In demand college degrees vs skilled trades. What's your take?

[MWDeadlifter]

Millwright master race checking in.

[MWDeadlifter]

Please tell me how much labour is involved in running a CNC machine.

calling maintenance to fix issue requires some level of labour....

[tk217]

Yeah, but that means a cubecel calling IT to fix his laptop is also labour.

Labor doesn't mean software.

[tk217]

Business FTW. Few with STEM ever see the c-suite, and tradies, well the c-suite doesn't sustain itself on monster and skoal.

Finance is where it's at boyos.

You're very old.

Do not go into accounting young misc - go into programming.

Finance/Accounting is a "sub degree" in this era and a dying industry.

[SillieBazzillie]

You're very old.

Do not go into accounting young misc - go into programming.

Finance/Accounting is a "sub degree" in this era and a dying industry.

You're not wrong about me being old.

But I'm hiring business majors with 5 years of experience at $100k left and right. Business is all about data, analytics, and communication.

[NMS3]

Different strokes for everyone. However, meeting a girl that was getting job offers starting at $60,000/year for a having a bachelor’s in Biology is all I needed to hear to start taking my education srs again.

[johnnydeep1]

I agree, but do you think that its easy to get a useful STEM degree? Do you think the average plumber has the protentional to be a computer Engineer for ********?

[johnnydeep1]

You're very old.

Do not go into accounting young misc - go into programming.

Finance/Accounting is a "sub degree" in this era and a dying industry.

CPAs earn a lot of $$$. More than STEM majors in some cases. They can get top jobs like CFO, Tax manager, partner etc

[Ausaric]

If you’re able to do a STEM job then go for it. If not a Trade is lucrative. We all gotta pay them bills brahs.

[lolatpaniccels]

Different strokes for everyone. However, meeting a girl that was getting job offers starting at $60,000/year for a having a bachelor’s in Biology is all I needed to hear to start taking my education srs again.

a bachelors in biology is actually one of the tougher degrees out there but pay in many of the roles you would be qualified for aren't in line with the difficulty of the degree. If you're smart enough to complete a bio degree with a high GPA then it's better to go for EE in my opinion.

only way I would pursue a bio degree is if I was dead set on becoming a MD, DO or PA.

[lolatpaniccels]

CPAs earn a lot of $$$. More than STEM majors in some cases. They can get top jobs like CFO, Tax manager, partner etc

average CPA salary in the US is 70K and getting your CPA is actually quite challenging. Hours and work can be brutal too.

Becoming a CFO or Partner at these firms or large companies is less than maybe 1% of total CPAs and takes decades of experience.

[propreffered7]

society just also has no respect for them

I remember my days as a engineering intern on the job site, bossing around tradies and telling them what to do

"yeah you didn't install this right, redo it please"

imagine being bossed around by a lanky 19 year old, LOL

this sounds like a made up fantasy and fear of yours

i promise you if you're sitting on the job site in a business slacks and a dress shirt vs. tools and whatever else on you..the guy getting his hands dirty is more appealing... you're pretty far off here on what women like.

and it's from entitlement and your subscription to beta bux..you're also acting like there aren't plenty of avg. dudes with avg. ass boring office jobs

but i guess if you're picking on the lowly demographic of tradies it might fit

besides, most engineering plans are turned into more digestible chit. lol it's like the fantastical work you do isn't even used. same with the architect

[vwdsg2468]

CPAs earn a lot of $$$. More than STEM majors in some cases. They can get top jobs like CFO, Tax manager, partner etc

You can probably become a CPA pretty fast through WGU. You can get a bachelor's in accounting as fast as you want because you go at your own pace. Then after getting the bachelor's I think you can sit for the CPA.

[OutdoorsBrah]

Reddit/bodybuilding seems to have a fetish with recommending the skilled trades over a college degree. Yes, a skilled trade is better than a liberal arts degree, but not a good STEM degree. All I hear is how much skilled tradesmen earn from reddit. 100k a year this and that. They say it as if it's normal. If the majority of tradesmen were earning that much, there wouldn't be a shortage. Everyone would want to do it because it's supposedly high paying. Looking at BLS average salaries tells the real story. Why does reddit do this? Discuss.

