Are there no hands-on technical jobs that pay decently?

I can't seem to find anything that would match what I want in a job... I like techincal stuff, but I love working with my hands, and I'm really just wondering what I'm supposed to do. I hate being stuck behind a desk all day. I'd much rather be driving out somewhere and installing or repairing something... but I also like the pay that my desk job brings. :-\ Idk what to do...

Any ideas?

Thanks guys, this forum is the best.

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msteinhilber

Ericthemaster86 wrote: »

Generally speaking I would agree. However, specialized cabling (fiber optic), etc, can make pretty great money. The company that does our fiber work charges in the neighborhood of $250/hr. I'm sure the tech makes a decent percentage of that

You can make very good money, if you own your own cabling company. The employees of said companies don't generally make very much. Tech's that terminate fiber do earn more, but the wages they earn have been on the decline as new technology makes splices and terminations easier and requiring less skill as time moves on.

veritas_libertas

This actually is an interesting thread. I was under the impression that cabling technician were still doing well.

human151

Ericthemaster86 wrote: »

Generally speaking I would agree. However, specialized cabling (fiber optic), etc, can make pretty great money. The company that does our fiber work charges in the neighborhood of $250/hr. I'm sure the tech makes a decent percentage of that

I would imagine those high paid people who specialize in fiber cabling are splicers. They use specialised tools called fusion splicers. But I would not say they are cablers.

UnixGuy

Ericthemaster86 wrote: »

Generally speaking I would agree. However, specialized cabling (fiber optic), etc, can make pretty great money. The company that does our fiber work charges in the neighborhood of $250/hr. I'm sure the tech makes a decent percentage of that

See, here you hit the core of the problem !

Companies will charge hell lot of money, but will always under pay technician, specially when there is abundance of people who can do this job. Cabling skills can be earned easily. It's a tedious job, but doesn't need much skill that's the problem.

I have never seen any cabling company pay much money to any cabling technician yet. I'd love to see companies pay people more, but I've yet to see it happen.

UnixGuy

msteinhilber wrote: »

You can make very good money, if you own your own cabling company. The employees of said companies don't generally make very much. Tech's that terminate fiber do earn more, but the wages they earn have been on the decline as new technology makes splices and terminations easier and requiring less skill as time moves on.

+1

exactly.

Slowhand

networker050184 wrote: »

I've noticed that also. Its easier for a company to pay a bunch of "dumb hands" (I don't mean that offensively) a relatively small amount to go out and actually do the work while having fewer "brains" sitting behind their desk getting paid well to direct the work.

This is, for all intents and purposes, the position I had in my first "real" IT job. The downside was that I was essentially just following directions handed down by the Sr. network engineer and none of my own input really meant a thing, (save for a few times during troubleshooting, but usually we had canned fixes). I basically had to do all the tedious dirty-work while the senior-level guys did the fun, challenging projects. The upside of it was actually pretty big: I paid attention and learned as much as I could from the experience, trying to peek beyond the simple instructions into and what I was doing and learn the "nuts and bolts" of the stuff I was working on. After a year, I'd hand my hands on Cisco Catalyst 6500 switches, multi-core servers, PXE boot image servers, enterprise backup and imaging systems, built Linux, Unix, and Windows servers from scratch, diagnosed and troubleshot[?] a huge variety of issues on all platforms, worked with various database systems, and learned a great deal about working under the pressures of day-to-day datacenter/NOC operations.

In essence, I walked in as a total newbie PC tech and walked out having earned the title "Systems Engineer" that I was given on day one. It's helped me in all my work, including the job I currently have and the incredibly high-responsibility (and fairly high-paying) job I held before it. If anyone gets the opportunity to be a pair of "dumb hands" for a large IT/networking company, I'll tell you to go for it every time. It's a learning experience that's very difficult to find anywhere else, as long as you're willing to think a little bit beyond the cube they stick you in.

/usr

I realize where you're coming from when you say you enjoy working with your hands, as well as that leading you to believe cabling would be something you would enjoy.

In my personal opinion and from my personal experience, you won't enjoy it forever, especially if you're in the position of being one of the guys actually doing the cabling, versus overseeing or designing it.

I've worked with copper and fiber in pretty much every environment you can imagine, from clean, easy runs, to filthy crawl spaces with standing water. I've climbed on top of roofs from the bucket of a bucket truck, I've worked out of man lifts 75 feet up, I've worked at new facilities and existing facilities. I've worked in enclosed rooms with no AC that were incredibly hot, as well as outside terminating fiber for 7 hours in 35 degree weather. I could add to this list ad nauseum.

When I first started in IT, I thought the same way as you. I enjoyed working with my hands and assumed cabling would be an enjoyable combination of IT and physical work.

That's just not the case anymore. Now that I've been exposed to it and I've done it, I don't feel the need to continue doing it. It's tedious work and you'll often wind up in unpleasant environments. You also have quite limited growth potential. Running and terminating cable isn't exactly rocket science. Once you've done it for a little bit and know how to do it, there's really no incentive for your employer to give you more money, unless you move into a management position (which moves you away from the physical aspect of it).

