I think my 21 year old son made a good move getting into the electrical trade [View all]

It was interesting watching him submit resumes and apply for jobs as a recent electrical trade school graduate. He had been working almost full-time doing residential electrical work (wiring houses, meters, and water well pumps) while finishing his last semesters with a focus on industrial/commercial electric.

He had made friends at school that graduated before him and landed jobs so he even had their supervisors calling him unsolicited asking him to come work with them because they heard he was graduating.

He accepted a union position at a mill starting at around $70,000 a year depending overtime. Their average electrician made $106,000 last year and their top electrician made $150,000 (how many hours was that person working!). What I found really interesting was they told him that they selected 12 applicants to move to the testing phase and only 2 out of the 12 passed the written tests that included a good bit of math and electrical code questions.

He dropped out of high school right after turning 17 and worked some $8-10 an hour odd jobs and I could tell he was stressing watching many of his friends go on to more education and/or landing full-time jobs making decent money. For his program I believe it was about $8,000 total, he did graduate debt free, working during the day and attending his last couple of semesters at night.

Talking to him and his friends, many of whom have gotten into electrical, plumbing, welding, etc, they all have lots of exciting opportunities at their young ages in these fields. Something to maybe consider if you or someone you know is looking for an opportunity. I'm half thinking about going back to trade school myself at 41, I can retire early from my government job in the next few years if I want and defer the pension, I make like $28 an hour, straight 40 a week, so like 60k a year and now it feels strange my son and his buddies are making that and higher in their early 20s!