Carpenters - career advice?

[MoneyGuy]

I'm advising a young guy about careers. He's interested in a trade and was leaning to electrical, which I think is great as I have clients in trades like this who do great. Some have created their own businesses and are hugely successful.

But now he's saying he prefers carpentry. The very few carpenters I know work very hard for much less money. Despite my name, I know that job satisfaction is most important, as long as a guy can earn a good living.

Are there any carpenters on this forum who can tell me about the job opportunities, pay expectations and opportunities to have one's own business, etc. for carpenters? I'm sure a good carpenter can do well right now because of the booming Alberta economy and maybe start a business building homes, doing renos, etc., but what happens when the boom ends.

I just thing that electrical provides great opportunities. However, if the young fellow wants carpentry, it's not up to me.

Any advice is appreciated.

[FLAMESBURNOIL]

my ex roomate was a carpenter.
made a boat load of cash and has been employed pretty steady in it for 12 years, including the time he was in university -

what he did was went to work for a older man who had a small contracting company, the old man is almost ready to retire and my roomate is now taking over all his clients and contracts.

[Azure]

Someone in the carpentry industry once told me that the only reason oil rig workers make more money then carpenters...was because the oil guys worked tons of overtime.

Now I do think he was talking about framers...and people who finish houses. Not exactly carpentry, as some would see, but still the same thing in some aspects.

I know a few friends who started out framing houses 5-6 years ago...just general wage work...and both of them have now moved on to starting up their own business, and one of them recently bought an acerage outside a Calgary, showing that he had made a succesful career out of it.

[automaton 3]

Well I had a long reply but the server kicked me off.

Short answer: good pay, satisfying work; really hard on your body. You don't see very many 50+ framers.

[Jayems]

Framing and carpentry are different. My buddy's a carpenter, and always lements that he picked a trade that makes the least amount of money. But he loves his job, and is really good at it. He did a tonne of work in the Deerfoot Casino, and is now working for some guy out in Springbank, and their working on a multi-million dollar house putting in all sorts of neat woodwork.

I'd think, personally, you really need to look at the culture your going into. Depending on how he/she was raised, entering into the trades may be a huge shock by the way people talk to each other, their attitudes, and racism. This isn't about my friend i'm talking about, but I dabbled into some trades trying to figure out what the hell i wanted to do, and was shocked at the level of racism in the trade i was in. It takes a certian breed, but if you can do it and enjoy it, by all means, great times.

Just a few things to think about.

[Cube Inmate]

As a carpenter, he'll most likely lose a finger or two. As an electrician, he'll probably become intimately familiar with a defibrillator. Alternatively, he could get a desk job like many of us and slowly die of coronary artery disease!

Bah...just kidding...mostly. I have no clue about injury statistics in either one of those trades, although my grandpa (carpenter) did have an injury-prone career, which included cutting off three of his fingers and cushioning his fall from scaffolding with his face.

Injury rates should be something to consider, though.

[Jayems]

Originally Posted by Cube Inmate

As a carpenter, he'll most likely lose a finger or two. As an electrician, he'll probably become intimately familiar with a defibrillator. Alternatively, he could get a desk job like many of us and slowly die of coronary artery disease!

Bah...just kidding...mostly. I have no clue about injury statistics in either one of those trades, although my grandpa (carpenter) did have an injury-prone career, which included cutting off three of his fingers and cushioning his fall from scaffolding with his face.

Injury rates should be something to consider, though.

Injuries are something I forgot to mention... especially in carpentry... you hit the nail on the head with that one. excuse the pun.

He's almost lost his fingers, almost had 2x4's come off the saw and hit the abdomen (which would probably be a nice week or 2 in the hospital) and has seen a lot of co-workers and other tradesmen seriously hurt at jobsites.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by Jayems

Framing and carpentry are different. My buddy's a carpenter, and always lements that he picked a trade that makes the least amount of money. But he loves his job, and is really good at it. He did a tonne of work in the Deerfoot Casino, and is now working for some guy out in Springbank, and their working on a multi-million dollar house putting in all sorts of neat woodwork.

