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There are an estimated 3 million unfilled trades jobs across the
United States that pay an average of just under $60,000 a year.
Why don't you have one of them?
Here's how you can have job security, that pays very well.
Most people average, 60 to $80,000 in college debt.
Some, a little bit less, some, a whole lot more.
The trades, it's a little bit different.
Some people believe they cannot get a good paying job without going to college.
Now, what are the trades?
The trades are actually a job that you can develop a skill set for something
you can do with your mind, with your hands and actually make a living at.
A good thing about a trades job is a lot of those you can go in and
open your own business one day.
But today, we're gonna talk about some of the construction trades,
plumbing, electrical, HVAC, roofing, carpenter, welder, pipe fitter,
iron workers, boiler makers.
There's a lot of different things that you can do that, literally in the construction
trades, you see on a lot of jobs.
Now, we don't have as many boiler makers down here in Texas as they do
up north, but there may be a lot more plumbers and HVAC techs and pipe fitters
down here than there are up there.
But getting into the trades gives you a great opportunity because trades,
really, they do not take a college degree.
Now, there are a lot of people in the trades that have a college degree.
They decided they couldn't make as much money, so, they
decided to get into the trades.
Well, good for them, they figured it out.
What are the best paying trades?
Getting into the elevators union.
Oh my gosh, that is a great paying trade.
Why?
Think about it this way.
Most trades jobs, you have opportunities, you have commercial,
residential, service, new construction.
So, there's a lot of different things there.Even union / non-union.
Well, the elevators union is a little bit different.
It's pretty much all commercial.
I've only known of a couple of residential houses that have elevators and most
elevator work is probably service.
There is a lot of new building work going on, but also the service side, they
take care of elevators and escalators.
So the elevators union is probably one of the highest paying jobs that you can get.
The next ones?
Well, electricians and plumbers are really close salary-wise, meaning a journeyman
electrician, a journeyman plumber; they probably make about the same money.
Now there's probably more opportunity in electrical because
it's not just building and service.
It branches off into a lot of other fields, a lot of low voltage, and just
a lot of stuff that electricians do that, most of us, we have no idea.
To be honest.
I always tell people when they ask me, "Roger, what is the best paying trade?"
I look 'em in the eye and say, you know what?
The one you like the most.
Because whatever it is, you like the most, you are going to love it
you're gonna enjoy it, you're gonna wanna learn more about it, and you're
gonna want to be really good at it.
I mean, think about that.
What if you did a job that you didn't like, would you
really come home and study it?
Would you try to be the best at it?
Is it something you'd get up and get excited about every day?
Once you find the trade that you love, you're gonna get really good at it.
And that is where you're gonna make the most money.
Now, if you're thinking about possibly getting into plumbing, I've actually got
a free mini course that just asks you what kind of plumber do you want to be?
And lets you answer some questions to determine what might be best for you.
So let me tell you about some of my first jobs and how I got into the trades.
I was actually managing a restaurant one night at the age of 16.
I was in high school.
And let me tell you, I was always in trouble.
I mean ALWAYS in trouble.
So I'm at the restaurant one night with one of my best friends.
It's a slow night, so we're talking and he looks at me and he said,
"Roger, are you gonna do this forever?"
I'm like, "dude, I am 16 years old.
I'm managing a restaurant."
I thought that was pretty cool.
He said, "so what's gonna happen when you quit or get fired?"
Hmm.
I'd never thought about that.
It was probably a couple of weeks before I either quit or probably got fired.
You're fired, fired.
FIRED.
Anyway, later that night, he told me about his father and his three
brothers that were all in plumbing.
He talked about how much they enjoyed it, the pride that they had in the
work that they got to do, buildings, they were building houses, they were
repairing everything that they were doing.
And one of the cool things back then, well, he looked me straight
in the eye and said, "You know what?
Robots will never be able to do plumbing."
Well, they're doing part of it now, but not much.
Hopefully it's gonna be a long time before robots can do everything
that a good plumber does.
But anyway, I thought about that, and after I got fired a
few weeks later, I called one of his brothers and said, "Look, can
you help me get a job plumbing?"
He did, and I gotta tell you, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Now, this was the middle of my junior year, at the age of 16.
I may have fibbed about how old I was.
"Oh, no, everything on that resume is a lie."
But, what I did, is I got out on a job and I started learning things
and that was really, really cool.
Now, I had had some jobs before that.
In the fifth grade, I started hauling hay and I did that for about five years.
Good thing about that, that helped me build a great upper body's strength.
Then, like you heard, I got a job in a hamburger place.
But, also, after becoming a plumber, every now and then, I would get out,
I would want to do something new.
That's right.
I've been a cosmetologist.
I've been a massage therapist.
I've been a bodyguard.
I've been a bouncer.
I've been a bartender.
I've even been a restaurant manager.
But, in between these, I always end up back in plumbing.
Plumbing is one of the most prideful, passionate professions I've ever been in.
If you've ever known anybody in the trades, when they go down
the road and pass a building that they built, they'll point it out.
They'll tell you about it, and they'll let you know.
So let me tell you a story about one of my apprentices.
I had an apprentice that worked for me when I got in the union and we were
actually doing a pretty good size job.
Now, this apprentice actually outworked a lot of the
journeyman that I had on the job.
The reason being, he was learning, he was hungry and he really wanted to grow.
I ended up making him a foreman.
I made him a foreman as an apprentice, made him a lead person.
Now I don't remember if we actually called it a foreman.
It may have just been, "look you're in charge of this floor."
So think about this.
If you do get into the trades, how do you become really, really good?
This foreman, this apprentice, actually went on to become a superintendent and he
went on to be an instructor in the union.
Understand what your end game looks like.
Where do you want to be?
Do you want to grow?
Do you wanna be one of the very best?
Do you want to do the things that it takes to be the very best?
The reason I ask that is: anybody getting into the trades can make this
become whatever they want it to be.
And you need to think about this from the beginning.
You don't have to go to college to make a great living.
You can actually get in the trades, become good at the trades, actually, become great
at the trades and make a wonderful living.
You can move up to a foreman, a superintendent, a project
manager, director of operations.
You can move up toward, you're running a company for someone or maybe
one day running your own company.
So think about this all the way throughout getting into the trades and
why you get in the trades because you always wanna think about your end game.
Where do you want to end up?
And do you wanna be the very best when you get there?
So, again, like I said, if you think you're interested in getting in plumbing,
do me a favor, click the link below.
It's gonna take you to "What kind of plumber do I want to be?"
And it's gonna ask you questions to help you figure it out.
Also that first job that I got, I believe I started at $4.75 an hour.
Yeah, that was a long time ago, 1980.
I thought that was pretty good at the time.
So do me a favor, if you're an apprentice, or you're already
in the trades, do me a favor.
Leave me a comment down below and let me know: How much money
did you make starting out?
And where you're located?
I'm Roger Wakefield, lead AP, helping you make more money in the trades.