Blue Collar and Proud of It: The All-In-One Resource for Finding Freedom, Financial Success, and Security Outside the Cubicle (8 page)

Do you like to work alone as opposed to being on a team?	Yes	No
Do you mind being away from home for long periods of time?	Yes	No
Do you have to actually be active, as opposed to sitting long periods of time, behind the wheel of a truck, perhaps?	Yes	No
Do you have any physical limitations?	Yes	No

Some of these questions might sound strange to you, but there is a reason for my asking each one. It’s really important that you plan and think ahead. You can’t just decide you want to be a fisherman if you’ve never been on a boat or if you get seasick each time you go out. If you hate heights, youmay notmake the best painter and certainly you’d have to rethink welding on skyscrapers, but that doesn’t mean you’d have to forgo welding altogether. If you don’t like to be dirty and you don’tmind being away fromhome for long stretches, truck driving could be a great thing for you. If you love math and are anal about measurements and enjoy working with your hands, carpentry could be a possibility for you. Do you love doing physical work? There is plenty of it out there, including logging, construction, and landscaping.Do you prefer to work alone or with a few people in a quieter environment and you love tinkering with wires? Ever thought about being a residential electrician? Do you see why I’m asking you all of these questions?

If you know that you’d hate being behind a desk every day, all day, and if you know that you’d like to be outside working or have a job that requires being physical, you’ve come to the right place. Do you like to get your hands into something? Do you enjoy the feeling of gripping tools and using them to make things? Just the way some people get a high from running (I don’t), others get a high from working outside and sweating as part of their job (I do).

And while it is important to plan and it is important to give all that you’ve got to whatever you choose to do, you don’t have to commit to it for life. If you think you want to be a mason now, it’s okay if you end up deciding it’s not for you at some point down the road. Many of these jobs have overlapping skills and sensibilities. If you decide to go into construction, you may stick with it for your whole life, or maybe you’ll find a specific skill that you’re excited to master. The next thing you know you could be working toward mastering carpentry or operating heavy machinery.

Hopefully you have a technical or vocational programat your school or nearby. Maybe you’ve taken an automotive class or a woodworking course, but many of you won’t have had that opportunity. I’ve always called this
shop
and
vo-tech
, but now it’s referred to as
career and technical education
, or
CTE
. In many school districts, those are some of the first programs to go when budgets are cut. In some areas of the country, the CTE courses are being reinstated in full force, specialized technical high schools are opening, and teens are getting the chance to experience these trades like never before. If you have had some vocational training in your school, youmay be able to answer some of these questions easily. Have you enjoyed your woodworking courses? Metalsmith classes?

Unfortunately, not everyone is offered the opportunity to take CTE courses, and if you’re one of those people who hasn’t been exposed to the trades, you’ll have to work extra hard to figure out what you want to do. I suggest finding a summer job or part-time job on the weekends with a local contractor in a field that interests you. If you can’t test the waters in high school, you’ll have to test them on your own. Some of you have to start from the beginning and figure out what it is you like and don’t like. If you haven’t had CTE courses or opportunities at the high school level, you may really be left wondering how you can possibly know if this is the path for you. I suggest getting out there and getting a job, an internship, or an apprenticeship. Knock on doors, make phone calls, and show that you are interested and hardworking. If you really love to tinker with your own car and have always wanted to be an automechanic, then go to your local dealership and ask if there are any part-time, weekend jobs available. Maybe you’ll hate it, and maybe you’ll find that you love it.

If you are a mom or dad, aunt or uncle, teacher or guidance counselor, you may be wondering how to tell if your son, daughter, or student is destined for the blue-collar workforce. Sure, they may have told you that they think they are, but maybe they haven’t even figured that part out yet. There are no hard-and-fast rules about whatmakes someone cut out for a blue-collar job. I’ve spent a long time thinking about the traits thatmany of us blue-collar workers share in common. Maybe you’ve noticed these in your niece or seen some of these signs in your son. This isn’t based on a scientific study, but I can tell you that the following are traits I’ve found in most blue-collar workers: we’re very active, we like to fix and build things, we’re creative, some of us have attention deficit disorder (ADD), we can be stubborn, some of us are fearless, and we can be risk takers. We act out and get very agitated in school, some of us act out at our teachers.Does your kid have what I call the blue-collar personality? It’s just something to consider.

When I was in high school, I took shop and woodworking. I started to develop this blue-collar personality in my early teens. I liked shop. I liked it better than English class, which I could just never get into. When I started working for a construction company after high school, I realized just howmuch I enjoyed being outside. I had an easier time focusing than I did when I was at a desk, and I enjoyed the physical work. Other than some seasonal allergies, which I eventually outgrew, it was great to spend my summer days in the grass. During the winter I was shoveling sidewalks and plowing. I enjoyed that I was always moving around. I have a hard time sitting still and needed the variety. I liked meeting different clients and knowing that each job offered its own challenges.

I knew that I wanted to be outside. I knew that I couldn’t be in a factory. Some people can. The idea of building something and completing one piece of the puzzle on a factory floor is very rewarding. But for me, I needed to be outside and I needed to bemoving around a lot. It’s hard for me to sit still and it’s hard for me to stand in one place or focus on one thing. I know welders need to have total concentration, honing in on what they’re doing without moving, lest they get burned, or fall or lose their place. But with landscaping I amalways on themove, whether driving between jobs or out of my truck racing around yards, always with different equipment. This suits me. I love it. But it’s not for everyone. That’s just the point.Not everyone is cut out to eat the same things, to listen to the same music, or to do the same jobs.