From my perspective, trades are effectively gatekept (somewhat purposefully but also as a function of the business). It's a damned-if-you-do/don't situation wit

From my perspective, trades are effectively gatekept (somewhat purposefully but also as a function of the business). It's a damned-if-you-do/don't situation with licensing headaches on one side, and the prevailing reliance on networks for finding both jobs and work on the other; the former a way to rein in the volatility of "vendor" availabilty and work quality caused by the latter, but with the side effect of raising the barrier to entry (and the cost of training for already wary bosses). "Trust" concerns on an encounter-to-encounter basis are too important for the robust market you would like. I've talked to two people who were looking for construction workers: one was a family friend who knows me well and was somewhat cool on me applying, especially after finding out the physical difficulties I'd had at a retail job that had turned out to be more demanding than I'd anticipated. The other was a stranger who freely gave out his number, but who implied that there'd likely be a soft hazing period to determine if I, unlike many other past applicants, "really wanted to work." $20/hr sounds great, but how much of that is going to future physical therapy? (I never texted back.) Meanwhile, I'm sitting here, jobless, with an art degree (a few credits short of a sculpture minor), watching woodworking Youtube videos in my garage-less Millennial apartment. I tend to think enthusiasm is not really the issue.