I’m right there with you, there’s this weird insecurity that follows you around throughout your career, and it’s exhausting trying to satisfy it.
That said, the trades just don’t pay as much as software does. I’ve thought once or twice about making a career change to that world, but it’s not nearly the kind of money we like to think it is. Sure, there’s a skill shortage, but a cursory look on indeed paints a less glamorous picture
Not in the tech epicenters they don't, but they absolutely do in most of the country.
I know an electrician that made 75k a year plus as much overtime as he possibly could want (also to show this isn't just a rare anecdote, the top 25% electricians make a median salary of 71k). If you are a solid tradesman or tradeswoman that knows how to a. show up on time, b. communicate well, c. do the job, congrats, you are already in high demand. That's at least equal if not more than most software devs get paid around where I am. I bet if we counted off hours worked and oncall time, and added hours to hours, the electrician would make more. That's 75k working a proper 8 hours a day and not a minute more.
Hold on. I’m not even sure what percentile this is referring to. It sounds like it has to be at least an 80th percentile salary among all electricians. If that’s the case, then 80% aren’t making $71k, so this sounds a lot worse than you make it out to be.
If you note here, there also seems to be cost of living adjustments just like you would find in tech centers as well, so California and New York averages seem higher. A lot of Electrical work is also unionized, so I don't know if that is a factor in any of this, but it seems like some tech workers seem to think unionization is better so there's that. The IBEW (http://www.ibew.org) for example seems to claim their workers on average make 37.69/hr which is right at 75k. The statistic is a bit outdated, but if anything it remained flat, if not slightly increased.
That sounds like 75th percentile is $71k. The IBEW number is more convincing (I also can’t imagine it’s gone down since 2016).
I still have to wonder how much of that is location dependent. $71k in most parts of the Midwest is quite comfortable. In the most expensive urban areas, it’s “livid with 5 roommates and never being able to save much” levels. It would be good if some of these stats were broken down by region, at least, if not MSA.
Doesn't seem to be the case. Average starting electrical work salary is right around on par for average starting web developer salary in my area (45k-50k for both)
I think that comparing the trades to software is a bit too coarse; there's a huge range of skill/experience/compensation variation in each.
Last week, I hired a gasfitter to do something that was straightforward, but needs to leave a paper trail. The job he did roughly equates to setting up a static website or similar - basically "turning the crank" for half a day; no fancy skills or tools. His billable rate is about twice what I made at my last local tech job; I was doing fairly fancy DSP firmware, he's got more work available than time to do it. And his rate is substantially lower than another quote I got to do the same job.
I think you're right that this is largely a "grass is greener" situation, but it's also important to look at the externalities of the options. It seems possible to have a successful trades career that rarely involves going over 40 hours/week, but it's hard to do the same in skilled software development. There's also the physical cost; working at a computer all day is super unhealthy.
That said, the trades just don’t pay as much as software does. I’ve thought once or twice about making a career change to that world, but it’s not nearly the kind of money we like to think it is. Sure, there’s a skill shortage, but a cursory look on indeed paints a less glamorous picture