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I have a electrician cousin and uncles in carpentry and EMT.. sure, they don't earn as much as most software developers annually, but they started before and w

I have a electrician cousin and uncles in carpentry and EMT.. sure, they don't earn as much as most software developers annually, but they started before and with less debt than almost anyone who went to college. Throw in the fact that working more than 40 hours is called "overtime" in many cases, it seems like reasonable trade offs. (Then again, maybe it's a "grass is greener" view.)

EpicEng 13y ago
Funnily enough, I also have a cousin who is an electrician. We have been very close all of our lives (my parents adopted him at 14) and he went the college route at first. He wanted to write software. Now, Josh (my cousin) is not a stupid person by any means, but he's also not academically inclined. He's not very technical and, for example, doesn't enjoy reading the Principia in his spare time. What he does enjoy is having a steady job that pays him well enough to support his family. He has that as an electrician and he has a good amount of job security. He is not an unskilled worker and he cannot be replaced by any Joe Shmoe off the street. That's more than can be said of many of the people I went to high school with (graduated in '01) who have college degrees (lots of marketing and psychology majors here).