Trades & Careers

Electrician, lineman, welder, plumber. How to get in, get certified and get paid what the work is worth.

GuideRay Okonkwo23 Sept 20266 min

Licensing, Insurance and Your First Ten Customers

You can be running your own trade business a year from now. The order you do things in decides whether you make money or just make noise.

The Three Carpentry Careers and What Each One Pays

Framing, finish and cabinetry are different jobs with different bodies, different money and different exits. Pick on purpose.

GuideCal Brennan23 Sept 20266 min

Your Knees, Back and Ears Are the Tools You Can't Replace

A working man's plan for keeping hearing, cartilage and spine intact through a 30-year trade career, and what your state owes you if it goes wrong.

Ask BRO

Build me a revision plan that I will actually stick to

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GuideAde Fisher23 Sept 20266 min

From the Tools to Foreman to Owner Without Going Broke

The skills that make you the best hand on the crew aren't the skills that run one. What actually changes at each jump, and what it costs you.

CancerDefying.com — The research, protocols and reading in one place

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6 min read

Breaking Into the Trades When You're the Only Woman on the Crew

Harness fit, apprenticeship math, the tools that suit a smaller frame, and how respect actually gets earned on a jobsite.

Poll

Where does your phone charge overnight?

GuideAde Fisher23 Sept 20266 min

How to Actually Land a Trades Apprenticeship

The application window, the aptitude test, the oral board, and the part nobody tells you: most guys lose the spot before they ever fill out the form.

GuideAde Fisher23 Sept 20266 min

The Safety Habits That Keep You Working for Forty Years

Most trade careers don't end with a dramatic fall. They end with hearing, lungs, knees and one shortcut that finally caught up.

Dude.com — 16 advisers who listen, talk and pray with you

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GuideAde Fisher23 Sept 20266 min

Apprentice to Master Electrician and What Each Step Pays

Four to five years of paid work, 8,000 hours on the books, and a code exam that eats people who wing it. The real path, the money, the trade-offs.

Quiz

Does your wardrobe actually fit you?

Five questions, honestly answered, and a plan for the next fortnight.

GuideDean Shaw23 Sept 20266 min

Diesel Mechanic Pay, Tools and the Path In

Steady work, real money, and a trade that can't be shipped overseas — plus an honest look at the hazards and the tool-truck debt trap.

GuideAde Fisher23 Sept 20267 min

What Welding Pays and Which Certifications Get You There

The 6G pipe test, the code books that matter, and how to look up the real wage for your zip code instead of trusting a recruiter.

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GuideAde Fisher23 Sept 20266 min

How to Become a Lineman and What It Actually Pays

Four years of apprenticeship, a Class A CDL, and a willingness to climb a pole in sleet at 3 a.m. The money is real. So is the cost.

Delicious.com — Nine thousand recipes and a plan for tonight

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GuideAde Fisher23 Sept 20266 min

HVAC Is the Trade That Keeps Paying When the Economy Doesn't

Furnaces quit in January whether or not the stock market cooperates. Here's the real pay, the licensing path, and the parts nobody tells you about.

Poll

When did you last ask for a raise?

GuideAde Fisher23 Sept 20266 min

How to Get an A and P Certificate and Make a Living With It

The FAA license that never expires, the two routes to earning it, what the job actually pays, and the parts of the work nobody warns you about.

GuideCal Brennan23 Sept 20266 min

How to Save Your Knees, Back and Hearing on the Job

Hearing loss is permanent, kneeling on concrete is a slow injury, and the back you wreck at 30 bills you at 50. Here's how to stay in the trade.

PartnerDude.com

GuideAde Fisher23 Sept 20266 min

From the Tools to Foreman to Owning the Truck

The promotion nobody prepares you for, the license that gates the next one, and the cash squeeze that kills good contractors in year one.

Quiz

Is your money actually in order?

Six questions. No email required, no sales pitch at the end.

6 min

Starting a Trade at Thirty or Forty Is Not Too Late

6 min

How Teenagers Get a Head Start in the Trades

Ask BRO

Pressure-test my business idea

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GuideAde Fisher23 Sept 20266 min

Work Forty Years in the Trades Without Wrecking Your Body

The guys still working at sixty aren't lucky. They locked in a handful of habits early and never negotiated with them.

PartnerDelicious.com

5 min read

How to Get Hired Running Heavy Equipment

Excavators, dozers and haul trucks pay a real living without a diploma from anywhere. Here's the license order, the training paths, and what the yard actually looks for.

Poll

How often do you see your closest friends?

Older articles

Trades & Careers

Licensing, Insurance and Your First Ten Customers

How a Teenager Gets Into the Trades Before Graduation

Retiring From the Trades When Nobody Hands You a Pension

How to Get Your A&P and What Aircraft Mechanics Actually Earn

Starting a Trade at 38 When You Already Have a Mortgage

Union or Non-Union in the Trades and How to Decide

The Three Carpentry Careers and What Each One Pays

Your Knees, Back and Ears Are the Tools You Can't Replace

From the Tools to Foreman to Owner Without Going Broke

Breaking Into the Trades When You're the Only Woman on the Crew

How to Actually Land a Trades Apprenticeship

The Safety Habits That Keep You Working for Forty Years

Apprentice to Master Electrician and What Each Step Pays

Diesel Mechanic Pay, Tools and the Path In

What Welding Pays and Which Certifications Get You There

How to Become a Lineman and What It Actually Pays

HVAC Is the Trade That Keeps Paying When the Economy Doesn't

How to Get an A and P Certificate and Make a Living With It

How to Save Your Knees, Back and Hearing on the Job

From the Tools to Foreman to Owning the Truck

Starting a Trade at Thirty or Forty Is Not Too Late

How Teenagers Get a Head Start in the Trades

Work Forty Years in the Trades Without Wrecking Your Body

How to Get Hired Running Heavy Equipment