Yeah I'm not sure why people are surprised that jobs in trades aren't more popular or encouraged by parents. They can be great and lucrative careers for the right people, but the fact of the matter is they can also be hard on the body, often require you to work in an uncomfortable environment (out in the elements or in confined spaces), are dangerous at times, usually require you to work in the middle of nowhere if you want to earn top dollar, are generally more subject to suffering during economic downturns than a lot of other jobs, and if you ever suffer any kind of serious injury or end up with any kind of disability your career is potentially over.
And a lot of the work is pretty mind numbing to be honest, at least in construction which is what I'm most familiar with. Building stuff start to finish like a shed, garage, or even a house can be fun, but that's not really how it works for most trades. If you work in a commercial or industrial setting you're more likely to be installing concrete forms for 6 months or pulling kilometers of wire. And if you do work in residential you're more likely to be throwing up one cookie cutter house after another and having to deal with the extremely cavalier attitude towards safety that usually exists on residential sites.
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