Best trade to learn?
I'm still deciding on my future career, I've narrowed it down to learning a trade.
So far I've decided on becoming an Electrician, but I wouldn't mind looking at other options. HVAC mainly. Automotive (repairing vehicles).
So, how much experience do you have with any of these and what would you suggest. I'm fairly dead set on going for Electrician, but learning more about other trades can't help. HVAC is the main one, I don't have much of an interest in cars, and Plumbing doesn't sound interesting. Pipefitting, maybe, but not straight out Plumbing.
I don't plan on going to University, it's not quite as required in Australia as it is in America and there are so many jobs required in the trades now that learning one is a very good choice. I can learn everything I need on the internet and not pay for it.
Perhaps I wrote that post wrong. I mean I can learn everything academic that I need online, not a skilled trade. You can't learn how to wire with just the theory. Getting an Apprenticeship is my intention.
I just haven't figured out what to get it in, The two jobs that sound like something I would want to do are Bricklaying, and Electrical work, as in an Electrician. But I'm open to other options...
Bricklaying sounds simpler and more visibly rewarding, but I have an interest in Electricity...
i deliver to a steam cleaning machine labor union. there is always that. also, woodworking, if you don't mind the shavings (i do.) automotive is ok if you don't mind hurting yourself over and over again. truly. there is also welding, which is pretty neat. you can make a lot of money as a welder since it is pretty skilled. there is quite a bit of electricity, physics, and chemistry in welding, which is probably why i think it's so AWESOME! if you don't have an allergy to dust, bricklaying and construction would be alright. signs and brick facades are in.
I have no direct experience with any of these, but automobile mechanics I've talked to seem kind of disenchanted with their business. The reasoning was something like this:
If you set up your own shop, you need to spend a fortune just on hand tools, special wrenches, etc., on a continuous basis because the automobile manufacturers don't follow any standard, and actually seem to go out of their way to make things worse. As in, one guy I knew claimed he had to buy a tool for replacing the lights on Jeep Cherokees made during certain years. That's all he could use it for, and apparently at least some of the lights could ONLY be replaced if you had this tool.
And if you work for somebody else, especially a dealer, there's a surprising amount of pressure to (a) get your work done in a "standard" amount of time (as in they have a book that says it should only take 25 minutes to do a certain job, if you take 30 on a regular basis you get spoken to) and (b) to push new parts at the expense of repairing things. Unless the car is still under warranty, in which case you do the exact opposite, fiddle around with whatever is wrong until the car runs, even if it breaks down three days later.
Plus, at least in the US, there's now a surprising number of people who work on autos that hold BS degrees in stuff like mechanical engineering, though they're usually the supervisors or managers of the department.
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"The man who has fed the chicken every day throughout its life at last wrings its neck instead, showing that more refined views as to the uniformity of nature would have been useful to the chicken." ? Bertrand Russell
Well I didn't really think I would be a mechanic anyway. I have no interest in cars whatsoever. Welding doesn't sound bad but it's not what I'm interested in.
It's pretty much either Bricklaying or becoming an Electrician now.
Edit: Or possibly Viticulture, working with grape vines. I love plants and I live very close to the Barossa Valley, the only thing they grow there is grapes. And the Clare area, also growing grapes.