Trade Banking for Manual Work
As I sit here stressing over my SA, finals and covid, I have slipped back into a fantasy of mine. I don't know whether its because I'm blaring Bruce Springsteen right now or thinking of my fathers stories but I sometimes think about just heading off and doing manual work of some kind. The idea of doing proper, physical work, where you have actual evidence of your labour instead of numbers on a screen just seems like a more fulfilling life. Now I'll never do it because the pay is dreadful and there are obviously benefits to a career in finance too, but basically I am wondering if this is weird at all? Does anyone else feel the same? Some of my best memories are digging ditches and building stuff, just seems strange when you think about it. If the pay wasn't so shit would you switch to manual work?
when you are loaded, buy a small resort/lodge in a place you love (mountains, forests, etc) and run day to day ops
I'd love too, though I also enjoy city life... Plus getting loaded is the hard part
I would love to own a large piece of land in Texas that would allow me to grow my own crops and be self sustainable while reducing my carbon footprint. I think that would take at least 6-7 million plus so I have to work in Finance for at least 15-25 years to be able to afford that.
Make it happen man. Owning your own land would be nice
You sound like you're empty inside. I know plenty of people high up in finance who have hobbies of fishing, hunting, and hiking. Normal people wtih day jobs have hobbies of builidng stuff and craftsmanship. Do you have to be a professional ditch digger to work with your hands? Stop fantasizing and use this time to dig your ditches.
Sounds like you've never actually been in a position where manual work was your job. I don't mean like, you worked on your dad's construction crews for a summer, I mean like if you don't get your ass out of bed and onto the construction site you don't get paid and can't eat.
I used to run union work, those guys get paid extremely well but they have to deal with the worst shit in the world. Working night shift in dead cold, breathing in exhaust cuz it's warmer by the excavator, digging out a ditch cuz if we don't get done by 4 AM we can't do the pour and then everything is all fucked up. You need to take off for 30 minutes to take a shit? Best make sure someone can cover for you otherwise you're gonna get your pay docked. Show up late? Docked. Dr.s appointment? Sorry bud, that's 8 hours off your pay check and now your kid can't get those shoes. Meanwhile, when you are working you are breaking your fucking back just to cut an extra day off schedule and all you get is 2 OT hours in return.
Those guys work really really fucking hard and get beat to the bone. Yes they get paid well, but there is a reason they all want to move to Foreman as soon as possible.
My exact thoughts. I worked in construction (but barley any manual labor) and those guys have it rough. I hated carrying heavy shit around maybe one day a week. I hated waking up at 4:30A daily. It was my least favorite job. And I wasn’t even the one laying rebar in the summer. Lots of respect for those guys who do it day in and day out.
4:30am daily is rough
Oh I’m certainly not trying to paint manual work as an easy job or even something that I would like to do. The situation that some blue collar workers find themselves in today is both precarious and pretty unacceptable imo. I have a lot of respect for the hard work they do. But that is not to say that there isn’t a feeling of fulfilment that comes from this. Like some of the posters below, working with your hands can provide joy not felt when building models or cramming for the CFA.
I currently do construction work while I’m in college and waiting to hear back for my internship. Trust me being up on your feet all day building things is good money since I’m in college but this work long term will kill my body. You may be mentally drained but the hurt from physical Labor day in and day out isn’t something I wish on you.
I love manual labor. It is very fulfilling and typically you have a finished product at the end of the day, or visual progress towards something.
It is very Benedictine to utilize manual labor for the Latin "Ora et Labora," meaning "prayer and work" - typically it is easy to engage in prayer when you're working with your hands. In general service positions that use your mind eliminate the possibility to pray during labor.
I know what you're talking about. I have the same fantasies sometimes- working outside on a nice sunny/cool day breathing fresh air and creating something with people. It's nice when you can do it on your own time with friends...
BUT then I wake up and realize that working like that is extremely difficult, and it's not that picturesque vignette in the blue jeans drinking cold lemonade helping out pop- its waking up every single day to do extremely difficult work for someone else with crude people who dont want to be there. The work literally takes years off of your life and you NEED retirement because its unsustainable. Meanwhile the banker can work when hes 70 years old and still cranking out deals bc its just intellectually demanding.
I think you are romanticizing being in nature which is awesome, when you get some time off, go out and build something, breathe in the fresh air! I know this is what I want at the end of the day.
Manual labor is for peons, peasants, and plebeians. Your SA role must not be prestigious if fantasies of laying brick and repairing septic systems are clouding your mind.
If the pay wasn't so shit would I switch to manual work? Are you chugging estrogen pills and shoving tampons up your ass? No I would not switch to bringing a mayonnaise ham sandwich in a Toy Story lunch pail to work. The United States of America was forged through CapIQ and dming babymakers on LinkedIn, and to question a coveted opportunity in investment banking surpasses Joe Biden levels of dementia.
Marcus Aurelius said "The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature." Do you think joining a union, developing calluses, and drinking bud light is virtuous?
yikes
I happen to like bud light actually, and it lulls me into a false sense of security in keeping my gains
I've done a few different construction jobs (for longer than just "a summer at the uncle's construction business"). There are definitely some brutal jobs, like digging holes in zero degree weather or crawling through 125 degree attics with insulation. Not fun. But those things are the exceptions, not the rule. Overall, I don't think it's quite as bad as some of the posters above are saying. Doing physical work framing a house can feel good. Until your body starts to give out at some point in middle age.
