Who works in a skilled trade or vocation?

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[I came across this article which shows recent trends in academia. So an often overlooked alternative to a professional career is a skilled trade.]

Confidence In Academia Falls Nine Points In Three Years. Academia is in meltdown. There simply is no nice way to put it.

A new survey by Gallup shows that only 48% of U.S. adults have a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in academia, down from 57% in 2015.

Why Is Academia in Meltdown?

The question, "How many problems does academia have?" is sort of like asking, "How many rocks are there?" Where does one even begin to address the question? Here's a brief, far-from-exhaustive list:

1) Tuition and other costs have gone way up. According to an analysis by Camilo Maldonado in Forbes, the price of a four-year degree doubled from 1989 to 2016, even after considering inflation. Each year, tuition increased by about 2.6%. However, over that same time period, the median wage increased by an average of only 0.3%. Because the cost of education has grown eight times faster than median wages, Mr. Maldonado concluded that "each successive cohort of graduates is worse off than the last."

2) "Credential inflation" decreases the value of higher education. Because so many people are going to college, a bachelor's degree is now more like a glorified high school diploma. Everybody has one. As a result, some jobs that don't really require many skills beyond a high school education now require that the applicant has a bachelor's degree. This phenomenon can be thought of as "credential inflation." If everybody has a bachelor's degree, then bachelor's degrees aren't worth much anymore. Many students believe they have to get a master's or doctoral degree to set themselves apart, piling on even more costs.

3) The quality of higher education is decreasing. Businesses aren't entirely happy with the graduates that academia is producing. Hiring managers feel that candidates do not have proper writing or speaking skills, for instance. If a person can graduate college without being able to string together a coherent paragraph, then higher education has utterly failed in the most fundamental of ways.

4) Academics are not held accountable for their bad behavior or poor performance. Professors basically can't be fired. Short of using university resources to hire hookers, like one of my former professors at the University of Washington did, there are very few things that can get a professor terminated. For the most part, professors are free to waste taxpayer or donor money, and nobody will hold them accountable.

Source: Confidence In Academia Falls Nine Points In Three Years

But professional jobs (such as lawyers, doctors, engineers, scientists) are not the only career paths that are available. There are Skilled Trade Jobs and Vocational Jobs that can provide good career paths.

The following is a list of the 23 Highest Paying Skilled Trade Jobs in the U.S.

1. Construction Manager
2. Rotary Drill Operator for the Oil and Gas Industry
3. Boilermaker
4. Aircraft Mechanic
5. Avionics Technician
6. Pile-Driver Operator
7. Plumber, Pipefitter, or Steamfitter
8. Electrician
9. Crane Operator
10. Wind Turbine Technician
11. Millwright
12. Brick Mason
13. Commercial Diver
14. Industrial Machinery Mechanic
15. CNC Machine Tool Programmer
16. Mobile Heavy Equipment Mechanic
18. HVAC Technician
19. Carpenter
20. Diesel Mechanic
21. Auto Body Repairer
22. Welder
23. Automotive Mechanic

The following is a list of 20 high paying vocational jobs in America.

1. Computer Network Architect
2. Applications Software Developer
3. Logistics Manager
4. Computer Programmer
5. Database Administrator
6. Funeral Service Manager
7. Film or Video Editor
8. Fashion Designer
9. Dental Hygienist
10. Multimedia Artist or Animator
11. Web Developer
12. Diagnostic Medical Sonographer
13. Engineering Technician
14. Electrical or Electronics Drafter
15. Sound Engineering Technician
16. Respiratory Therapist
17. Radiologic Technologist
18. Cardiovascular Technologist
19. Physical Therapist Assistant
20. Occupational Therapy Assistant

This link provides a list of skilled trade jobs and also 20 vocational jobs and their average hourly wage and the main tasks involved. 43 Trade School Jobs Among the Highest Paying Trades

So for those High Function Autistics/Aspies on Wrong Planet, how many of us have worked in a skilled trade or vocation? In what area did you work? And what do you felt about the occupation?

For many years, I did #8 on your first list. It was a very, very good living. I was also an electronics technician. Later, I got a pile of university degrees and became an engineer. That #8 job, however, was one of the best for an Aspie who had a special interest in the subject.

Why? Well for one it was unionized. Everyone got treated the same, and there were work rules. Rules for anything are an Aspie dream. And also, no matter how much some people were weirded out by me, they couldn't get rid of me. Sometimes, I loved the work, but hated the job (take note of the very real difference between these two words). A second reason was the pay. It was very high, and the overtime was tremendous. It also had a retirement. Oh, sure, the socially gifted might be able to get more in a nonunion environment, and of course there were people who never were caught working who got paid the same as me. However, I had a very high standard of living due to that occupation.

I'll add that there are a lot of "weirdos" in many trades, so you may not be as socially out of place as you think you'll be. Also, the heavy bias toward college these days has created a real shortage of smart people to go into some of these trades.

Finally, the reason I took up the trade was that my self esteem was shot the first time I went to college, and I ended up dropping out. Due to a fortunate chance situation, I ended up in that trades job that was perfect for an Aspie, and I regained enough confidence to actually do well in college, years later.