For years, secondary education has touted the four-year degree track above all. To look elsewhere was to be looked down on. Carl Murawski witnessed this firsthand coming out of high school in the early 2000s, but today — a trade veteran — he believes that that outlook is changing.
Today, Murawski is an experienced electrician, mechanic, tow truck driver and YouTube creator sharing advice for people in the trades. But he first moved into the trades from a “lack of options,” he told Broadband Nation. “I got accepted to the college I wanted to go to, but it just wasn't financially in the cards.”
It continues to be a commonly dealt hand. College tuition has increased over 36% since 2010, while enrollment has declined. But perceived value of the de-fact four-year degree has not kept pace in the public eye. One Pew Research Center study found nearly half of people in the U.S. believe college is less important today than it was twenty years ago (when Murawski was graduating) for landing a well-paying job.
Students grow “tired of spending hundreds and thousands of dollars on a degree that, by the time they end up really making money, it's going to be a few years down the line,” said Murawski.
The way Murawski sees it, the trade industries are an even better option now than when he first started.
"It's a better choice now than even it wasn't back then,” he argued. “There's a lot of people who are coming in from office work, who are either looking for a change, or their job got outsourced, or they're kind of worrying about AI taking over. So, I think it's a more attractive option now. Back then, it was still sort of seen as: well, you failed at everything else."
The emerging alternative: earn while you learn — a common recruitment slogan among the trades. They present quicker routes to income (without excess debt), and they also seem to be well positioned for a future stamped by immense disruption.
Another Pew study found that while AI experts maintained a positive outlook on the technology’s impact, 64% of the public believed AI would lead to fewer jobs over the next 20 years.
Tradesfolk, in contrast, report a higher confidence in their vocational place in the future — Murawski among them. “We're gonna have more work than we've probably ever had before,” he reckoned. “This new push with AI and more technology that we have... like electric vehicles will depend on there being more data centers, more infrastructure."
These long looked over career paths, as Murawski has evidenced in building a multi-decade career around, may be turned to now more than ever. But during a critical labor crisis, he also sees “a lot of downsides that nobody seems to want to mention.”
Stigmas, safety and stress: What to look out for
Trade industries struggle to attract new people that have traditionally been taught to regard it as a last resort. And in the larger effort to address their shortages, Murawski has observed a wash of recruitment gloss that — while acknowledging the physicality of the work — doesn’t dive into the realities very deeply.
People in the trades report exceptionally high job satisfaction — a notable 90% in one study. Many tradesfolk will note the fulfillment that comes from such exhausting but practically meaningful work, but that’s not always how the world treats you, Murawski explained.
“You really do get treated like a second-class citizen,” he said. “You go, ‘Wait a minute, I’m building out this oncology suite and you're not letting me use the bathrooms or order something from the Dunkin' Donuts that's in your lobby?”
As industries and education systems look to solve these skilled labor shortages, and more young jobseekers see the value of the trades, Murawski holds hope for these stigmas to fade. But it remains an issue today — one he believes newcomers deserve to be aware of going in.
And while it's well understood that trades are often physically demanding, Murawski stressed the importance of contextualizing that reality with longevity and safety in mind.
“If you're working with your hands, then you're relying on your body to work as well as it is now at 25... when you're in your 50s,” he said — an unlikely reality. While some will settle in and stick to the field, moving into management and operational roles often becomes the more sustainable way to grow and move up.
Safety comes down to proper training, strong oversight and accountability, which makes deciding where to work all that much more important. And looking at various employers prompts an important choice — working for a union or open shop. There are pros and cons to each, according to Murawski.
“If I were to start all over again, I would have gone right to a union shop,” he reflected. “Unless you are savvy enough to begin your own IRA, means of retirement savings and maybe even your own HSA. You just get those things taken care of in a union shop that you don't with an open shop.”
Murawski has dealt with non-union employers promising the benefits of a local union shop, but rarely did they ever fully deliver on them, he reflected.
“With a good local you’ll get that. It comes with its own challenges,” noted Murawski, such as restrictions around soliciting additional contracts when work is slow, “but your pay is usually higher” in working with a union shop. “With the retirement benefits and health insurance and all that stuff, it's really enticing,” he said. “And it's a much better deal if you can keep working.”
With so many new (and young) people looking more seriously at the trades, Murawski simply wants to help them avoid learning too many things “the hard way,” as he did. “At least they know what to look out for.”
Listen to Carl's take on the good, the bad and the ugly:
Interested in exploring job opportunities within the industry? Check out Broadband Nation's jobs board, training portal and Learning Center.