I don’t really see how this is a debate… there’s a reason none of us are plumbers and I guarantee none of you arguing the “pro plumber career” side would go that route if you had it all to do over. So either you’re trolling or using this as a way to work on your “debating” skills.
Because we’re on a CFA site? You could easily make the same argument on a plumber forum. See Anthropic Principle
Personally I’d go electrician, but I tell people all the time if I had to do it over again that would be my career choice. Relatively clean work, focus on smart homes and commercial systems with higher certifications, I’d be all set. Not like most financiers just waiting for their job to be made redundant by a new software suite.
Here’s a nice breakdown:
Or you can listen to Michael Bloomberg:
http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/11/investing/michael-bloomberg-advice-become-a-plumber/
Or the WSJ:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB114296244999304228
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/25/your-money/sweet-smell-of-money-for-plumbers.html?_r=0
http://www.nydailynews.com/jobs/surprising-jobs-100k-salaries-two-year-degree-article-1.1026210
Correction, They used to make make $150+ in oil and gas mechanical trades. Now, they are applying to Starbucks.
I never said I had that much debt. I said the average was $30,000.
+1
“Plumber is a good trade, and anybody would do well if they became a plumber. Except for me. Or my kids. Or anybody that I don’t consider a loser.”
^ I’d have no problem being a plumber, but switching costs are too high now. I’d be a plumber or electrician if I started over. In fact, I still might just go do that. I think you’ve missed much of the point of this thread: only shletered snobby financier types think of tradesmen as losers.
lol spot on
perfect. obviously it isnt as great and lucrative as everyone says or some people on here wouldve been plumbers by now
Not everybody can work in the glamorous field of tax return monkey.
…and still be posting on a CFA forum? Again, anthropic principle.
Not true. I was one of the few “smart” kids in my HS who took some shop classes and I was actually a pretty good woodworker for a HS kid. Not only was it frowned upon for someone considered to be an academic student to take shop classes though, it actually hurt my class ranking. The A’s I received in shop were not equal to the A’s I received in AP and A-level classes. I enjoyed the classes though, so I took them anyway. Had it not been pounded into my head that only stupid kids who can’t get into college go into the trades, I would have been perfectly happy being a carpenter and am pretty sure I would own my own contracting company by now and would be doing at least as well financially.
I’ll also be perfectly happy if my kids tell me they’d rather go to trade school than college.
Good post higg. I’m in the same boat. If I wasn’t told by my teachers that only dumb kids go into trades, I would have possibly followed that path. Also did shop in school and I do much of my own reno work (as well as being a financial partner in a landscaping firm). I’d have no objections if my kids wanted to go down that path and I’ll encourage them to consider that as a viable career option. If my kids came to me and asked if they should be an electrician or plumber or tax preparer, I’m pretty confident I’d suggest the first two.
Depends on the kid. I mean, you got to play to your strong suite. If my kid is an academic mind who reads incessantly, go to college. If they’re more practically oriented, do a trade. My issue isn’t that trades > college, but simply that the answer is not as clearcut gapped out as people like to think. Sitting in an office is one of the most physically unhealthy, psychologically miserable and largely unrewarding careers people can do. Right up there with digging crap out of a drain. I think most of the superior attitude is tied a need to feel all the years and money spent getting to a marginally higher level of income are justified. It IS possible people may chose a career that fits them for reasons other than income too.
Not sure what most of you guys do for a living, but I can safely say that my day-to-day is 100x more interesting than your average electrician or plumber. No chance I’d take either of those jobs for the same or even modestly higher pay.
See that I agree with and is a point I’ve made before on this topic. Although lately the draw of being my own boss and getting out of the office would be a strong counterpoint. I also imagine getting into larger commercial systems or smart homes would make things a little more interesting. But if you step outside the NPV mindset for a second then there are definitely qualitative arguments for either side that I’m not disagreeing with.
The good thing about being a tax return monkey is that you can both have a corner-office, white collar job, all at the same time making good coin and being your own boss.
So it’s kinda like the best parts of PWM and plumber all wrapped up into one!
Fair enough
Having just wired a 1000sqft basement plus home theatre, all with Smart Home stuff, you’d be surprised at the mental challenges of doing so. It’s not really that straightforward at all. Plumbing is a little more straightforward but there is still a ton of problem solving. You’ve got limited space to run wires, code considerations to always be aware of, and you’ve got to think about how your work interacts with all of the other trades (you can’t just run cable wherever you want). Working as some big shot PM is probably more intellectually stimulating, but plugging tax returns or updating research models is pretty brain dead work. And that’s what 95% of finance is. The top guys have interesting jobs but so do the top plumbers (where logistics, sales, marketing, estimation, etc are all challenging tasks.
Hell no. My dad was an HVAC technician who owned his own business. He worked 16 hours a day every day from May 1 to October 1, mostly in the sun, 95*+ heat, in attics (and all that itchy insulation), under houses (and sewage, rats, ants, and copperheads), and he forced me to participate in a lot of it.
If my dad had made a killing at it and retired a multibillionaire, I might agree with you. But he died penniless with all of his income being from Social Security. Now my mom’s hoping that her piano teaching business and her SS is enough that she doesn’t have to sell her house and move into the projects for old folks.
Suffice to say–I learned enough from my dad that I wanted an office job. F–k that “out in the field” b—s–t.