That said, a few issues:
First, the pay typically sucks. Different story if you're in the carpenter's union in NYC, but those jobs aren't just there for the taking. Can also make a lot by running a business, but then you're doing sales and paperwork most of the time, not physical work. Your best bet is to go for the trades that have high barriers to entry because of licensing requirements- typically plumbing and electrical. It takes years to get licensed, but you can make a pretty good living doing your own thing if you do. Apart from those options, you'll probably make peanuts.
Decades ago, America was a country where blue collar work could be a path to the middle class, but that is a lot less true today. If you bid on a job, you may find that your competition is six immigrants who cram into one house, drive to the job in the same van, and work like maniacs because their families are in another country. Try underbidding them and still supporting a middle class lifestyle for a family. You can't do it.
You also may find that you don't have a lot in common with the guys you work with. That can get frustrating or awkward, since you spend a lot of time in close proximity to them. If you're pretty smart, intellectually curious, and went to college or grad school, the types of things you're inclined to talk about won't overlap much with things the other guys on the site are.
I don't want to come off as a pretentious dick about that, and I actually genuinely liked most of the guys I worked with. There are so many characters and crazy personalities in the blue collar world. Remember the hilarious guys in high school who sat in the back row and didn't give a shit about school? They probably do construction now. Likable, but you're not going to have too many deep or interesting conversations with them.
For sure I don’t think I would actually be able to cut it in the world of blue collar work on all sorts of counts, but there are still parts I would enjoy. Like you say, the truly shit jobs can be far between sometimes, but I certainly agree that it’s no way to make a good middle class living now. The only real way is to learn a specialist trade in my mind.
Carpentry is the shit.
Worked in various blue-collar type jobs in my last couple summers of high school and first couple summers of college. I knew I had a white collar type future for the rest of my life, and wanted to get an idea of what that world is like while I still could.
Worked in a few different warehouses . . garden supplies, chemicals, rolled steel. Stocked shelves and moved heavy things around. Great workout. The chemical place fired me for screwing around too much. Had a new job (the garden supply warehouse) the very next day. That was one lesson: in those jobs, they don't care who you are as long as you are able-bodied and willing to work.
Overall it wasn't bad, probably more fun than most office jobs. The guys were always great, easy to make a lot of friends there. But the clock-in, clock-out mentality would be pretty soul-crushing long term I think. Didn't get to me in those short stints but imagine 10 years of taking inventory on steel tubes.
I did stock counting and inventory as part of an audit gig, that was enough to make me suicidal. That's another thought, surely manual work is better than audit because god that was boring... I like the idea of getting an idea of blue collar work, shame there's a virus stopping me finding a short job.
audit is worse than manual labor
This was how i felt after my freshman year at my target school surrounded by a bunch of rich kids. I felt the same way you do, thinking there was was something honorable about a hard days labor
That summer i got a job doing landscaping. It took about 1 week before i realized jsut how awful it was being drenched in sweat by 10am and realIzing you still have 7 hours to go until the day is over. Overall it was a good life experience but i promised myself i would do whatever it took to succeed in a white collar job and i realized jsut how good i had it
Maybe that’s what I need to do, get it out of my system. Who knows if my MM SA gets cancelled and I still graduate my rich kid target school maybe I’ll just go do that for a year.
The camaraderie of hard labor and knowing when you clock out your day is truly over has some value to me. Being a 20-something year old and working (6am - 2pm) while shooting the shit with the boys is a great gig but when its your day to day in your 30s+ I am sure it becomes extremely taxing, An escape to manual labor is definitely something that crosses my mind when I am up late doing less than meaningful work but I have high-hopes that in the long run I am making the right choice.
I've worked the following physical jobs:
And probably a bunch more that I forget right now - these were right before and during undergrad.
Now, trust me when I say that they all sucked. Some were absolutely horrible (longshoreman, roofer, construction helper), while others were just ok (mail sorter, move).
Some observations I made during my stints
Your bosses tend to be workaholics that either get incentivized (by their bosses) on working you to the bone, or they own the place themselves, and live for work - expecting the same of you.
The number ONE sin in these jobs is to not be working. Doesn't mater if you don't have anything to do (maybe you're waiting for a truck that's 30 mins too late, etc.) - you better find something to do. You'll get chewed out, and probably let go if they see you doing nothing too often. When I worked as a roofer, some days I'd walk miles back and forth with trash, just to look like I was doing something productive. The second I stopped, I got a call from my manager that he'd gotten complaints on me not cleaning up in the area.
If they've overstaffed, even by accident, you'll get sent home - no pay (if you're on-call substitute worker).
Working outside sucks about 70% of the time. This obviously depends on where you live - the colder or hotter the climate, the more it sucks.
OT is the norm, and expected. Weekends too. Some of the guys I worked with did so 7 days a week, 12-14 hours - and that's close to minimum wage.
I know a lot of guys have these fantasies of trying these jobs, because it manly and you get to do something physical. Yeah, doing it over a short period of time can probably feel somewhat rewarding and fresh, but soon after you'll find yourself with 70% of the workers that dream of decent indoors jobs.
Don't get me wrong, some people actually love these jobs. They enjoy repetitive tasks, using their bodies, and never taking work with them home - but the harsh reality is that these types of jobs are for those that can't get anything else, or those that desperately need some cash right there and then.
Lol, OP has not even had a slight taste of what it's like to work in manual labour.
No sane person ever wants to do that for a living and, even if you're insane, your body won't keep up with it for long.
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