From the Trades Room over at the Watercooler is a talk about starting a trade career. Great stories like this:

“When I was a kid I worked part time for a private school doing handyman stuff. The guy I worked with was a retired Electrician. I asked him enough questions to make a sane man crazy, but since he wasn’t sane he not only answered my questions, but put me to work. And I mean work.

On to college. The first summer I got a job at a factory working production. After two weeks a trucker’s strike forced the layoff of all summer help except for Welders and Electricians. Since I knew everything there was to know about electricity, I took the test and aced it. Fortunately for me the foreman knew the difference between testing well and knowing anything. He needed the help, and hired me, and once again I worked!. I got put to work with an old guy installing an automated paint line, and to my shock an horror I discovered that I didn’t know squat.. I bent and threaded miles of conduit, and pulled tens of miles of wire, and fell for every prank they could think of.. The fellow I worked with was quiet and patient, and once I got over myself I managed to learn a lot. The next summer was spent in Maintenance again, followed by a summer in Engineering. The business took a downturn just as was graduating, so the job I was expecting to be there when I graduated fell through, so it was off to work.

The next few years saw seven promotions, three mergers, and a firing – - mine. I had had my fill of trying to make a living as an Engineer, and there was a factory looking for an Electrician / Millwright, so I applied for the job. Once again got the nod based on the fact that I got the highest scores ever on the test. So I went to work, and once again discovered that I didn’t know squat. I replaced a guy who had worked there for 30 years, and guy I was working with had been there 26 years. The electrical side of the business came back quickly, but the mechanical side was a long, hard slog. My mentor went on vacation 90 days after I started, and had the gall to go off and have a stroke. Yep. New guy, green as heck, and stuck on day shift. Sink or swim.

I started that job with every intention of working there for two or three years, and then moving up and on. ‘Been there eighteen years now.

So, what’s the moral of the story? Getting your toe in the door helps, but you’ve got to do the work, and learn the trade. Education has always been my way to get the attention of prospective employers. Others get noticed because they know someone influential who will stick their neck out. Others are just lucky souls, and others work their way up through the ranks.. However it happens, the end result is strictly up to you.”