Blue Collar and Proud of It: The All-In-One Resource for Finding Freedom, Financial Success, and Security Outside the Cubicle by Joe Lamacchia, Bridget Samburg Read Free Book Online Page B

But before we get there, this next section is meant to help you identify your own traits or characteristics, likes or dislikes, that may be either well matched with certain jobs or surefire signs to stay away from others.
    While reading through the next few pages, I recommend that you get out some paper and a pen. Write down what you like to do. What puts you in a goodmood? What are you willing to work hard at doing? What are you good at doing? What is your strongest skill? These are questions that may help you start to formulate the preferences you have about jobs. Did you have a summer job that you hated? Why? What was it that didn’t work for you? Maybe you are working part time, on the weekends right now, and really enjoying the work. Jot down what it is exactly that you like. The people? The money? The job sites? The skills you need to do the work? What appeals to youmay not appeal to someone else, and what I like to do may be the last thing you’d enjoy doing for a job.
    Here are some questions to get you thinking:
Do you like to be outside?
Yes
No
Do you mind getting dirty?
Yes
No
Do you enjoy interacting with people?
Yes
No
Are you creative?
Yes
No
Do you get seasick?
Yes
No
Do you prefer to follow plans and instructions, or do you prefer to work more freely?
Yes
No
Are you willing to move to a different part of the country?
Yes
No
Do you mind seasonal climate changes?
Yes
No
Do you prefer to work with machines rather than in the dirt or do you enjoy getting your hands dirty?
Yes
No
Are heavy machines something you’d enjoy using?
 
 
Do you prefer to use your hands and muscles rather than rely on machines?
Yes
No
Do you prefer a combination of machine-assisted and manual work?
Yes
No
Do you have a fear of heights?YesNo
 
 
Do very high temperatures make you nervous?
Yes
No
Do you enjoy using tools?
Yes
No
Do you like to work alone as opposed to being on a team?
Yes
No
Do you mind being away from home for long periods of time?
Yes
No
Do you have to actually be active, as opposed to sitting long periods of time, behind the wheel of a truck, perhaps?
Yes
No
Do you have any physical limitations?
Yes
No
    Some of these questions might sound strange to you, but there is a reason for my asking each one. It’s really important that you plan and think ahead. You can’t just decide you want to be a fisherman if you’ve never been on a boat or if you get seasick each time you go out. If you hate heights, youmay notmake the best painter and certainly you’d have to rethink welding on skyscrapers, but that doesn’t mean you’d have to forgo welding altogether. If you don’t like to be dirty and you don’tmind being away fromhome for long stretches, truck driving could be a great thing for you. If you love math and are anal about measurements and enjoy working with your hands, carpentry could be a possibility for you. Do you love doing physical work? There is plenty of it out there, including logging, construction, and landscaping.Do you prefer to work alone or with a few people in a quieter environment and you love tinkering with wires? Ever thought about being a residential electrician? Do you see why I’m asking you all of these questions?
    If you know that you’d hate being behind a desk every day, all day, and if you know that you’d like to be outside working or have a job that requires being physical, you’ve come to the right place. Do you like to get your hands into something? Do you enjoy the feeling of gripping tools and using them to make things? Just the way some people get a high from running (I don’t), others get a high from working outside and sweating as part of their job (I do).
    And while it is important to plan and it is important to give all that you’ve got to whatever you choose to do, you don’t have to commit to it for life. If you think you want to be a mason now, it’s okay if you end up deciding it’s not for you at some point down the road. Many of these jobs have overlapping