3x12 hrs on 4x days off, or 6 on/8 off, TC pushes into mid/high 100's a few years in, often a union job, hands on outcomes, adrenaline if you want it, AI-protected enough (see: often a union job).

Lot of nurse converts soon I think.

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petcat 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

You have to actually like the work though. It's one thing just to recognize that it's a good career with a lot of security and good pay. But if you don't actually like the work, i.e taking care of people when they're at their worst, then you are going to be 100% miserable within 5 years and looking for another career change.

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bryanlarsen 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The local hospital had 2 nurses who committed suicide during COVID. Nursing attracts high compassion individuals and then overworks them so that they cannot provide a proper level level of care. Add the stress of a demanding physical job and the stress of shift work and you end up with one of the professions with the highest female suicide rates.

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7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

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testerteert000a 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

After decades of clicking on different spots on screens and keyboards, the real stress in exchange for that, and now your peers in AI companies have found a way to unemploy you - there's a lot to like with hands on care that does something tangible that tech rarely does.

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petcat 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Well don't give up your career just yet unless you absolutely love the role of nursing. I'm sure you're thinking the grass is greener right now, but there's a reason why there is a chronic nursing shortage.... It can be a miserable job.

	▲	testerteert000a 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Agreed! Stress in exchange for daily care outcomes I know I did and blood-and-guts adrenaline work has longed ticked the boxes. Tech used to tick the other boxes that I don't care much about anymore especially post AI.

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orwin 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

People you tend to for months or years dying on you gets old really fast though. In my family, the 5 doctors are still working (or kept working until retirement), of the 8 PT, only one isn't working as a PT, but of the 4 nurses only one is still working (she's getting a psych speciality), the other all went another way. Granted, we're not in the US where the nurses are paid more, but the reason to stop wasn't the pay but the moral toll.

	▲	testerteert000a 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Agreed, it's a hard job. I think what is most relevant to me these days: - When I explain to my family, peers, and the endstate about what I did with my time during working years, I'd like to be able to answer it in a certain way. I stopped being able to answer it in that way by staying in tech, I realized. - Things over the "months to years" cycle look bad-bad. Shorthand described as I lived through 2008, AI on a timeline looks a heck of a lot like that, and I'd take a morale toll if that's the only toll I end up paying from 2026-2035.

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tracker1 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It definitely takes a certain personality type to be good at it. Empathy, discipline, self-control and infectiously friendly.

On the plus side, men do have an advantage regarding size/strength in terms of being able to help disabled people move. I think this is probably part of why a lot of men become EMTs (similar field/training).

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BeetleB 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> TC pushes into mid/high 100's a few years in

Maybe in California. I don't think that's the case in most states, unless you're doing a ton of overtime. I know someone who makes $130K/year in my state, which is amongst the top paying states. Has over a decade of experience.

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testerteert000a 7 hours ago | parent [-]

I suggest you look at where nurses unions are nationwide, and their collective bargaining agreements! Nurse unions aren't just in blue states named California.

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BeetleB 7 hours ago | parent [-]

The $130K person is covered by a union.

	▲	testerteert000a 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Excluding a NP path ($200k+ within a decade of RN licensure if you want it), and factoring in shortages - RN as a team lead makes ~$130k w/ ~4-5 yrs per the CBA I know of. That's without overtime or nights, without a new CBA factoring in the 2020's inflation and shortages after COVID era departures. NP further swings the math, to include the tuition costs baked in from a cheap in-state school, employer tuition support, and specializing in demand areas like psych.

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yoyohello13 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I’m actually taking prerequisites at a local cc to start an accelerated BS in nursing. Feels like one of the few jobs that’s still going to be in demand.

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tracker1 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

There's also plumbing, a/c and electrical work... general repairman stuff, etc. Assuming you're okay working hands on and potentially in more stressful environments (weather).

I'm largely with Mike Rowe on this one... it's been a shame the level that people have not been directed into more vocational fields and the level of skilled labor shortages as a result. Higher education has largely been self-serving, not community serving.

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bbradley406 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Unless there is an actual effort to pay people well for this work, the shortage is a myth and you are spreading a false belief. Mike Rowe is the last person you should be listening to about hard work and trade jobs. He's correct about people getting pushed into college, but he is wrong for trying to make trade work glamorous and manly on TV.

I'm in a skilled trade and see lots of dudes getting their bodies shredded (with no insurance) for $40k a year (in HCOL). Why do that when pushing paperwork or bartending gets you the same money? Yes there certainly are outstanding individuals that can run their own small company and do well, but they probably could do just as well in another field anyway.

As long as the pay stays the same, companies are just gonna gouge harder. You'll be forced to buy worse work for more money since they can't keep good employees on. If you want to actually fix things talk to your GC's and subs heart to heart about paying their guys better

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tracker1 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Then become a bartender if that's what you want. I know several plumbers, electricians, welders, etc. that make six figures.

	▲	bbradley406 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It's not what I want. I like my trade and with a few more years, some effort and luck I'll be getting there to six as well. My point is that for every 1 successful electrician and 1 plumber on a job, there's a handful of guys at the concrete plant. There's 3-5 guys on the roof laying shingle and getting cooked in the sun. There's usually a team of 3-5 guys hanging sheet-rock. A lot of trade work absolutely does suck for the money that's offered. In some situations the money is really good, but the work is even more extreme (oil rigs, heli work, crane ops, etc) If the plan is "be smart, learn, get skilled and successful" and it works, I am sincerely happy for those guys. I know more of the guys it didn't work for though, there's a lot of them.

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kishkash 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> There's also plumbing, a/c and electrical work... general repairman stuff, etc.

I’d avoid the latter. The last time the maintenance guy was down at my slum, he was talking about how bad his section 8 housing was.

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testerteert000a 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

me and you both! i had a big tech job, made enough/seen enough to read the writing on the wall and plus having a way to exit, off to RN before others do.

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Xeronate 8 hours ago | parent [-]

also ex big tech taking prereqs in prep for accelerated 12 month BSN at st marys. time to oversaturate again!

i guess inevitable at the end of the day when everyone just wants a high paying stable job they can build a life off.

	▲	testerteert000a 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Being the early saturator is the best I could come up with

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kishkash 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[dead]

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dominotw 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

and you can specialize and keep improving in your path, its not a deadend like lot of ppl belive.