which trade

[kev1n9121]

i suggest becoming a drywaller. i bet you'd fit right in

[trip]

is this real life?

[SuavePapi]

go to bcit for piping foundation, go to fort mac, work for 5 years, make equivalent to a doctor. become introvert. gg

[skyline32]

Anyone got any advice for a person half of his age?
Thinking of becoming an electrician, or maybe doing refrigeration work.
Pros and cons of an electrician? If there are any people here in that line of work?
Other suggestions? Thanks!

[Devastator]

Heavy duty mechanic, electrician, plumber (residential or commercial)

Heavy duty mech are in high demand and make $40+ an hour if you get into a good dealer after getting your ticket. Or go to fort Mac and earn a nice 150,000 bucks a year on avg. not including working OT. Not saying its easy up there but it's a sacrifice only you can decide if you can make or not.

The other 2 trades are also good because you can do side jobs on top of your reg job, which both trades have pretty good wages for.

[skyline32]

Thanks for your input!
Heavy duty mechanic sounds interesting, im assuming the only money you'll be spending on is beer aswell

Electrician on the other hand, does anyone know approximately how much they start at? and how long they would have to go schooling for?

[Iceman-19]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. Only money you will be spending is on beer? Sure, after the $25,000 plus you have spent on tools. And if you go up north you pretty much need your own service truck, so if you want nice and new with a warrenty, tack another $160k on at least to that.

[Iceman-19]

Originally Posted by Devastator

Heavy duty mechanic, electrician, plumber (residential or commercial)

Heavy duty mech are in high demand and make $40+ an hour if you get into a good dealer after getting your ticket. Or go to fort Mac and earn a nice 150,000 bucks a year on avg. not including working OT. Not saying its easy up there but it's a sacrifice only you can decide if you can make or not.

The other 2 trades are also good because you can do side jobs on top of your reg job, which both trades have pretty good wages for.

You are out to lunch.

[Devastator]

let me clarify, if you work as a heavy duty mech in fort mac you need to work for a big company, Imperial oil, Suncor, Finning, Cummins, all of which provide camps so no vehicle needed. not as a self employed with a service truck. wages for the mentioned company are $50-59+ an hour as a certified journeymen heavy duty mech.

I know 6 guys that are journeymen heavy duty mech up in fort mac that work for the mentioned companies and none of which had to spend close to 25000 in tools. most companies only ask you to bring a small tool box to carry with wrenches and ratchet set and they provide the rest either already on the company service truck or in the shop.

This all sounds great but remember you need to serve an apprenticeship and be good at what you do. You will be rewarded handsomely with good wage cause when shit breaks in fort mac its mega sized and your expected to get it back up and running cause in the oil sands time is money.

So far these 6 guys have been travelling back from fort mac to van pretty often and saving lots of money. They like it up there and their companies treat them great.

[Devastator]

Electricians start anywhere between 12-16 as an apprentice and 25-38 for journeymen

[quasi]

Originally Posted by Krazer

Depends which company you work for. My foreman was on the job working away with the rest of the crew every day. He never sat back while everyone else worked. (Although I bet he wish he could) And this guy was well into his 50's as well. Even in bigger companies the foreman was still working with an apprentice laying pipe. It all depends on the company.

On a side note. Trades is not for this guy.. You don't to work hard, you dont want a technical job, you dont want to wake up early. Look into becoming a crane operator. You sit on your ass all day and play with joy sticks and pedals. Sound about right your ally, then again its probably stressful as fuck.

Depends on the size of the company and the size of the jobs. We have foreman that never wear tools. We also have some that are very hands on and tend to do our smaller jobs, it really depends.

If one wants to avoid the physical work they need to get off the tools and into estimating, project managing or construction manager but you still have to put in your time and learn the trade from the inside out. Just my guy feeling from the OP's posts I'm going to go out on a limb and say those opportunities will probably never be there. My job isn't physically hard but it can be very stressful at times, when I make a mistake it can cost a lot of money. The guy in the office next to me discovered a $80,000 mathematical error the other day on one of his jobs, the job itself isn't all that big and our company will have to eat it, all I can say is I'm glad it wasn't me.

Those are the cons, the pros are I can work from home, I choose my work load and I get taken to the pub a lot for lunch by my boss.....the small pleasures in life lol.