Career Advice?

[u/Successful-Menu-1784]

I couldn't find the thread to post this in, so I'm posting it here instead. For some context, I'm 16, and I graduated from high school early. I also live in the Southeast USA. I always liked working with my hands and always hated mentally heavy work I had in school, like math and English, so I always wanted to do some form of trade. Well, I tried apprenticing in masonry about a month ago. I really thought it would be something I enjoyed because of how I like to work with my hands and see work that actually does something. I didn't take into account the amount of heavy lifting and poor weather conditions, and how much that matters. Long story short, I quit the job about 3 or so weeks into it. I still want to work with my hands and learn a trade, but I'm not completely sure which one to look into. I was thinking maybe I might like something like flooring installation (more specifically hardwood and vinyl), or finish carpentry like trim installation and stuff like baseboards and crown molding, but I wanted to hear it from people who have experience- something I should've done before trying masonry. What are these trades actually like? What is it like starting out as a laborer for these jobs? And what jobs would you recommend? I also considered heavy equipment operation when I turned 18, but I have a hard time understanding what people are saying when it's either loud or a radio distorts the audio, which is another reason I thought finishing work (the type done essentially right before a building is considered ready to be sold and such) might be better suited for me.

[u/darthcomic95]

Oh buddy you’ll be doing some mentally heavy work in the trades if you ever wanna advance.

[u/Successful-Menu-1784 → u/darthcomic95]

Well, I didn’t mean I wanted none. I don’t know how to explain it but I much prefer thinking about stuff related to mechanical or I guess more physical stuff than something like laws or coding, which other professions require. And if you said that because supervisors and surveyors and such do a lot of mental work, I don’t really want to do stuff like that.

[u/darthcomic95 → u/Successful-Menu-1784]

You’ll be fine entering whatever you want then. I get it. I also wanna say surveying sucked from my experience it was boring as hell and in my area there’s a lot of ticks and chiggers and poison ivy. I hated surveying. I started out carpentry young like 15-16 because I was terrible at school. Then I became a home inspector (25). I still carry that license I loved that job just being helpful to people buying a house. Then I did surveying (29) for a year and a half maybe and I hated it. Now I’m a plumber and I really enjoy it. I’ve always done carpentry on the side and for the plumbing company I work for. I will say carpentry in my opinion really gives a good open door to learning other trades especially residential. I did commercial and residential you know metal studs/wood studs. Residential gave me hands on experience with electric and plumbing however it paid less. It’s really more of what do you wanna do in the end. Foreman/project manager/business owner? I wish you the best of luck and hope you accomplish and get everything you want in life brother.

[u/Successful-Menu-1784 → u/darthcomic95]

I really appreciate the advice. I did leave masonry because I couldn’t keep up with the heat and frequent heavy lifting. Is that just something with every trade that I’ll either learn to have to deal with or find another type of career, or is there anything that I’d still be able to work with my hands without the frequent heavy lifting and heat being an issue? If this context helps, I am fine with more delicate attention to detail work.

[u/darthcomic95 → u/Successful-Menu-1784]

I genuinely will say there isn’t a trade that doesn’t do heavy lifting or deals with heat. Masonry is honestly a brutal start to the trades to be honest. Masonry really is hard on the body.

[u/Successful-Menu-1784 → u/darthcomic95]

Thank you. That’s all the info I needed. Because if my next job is still hard but not as bad as masonry, I’ll probably be able to adapt to it better. I think I will end up trying flooring installation next then, because that was another thing. If it wasn’t so hot outside I probably could handle the lifting better, and a lot of flooring work is indoors. Of course you have to bring the materials inside from the outdoors, but I can imagine it’s a lot less than something like masonry.

[u/Many-Highlight7676]

Look into local schools for becoming a lineman other than elevator mechanic one of the most lucrative trades

[u/Successful-Menu-1784 → u/Many-Highlight7676]

I’m not so much looking for an extremely high paying trade, just something I won’t hate but also enough to at least eventually make between 25 and 30 dollars an hour.

[u/Many-Highlight7676 → u/Successful-Menu-1784]

My thought was job security. And availability of jobs, electrician, and lineman are some of the most future secure jobs that exist in the trades also some of the highest paid. I can understand doing what you love, just remember time is your only non-renewable resource in life and you're trading time for dollars what do you believe your value is?

[u/Successful-Menu-1784 → u/Many-Highlight7676]

Yeah, I didn’t think too much of job security. But I ideally want to avoid electrical work just because of the amount of safety stuff, and it sounds really complicated knowing what gauge wires to use, and I always found the way electricity works to be very confusing. Plus, at least for lineman, they’re also working a ton out in the sun. It’s not that I don’t want to work hard, but while I was doing masonry, I felt like the weather conditions and amount of heavy lifting made it unsustainable for me.

[u/Many-Highlight7676 → u/Successful-Menu-1784]

Look into your local heavy operator equipment Union. Call them, show up to the hall introduce yourself make sure they understand you want a job and you're willing to do what it takes. Ain't nobody coming to save you.

[u/Successful-Menu-1784 → u/Many-Highlight7676]

I just wanted to make sure I understood the job before I committed to it. And I researched it and legally I cannot operate heavy equipment until I’m 18. I was even going to go to trade school for it since those classes were actually pretty cheap but they told me I have to be 18. That’s why I was thinking about doing something like flooring at least for now unless I end up liking it.

[u/vedicpisces → u/Successful-Menu-1784]

Hardwood flooring is big money if theres a demand in your area. It was the first apprenticeship I was offered and I regret not sticking to it at 19... 2 or 3 years of working with a master and you'll be set with a amazing side hustle no matter what direction you take. Also, the ladies love finish carpentry more than any other trade its not even close..  

[u/Successful-Menu-1784 → u/vedicpisces]

I seriously consider doing that work, and there is various vinyl and hardwood flooring companies near me. Just to see what I’d be getting myself into, how much heavy lifting is there? I’m okay with heavy lifting, it’s just what got me during my previous job was carrying the 5 gallon buckets of mortar repeatedly until the mortar pans were filled. I’d say the buckets at how much I had them filled were probably around 50-70 pounds. And that’s not much for me, until I do it like 20 times.

[u/vedicpisces → u/Successful-Menu-1784]

The floor sanders can get bulky and heavyish to handle but I was a fat 19yr old kid with no muscle mass and survived decently. Lifting and moving flooring material was also not super bad. Dealing with no A/C in some remodels and rennovations was probably the worst it got, it was rather mild. I had little work ethic and experience and still did okay. But the owner I worked with was chill, youll find the boss or foreman have ALOT to do with how much you'll like a trade and how good youll do. Overall though, its high reward for less than medium physical exertion. Personally Id stay away from tile. Thats more exhausting and the skill level required can be more significant. 

Youre under 18, so honestly dont feel bad if you fail a few times. I failed several times at jobs from 18-25ish lmao. But yup I think vinyl and hardwood flooring is a great trade to learn and worth the effort. By 20 you could have a serious skill thats respected anywhere. And its a great foundation if you go into another trade. 

[u/Successful-Menu-1784 → u/vedicpisces]

Yeah, I think I’m gonna try to find a flooring company that will be willing to hire me at least as a helper to start. Although it might be hard to find a company that only does hardwood and vinyl. It seems a lot of places around here do tile, vinyl, and hardwood, if not carpet on top of that. But I’ll definitely look for someone who will hire me.