I have two friends who work(ed) in the trades (plumbing and construction) and have talked about their experiences with me a lot, and you're not telling the full story here though. Sure the pay is good, but first of all it takes years of taking lessons, being subject to being ordered around and taken advantage of by more senior union members, tons of red tape and bureaucracy, and a lot of tests to actually move through the ranks, and you need to get training to do even base level stuff safely. So "just walk on site and get $35/hr" is kind of misleading. Moreover, the job takes a serious, serious toll on your health and body, far more than any office job would. So the pay might seem good at first, but you'll realize why it's that good pretty soon — and it's not just because of unions. The friend that was in construction got the fuck out of there literally as soon as she could, ran to get a white collar job even at a pay cut. My plumber friend is doing it because she failed out of trying to get a computer science degree, so she doesn't really have another career option, but believe you me, she would sell her soul to be able to do software instead of a trade if she could.
The grass might seem greener on the other side (like that "if architects had to work like programmers" article the other day), but there really isn't any industry that's as easy to work in and high paying as tech is. That might be a bubble that'll pop eventually (I suspect it might) but right now that's the reality.
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I have two friends who work(ed) in the trades (plumbing and construction) and have talked about their experiences with me a lot, and you're not telling the full story here though. Sure the pay is good, but first of all it takes years of taking lessons, being subject to being ordered around and taken advantage of by more senior union members, tons of red tape and bureaucracy, and a lot of tests to actually move through the ranks, and you need to get training to do even base level stuff safely. So "just walk on site and get $35/hr" is kind of misleading. Moreover, the job takes a serious, serious toll on your health and body, far more than any office job would. So the pay might seem good at first, but you'll realize why it's that good pretty soon — and it's not just because of unions. The friend that was in construction got the fuck out of there literally as soon as she could, ran to get a white collar job even at a pay cut. My plumber friend is doing it because she failed out of trying to get a computer science degree, so she doesn't really have another career option, but believe you me, she would sell her soul to be able to do software instead of a trade if she could.
The grass might seem greener on the other side (like that "if architects had to work like programmers" article the other day), but there really isn't any industry that's as easy to work in and high paying as tech is. That might be a bubble that'll pop eventually (I suspect it might) but right now that's the reality.