I'd think, personally, you really need to look at the culture your going into. Depending on how he/she was raised, entering into the trades may be a huge shock by the way people talk to each other, their attitudes, and racism. This isn't about my friend i'm talking about, but I dabbled into some trades trying to figure out what the hell i wanted to do, and was shocked at the level of racism in the trade i was in. It takes a certian breed, but if you can do it and enjoy it, by all means, great times.

Just a few things to think about.

you get that in most places that don't have to worry about adhering to office workplace etiquette. when i worked at FedEx Ground in the terminal (loading/unloading trailers, vans, etc) you would have probably been shocked by the language. and it wasn't just a bunch of white guys either, it was quite a divserse workplace all being equally abrasive (i lost count on how many times i was called cracker or corn-fed). but that wasn't even the worst part, customers were specifically prohibited from entering the terminal because of the vulgarities we'd be screaming at each other from across the warehouse. and all that made for a very fun workplace when everyone had that mentality, that's still my favorite job i've ever had

of course i'm not the type of person to be easily offended (you need to get really personal for me to react) so that atmopshere may not be for everyone

[zarrell]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

I'm advising a young guy about careers. He's interested in a trade and was leaning to electrical, which I think is great as I have clients in trades like this who do great. Some have created their own businesses and are hugely successful.

But now he's saying he prefers carpentry. The very few carpenters I know work very hard for much less money. Despite my name, I know that job satisfaction is most important, as long as a guy can earn a good living.

Are there any carpenters on this forum who can tell me about the job opportunities, pay expectations and opportunities to have one's own business, etc. for carpenters? I'm sure a good carpenter can do well right now because of the booming Alberta economy and maybe start a business building homes, doing renos, etc., but what happens when the boom ends.

I just thing that electrical provides great opportunities. However, if the young fellow wants carpentry, it's not up to me.

Any advice is appreciated.

The carpenters you know are either fools or bad at what they do. I'm a finishing carpenter myself, as are my dad and uncle. 2 of my other uncles are also framers in the Calgary area and the rates right now are simply outrageous. 6 figures for a good carpenter is not out of the question for yearly income. A good framer like my uncle can make double or triple that in a year. There is no shortage of money to be had in carpentry if you run your own business, work hard and do a good job.

As far as the boom ending, that is not going to happen for a quite a while and even if it does the good trades will still have work. Or you can move to where the action is. My family moved here 9 years ago from a struggling Winnipeg market. Always a good idea to go into trades if that is what you want to do. Nothing wrong with being an electrician. They can make some pretty good money too.

[brownie]

If he is a smart kid tell him to check out the Millwright trade.Lots of work,work on a wide variety of equipment,in lots of different areas,and great pay.

[Jayems]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

you get that in most places that don't have to worry about adhering to office workplace etiquette. when i worked at FedEx Ground in the terminal (loading/unloading trailers, vans, etc) you would have probably been shocked by the language. and it wasn't just a bunch of white guys either, it was quite a divserse workplace all being equally abrasive (i lost count on how many times i was called cracker or corn-fed). but that wasn't even the worst part, customers were specifically prohibited from entering the terminal because of the vulgarities we'd be screaming at each other from across the warehouse. and all that made for a very fun workplace when everyone had that mentality, that's still my favorite job i've ever had

of course i'm not the type of person to be easily offended (you need to get really personal for me to react) so that atmopshere may not be for everyone

Well, the first thing I was told when I started working as a plumber (yeah... i tried a lot of jobs ) was:

"Thank god you're not a n***er"

I also dare you to go into a worksite porta-potty and read some of the crap on those walls.. I won't even repeat some of the crap on there.

Edit: Hmmm... using "crap" and "porta-poty" in that way was a bad choice...

[FlamingLonghorn]

Well I don't have a lot to offer I guess, and I don't know if this is carpentry, but I would assume so... A good friend of mine is a cabinet and furniture maker for upscale homes and businesses and just started his own company this last year. He is already becoming fairly successful, although he might just be lucky as he made lots of good connections fairly fast. Also, this is in Austin, but I feel like the cities are both pretty similar in the amount of money people have.

[rubecube]

Make sure he's not anorexic?

[Go4Gold]

It really depends on what kind of carpentry work he is interested. If I were to choose that field, I would definately be a finishing carpenter, huge demand and huge coin. Granted it's tedious work, but you're usually working in better conditions for more pay.

My 2 cents.