for by the company
>work starts for real tomorrow

Today is a good day. Tomorrow will be better.

>>1537247
be 52
worked 23 years in it
started investing at age 35
getting ready to retire early
no longer have to look for work
feelsgoodman.jpg

>>1537575
Engineering degrees are gateway degrees m8.
So don't limit where you are applying to just the field your degree is in.
Also, if in U.S. USAJobs (not shilling)
Linked In can also help somewhat.
Good luck.
>>1537263
This is true. But couple having a trade with an Engineering degree and the jobs pay damn good.

>>1537839
keep working and make bank

>>1537247
Ye boi, We're suffering a slight oversaturation in the regional market with our trade (scaffolding) and I know plenty of people who'll work for a different firm every other day/week depending on who has enough work for them at their rate (and who they haven't fallen out with but y'know)
It's better to get with a firm you like and stick but for flexibility the trades have it down, get the hump and want to fuck off to godknows, MT? get on them forums/facebook groups your skills are needed by someone up there, guaranteed

>>1537904
i am curious as to who is behind this posting

>>1537979
who cares

>>1537247
Wish I did something else besides going to college for IT.

>>1537575
Small towns with factories can be a great hit and a miss. I keep seeing job postings that been open for up to 6 months. This is mostly because a lot of people don't want to travel 1hr+ one way or live in a small town.

In my area of Nebraska there are a shit ton of small towns and a good amount of them have a few factories. They are always hiring for something. Funny, thinking about it, there are a lot of people that won't work in a factory here. Most the people (late 20s, early 30s) I went to school with that never left this shit hole are working fast food, Walmart/other retail,some other part time job, or don't have a job and still live at home.

>>1537992
Him obviously

>>1537790
Nice jop OP

>>1537979
(((they))) are

>>1537247
House mate is a plumber and does the same thing if he needs/wants a new company. Takes him anywhere from 30 min to an hour. Even when he is waiting for a call back from someone he has cash jobs lined up from old bosses.

>>1537994
Tradie here going back to school to study computer science. Shit isn't worth working outside in -20 with no good career advancement

>>1537247
depends on the economy, back in 2008 -09 people were begging and bribing for jobs.. I didnt know it at the time but getting paid 50 cents less than the next guy saved my job.

>>1537247
>just got apprenticeship
>4th day on job as rodbuster
>seen a couple guys not come back to the Jobsite
>job ends next Friday
>foreman said he wants to take me with him on his next job

I guess busting ass pays off.
Also, the hardest job I’ve ever had.

yes

>>1539240
think about how your back is going to feel in 15-20 years anon. Rough work like that destroys people in the long run and then the job throws you away like yesterdays garbage if you failed to move up.

>>1539130
Leave that shit in the 'other' board m8

Looking to start my apprenticeship this year, are you doing block courses at the same time? So far what's the most difficult part of training? Will your boss really use you to drive him around?

>>1539635
(Not op)
Depends which tafe you go to; metro ones are usually weekly but if youre regional they do 2 week blocks every term.
The maths in 2nd year was a bit tricky, if you dont wrap your head around it; you'll flunkout like 60% of my class did.

Depends how good a driver you are

>>1537247
I want to fucking die

>>1542267
no you want attention, thats why you made this post.. if you really wanted to die you would be seeking results right now.

>>1539247
That is not necessilariously true is it?
I've worked as a cabinetmaker for 27 years, and It'll be 28 years this spring...and my back is fine.
And those 110lb sheets of 3/4" MDF still keep finding me...

>>1542290
think about what his job entails and what your job entails.. you actually have a pretty easy job and you probably dont even know it.

He is building all sorts of shit out of rebar, and he is hunched over all day.
He will be lifting heavy shit all day long everyday

You are gluing and nailing light weight wood together in a nice and cozy wood shop were you probably dont even wear tool bags.
you probably only move a few sheets here or there before they are cut down to a much more manageable size.

Nobody really thinks of cabinet builders and installers as really hard working guys just so you know.. but you are considered more skillful then a rod buster and probably make more money too.

>>1539247
>>1542311
I’m on my second week. Only had Sunday off. My back is fucking killing me. I’m on ibuprofen and muscle rub everyday.
It’s near impossible to lift with your legs, especially when team packing hundreds of pounds of rebar, on a rebar mat.
And being hunched over tying rebar the entire time.

I’m required to do 2 of my 4 years in rebar at least before I journey out.
There is no fucking way my body won’t be irreparably fucked after a long time in the rod patch though. No way for 35 years.

