Anyone ever gone from a "desk job/office" environment to a skilled trade? I've been in tech sales for going on 5 years and while I've enjoyed it I'm ready to get out of the tech industry and possibly sales all together. I'd like something that gets me moving again but is not to "back breaking" either. My first thought is electrician maybe but wanted to get some input. Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

All trades need ppl right now. Shop around different jr colleges and trade schools. You can likely get fully trained at little to NO cost. Dallas College just launched some new locations and are begging ppl to join. One of the Deans told me that they have enough scholarships to cover anyone that walks in the doors right now. Check out the schools labs and see how well they are kept and tooled up. Even without knowing the trade you can tell the schools that are well put together. Here is my list of trades in order that I think have best pay to (hard) work ratio.
-hvac
-electrician
-plumber
-welding
There are many more. Also, plumbing is a lot more than toilets…

Why are you wanting out of sales? Many technical sales jobs can be "hands on" which would give you an opportunity to be active and likely make more money.

I would choose plumber out of those trades. Electrician #2 but I would prefer to not work on electricity all day every day. Once you get your master plumber license (I think 5 years) you can easily go out and start your own business. Plumbers get paid too.

Impatient Angler said:

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Why are you wanting out of sales? Many technical sales jobs can be "hands on" which would give you an opportunity to be active and likely make more money.

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I work in the SLED space and I'm just burned out on the industry. Getting tougher and tougher with supply chain issues. Schools are basically put everything out to bid and for the past year I've about had it with sitting behind a chair and cranking out bids.

southernskies said:

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SockDePot said:

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Building controls / commissioning / startup tech.

Lots of hands on in the field, but not back breaking.

Very tech driven too

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If you are a nerd this is perfect. You get to come in at the end of the jobs when the A/C is already running and walk around with a backpack/laptop all day as you plug into control panels. Your hard hat will be squeaky clean. You may have a video company come film you working on your laptop in the field as part of a technical college's TV commercial.

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This sounds interesting. If anyone knows of companies here in BCS that does this please let me know. I'll do a google search as well. Thanks.

Some of the largest ones are:

Johnson Controls
Siemens
Schneider Electric
United Technologies
Cisco
Honeywell
Bosch
Building Logix

I'm sure A&M hires one or more of these companies to manage university facilities alongside its own faculty.

Thanks!

southernskies said:

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Some of the largest ones are:

Johnson Controls
Siemens
Schneider Electric
United Technologies
Cisco
Honeywell
Bosch
Building Logix

I'm sure A&M hires one or more of these companies to manage university facilities alongside its own faculty.

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TAMUS is big on Honeywell and Siemens

Where are you located HoopsAg?

All the trades are hiring. With your skill set, you might consider becoming an estimator. As someone mentioned earlier, the trades are an aging society. That includes the estimating department. If you have been cranking out estimates in your current job, counting joists or bricks or sheets of drywall might not be that different.

I'm in BCS. I have an interview with a local Electric Company Friday. I'll ask about the estimation side for sure. Thanks for bringing that up.

My best friend is an Aggie Mechanical Engineer that has worked in all facets of HVAC and now works for Johnson Controls in the controls/sales division. I'm sure he'd be happy to talk to you. Email me Kristofer w w at gmail with "TexAgs" in the title if interested.

My son is moving to CS and wants to get into HVAC (not going to A&M but will take some trade classes at Blinn).

He'll be there starting in September of this year. Eagle Scout, clean driving record. However, he's 18 years old, so I think that is an issue from an insurance perspective?

I'm holding onto the idea of surveying as a backup plan. Mix of outdoor work and computer work.

I own an electrical panel manufacturing company. We are in Sealy - moving to Brookshire / Katy area soon.

Probably a little far to drive, but funny enough I am an EE, owner and just building something still brings me the most enjoyment and satisfaction... that and landing large jobs.

Would be happy to talk if you are interested.

My husband's company is hiring in BCS (On 21 across from Coulter Firld) if you have ever been interested in O&G (not rig work)

BadAzzBohemian said:

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I own an electrical panel manufacturing company. We are in Sealy - moving to Brookshire / Katy area soon.

Probably a little far to drive, but funny enough I am an EE, owner and just building something still brings me the most enjoyment and satisfaction... that and landing large jobs.

Would be happy to talk if you are interested.

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I would like to talk to you if you wouldn't mind a PM

some good suggestions on here.

Also look into the fire protection industry. There are a couple of contractors in the BCS area. You can get into:

design
service sales
service/inspection technician
project management

Former TX licensed HVAC contractor here. Also, a former controls tech for Johnson Controls and did commissioning work for a while.

My opinion is do NOT go to trade school or Ju Co. Find a contractor who's willing to train you, I started as a helper knowing nothing. As long as you are reliable (as in on time, not arrested, and or overly hungover), you demonstrate an interest, and have a good attitude, you'll move up quick.

Controls is typically the cleaner, less physical work on site but you may have more difficulty getting your foot in the door. You need to know your basics of electricity, HVAC, computers, and networking. If you go into controls as a complete newbie, you may wind up pulling cable and bending conduit which gets old quick.

Commissioning sucks. The money was better, but it can be odd hours and high stress.

I've done some digging and talked to a few people that have giving me some recommendations. I appreciate all of you folks responding as well. It's giving me a lot to think about for sure. They main drawback I immediately see is the pay cut I would take, which would be pretty significant. I'm not an 18 yr old coming out of high school and I definitely don't want to be paid like it. However, I don't expect a company to give me higher pay with no experience just because I'm older. I've started looking at other sales opps in other industries as well.

Another thing to beware of if you go the electrical route, is lots of time on ladders is hell on your knees. My Grampa was a master electrician and I worked for him a ton in high school. I am a programmer by trade, but still do lots of electrical projects as I love doing stuff with my hands also. Some days I really want to be out wiring houses. Those days are not in mid-July in Texas pulling homeruns through a damned attic!!! LOL

Aggie95 said:

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some good suggestions on here.

Also look into the fire protection industry. There are a couple of contractors in the BCS area. You can get into:

design
service sales
service/inspection technician
project management

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This. FPE's are fewer and fewer also.

There is also a reason why these companies that were listed are also in fire protection...or try to be at the very least.

Quote:

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Johnson Controls
Siemens
Schneider Electric
United Technologies
Cisco
Honeywell
Bosch
Building Logix

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Good luck. Dont get discouraged with supply chain issues. However, welcome to the commercial sales side with all the bidding from plans...very few companies are truly plan-spec nowadays. The smaller contractors get the black boxes from the big guys to put what they want into them, but those are generally specialized fields...like components of the entire building system.

The HVAC guy we use has his own business as a second job. He does the big projects on weekends and annual maintenance calls in the evening. He has 2-3 guys he brings on the big jobs.

Maybe keep the sales gig and get trained up on your down time?

HoopsAg said:

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I've done some digging and talked to a few people that have giving me some recommendations. I appreciate all of you folks responding as well. It's giving me a lot to think about for sure. They main drawback I immediately see is the pay cut I would take, which would be pretty significant. I'm not an 18 yr old coming out of high school and I definitely don't want to be paid like it. However, I don't expect a company to give me higher pay with no experience just because I'm older. I've started looking at other sales opps in other industries as well.

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It's the classic "gotta start in the trenches" thing. At some point you just have to accept it. It works both ways though. I did the exact opposite of you. Was in the trades until mid 30's and then went back to school to go white collar. Ended up taking about an 50% pay cut to do that but it is what it is. I hope to be back up to that level in about eight years hopefully.

Good luck!

OP, what did you end up doing ?