Don't get me wrong, I still do some cabling from time to time when it's required and I don't particularly mind it. I'm very thankful I've been exposed to so many different types of cabling and had the ability to actually get my hands dirty and do it. You can't get that kind of experience by reading about it, you know?

I realize that you may not be considering making a full time profession out of cabling, but I figured I'd throw in my 2 cents since I have quite a bit of experience with it.

It's going to be hard to find a "physical" IT job, because the nature of IT entails using your brain, not your back. Sure, there are physical jobs related to IT that must be done, but most often times those are simply incorporated into other positions versus having someone devoted to the physical stuff.

dsotm

Ericthemaster86 wrote: »

Generally speaking I would agree. However, specialized cabling (fiber optic), etc, can make pretty great money. The company that does our fiber work charges in the neighborhood of $250/hr. I'm sure the tech makes a decent percentage of that

Hey Ericthemaster86. Where do you work?

buchatech

sagewalkinthere wrote: »

I can't seem to find anything that would match what I want in a job... I like techincal stuff, but I love working with my hands, and I'm really just wondering what I'm supposed to do. I hate being stuck behind a desk all day. I'd much rather be driving out somewhere and installing or repairing something... but I also like the pay that my desk job brings. :-\ Idk what to do...

Any ideas?

Thanks guys, this forum is the best.

Have you ever thought of becoming a consultant like on an Architect level? I think this would give you the level of pay you are looking for and the variety.

Turgon

Slowhand wrote: »

This is, for all intents and purposes, the position I had in my first "real" IT job. The downside was that I was essentially just following directions handed down by the Sr. network engineer and none of my own input really meant a thing, (save for a few times during troubleshooting, but usually we had canned fixes). I basically had to do all the tedious dirty-work while the senior-level guys did the fun, challenging projects. The upside of it was actually pretty big: I paid attention and learned as much as I could from the experience, trying to peek beyond the simple instructions into and what I was doing and learn the "nuts and bolts" of the stuff I was working on. After a year, I'd hand my hands on Cisco Catalyst 6500 switches, multi-core servers, PXE boot image servers, enterprise backup and imaging systems, built Linux, Unix, and Windows servers from scratch, diagnosed and troubleshot[?] a huge variety of issues on all platforms, worked with various database systems, and learned a great deal about working under the pressures of day-to-day datacenter/NOC operations.

In essence, I walked in as a total newbie PC tech and walked out having earned the title "Systems Engineer" that I was given on day one. It's helped me in all my work, including the job I currently have and the incredibly high-responsibility (and fairly high-paying) job I held before it. If anyone gets the opportunity to be a pair of "dumb hands" for a large IT/networking company, I'll tell you to go for it every time. It's a learning experience that's very difficult to find anywhere else, as long as you're willing to think a little bit beyond the cube they stick you in.

Very good advice. Particularly the 'earning the title you walked through the door with'. While it might seem mundane to some paying your dues following instructions from timeserved experienced engineers will all pay off in the long run. The world of the books and the world of real work are rather different. You cant figure a lot of things out, you need to be shown.

tpatt100

Not sure about the hands on guys but I have not seen a server in years I think probably 7 at least. At my last job the data centers were all over the country in hosting facilites. If something broke we put a call in and somebody in that state would respond to troubleshoot the hardware. The few guys I talked to were always tired as heck since their company had them driving all over the place supporting numerous contracts.

Turgon

tpatt100 wrote: »

Not sure about the hands on guys but I have not seen a server in years I think probably 7 at least. At my last job the data centers were all over the country in hosting facilites. If something broke we put a call in and somebody in that state would respond to troubleshoot the hardware. The few guys I talked to were always tired as heck since their company had them driving all over the place supporting numerous contracts.

I know people like that. Run ragged, long hours and bad pay generally.

bellhead

In the Bell system there were and are different pay grades and it's setup as a journeyman type system.

The jobs are broken down into

Installer resident, Repair Splicer, Construction Splicer, Specials Techs, Business installer and repair.

Installers were paid the least. When I came into the bell system in the middle 90's installers made about $9.50 an hour to start. This went up to a top pay of $18 over a 5 year period.

Everybody else was at a higher pay. You didn't start at any of the other positions you applied for them when there was an opening. Usually after 2 years as a resident installer you were "invited over" if you did a good job.

This changed with a new contract and everybody was brought to the same pay.

The hardest job to learn was repair splicer. It takes about 6 years to become good at the job after spending several years before as an installer. It's a hard job physically, you work in all weather, places, and environments. Same goes for the other jobs. The specials and business techs were more technical but didn't shoot cable trouble which is what seperates the men from the boys.

A repair splicer when I did it was a $100,000 a year job. But in the union you had 2X time after 49 hours and when I left I was @ 33 an hour. But get out of bed after working 6 days a week 12 hours a day for 3 months during the summer and it becomes old.