I think they need to bring back wood shop, welding & Home Economic into our Schools it's a class I had fun in & learned by it at the same time.

I started as an electrical apprentice in 1986 making $6.00 per hour. After four yrs I was making $8.00 per hour. It was then in 1990 that I passed the electrician test and started my business. I literally started with nothing. Now in 2016, I live in a million dollar home thats almost paid off. I own 6 condos in the city of Boston that will fund my retirement. This is the result of busting my ass everyday. Im not the smartest guy im the first to admit. But the trades, did me right. Someone once told me that becoming an electrician wont make me rich but I would never starve. I can say Im happy (most days). I also have a close friend whos my same age. He became a dentist. By all accounts, Ive done better. Not sure why. Could be life habits, who knows. I can tell you that in the trades If you are willing to bust your ass, You will see the payday.

if you're unsure about what you wanna do, learn a trade. I'm an electrician apprentice and in a few years ill have my journeymans. best decision ive made

I am a building superintendent. I hose dog poop off the sidewalk, change lightbulbs, shovel snow, trim hedges, heft trash..and my husband is a merchant seaman. We are a blue collar family. And, I have HUGE respect for Mike Rowe. But I do think we have a 'love-hate- relationship' with tradesmen: electricians, plumbers, garbage men, plasterers,linemen, fry cooks...see, Mike wisely puts it this way: "those are the people who make civilized life possible for the rest of us." Great guy. Ric's and my hero!

I went to trade school to be an x-ray technician, if you can work good with your hands you will honestly be the millionaires of the future! Not many people can do work with their hands anymore, too busy with their dam phones

I worked the trades 24 years and loved it. Loved the the fact that I could make things from scratch. There were up and downs ( cutting trees out of the power lines when work was slow ), but I made it. I left it to go to work for a refinery. It did not like what I did, but I made good money with good benefits ( savings and pension ). Something that is getting hard to find. People today starting out will probably not have the saving and pension benefits jobs to go to. Learning a trade is good. What you learn to make or build, no one can take from you. The thing I would have done different would be to have started saving ( investing ) for retirement at the start. Things are changing every day. Company's are cutting everything they can to make more profit. At the cost of hurting the people that are the life of the company's. Something has to change.........

Mike Rowe is so dead on with his words its incredible. A great guy and one of my new role models

Love this guy. He knows the meaning of hard work. His MikeRoweWorks Foundation is much needed breath of fresh air. I've been something of a Jill-of-all-trades who finally found her niche in finance. The guy has brains, brawn, and just flat out common sense. I work with people who have Masters and Ph.D. degrees and absolutely no common sense. I have a college education and lots of common sense. Thank you, Mike Rowe, for rekindling the wonder of the day-to-day and making me appreciate what I do.

I was told by my parents that I would, in no uncertain terms, get a college education. To not have a college education was seen as being relegated to a life of toil, drudgery and misery. I did as I was told and have spent the last 30 yeas making the OK living of a college grad when I could have been making a great living at any number of professions that I have touched on over my life. I have always felt cheated by the lie that college is the only path to success. I have spent a lifetime trying to spin my education into the dream that was promised and have come up short.

love mike rowe he truly respects the rest of us who put on dirty boots and hard hats daily

MIKE ROWE FOR PRESIDENT!! He gets, he understands the way the real world works, that the working class built this county and that we must look to them to rebuild it, raise it from the ashes!!

If everyone are kings and queens, who will build the castles and produce the food? The robots are coming, but they're not ready quite yet.

Parents are to blame. Most parents I know don't really want their children to do what they really want to do.

Dear Mike, I'm retired, but while I had more than one job, some of those I loved most was when I worked as a carpenter. My favorite moments were when we finished something, stepping back, looking at it and saying to myself "I made that." or "I helped make that." Also, doing the building, was, itself, quite enjoyable (I learned so much).

White and blue collar are indeed two sides of the same coin in engineering. I can't think of a single engineer who doesn't have to roll up their sleeves, get dirty and figure out the guts of the mechanism they're re-designing, be it mechanical, electrical or computer. Likewise, the blue collar jobs require specialty knowledge of systems and specifics that they blow the white collar folk out of the water with knowing how the systems work and what potential they really have.

