Most lawyers I know do not recommend the profession to young people. I find I hear people in other professions saying the same thing. Business and the economy have changed many professions over the years. Areas like medecine and social work are now driven by insurnace requirements that make the profession more aobut filling out forms than doing the work. In the practice of law, high rates have driven clients to demand highly detailed bills, each bill looks like a diary of the attorney's life. And each client comes up with guide-lines, requirements, etc. Everything I read says it I will only get worse.

Mayor Bloomberg just recommended the skilled trades.

http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/11/inve....html?iid=Lead

This is something I have discussed here before. I think a lot of young people are driven to college by well intentioned parents who beleive that "higher" education is the only acceptable path to financial security. And let's face it, there is a high level of snobbery involved in those parental preferences. Kids get steered to college regardless of their abilities and preferences. But the skilled trades are so under subscribed that an intelligent person could really clean up and maybe even enjoy their profession.

So what do you tell kids to do today? Do you just give them a pat answer, or do you take the time to learn something about the person first?

 

No one has asked my advice lately. However, I would not discourage someone to work towards a trade if that's what he/she was leaning towards. I don't know any poor plumbers or electricians.

 

(Step up on soap box)

For years I have said that young people should consider a trade. We continue to push our youth towards college even tho they really aren't going to make it. Case in point, my son. There is no way he was going to make it in college (hell he barely made it out of high school) but his school wanted to keep their "when on to college" numbers high. Well he ended up dropping out, joining the Air Force reserves and learned a trade. He now makes 3 times as much as his high school pal that graduated with a Master's Degree (I think in Environmental Science).

At my employer, we currently have openings for a machinist, electrician, fabricator and several assemblers. We pay at the upper end of the going rates or even above and we cannot find anyone. The very few trade schools in the area have their students snatched up so fast that it will make your head spin!

The major manufactures will need to start up their long forgotten apprentice programs if we expect to build thing in this country.

Kids need to understand that the dirt on their hands washes off at the end of the day but the green on pay day hangs around.

(Step off on soap box)

 

Bravo. Well said.

 

I don't know. I seem to have an old fashioned notion about college. I don't think it's a trade school nor should it be viewed as such, but rather a place for young adults to go to broaden their view. I still believe in the old fashioned liberal arts education. I know it's a very expensive way to broaden your view, but, I really do believe in it.

This is not to say that a young person has to go to college, and yes I agree many people do much better learning a trade. Even many college graduates do much better learning a trade.

My profession is still good. Accountants are still in demand, but that's probably because it's not a glamorous career and not too many young people want to go into it. Especially if they've ever known an accountant around tax time.

Neither of my sons want anything to do with accounting. My oldest graduated with a BA in economics and has finally found a job. Adam, my youngest is a studying to be a mechanical engineer. The prediction is that mechanical engineers have a bright future but it seems like everyone is going in that direction. There soon might be too many.

Still, for Adam mechanical engineering is what he's wanted to do since he was about 5. I've always told both of my sons, and any other young person who would listen, to find a career that they can "wrap their arms around" because they're going to be working for a very long time, and if they're unhappy it will be torture. If they can do something they like, the money will follow.

 

My son Ben has a lot of his friends who were directionless after graduating from college, so a number of them went into law school! I agree with Bill that most of our friends who are lawyers don't recommend the profession to their kids...but that has not discouraged many of them. It seems that lots of young people like the idea of "environmental law" or "public interest law"....but that's probably less than 5% of the jobs!

Interesting topic Bill....thanks for posting.

 

I think that's so much BS I want to laugh out loud. While I agree there will be a very large demand in the near future for plumbers and other trades, I'd love to see Mr Billion spend a month in a trades job - and not with the one that owns the company and plays golf. The thing often overlooked is how physically demanding a lot of the trades jobs are as the workers get older. Every year as I got older made me appreciate my white collar job. And, secondly to realize how most trades jobs can so easily and quickly disappear from an area. One day there's 30,000 workers at a plant and the next there's 300. Don't think that can happen? Come to Michigan and look around. Believe me, those plants had lots of plumbers, welders, and you-name-it skilled workers. Currently there's a shortage for welders for building robots but I wouldn't want to stake my future on being a welder.... I'd rather take my chances on Wall Street.

 

The answer, of course, is to go into your own business. Be your own boss. Whether in the trades or the professions, being in your own business is, for a lot of reason, the best way to be.

You'll work harder, maybe not make as much money, and not have the time to sit around and think about your 401(k) all day, but you'll be beholden to no one, feel the thrill of accomplishing something, not have to sit through endless meetings and be on half a million committees or have your employment status be at the whim of some manager.

That's what young people should be thinking about.

 

There's some truth to that but IMHO you better have some good people skills to go with the smarts and trade skill. As I am sure you know new business failures wrap around the moon several times.

 

I'll add this personal story to the discussion. A couple months back I had a really sharp skilled trades guy who owned his own company working for me. We had a large 3" copper drain pipe leak above the kitchen ceiling. He did the plumbing, the drywall which included walls on the second floor as well as complex ceiling, and he did the painting. I had a few other jobs for him since he did wonderful work and was so skilled. He said he wasn't available this winter since he was attending college to get an engineering degree. Now this was no young guy... he had teenage kids. And he had great people skills as well.