Careers
Find yourself. Or at least find a job.
Installation and Repair Careers
It takes a pretty brilliant mind to engineer a complicated piece of equipment. To figure out how to craft the perfect automobile, or computer, or industrial machine. To build, to invent, to create.
That brilliant mind…isn’t yours.
But just because you’re not the guy or gal putting together an airplane in the first place doesn’t mean your mind isn’t brilliant in its own right. You’re the one who steps in after a building’s wiring has blown a fuse, or when the phone lines go down. You might be called on to install an air conditioning system, or get someone’s internet up and running. You’re not the builder, but you’re definitely a mover and a shaker.
Because while your cousin in Death Valley may be able to get along without such highly paid professionals as doctors and lawyers for a while, let’s see him last two days without a working AC unit.
Careers in the fields of installation, maintenance and repair exist somewhere in the foggy gray area between skilled labor and engineering. It’s hands-on stuff, so you need to, well…have hands, for starters. You may be lifting heavy objects, or working with highly charged cables, or climbing telephone poles to dizzying heights. But at the same time, you have to have a brain in your head, and a sizeable one at that. Depending on your particular line of work, you may need to have an intimate understanding of some complex engineering concepts, and at the very least you’ll need to receive extensive training in your chosen field. A shame you can’t just install a brain that comes pre-loaded with all necessary information. It would be so much easier.
Since your job falls between manual labor and the application of advanced sciences…your pay will likely reflect it. Most installation and repair technicians make good but not great money. For a path that requires not much more than a high school diploma (or equivalent), like automotive repair, you’ll probably take in $35k-$40k annually. If you do some hard time in college and wind up working with telecommunications cables, or repairing ATM’s, or installing HVAC (heating, ventilation and cooling) equipment, you’ll make $50k plus. But, as in just about any industry, the serious green goes to the guy who owns the AC company, rather than the minions who are sent out to do their bidding.
Of course, that guy probably got a business degree. You might want to nab yourself one of those things. Because the ultimate goal is always to be the man and not work for him. You want to be able to take advantage of the shlubs toiling away to make your business a success—folks who will have to kiss your patootie if they want to hang onto the modest salary they do earn.
So yeah…you’re not going to save any lives by restoring someone’s Wi-Fi connection. It may not be the most fulfilling type of work in that respect, but what you do keeps things the world running, and running smoothly.
Although…we’ve seen how angry some people can get when their Wi-Fi is down. Maybe you are saving lives…