Skilled Tradesperson vs Engineer

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Hello all!

I am going into my senior year of high school next year and need to make plans on what to do afterward. Up until this point everybody has assumed I'm going to become some kind of programmer or engineer. I love math, science, technology and a little bit of literature. I have one of the highest GPAs in my school. I have spent a few years programming computers and various devices. I enjoy the students I work with (I fit in quite well with the programming, engineering types, what a shocker) and the content of the work itself is nice. However, I constantly find myself stressed out as I bounce from one activity to another.

For those of you who are not familiar, I am Canadian. So Canadian, in fact, that even my blood cells are red and white. Right now in Canada, there is a serious shortage of skilled tradespeople. Everybody wants to go to university and have a white collar job, so blue collar work is really in demand now. This means that finding a job as a journeyman or apprentice is relatively easy, and the salary for various skilled professions is considerably higher than usual.

The issue is, I'm considering giving up the ambition of becoming a programmer and going into the skilled trades instead (perhaps an electrician). On one hand, I am incredibly stressed by the constant demands I face academically, at my part time job, and when I am coding. If I pursue a career as a software engineer or programmer, I would spend my first four years out of high school staying up and slaving over academics. Meanwhile, I would be living with my parents and asking the bank to put me in more and more debt so I can finance my studies. Even when I get out of university, there is no guarantee I will get a job. Plus, programmers usually end up working massive amounts of overtime throughout their lives anyway.

But the obvious choice is not the skilled trades either. If I went into the skilled trades, I would have to forgo university. There are a lot of social aspects I would miss about university. Not to mention, I have no idea if I would even get along with my colleagues in such a field. I love to talk about mathematics and science and such things as that. Would I fit in with such a crowd? If anybody here has any experience with either field, or an opinion of what I should do, any advice would be greatly appreciated

I am studying to be an engineer and my boyfriend is working his way up as a skilled tradesman. My boyfriend has a good income but it will likely top off at around $40/hr in 10 years or more, right now it is $17/hr. I will make upon graduation (and I am going into a field that is actively hiring) $20/hr and when I have my professional license after 5 years of practice $50 or more and hr.

Short term skilled trade is way more income, long term and engineer wins. It would be ideal if you could train in a trade and go to school at night or online. It would take longer but would be better financially and you would have the oh so coveted work experience. Plus you could see if you even like the work.

In the US some companies will pay for your schooling if/and while you work for them.

In general I agree with Nebrrets. The tradesmen will do well in the short term, but degreed professionals do better in the long term. This applies to the "typical" person, however there are always exceptions. The most notable one that comes to mind is the case where the tradesman, or tradeswoman, is able to run their own business. These people may equal the degreed professionals, but not likely, if the degreed individual rises up into management positions. Again, there are always exceptions. Another factor to consider is your skill level. A highly skilled person will most often be capable of making far more money that a counterpart who is not as skilled. This applies in any profession.

My suggestion is to consider what you REALLY want to do and then follow that path. If you truly like and enjoy what you are doing, then you will be happier and you will most likely have a greater income. As for money and the academic stress, you might consider following both paths. You could work in a skilled trade AND go to school part time, which helps to reduce the stress. That way you would have two careers available to you in the future. That's what I did. The company I worked for also paid for my schooling to get my engineering degree. (It was a large hi-tech firm.) As for your future co-workers, I think that you would find that they are likely to be much like you. That was the case for me.

I'm certainly not sold on the idea that college is some kind of panacea. Having said this, in your case my recommendation would be to complete your schooling and then decide what you want to do. If you complete your schooling, if you decide you don't want to be a skilled tradesman, you can always be an engineer. But if you don't complete your schooling, you're stuck as a skilled tradesman. I say this as one who started out as a land surveyor. I'm glad I finished my schooling.

I'd recommend engineering. There's a shortage of engineers in essentially every country in the world, so it's always in demand if you go into one of the "big 4". Be careful of niche engineering majors, don't make the same mistake I did my first time around! Engineering is a very stable career, and not many people have the intelligence to go that route, so by becoming one helps to set you apart. Whereas with skilled trades, most people can do those jobs if they go through all of the training, so you don't have as much leverage employment-wise. With either path though, it takes a lot of experience to really get your foot in the door. But with engineering, you start off on a higher foot. What kind of engineering are you planning on going for, electrical?

