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The trades do pay well per hour (or at least all my friends who are in the trades are paid well per hour), but with two important caveats: 1. It's the union jo

The trades do pay well per hour (or at least all my friends who are in the trades are paid well per hour), but with two important caveats: 1. It's the union jobs that pay well. 2. You might not get a full 40 hours of work per week. ---- In any case, I think the big non-white-collar job category worth investigating is trucking. "But YellowApple!" I can already hear you retort, "self-driving trucks will put truckers out of a job!" Yeah, I'll believe that when robots are able to put chains on tires, deal with asshole cops nitpicking log books, and otherwise reliably handle the bullshit truckers put up with as part of their job descriptions. AI might be able to automate the driving part, but I don't see human operators being absent from the cabs anytime soon.

ty6853 2y ago
Before you try trucking, rent a 12 foot trailer or a 26 foot penske diesel box truck, then drive it around the tightest urban commercial roads you find and maybe try a poorly designed lumber yard while you're there. Maybe try some mountainous interstate driving in winter with it too. Trucking pays well because it's constantly terrifying, horrible hours, and often a recipe for divorce.
- yellowapple 2y ago
  That's all included in the aforementioned "bullshit truckers put up with as part of their job descriptions" :) (Though for the record, I've indeed done what you describe.)
tennisflyi 2y ago
Look at the BLS salary numbers…
- yellowapple 2y ago
  Median salary is above the median for all workers, for a job that ain't going anywhere (well, aside from physically, obviously) any time soon. That's the critical part. That overall median plasters over a bunch of nuances, though, like: - Whether you're a company driver or an owner-operator; owner-operators earn more, but they need to own/lease and maintain their own trucks. - Whether you paid out-of-pocket for CDL training or if you did it through an operator like Swift (wherein they put you through their internal trucking school and then require you to work for them at suppressed wages until it's paid off). - Whether you're working regional or OTR / long-haul jobs; long-haul pays better. - Whether you've got e.g. hazmat endorsements and other special qualifications beyond a class A driver's license.
  - tennisflyi 2y ago
    Say what you want but $48k gets you nothing compared to $70k+ straight out of school with the possibility of RSUs and the ilk

ty6853 2y ago

Before you try trucking, rent a 12 foot trailer or a 26 foot penske diesel box truck, then drive it around the tightest urban commercial roads you find and maybe try a poorly designed lumber yard while you're there. Maybe try some mountainous interstate driving in winter with it too. Trucking pays well because it's constantly terrifying, horrible hours, and often a recipe for divorce.

yellowapple 2y ago
That's all included in the aforementioned "bullshit truckers put up with as part of their job descriptions" :) (Though for the record, I've indeed done what you describe.)

tennisflyi 2y ago

Look at the BLS salary numbers…

yellowapple 2y ago
Median salary is above the median for all workers, for a job that ain't going anywhere (well, aside from physically, obviously) any time soon. That's the critical part. That overall median plasters over a bunch of nuances, though, like: - Whether you're a company driver or an owner-operator; owner-operators earn more, but they need to own/lease and maintain their own trucks. - Whether you paid out-of-pocket for CDL training or if you did it through an operator like Swift (wherein they put you through their internal trucking school and then require you to work for them at suppressed wages until it's paid off). - Whether you're working regional or OTR / long-haul jobs; long-haul pays better. - Whether you've got e.g. hazmat endorsements and other special qualifications beyond a class A driver's license.
- tennisflyi 2y ago
  Say what you want but $48k gets you nothing compared to $70k+ straight out of school with the possibility of RSUs and the ilk