College vs The Trades Isn’t The Argument

The real question is which path is right for you!

Frequently I hear students being told, “Everybody should go to college” or “college is a bad choice, learn a trade”. It is presented to young people as if there is a single right answer. The real answer is that both are strong choices for increasing a person’s earnings over their life.

College does increase a person’s lifetime earning potential.

Learning a trade can do the same.

Here are the questions I think a young person should be asking themselves - which will help them decide which is right for them…

Question 1: How did school go for you?

I am not asking if you liked school, I am asking:

• Did you pass your classes when you tried? Or, did you try and struggle to pass?
• Do reading and writing feel like tools that you use well, or do you struggle with them?
• Was there a subject - any subject - where things just clicked for you?

These questions aren’t about intelligence. Intelligence comes in many forms and different intelligences develop at different times in every individual. This is about how you best learn and fit. If you can say you really worked hard in high school and didn’t do as well as your effort should have allowed you to - you might not be best served right away by another two to four years of that.

If you didn’t do well, honestly reflect on why. If you didn’t do well because you were bored or is it because you didn’t engage with your classes. These are totally different. Think about why that was what you did.

Question 2: When you think about what a good day at work would be, what are you doing?

• Are you moving around or sitting?
• Are you indoors or outdoors?
  
• Are you working with your hands?
  
• Are you working alone or with others?
  
• Are you fixing something physical or are you working out a problem on paper or a computer?
• Are you explaining something to someone or are you the one figuring it out yourself?

Career satisfaction is a legitimate input. A miserable high earner is not a success story. I want all my students to be happy. Someone doing work they find meaningful at $60,000 is often in better shape across a lifetime than someone grinding through work they hate at $90,000. When people say that money cannot buy happiness, this is what they mean.

Question 3: What is your situation right now?

• Do you have family support or are you on your own?
• Do you have dependents?
  
• Is debt a real risk for you, or a manageable one?
  
• Do you have family obligations that might prevent you from relocating?
• Would leaving our community mean that you are leaving your identity or culture?

If you must be self-supporting or supporting a family right away, the trades can provide a faster path to income. At this time in your life, you might be best served by making sure your needs are taken care of.

If you have family support, perhaps you can live at home while going to school, the time to higher earnings might be less of a consideration. At that point, it may be more about which path you prefer.

You might also need to think about what you decide to do if being with people you identify with, or the place you live is critical to who you are. The reality is that every job isn’t available everywhere. If relocating isn’t something that you can do now, then it might be best to see what your best options are in our community.

Question 4: How is your body, and how do you expect it to hold up?

• Do you have any existing injuries, chronic conditions, or physical limitations?
• Do you enjoy physical work?
• Can you picture yourself doing heavy physical work at age 50? Do you know anyone who is doing that?

The trades that pay the most are often those that are the hardest on your body. If you are considering a trade think honestly about what you can physically do now - and what it might cost over a career. An HVAC technician’s body at 55 looks different from a roofer’s body at 55.

Question 5: Is there anything that you find yourself drawn to, especially when no one is making you do it?

• “I’ve always been interested in electrical stuff - and I tinker with it every chance I get.”
• “I honestly am fascinated with how the human body works.”
• “I know everything there is to know about owls!”
  
• “I am constantly thinking of ideas for businesses.”
• “Nothing makes me happier than looking at something I have built with my hands and seeing it be used.”

If you are even somewhat interested in your work, you likely will outperform people who are indifferent to it, regardless of measured ability. If there is a genuine pull in any direction, follow it because it will sustain your effort when things get hard.

If the honest answer is “nothing pulls me anywhere,” that is important to know too. It means you should not be making a multi-year commitment to anything expensive right now. Not a college degree or a trade.

Question 6: If money were not a factor at all, if every choice would lead to a job that paid the same, what would you do?

Sometimes a student thinks that they should choose a particular path simply because it is the best paying path they see. They fear that the thing that they actually would like to do is not going to be as lucrative. Sometimes I learn they have been talked out of something they believe they would really enjoy.

I would tell you to investigate the career path that you would follow - all other things being equal. Learn if the or goal is viable, or if it is not yourself. Find out what the costs both in time and money are in working towards that path. With this you can make an informed decision.

Alright, I answered these questions - now what?

