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There’s also the cultural hurdle of multiple generations being trained to look down on the trades.

It’ll be hard for people who thought they’d have white collar jobs to accept that they need to pivot.

It's not just people themselves, it's also parents and the path they put their kids on.

As a parent, would you really encourage your kids to go into the trades? Not only do you have backward looking social pressures not to do that, but life in the skilled trades isn't easy. If you get lucky and get a stable office job, that's just an easier lifestyle. Easier on your body, more flexible hours, ability to work remotely, probably easier path to leadership roles due to the development of more cognitive skillsets.

IMO, it's easy to say "we need more skilled laborers", harder to convince a parent to let their kids go that route.

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Really good reply SS, very well put and summed up, my kid is coming out of college next year with a bachelors in computer science, with a view to make these choices

  • Apply for grad position
  • Apply for a summer internship and continue at college with a masters in environmental science (net zero bs isn't going anywhere, might as well try and profit from it)

After chatting with many experienced people in various industries, the general consensus is, if you have a degree in a science discipline albeit computers, employers will assume you're not a retard and should be able to adapt to most professions

A large proportion of computer science and physics grads end up in finance purely for their mathematical acumen

As you allude to, encouraging your kid to be a plumber looks good on paper until they're breaking their back ripping up floor tiles to fix a leak

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My first hand experience is that in a week hiring environment, employers are not interested in taking a chance on a physics graduate being able to figure it out. Those opportunities in finance and other unrelated fields dry up quickly and there are very few opportunities in physics itself.

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Lolz 🤣🤣🤣 they're cooked then

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Yeah. It might be a good degree during a boom but I was substitute teaching and stocking shelves after double majoring in math and physics.

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Scary times ahead for sure, thanks for the experience 🙏

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I'm an outlier because I'm pretty firmly in the pursue your interests camp.

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But usually the "pursue the trades" people don't sell it as a passion, but rather, "the trades are in demand and pay well"

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True. My friends who went into the trades basically defaulted into it because they hated college. I wouldn't say it was a passion for them but it also suited them better than office jobs would have.

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