Man I did A/C 15 yrs., Scaffolding 5 yrs. I know elec., plum., I did freakin’ concrete. Poured the foundation of the 107’ bell tower on The University of Tampa…and I’m a chef. I’m currently living, in my van, doing pool enclosures. I suffer because, I love “all” trades. I often struggle, with the “success” the others have achieved mastering one specific trade. I’m literally ready to learn something new!!!! Sorry so long. Mike Rowe for PRESIDENT!!🎉🎉

God, I wish this man would run for president...but he's too smart to take that job.

I just flat love this guy, how often do you find someone so well spoken, so intuitive, and self deprecating. I know he is far to honest to make it, but this is the type of person we need in politics.

In the Southeast US the problem is low wages, good trademen are walking

I'm a commercialmetal framer by trade. In 2008 the commercial sector dropped off the map due to the economy collapsing. I was out of work and no one was hiring. I had a mortgage to pay and a wife to take care of. I hired on as a day labored for 7 bucks an hour. After a couple months of showing up at the ball every morning I was sent to another construction site to clean up and sweep. After a few days the GC told me he had to let me go but that he got me a job with the carpenters on the site! The owner of the company ended up making me the foreman of his concrete crew. After 3 years of that, I made my way back to metal framing. Now, 11 years later, I am doing well. This trade has saved my life!!!

I like Mike. Very humble when it comes to the pursuit of knowledge.

He truly mean what he says, It really makes more sense. I totally appreciate his way of thinking on how " right career" means. Thanks for this guy.

In Michigan, I worked my ass off to attempt to get skilled trades training and education. Both parents were such in GM and had retired from their. However, after working in automotive suppliers for years and gaining experience in robotics, fabrication, welding and as a machinist. I attended a hiring event for an entry level position at GM to get my foot in the door and hopefully get into an apprenticeship. Well, after arriving three hours early and being one of the first five into the building out of many hundreds of people to do so, I was told by the woman behind the desk once I walked in that, and I quote: “ Sorry, we are not allowed to give applications to you because all these positions are for women and minorities” . Therefore, that the state of our nation! If you are a white male, Good Luck. You are going to need it ! Because, even with my extensive training, experience and education I was not “ Smart” enough for GM!

Your message has really grown, even from this interview only 4 years ago. So proud of you ❤️

I am so thankful for the GATB test in high school that told me I was more suited for trade vocation . I followed that for 50 years and enjoyed it until retirement go trades !!!!

I got laid-off on the Construction Crew, but the 'shoot crew' picked me up on the same job (the foremen in my "craft" heard about it and hired me)- then, as a result, I bumped into the Chief's rigger, and I was asked to be a foreman on a job by a Department Head who stopped talking to me after I worked for him six months before.

I started as a security guard now I am a Maintenance Tech. I just learned as I went..... Hands on training is the best way to go hands down.

This was an amazing interview. Life changing stuff right here.

This was a very good interview and yes skilled tradesmen are needed. I have always enjoyed at the end of the day seeing the pile of parts or what ever I was going at the end of the day.

No job is a bad job. So true! I started at my company as a the person taking parts off the line and into a box, started running the machine (line)... now 5 years later I have became an electrician one of highest paid positions in the company due to my knowhow and can do attitude. My degree is in design, so life took me down a complete different path than I was expecting coming out of school.

I like what this guy says.

Never heard things understood and stated that way…..you know he has a grip on the situation!

Funnily enough I was a welder briefly, but don't have the genes for it as Mike put it. Now I'm teaching myself to code and will get a job doing that.

Ok, that was a good conversation, it helped open my eyes to my own bias.. and i'm a Canadian

his point a bit after the 11min mark about how America loves to divide, Red vs Blue, Left vs Right, RIch v Poor, Blue Collar v White Collar, Black v White, etc etc etc....rings so true. We are all American, beyond that, we are all human, beyond that we are all Earthlings. Division benefits man none.

A beautiful philosophy!

brilliant dude.

Skilled Trades are where the future of good jobs lie. There will always be a need for Welders, Electricians, Plumbers, etc..

Experience is the best teacher. School is a good start.

There is only one explanation to this thing..People are too fucking lazy these days...everyone is just trying to get shit for nothing

I have a handyman business I’ve done for 33 years. I have 1200 regular customers. I have a very hard time finding help or someone who doesn’t do drugs or drink because I work on million dollar plus homes and my customers don’t trust them. There’s tons of work. With these skills anyone is set for life. You have to work.

I flamed him about that add...but this was really really good . I have respect for a guy that really thinks about the criticisms leveled at him , and tries to see it from their point of view . Very honorable. Maybe he could start a show about coaching people that are having a rough time with work ...