OK, so if you are “place bound” in a job market that is dominated by trades, the question might not be “college or a trade” it is “which trade”. More fully, what you need to investigate is “how do I build a full career in that trade here?”. Research the training pathway you will need. Find out what a journeyman earns in this market. What is the path for advancement? Think about the impacts of boom/bust cycles. What skills can you add that will make you more resilient? If apprenticeships are not readily available, where can you get the training you need? Community colleges frequently have programs that are low in cost and short in time to get you into the workforce.

Are there college-track jobs for people who are “place bound”? Yes, in almost every community there are needs in healthcare. Hospitals and clinics hire nurses, radiologic technologists, respiratory therapists, medical laboratory technicians, and healthcare administrators, and these jobs are local, stable, and recession-resistant. Education is another area that is always needed. Identify the specific local employers, the specific roles they hire for, and the specific credentials those roles require. Some of these may require licensure and/or criminal background and credit checks. Many of these are pathways that you can start, if not complete, at a local community college. Make sure you are completing a degree that is needed by a local employer. Once there, always be looking for opportunities to improve your skill set and make yourself more valuable.

If you have geographic mobility, school went well for you, and you have identified a particular subject area you are interested in your choices become larger. You should still be looking at: What are the employment opportunities related to this subject area? What majors and degrees are required for these jobs? What are the costs of the programs you are considering? Do you know someone that is doing this work? What guidance can they give you?

Much of this holds true if you have geographic mobility and are interested in a trade. If you have an interest that isn’t available locally, you can go to where that work is in demand. You still need to consider what specialized training or apprenticeship programs might be required? Where those programs are available? Pathways towards certifications or licensure in different states may be different than local requirements.

What if you can’t go anywhere, and you don’t feel drawn to a particular path. Should you give up? NO!

Take the first job you can find. It doesn’t matter what it is. Save your money. See what people that you interact with are doing for work, how they feel about it. Give yourself time to see what you like about your work and what you don’t like. Let this help give you the experience you need to help you with this process. It is information-gathering with a paycheck. It is fine to try a few jobs, paying attention to what you like and don’t like, what those you work around and for think about their work. This should help you get a feel for what you might want to do - and a lot of skills that will help you if you decide to go to a trade school or college later on.

My experience is that students that return to school after some time in the workforce outperform every other student I have had. They know what they want to do and are willing to do what it takes to get there. What do they gain from this experience? - What it feels like to be accountable to someone other than a teacher. - What kinds of work environments suit you and which ones don’t. - What the people around you do, how they got there, and whether you want what they have. - How money actually works when you earn it and spend it yourself. - Whether the thing you thought you wanted looks the same up close.

A student who spends a year working in a hospital as a CNA, an orderly, or a dietary aide learns more about whether healthcare is actually for them than any career assessment ever devised. A student who works a summer on a construction crew knows whether they can tolerate that environment. A student who takes a retail or service job and watches the managers learns something about whether organizational work appeals to them.

The worst thing that happens to genuinely undecided students is that the adults around them treat indecision as a problem to be solved immediately, usually by picking something, anything, so the student appears to have “a plan”. That student then spends two years and significant money on a path they chose under social pressure, drops out or graduates without direction, and ends up exactly where they started except now with debt.

If you think that you might, someday, want to come back to school…

Don’t get out of the habits of being a student. Take one class. One. Not a full load. Not a commitment to a program. One class in something that created even a flicker of interest, or one class in something purely practical that opens a door.

At a community college, the cost of one class is low enough that it is not a significant financial risk. And one class, taken seriously, either confirms an interest or eliminates it. Either outcome is valuable.

Use your community college the way it was designed to be used. This is something most students don’t know: community colleges exist precisely for this situation. It is the lowest-cost, lowest-commitment place to explore before making an expensive decision. One or two semesters of general coursework: a science, a writing class, a social science, something hands-on in the trades will cost a fraction of what a university would cost. And, these courses almost always transfer to a university if that turns out to be the right path for you.

Talk to people who are actually doing the work. Not career counselors. Not YouTube. Not Reddit. Actual humans in actual jobs, ideally someone you can observe at work rather than just interview. Most people, if asked genuinely, will tell a curious young person the truth about their work: what they like, what they don’t, what they wish they had known. Informational conversations with two or three people in fields that seem interesting are invaluable.

