What is wrong with tradies??

[Ocean Architect]

So you're completely dismissing everything Jerry Seinfeld said then ? You're lucky it's not George we're talking about

Isn't he the one who said that Melbourne was the a$$ end of the world and everyone in victoria went nuts? The dude trolled an entire city what a champ

 

[Monopoly]

Monopoly - perhaps give your local TAFE a call and speak to the Course Coordinator or Manager in the particular trade you need. They will have contacts so at least it give you an 'in' when speaking to one.

E.g. Bill Bloggs from NMIT gave me your number ......

Often the TAFE teachers are still in the trade or associated with it. For example, recently had a Building Surveyor do some work for me. He was working for himself but divies up his time teaching also.

Good luck with building your tradie network.

Thanks Warrioress, to be honest I hadn't even considered this option but I will DEFINITELY do so in future. Geez, just goes to show sometimes the simplest solution is right under (or in this case in front of) your reading glasses!!

 

[wisty]

I'm going to be really blunt about this, and you probably wont like it.

I have a bachelors degree in pharmacy. I was in university for 4 years living in semi poverty. Pharmacists must undergo continuing education. Pharmacists pay thousands in ongoing insurance and licensing fees. Pharmacists, by and large, are paid a little over $30 per hour. I left my profession to pursue building because I could not justify the economic outcomes that went in pharmacy as compared to construction. What kind of twilight zone do we live in when that kind of thing happens?

So yes, $500 a day is a lot. A Hell of a lot. The tradesmen that I deal with are borderline retarded. They do light physical labour that isn't terribly different to the exertions of a standard factory worker or storeman and receive far superior renumeration.

I get very annoyed at the sense of entitlement had by some tradesman, who are completely detatched from the lot of people outside the construction game, particularly in professional services. It is socially unconscionable that someone painting a wall with an IQ of 90 is being paid more than a doctor who has plowed 6 years of their life and tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars into education, who has to slave away for several years more before they reach wage parity with a painter or tiler or cabinet maker. You have a warehouse, they have a study or office. You have a phone, they have a phone. You do quotes for free, they study medical journals for free. You have cars, they have cars. You have insurance, they have insurance. Tradesmen are NOT special.

Also, when you're making $500 a day, you only have to work a couple of days before making the average Australian wage, when others work 5 days or more for that thousand bucks.

You can try to justify it with all sorts of unpaid expenses and blee blee blah blah but the bottom line is that most of the tradies I know are driving $80 000+ cars, blowing hundreds a weekend on drugs/alcohol/clothes, regularly holiday, or are well ahead in the property game, while those in other industries with far higher obstacles to entry are renting, budgeting, driving secondhand cars, and are otherwise economically eclipsed by tradies who whine like jet engines whilst proudly proclaiming that they don't get out of bed for less than $400 a day.

I'm an opportunist. I grew up in a building family. I've done the tradie thing, the white collar thing, the small business thing (ongoing) and the developer thing, so this isn't a rant against one or the other industry - since when building slows, I'll dip back into pharmacy or whatever. This is simply a statement of common sense, and social fairness - when tradesmen who are flat out passing high school have a better standard of living than the best and brightest in society and make ludicrous statements that making half the average weekly Aussie wage in a day "isn't a lot of money", it makes them sounds like spoilt, unappreciative brats as detatched from the rest of us as they are devoid of common sense.

"$500 a day isn't a lot of money" what a load of pus.

Tradies make a lot because they work hard, do dirty work that nobody really respects, and are in the middle of a twice-in-a-century housing boom, and a twice-in-a-century resources boom. There's a saying they have - "make hay while the sun shines", because their work is *very* seasonal.

Pharmacists do mostly retail work, get respect from most people, and have very stable pay. 10 years ago, pharmacists were doing well. Now, they are doing well. In 10 years time, they will also be doing well.

As another guy has already mentioned - they do have some overheads. Tools cost a fair bit, they run their utes, and they might pay for materials.

But mostly, they are doing well these days because it's a great time to be a tradie. In a few years time, that might change.

It's all supply and demand. Trades are volatile jobs, so they get high rewards when it's a good year, and bugger all when it's a bad year.

 

[Nikolina]

Many of them are an complete rip off!! My dad is a plumber by trade but just recently retired and some of the quotes he has seen other plumbers give out he can not even begin to understand how they have amounted to such an ridiculous figure.

 

[Wilko]

Where are you working that pays better? I'm in WA, there are plenty of guys here making that sort of money, and more if you want to work hard, and have highly sought after skills!!!

Yes also very curious, I own a small Cabinet-making bussiness in SE QLD, and I don't make nowhere near that, If I was not investing and doing property projects, on the side, I would be crying myself to sleep every night, I no alot of tradies and they all seem to be poor, Is sad, and they work so hard. Just can't manage to get started I guess.