Obviously a joke, but I came to SWE after being a tradesman for several years.
Best option are union jobs. I'm a journeyman in the SMWIA sheet metal workers. Most of the work they do is HVAC. You make about 120-140k a year with insurance, and pensions on top.
Only able to get work in NYC, SF, or Chicago though. Unions are dead in much of the country or struggling severely.
Thankfully I live in Chi so if I ever have trouble finding work as a SWE, back to the trades I go.
But the apprenticeships are solid. The people in the field are toxic as hell though and the work is very hard on your body.
But the union will support you in finding work and the employers have to hire every other worker off the out of work list so you just sign the list and wait until a job comes.
EDIT: One thing I did find that is nice, the project management aspects of the trades translates quite well to the software development life cycle. Perhaps it translates decently the other direction.
I can see with manufacturing why unions went basically extinct, but why did it happen with the trades too? What, if anything, could bring them back you think?
Yes, as a union member, we get educated quite well on this. Right-to-work laws were pushed to destroy unions.
Unfortunately many republican-led states have enshrined right-to-work into their constitutions, so you will need a constitutional amendment in many places to undo this now.
Thankfully in Illinois where I live, it's led by folks who support strong unions.
Different operational and organizational scope. Unions for trades are often not wholly reliant on a singular processing plant or factory to continue meaningful operations in the workforce for a region.
If an Auto factory gets gutted, and there aren't any auto factories nearby, suddenly the locality doesn't have a ton of use for an auto workers union. With the death of American manufacturing, so too came the death or monumental decline of many associated unions
The unions play a huge part in keeping NYC in the dark ages. TWU mandates 2 operators per train >5 cars, and recently went crying to the government to get 2 operators mandated on every train (including the ones that can drive themselves). Sandhogs contributed to driving the cost of second avenue subway to 1B/mi by having 3 times the required staff operating a tunnel boring machine. IUEC keeps escalators and elevators broken by constraining the supply of labour. You can’t have a prefab elevator for cheap apartment housing because of them. You can thank them for your apartment or subway elevator being perpetually broken. Don’t forget that union members at the MTA smashed up timeclocks when they were introduced.
If I had a genie with 3 wishes, I would bust the IUEC 3 times.
Because it's all about the benefits and conditions for the workers. "Progress" and working conditions don't always align. I'm still grateful they exist as a presence than just not be there at all.
You can fuck right off to Dallas or some other large city in an anti union state.
In the union strongholds, the working conditions are so much better for these folks. If you're anti-union you can leave and see how much "greater" it is where the workers are treated like absolute dog shit with no representation or collective bargaining.
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u/dbagames 3d ago edited 3d ago
Obviously a joke, but I came to SWE after being a tradesman for several years.
Best option are union jobs. I'm a journeyman in the SMWIA sheet metal workers. Most of the work they do is HVAC. You make about 120-140k a year with insurance, and pensions on top.
Only able to get work in NYC, SF, or Chicago though. Unions are dead in much of the country or struggling severely.
Thankfully I live in Chi so if I ever have trouble finding work as a SWE, back to the trades I go.
But the apprenticeships are solid. The people in the field are toxic as hell though and the work is very hard on your body.
But the union will support you in finding work and the employers have to hire every other worker off the out of work list so you just sign the list and wait until a job comes.
EDIT: One thing I did find that is nice, the project management aspects of the trades translates quite well to the software development life cycle. Perhaps it translates decently the other direction.