Give yourself a deadline: you have one year (or two). Work, take a class or two, pay attention to what you find yourself drawn to. At the end of that time, you make a decision. It does not need to be the perfect decision, just a decision. And, it is not a decision that you cannot revisit in the future. You will have more information then than you do now, and you will be making a better choice. A year (or two) of genuine exploration with a deadline is productive. An indefinite deferral with no structure becomes its own trap.

What about the advice of, “Join the <armed forces branch>, see the world!”

Join the military is advice that is often given to undecided and under-resourced students. The military is a legitimate path. It is also one that is systematically oversold to students who have the fewest other options, by people who have the least personal stake in the outcome.

The military does offer real financial stability, immediately. Housing, food, healthcare, and a paycheck from day one. For a student who is genuinely struggling financially and has no immediate local options, this is an important option.

The military trains people in real and frequently (but not always) transferrable skills: healthcare, electronics, logistics, aviation mechanics, cybersecurity, nuclear technology, law enforcement. Some of those credentials translate directly to civilian employment. Some less so.

If you genuinely lack direction and self-discipline, external structure can be exactly what you might benefit from to develop both. The military provides that structure in a way that a year of drifting does not.

Access to education funding after service is real and meaningful. If you cannot currently afford college and you have no clear inclination towards a particular career, the military-then-college path has produced genuinely good outcomes for many people.

The military offers geographic mobility, exposure to a wider world, and a structured exit from circumstances that might otherwise be very difficult to leave.

What the recruiter (too often) won’t tell you. You are signing a contract, not taking a job. A civilian job you can quit. A military enlistment you cannot. The standard commitment is four years of active duty, often with additional reserve obligations. If you discover at month six that this was a catastrophic mistake, you (most likely) cannot leave. That is a fundamentally different risk profile than any other option being discussed.

The training you get is not guaranteed. Recruiters will discuss jobs and training as if you get to choose. The reality is more complicated. The military’s needs and your test scores determine assignment, and the gap between “what the recruiter implied” and “what the contract says” is a well-documented source of grief. READ the contract, and UNDERSTAND exactly what is and is not guaranteed in writing, and ideally have someone other than the recruiter explain it to you.

Combat and deployment are real. This sounds obvious, but it is not always foregrounded honestly with people who are being recruited primarily on the financial and training benefits. The probability and nature of deployment depend on branch, job, timing, and geopolitics, none of which you will control. Someone who enlists during a quiet period may serve during a very different one.

The physical and psychological costs are real and underacknowledged. Veterans’ rates of chronic pain, traumatic brain injury, PTSD, and suicide are significantly elevated compared to the general population. This is not a reason to never enlist. It is a reason to go in with honest expectations rather than a recruiter’s brochure.

The transition back to civilian life is harder than it looks. The military creates strong identity, strong community, and strong structure. Leaving it, even after a successful and positive enlistment, is a genuine adjustment that many veterans find harder than expected.

The civilian labor market does not always value military experience the way it should, credential translation is inconsistent, and the cultural shift is real.

Given all of that, when does the honest answer become “yes, the military is worth serious consideration for you specifically?”

When you have genuine interest in military service itself — not just the benefits. The work, the mission, the identity.

If your financial situation is genuinely dire and the immediate stabilization the military provides is the primary need.

When you have identified a specific military job that leads directly to a credential with strong civilian translation: nuclear training, aviation mechanics, certain healthcare roles, certain cybersecurity roles AND that job is available and in the contract.

If you have the temperament for the environment. The military is not for everyone, and if you struggle with authority, rigid structure, or separation from family, you will not thrive there regardless of the financial upside.

Have you talked to any veterans about what their service was actually like — not the highlights, the whole thing? If the answer is no, that conversation needs to happen before you sign anything, to help make sure you are making an informed choice rather than responding to a well-resourced marketing operation that is specifically designed to reach undecided young people with limited options.

So… If I start in the trades, does that mean I can never go to college? What if I finish a college degree and decide that I want to build houses for a living?

You can certainly start as a welder, and at 30, or 40, or even 70 come back to college at any time. Maybe you finish a PhD in biology and decide you really want to be a nurse. This isn’t about choosing one forever path. Life requires that you start somewhere. Embrace those first steps!