"Are You Experienced" - Jimi Hendrix

Most parents don't want their kids to be in skilled trades. It's a "dirty job"

Amen !

Good stuff. However, here in the San Francisco bay area even vocational training is thin. When you can find a school for say plumbing it is impacted so badly you get put on a list and have to wait, or are simply not (picked). My thoughts are for someone young: they have to have someone who can help them understand and I mean really (know) the (why) you want to pursue a specific career and what (their) personality characteristics are. There comes a point in life where it is not acceptable any longer to not know why we do the thing we do. To walk around in a fog of uncertainty and confusion is waisted time, (politely put) that can not be regained.

The editor couldn't fix Camera ones failure to color balance I take it?

I believe most people think they can make a good living only using their mouth, smile, fingertips, and only skill is talking their way through things, but the thing is a lot of people in office workers settings are full of shit. I worked in a professional office setting backed up my bs (polisci) degree, and eventually left due to unhappiness and unfulfillment. I'm a journeyman iron worker/ welder. You can be a welder and not an iron worker, but you can't be a journeyman iron worker and not a welder. There's a job satisfaction with walking out tired, and sweaty, and looking up At your creation from down the street, that filling out forms, talking on the phone, and phone smiling can't provide. I actually have extreme pride and interest in my work, and get paid more than I ever have before, to do what I do.

There's on thing missing, mike needs a beer in front of him.

Blue collar all the way baby. Get a job work hard make something of yourself.

Manufacturing technician here! Best decision I ever made!

The problem with Trade Jobs is the longevity or the life span of a job like a welder, carpenter, etc. With so many risks involved in theses types of jobs such as accidents, loosing fingers, breaking your back, etc people will choose the safe route....for sure

Bravo sir. Fortunately, some people in Canada already know this revelation. I made $250000 last yr as a welder. Any idea what they pay in Alabama lol? That might be the problem.....

I don't think I could have said it better than Mike did

Truer words have not been spoken. How many hundreds of thousands will MR. 1 percent shell out when the power fails or his pluming fails in his home.

And now you see people not going into or leaving trades en masse because the pay for 4-5 years is absolutely garbage while the contractor rakes in money and complains at you to cut corners to make them even more. Every one wants to talk about no one wants to do trades but no one will talk about it being licensed trademens fault

I have the biggest crush on Mike Rowe. ANd i, too, feel wonder when i flush a toilet (having NOT had one indoors til i was 6).

Biggest BS! Skilled HVAC Tech salary 50-100 it takes 10 years $120 per labor hour. Experienced lawyer 100-200 it takes 10 years $600 labor hour. I'm a licensed HVAC contractor and I would never recommend trades to a bright young person ( emphasis on BRIGHT young person) Every contractor I know wants their kids to go to university not BS apprenticeships.

Anyone know where I can meet Mike Rowe, to get a picture with him? Some up coming trade show?

True.

Wish this had 320 Million views

Disconnected...we push the handle and it goes away. In Cambodia I learned what it was to dump my own slop bucket to make it go away. In Russia I flicked the switch and learned the there was no electricity 6 to 10 PM. Etc. My student loan was $700 (I spent on rent.). My college education did not teach me what I needed to know to live. You mentioned welders is Arizona. Arizona once had hundreds of cotton gins. All but a very few are now in China. We send raw cotton to China.

I remember as a child going on a school field trip to the Hershey candy company in Oakdale California, and another to a cargo ship and a 3rd to a coast guard cutter. All showing real people doing real jobs. Now its Disneyland or such nonsense. I would not want my child to go to a modern college even if it was Free considering the crap they are teaching.

Not all blue collar jobs are 'dirty'. I was an electro-mechanical automation tech at Intel for twenty years. Now Im an independent truck driver making no less than at Intel, but with greater financial security, great views (road trip scouting) no breakrooms with chili spewed microwave ovens and a clock breathing down my neck.

They title is clickbaity and controversial. He is still ever as passionate about skilled work.

Being a mechanic by trade will never get you rich unless you open your own business.

Went to community college hated it 2yrs in thought my buddy doing plumbing came home nasty but had more dough than i had ask him for a job 12 yrs ago i made almost 100000$ last year think god he gave me that job i work hard but i live for it i dont mind it i could go to mexico and make money lol

Secretary of Labor.