After getting my masters and a remote work position.....







I lol @ all those brahs out there freezing in the winter, getting torched in the summer sun. I legit wake up, fall out of bed and into my office chair and I'm "at the office". Anytime I feel like changing up scenery, I just get my WiFi puck and my laptop and dip out to the beach our mountains and snag an Air b&b. Most weeks I have 4 hours of work for my 9 hour day... legit automate most of it in excel, then chill all day, play Xbox, or lay out by the pool.






























If you want to work remote, make good money and have a minimal amount of stress? Get a college degree. If you want to break your body in the blistering heat, and freezing cold after commuting for 30-60 minutes... be my guest, I'll be making bank in my boxers.

[vwdsg2468]

After getting my masters and a remote work position.....







I lol @ all those brahs out there freezing in the winter, getting torched in the summer sun. I legit wake up, fall out of bed and into my office chair and I'm "at the office". Anytime I feel like changing up scenery, I just get my WiFi puck and my laptop and dip out to the beach our mountains and snag an Air b&b. Most weeks I have 4 hours of work for my 9 hour day... legit automate most of it in excel, then chill all day, play Xbox, or lay out by the pool.






























If you want to work remote, make good money and have a minimal amount of stress? Get a college degree. If you want to break your body in the blistering heat, and freezing cold after commuting for 30-60 minutes... be my guest, I'll be making bank in my boxers.

What do you do?

[johnnydeep1]

average CPA salary in the US is 70K and getting your CPA is actually quite challenging. Hours and work can be brutal too.

Becoming a CFO or Partner at these firms or large companies is less than maybe 1% of total CPAs and takes decades of experience.

Those online averages are B.S. I know CPAs and they earn more than I do as an Engineer.
Look at job openings and type in "CPA" and you will get lots of 6-figure job openings.

[Omnivium]

It's a lose/lose situation

If you get a stem degree, you end up in a cubicle with overweight middle aged women telling you what to do and having a power trip

If you become a tradie, you end up working with a bunch of tobacco chewing monster drinking degenerates and destroying your body by 40

The only way to win is to be self employed

[Destor]

It's a lose/lose situation

If you get a stem degree, you end up in a cubicle with overweight middle aged women telling you what to do and having a power trip

If you become a tradie, you end up working with a bunch of tobacco chewing monster drinking degenerates and destroying your body by 40

The only way to win is to be self employed

You can be an engineer in the field, combining the best of the STEM side of things with blue-collar tradies who aren't awkward/autistic and are actually fun to be around

I've had so much fukking fun in the field, wouldn't even post most of the stories on here

[ghostdivision88]

laying pipe.

[lolatpaniccels]

It's a lose/lose situation

If you get a stem degree, you end up in a cubicle with overweight middle aged women telling you what to do and having a power trip

If you become a tradie, you end up working with a bunch of tobacco chewing monster drinking degenerates and destroying your body by 40

The only way to win is to be self employed

most people making a lot of money "self employed" are working literally every hour they're awake lol.

[vwdsg2468]

It's a lose/lose situation

If you get a stem degree, you end up in a cubicle with overweight middle aged women telling you what to do and having a power trip

If you become a tradie, you end up working with a bunch of tobacco chewing monster drinking degenerates and destroying your body by 40

The only way to win is to be self employed

Interesting perspective

[jn677]

You're not wrong about me being old.

But I'm hiring business majors with 5 years of experience at $100k left and right. Business is all about data, analytics, and communication.

Sure, but do you know they don't teach you about data or analytics in a business degree do you? Maybe you don't know that. Business grads don't get taught those skills. They might take an excel class, that's about the extent of their data and analytics knowledge and let me tell you that's not enough.

Communication sure, they probably get alright at that, so 1 out of 3.

Why not hire someone with an analytics background if that is important to you? Probably because you are only paying 100k and can't afford the those guys.

[outfoxxed]

I'm starting to think that being a tradie might be the 200 IQ play, srs.