The pay and overtime is good. The work isn’t too redundant. It’s hard, which I don’t mind, but the slave driving foreman and risk of losing my job by slowing down prevent injury is already getting old.

But I have no idea for any other trades to look into for a union apprenticeship, maybe a few years from now.

>fell into a carpentry apprenticeship through family
>was getting screwed around and slave driven for 2.5years
>quit last monday, within 2 days have an interview set up to start a plumbing apprenticeship.
>did this without knowing anyone in that trade

never too late to change the path m8s

>>1542338
plumber m8, piece of piss

>>1537839
What did you work in?

>>1542351
>>1542384
How’s the overtime and whatnot?

I’ll have 55 hours by this Saturday. It’ll be like a $1500 paycheck, on my second week as an apprentice.

>>1542338

dont work your life away for a little bit of cash now, let the dumbasses do that

electrical(my trade)- some digging, some hard work, fast paced, always changing/ something new, prepare to be fucked over by every other trade, a lot of different niches you can fall into
plumbing/pipe fitting- lots of digging, half their job is underground, pipe fitters seem like they hate themselves
Hvac-seems easy when its going well, but hell when its not
sprinkler fitters- good job cause you get to fuck all the other trades over
carpenters- tons of different types
Iron workers- fun, dangerous, kind of rough guys, I dont work around them much
Drywall/finisher- pretty much have to have brown skin to do this these days
concrete- another job where you better be brown and speak spanish in my area, finishing looks like a pain, building forms is typically being hunched over
Railroad union- its not construction
Grocery union- seriously know quite a few rich people who are young and still in good shape, had I known I would have joined when I was younger

there are probably others out there, dont go thinking union is the only way. Unions have fucked their own guys over too.

>>1542889
That better be pesos.
No apprentice is worth $1500 in a week.

>>1542904
He could live in California, that's like making $500/wk in a non-retarded state

>>1537247
anyone know how I can find an apprenticeship? any recommendations/tips on getting connected?

>>1542933
when you go to the interview bring knee pads and you are pretty much in.. unless you are one of those faggots that use their teeth

>>1542899
I took a screenshot of those recommendations.
So far, it’s rebar work. But within 2 years I’ll be able to switch to structural. Just gotta pay my dues in the meantime, and see how it feels for doing it for 35 years.

This is the first union I’ve been in, and the benefits and pay is nothing like I’ve ever experienced working for millionaires.

>>1542904
Washington. $25 an hour starting. Raise every six months. Journey out to $41hr that goes up with the cost of living.

>used to be a merchant Mariner
>pay is about the same as it was 20 fucking years ago

>>1542904
fucking elitist

Do they ever hire apprentices without work experience?
How common is it?

>>1543263
all apprentices start with no experience so they had to get hired somewhere

>>1537263

im a gas engineer. but am i actually an engineer?

>>1543269
when you say it like that it makes me think you are just a fart factory.

>>1543266
No experience: never worked ever? Anywhere?

>>1543308
might be tough to find a job like that, go to McD's and get a job just to prove to the next employer that you are willing to work and trainable.. keep applying everywhere you can.

In all honesty I would rather train a guy with no experience how to do the job the right way/my way than to have a guy who learned it the wrong way/some other way and wants to argue with me because its not how the last guy showed him. I also hate people who say things like 'thats not how youtuber does it'

>>1543318
>I would rather train a guy with no experience how to do the job the right way/my way

I can respect that, and it's your company, your rules, but I hope that early in your career you managed to work for at least one other established company, and got to see how it's done in the field by guys who have done it for decades and have seen a lot.

As a housepainter, you'd think that it's so simple that everyone would do it half-way correctly, but I've worked for several intelligent guys who started their own company without ever working with anyone else, and some of the fucktarded ideas they thought up or read on a can are so counter-productive it's beyond belief, and I don't argue with them, but you can mention how some other guys do it and they never listen, so I let them throw their money away doing it twice as slow with poorer results.

>>1543322
as far as the guys who learned it a different way I'm not talking about the guys who know how to do it in an efficient, quality oriented way that happens to be different than my way.. I'm talking about the crackheads who right from the start claim they know this and that ect. and then they fuck it up. Its pretty easy to spot these guys... usually they have some sort of substance issues too.

>>1537247
>Is this the power of the tradie brotherhood?
*licensed* tradie brotherhood. fuck laborers

>>1537263
>Yeah, a tradie who knows his shit are sometimes even more valuable than engineers
am Engineer, can confirm.

