Think Small
January 19, 2016 Trade employers are mostly small businesses If you become a skilled trade worker the odds are great that you will end up working for a small company. The latest Census of Construction Industries shows that the average construction company has fewer than 10 employees. Almost two-thirds of them employ fewer than five […]
How To Find Great Trade Workers: Part 3 of 3
January 5, 2016 Part 3 of tips for employers This article continues a review of best practices for recruiting, hiring and retaining top-notch trade workers. Don’t over-value experience. As a grizzled veteran with more than four decades of experience in my chosen field, I’m not one to belittle the value of experience. But in my […]
How To Find Great Trade Workers: Part 2 of 3
December 22, 2015 Part 2 of tips for employers This article continues a review of best practices for recruiting, hiring and retaining top-notch trade workers. Look outside your local area. The smaller your market area the more likely it is that you’ll have to find someone who lives in the next county or next state […]
How To Find Great Trade Workers: Part 1 of 3
December 10, 2015 Part 1 of tips for employers So far this blog has been devoted to advice for aspiring trade workers. I’m going to switch gears for a while and speak to their employers, many of whom also follow this blog. I know most of you would rank finding top-notch trade workers the most […]
A Front Door Into The Trades
November 20, 2015 Just knock for a rewarding career. In my last blog I discussed apprenticeship programs and vocational/technical schools as paths into the skilled trades. A third path exists that may be the most accessible of all for talented and ambitious people. Do a little research and identify successful companies in your preferred trade. […]
How Do You Enter a Trade?
November 10, 2015 Apprenticeship has changed from the old days. Following in your father’s footsteps has a long tradition in the skilled trades. Many if not most of today’s trade workers entered the field because that’s what their father or some other family member did for a living. Often Dad owned the business and it […]
College Is Not Worth the Cost!
October 27, 2015 So say recent college grads A consistent theme of this blog has been that debunking the myth that you have to go to college to achieve financial success. I’ve written about the lack of jobs for most college graduates in the fields they study, about the skyrocketing cost of college and the […]
Living Independently
October 13, 2015 Hard to do with big debts to pay Many, many years ago as a young man in my early 20s and recently discharged from the U.S. Army, I moved into my own apartment for the first time. While serving in the military I shared quarters with dozens of fellow soldiers — hardly […]
Computers In The Trades
September 14, 2015 Your computer skills will come in handy A lot of young people look at the manual trades as a lot of wrench turning and grunt labor. Maybe that was true a century ago but the jobs of today’s skilled trade workers are more about “brain” work than physical strength. Today’s automobiles have […]
Labor Come Alive!
August 14, 2015 It’s a thrill to see the results of your work I spent more than three decades covering the skilled trades as a trade journalist. Now that I’m retired I look back with immense satisfaction at the friendships made and life lessons learned. Among the latter is a profound appreciation of the contributions […]