If you're paying for college exclusively on loans though, be careful. Make sure you research starting salaries and compare them with your estimated student loan burden to make sure you'll be able to afford it after you graduate. And have a contingency plan in place in the event that you don't have a job immediately upon graduation. Oh and last thing, if you go for engineering, get a summer co-op or internship every year. If you have 2-3 you're practically guaranteed a good job, plus they often pay a ton of money.

What one would you actually enjoy doing more? It seems you're not too set on a skilled trade, as you only "maybe" wanna be an electrician and seem to really want to be a programmer (except knowing the real life reality of it might suck.) Generally the only people who do well in skilled trades and stick to them longterm do them on a hobby basis first. IE, electrician will do electrical crap as a hobby, auto mechanic repairs his own cars or friends' cars, etc. So if you don't have any skilled trade that's sorta connected to any hobbies you do, or you're not "upgrading" your current job (ie, going from doing roofing or unskilled contractor work to becoming a carpenter) you'll probably go to trade school and drop out or get an actual job and hate it.

Sometimes too, it just doesn't work out. You do the actual s**t in trade school and you burn out. My friend liked watches and clocks for a hobby, but never went "all in" for it as a hobby, never got tools and worked on watches before going to school, etc. So he spent a year or two in tradeschool for it. Got one job. Hated it. Especially hated the ritzy culture of his profession. Now he wants to be a teacher. That's 20K he spent just to find out he didn't wanna do it. Myself and cars was the same thing (though probably less money spent.) I liked cars. I worked on cars of my own. I ended up failing bad on some of my projects and not being able to complete them. I found out it's probably not a good "career" for me. Yeah, I might take an auto mechanic "job" short term, but I simply am not good enough at it to wanna do it forever, and I know I'm not a "natural" for such work either.

tl;dr, it's pretty much chance and luck. I'd personally do whatever is the least of a gamble, either financial, time, or both, unless you see the results as being really good and are willing to fight to the death to make said results happen. If you wanna be an electrician, then be an electrician. If you really wanna be a programmer, be a programmer. How much money they make is irrelevant if you're miserable and then burn out and quit/get fired and have to find a new career anyway.

My 2 cents to anyone now is to go for a trade that is in demand. Most of them pay well enough that I've seen people much younger than me pay for their college training in CASH because they made that much money.

Academic programs (except for a few) are not leading to good-paying jobs.

My dad is a civil engineer. He had worked his way up from the very bottom. If you secure a blue-collared job, you might be able to be promoted to a white-collared job (in the same industry) one day. If you secure a white-collared job, I assume that you will probably remain in white-collared jobs throughout your career.

As an Aspie, from an entire family of techies/aspies all of us are in technical fields, Math /Science/Engineering, and we always have jobs because the jobs.......NEED US.

The employers know they need Math/Science/engineers and that we are hard to find.

If your an aspie that has trouble getting along with NT's, and want job security - go this route. Blue collar work may be plentiful now - NOW, but that isn't 20+ years from now, when you may be saddled with kids, a spouse, a mortgage and other possible problems such as medical issues.

I have to give this opposite point of view. I am a licensed Civil Engineer and can't find work. Despite reports that engineering is a better situation for ASDs, i found that not to be the case. Starting off at college graduation, the rest of the graduating class had engineering jobs waiting for them and i still had to wait 18 months just to get my foot in the door of an engineering firm, and that was for a technician (CADD/drafting) position with a promise that i could be promoted to an engineering position if i performed well enough when a position opened up. And that is what i accepted, though i could have gotten an associates degree in engineering technology and be given the same position.

I did finally get that engineering position, and did technically well. There are 2 main career paths that could be taken, a technical path where you could do purely engineering work and excel in that, or the engineering management path, where while you may be doing some engineering, you also have to do project management, along with tasks such as budgeting, business development (industry jargon for "sales and marketing"), mentoring younger staff members, etc. The pay for those in the management path is considerably higher that for those doing pure engineering. But for me, the technical path was a lot more appropriate as i don't have the "people skills" to do those other tasks.

But what happened was the last firm i was in was struggling and was down to the last remaining employees. The owner of the company said he was trying to retain us as the core as we were the most valuable employees, and i was in that last group. Work dried up and he had to lay off the whole group then the company folded shortly after that.

In trying to find new employment, i am finding that nearly all companies are only looking for those in the management field and have very strong "people skills". The only positions i see that don't require project management experience are the entry-level positions or positions with minimal experience. I try sending resumes for those but i get immediately knocked for those as being "overqualified" and i don have have the qualifications needed for positions with my years of experience as my pure engineering skills are of no value to them without the people /management skills.