I was a scientist on an AFB a few years ago, and some of the dumbest people there were my fellow scientists. If I wanted to get anything done, I had to go down and talk to the ETs and ITs.

>>1543318
I have been appliying for wagecluck jobs since june

>>1543367

I can vouch for this. anyone with a college or uni degree is a fucking idiot. Only trade school and community college guys have any brains. For the really difficult jobs, you need someone who stopped with high school. If you are planning something like interplanetary travel, look for someone with middle school education.

>>1543367
thank you anon, feels good to hear this especially since I usually have to RFI everything I do just to cover my ass.

Sparky here looking to into controls/plcs, which avenue would be best to get hands on?

HVAC

Elevator technician

Working on Diesel Generators

Currently work too many goddamn hours to take any college courses atm towards a degree. How fucked am I? Tired of laying out high hats and dealing with faggot cabinet installers etc.

>>1543457
you are going to have to deal with faggots in other trades no matter what niche of the trade you go into.

go do elevators.. those guys kind of take over an area and act like faggots and everyone leaves them alone

>>1543472
>you are going to have to deal with faggots in other trades no matter what niche of the trade you go into.

True, it's just a bit more obnoxious in high end residential compared to commercial.

Elevators seem interesting and they're always hiring, probably would be making around what I'm making now at $18 an hr starting out, heck I already have troubleshot and fixed an issue with an elevator once on a res remodel awhile back!

>>1543479
other trades are usually pretty chill in my experiences of working in commercial construction (not an electrician, but work around/with them daily) its the GCs that are dicks.

>>1543479
see if you can go to the commercial side then.. we have some cool lighting controls and generators... and if you have only done resi then you will enjoy doing pipe simply because its different than running romex all day... lot more indepth of prints too.

>>1543484
>see if you can go to the commercial side then.. we have some cool lighting controls and generators... and if you have only done resi then you will enjoy doing pipe simply because its different than running romex all day... lot more indepth of prints too.

I've probably done more lighting control panels (Lutron/Crestron), systems in residential than commercial desu, my pipe bending skills is nominal, nothing crazy. I've heard working for Generac, their commercial division is pretty chill.

>>1542338
lel welcome to the trades meme anon. Enjoy making 40 dollars an hour and thinking that's a lot of money.

Office remodels was sort of my specialty or what did the most of before going into residential.

I've noticed not too many other electricians are interested in dicking with contactors, relays, controls, etc or troubleshooting shitshow jobs as I enjoy to do, they rather suck up to the foreman, homeowner and brag about how they laid out all those high hats and hung that chandelier! Definitely see myself moving into that role as a technician.

>>1543493
>lel welcome to the trades meme anon. Enjoy making 40 dollars an hour and thinking that's a lot of money.

I love it when other tradies try to imply that I'm lazy when I look to find ways to work smarter, not harder when doing shit, it's as if they're all in a race to see who'll blow their back and knees out first! Lol.

>>1543482
>its the GCs that are dicks.
true dat

>>1543490
back to the elevator thing, those guys travel a lot, they make pretty good money though and their inspectors are tough

>>1537579
You think it takes skill to install wires?

>>1543759
It takes time.
And the more skilled you are at it the more you can get done within the same time-frame.

>>1543378
kek, pic is for you

>>1543386
best thing you can do is get your degree, then

>>1544767
... ssshhhh, not until I've had my coffee. Mondays, amirite?

then suck the ET's dicks mercilessly so you can actually start learning practical stuff.

>>1537247
Get me an apprenticeship, just did me pre apprenticeship course. Any tips for getting a job?

>>1542338
good luck with the arthritis when your 40 years old

>>1542933
If its non union, just cold calling people actually does work. Got a job as an apprentice plumber fresh out of high school just by calling work vans that I saw driving around town.

If its union good fucking luck. Not sure how all of them work but the IBEW tries to pick only the best few every year and luckily I lived in an area that currently has 15k job openings, electricians included.

I'm already starting to doubt how great Unions really are so consider the pros and cons before making a choice

>>1543263
Yes. I've been in technically 3 trades, each one I had no experience in. Knowing how to use basic hand tools is a plus but you have to start somewhere so dont feel bad if you dont know. Just put yourself out there and see what happens

>have been working in slaughter house for 2 years
>saved up 20k €
>hands are are dying because of my work nd I want to change my job
Should I make a credit and buy a house to renovate and sell it or rent it for easy money or invest in formation so I can work either as plumber or welder?
I'm 24 and would like to get into trades after poor orientation choices. What's more worth it?