-Most STEMbrahs do 100% of their work on a computer. That means that this computer could be operated by a sufficiently knowledgeable Indian for a quarter of the cost. WFH/full remote is going to really "popularize" this trend here in a couple years once corporations start getting out of their office leases, and STEMbrahs are going to compete in a global race to the bottom for wages just like manufacturing did a generation ago.

-STEMbrahs work on computers part 2: computer jobs are easier to automate. It's easier to write a program that can move pixels around a screen than to build a tradiebot that moves chit around in the real world. Obviously the knowledge in knowledge work is knowing where to move the pixels, but machines can learn nomsayin. Now there are tradiebots in the works, but they are more challenging than software and the lower price and varied work of tradies means there is a smaller target on their back.

Tradies have to be hired locally and are more difficult to outright replace, so I think their employment prospects will be more durable over the next 20 years.

What they have to worry about is good old foreigners coming from the southern border and offering to work for cheaper. Fuk me, this world really just needs a few billion people dead.

The problem with poojeets is working with sensitive data in fields like fintech

[vwdsg2468]

Bump

[Dan916]

I cold called for a job at $13/hour doing construction. Was hired 2 weeks later.

Within 4 years I joined a trade union and made it.

All on-the-job experience. I have a 4 year degree, its a lovely piece of paper that cost me 4 years of missing out on money/experience.

[Visel]

I can't give an informed opinion on this, didn't live the tradie life.

I will say that if you get a Comp Sci, or similar, degree, and you focus on getting some relevant experience/projects/certifications/etc. in whatever specialization you choose, you will make $100k+ a year after a few years in the career more often than not, and I'm talking in areas with below average CoL.

For me so far its looked like this:

College Student: $10/hr
Year 0 after college: $60k gross
Year 1 after college: $65k gross
Year 2 after college: $95k gross
Year 3 after college: Projecting $110k gross

Currently interviewing for another position at another company that offers $150k+. If I ever get to that point I'll be done and stay there, get comfortable, and retire sometime in my 30's / 40's srs.

I had a little student debt ($~20k) upon graduating, but paid it off fairly quickly. Tradies at least get to start earlier with their career growth and income building, with less debt... but it seems like hard physical work and/or lower salary caps.

[Destor]

I can't give an informed opinion on this, didn't live the tradie life.

I will say that if you get a Comp Sci, or similar, degree, and you focus on getting some relevant experience/projects/certifications/etc. in whatever specialization you choose, you will make $100k+ a year after a few years in the career more often than not, and I'm talking in areas with below average CoL.

For me so far its looked like this:

College Student: $10/hr
Year 0 after college: $60k gross
Year 1 after college: $65k gross
Year 2 after college: $95k gross
Year 3 after college: Projecting $110k gross

Currently interviewing for another position at another company that offers $150k+. If I ever get to that point I'll be done and stay there, get comfortable, and retire sometime in my 30's / 40's srs.

I had a little student debt ($~20k) upon graduating, but paid it off fairly quickly. Tradies at least get to start earlier with their career growth and income building, with less debt... but it seems like hard physical work and/or lower salary caps.

I work with tradies who have moved into management/supervisory positions and are making $300-500k, they’re also 40-50+ and haven’t retired

[OutdoorsBrah]

Definitely not something that requires any sort of cognitive ability, by the looks of it.

You need to hit up GMiscer to up your trolling game.

[Peacening]

"in demand" changes quite often... What's lucrative now might not yield a lifelong career for very long. You know what doesn't change much? People need chit built and maintained. IMO trades is definitely the way to go.


Go get a pack of marlboro lights and a few monsters and begin your journey brah.

[Visel]

I work with tradies who have moved into management/supervisory positions and are making $300-500k, they’re also 40-50+ and haven’t retired

Yeah I know folks who get into the $200k-300k range with Comp Sci corporate routes, especially if they get into technology sales and/or executive positions. Can't say higher than $300k with confidence though tbh, but I haven't explored many other companies yet.

Didn't know tradies can get that much!