Years later i want both, trade education and humanities eduction to be valued. Why cant plumbers also be medieval scholars. It would fucking awesome if superintendents had backgrounds in art history or psychology. Let’s value all the good teachers and good books. No learning is bad or a waste maybe it all doesn’t lead to profit but better people.

It's funny that companies will pay millions for multiple CEOs, but Lord forbid they pay well for a skilled trades person.

There would be more people getting into welding if it paid better

There's no shortage of welders in Southern California or else they would be paid like there's a shortage.

shoot get me one of them exo suits and i'll be out there doing some manual labor.

I'm a 40 year old electrician,contractors are cheapskates, I'm gonna call it quits. Fuck construction.

There are some bad jobs if you value your health. There's plenty unnecessary jobs too. And then there's of course no shortage of crappy employers. These are not the jobs Mike Rowe is talking about though.

In america most jobs are bad jobs, because most jobs don’t pay a living wage. Almost nowhere can a man get a job and afford to buy a home, 2 cars, and raise a family with a significant other that can stay home to raise kids. When you can’t make a living wage either way, why would anyone choose to do awful, back-breaking work that starts laughably early in the morning if you are going to be poor anyways? It’s common sense.

What would our hygiene be like if we didn’t have plumbers?

If you are willing and able to live on $10 to $20 an hour yes there is a huge demand out there. You want to make $40 to $60 an hour? not so fast.

starting at the bottom is logical and honorable but be consistent

"$270 a semester" LMAO fuck.

Better have your crap together when you go against the master. Good day

I'm in college for welding. Its bad ass.

I wonder were mike rowe stands on trade unions!

Be a framer fun and once you journey out you can make 40$ plus an hour

Mike needs a new job! Vote Mike Rowe for President of the United States of America 2016.

I hate how Rowe says ‘the handy gene skipped him’. There is no such thing as a handy gene. You become good at the trades by constantly busting your ass off.

Shortage of blue collar is due to “right to work laws” and oppressed wages.

... if that was such an honorable job ... why did U NOT stay there ?

The cameraman should be fired.

Anyone can work a bad job....for 3 months.

Check out beauty changes lives

X

When an employer places an advert in the newspaper, job centre and online etc. looking for electricians, urgently required. But, can't get anyone to take the job except really bad quality people and absolute chancers, then it is said that there is a shortage of skilled tradesmen. What is not mentioned is that the employer is offering to pay far less than the prevailing wage for the area and no benefits. This "shortage of skilled tradesmen" really means that there is a shortage of skilled tradesmen who are willing to work for sub standard wages and sub standard conditions. Not a shortage of skilled tradesmen at all.This eventually leads to the immigration laws being relaxed so people can be allowed to come in to fill these open positions. To add further insult to injury the employer starts to describe how wonderful hard working people these guys are, far better than the lazy Americans who used to do the work. This is happening all over the world, so next time you hear the phrase "shortage of X, Y or Z type of workers" you know what is mean by it. Also Pure disrespect for all of the legitimate tradesmen. Roping them all together saying his Grandaddy was a Master (No less) electrician, plumber, steam fitter, carpenter and a few more. In the real world, each of these trades have a 5 year apprenticeship. Some have a 4 year apprenticeship. If you have heard the expression "Jack of all trades, master of none" then I suspect his GP was like this.He shows his true lack of knowledge of the construction industry. I suspect he has a real wardrobe anxiety every day over the button down shirt and khakis that are hanging there beside his beat up jeans, t-shirt and ball cap.

8th

I just can't help but laugh at the irony. Mike Row has never been a tradesmen, but insisted that you should be one for virtue and not pay, but he's the millionaire philanthropic famous guy who was "just not blessed with knowing how to fix shit"... whatever, trades don't pay and housing cost serious money, be smart work with your head and not your hands.

Young numbskulls these days will severely hurt themselves with a plastic spork in their school cafeterias, not sure it is safe to bring the basic trade learning in school.

An opera singer and somone who gets paid big dollars being on TV trying to sell you on shitty paying jobs.

Terrible interviewer

Most parents don't want their kids to be in skilled trades. It's a "dirty job"

Disconnected...we push the handle and it goes away. In Cambodia I learned what it was to dump my own slop bucket to make it go away. In Russia I flicked the switch and learned the there was no electricity 6 to 10 PM. Etc. My student loan was $700 (I spent on rent.). My college education did not teach me what I needed to know to live. You mentioned welders is Arizona. Arizona once had hundreds of cotton gins. All but a very few are now in China. We send raw cotton to China.