>>1542338
squat or you goan die

>>1546562
Flipping houses is profitable IF you know what you're doing. My buddies dad rents out 4 houses, which gives him the money to do almost anything he wants, but he's a pretty skilled tradesman as well. As long as you have the know how, you'll be ok.
also, he gave me the advice to always sell the first few houses you do instead of renting. It gives you a good immediate cash boost so you don't have to take out a huge loan (if any) to buy your next project.

I just started an apprenticeship as a sparky, it’s really interesting and fulfilling work but I have lots of doubts. I’m scared I won’t make enough money to support a family and own a decent home. I don’t want to be poor. The outfit I’m apprenticing with isn’t union and I see the guys struggling. I’m already getting into the trades late at 27 (college didn’t work out). Did I make the wrong choice bros? Should I have gone HVAC or another more lucrative trade? How can I maximize my living as a sparky?

>>1547478
check what the average wage for your area is for sparkies, hvac, plumbers... we all seem to average out within a few hundred bucks in my area. This will give you an idea of what you will probably be making, take into account that +/- about 10% if you are good or if you are shit. It could be that the people you work with just dont know how to handle money and do stupid stuff.

I started as an apprentice at 25, non-union, I could have bought a house in my 4th year.. I chose not to stupidly and waited a few years. 4bd 2.5 bath. Most of the guys I work with own at least 1 house... some played their cards right and have 4-5 and rent them out.

Also it could just be that particular company is absolute shit because sadly that happens but not all non-union shops are.. I have worked for 3 companies and all of them paid for schooling for apprentices, matched at least 3% on retirement, had some sort of health/dental insurance

>>1537790
Fucking nailed it!!

I feel sorry for the guys that couldn't make it into their local union. Imo all shops should be unionized, I've seen the rust buckets the non union guys drive and the only real difference is the shop owner has a bigger mansion

>>1547494
are those exposed bus bars? is that legal?

>>1547591
Probably "legal" in whatever country that's in.
Also it's out of reach, you'd have to go out of your way to touch it.
The cabinets have covers too.

>>1547591
It depends on the what the AHJ and the code at the time of install was saying.... this stuff is probably very old so yeah its allowed. I have heard stories of old factories where bus bars were ran everywhere so they could easily move equipment around.

honestly given the size of the gear and how it was put together I would say it was legal because nobody is gonna fuck up on $30k worth of switch gear on purpose, just old and probably wouldnt be allowed as a new install.

for rooms like this it is usually considered a "vault" and kept under a lock and key that very few have.

I have personally seen 1 instance where 4 sets of 500's from the utility transformer were run loosely on uni-strut racks with lashing (rope) to secure it through a room to the main switch gear... the pic turned out like shit so I never saved it. We had to have the power company come out just to open it the room up.

>fell for the welding meme
>become rockstar welder in land of non-union manufacturing
>discover pay is shit no matter how long you stick around or where you go
>use ASME certification to get into union apprenticeship
>apprentice wages start higher than where most nonunion shop guys top out
>get all my free OSHA training and specialty credentials
>no work
>no work
>no work
>slowest period in entire 100+ year fucking history of the goddamn union
please god just make the sun burp and the poles flip so this charade can finally end

>>1547987
lol you think its bad now just wait a little while for the economy to take a shit, we have had it on easy mode for the past 7-8 years

>>1547987
Im not sure if this applies to you but you could pick up on a different trade, in the meantime while youre doing nothing. I know that for union electricians in my area they cannot do any electrical work for non union companies or else they get kicked out. But maybe you could pick up on something else that has a relatively short apprenticeship program and has decent pay and work. IE low voltage tech

>>1547987
MAGA!!

Lets raise the taxes on import steel so our tradesmen dont have anything to build with.

>>1537839
>be 52
Jesus Christ what are you doing here?

>>1539247
Do you want to live forever or something?

>>1542904
I could live like a king if I made $6k a month.
Get off /diy/ richfag

>>1537247
Being in a trade is a lot better than having a degree right now for most. Keep it up and you'll be fine. Don't overlook technician jobs either like in theme parks or for kitchen equipment since you'll have the know-how of how electrical equipment works

>>1537790
Nice, that's the way it's done by people worth anything. Never believe that the 'firm handshake' meme is a meme. The people who matter still care about such things.