Finally, the moment you've been waiting for: Sally's Guide to Getting And Keeping a Job in Construction! Focused on USA rules/regulations/culture and aimed particularly at people seen as female or feminine, especially queer kids. Construction was a lifeline for me during a dark time and it could be for you. If you're desperately trying to get out of your parents' house, but don't want to get into college, this could be helpful! Could be in 4 or 5 parts, sincere there is plenty to cover.
ADVANCE PREPARATION:
Figuring out if it’s really for you. OK, one big skill you should have is an awareness of 3D space, but how can you know if you have that? Well, did you like playing with legos? Are you into fiber arts such as knitting, crochet, or sewing? Those give you some good skills to build on, e.g.: counting to 10, measuring, cutting, comparing sizes, etc. Are you good at stacking dishes? Good at packing a suitcase? Into Tetris? These are all good signs. Also, cleaning is huge on a construction site. The ability to quickly survey a space and prioritize tasks for getting or keeping it organized is super helpful.
On the people skills side: just have good communication and the ability to ask clarifying questions. Working in a male-dominated field can be frustrating because they downplay the value of communication skills, then spend so much time arguing about pointless shit. Cultivate patience and a sense of humor for this.
Another helpful communication tip: learn conversational Spanish. Doesn’t matter where you are, you’re bound to have some coworkers whose first language is Spanish.
Another SUPER helpful thing to learn is the technical lingo! Just being able to identify a lintel or tell the difference between a rafter and a joist, for example, will give you far more credibility than such trivia really deserves. Watching youtube videos of people doing the type of work you're interested in is a good idea, especially if the videos are made somewhat locally to you.
I lied, I'm not done! I remembered this cool trick I should really tell you about. An excellent way to gain respect and credibility in the trades is to be able to estimate measurements accurately at a glance. While there is a degree of innate aptitude that informs this ability, you can get better with practice, and you can use some shortcuts. My main shortcut (and I'm sure other people have plenty more) is this: I measured my body parts. The distance from thumb to pinky with fingers splayed, for me, is 7 inches. From elbow to fingertips is about 18 inches. My wingspan is about 5 feet (which makes sense because I'm about 5 feet tall--most people's wingspan is about the same as their height). My pace is 2 1/2 feet at a relaxed stride. Etc.
So measure your body parts and practice estimating. The width of the sidewalk. The height of your door. Check it with your tape measure. You'll quickly get the hang of it. It's worth it because it will help you show yourself as someone competent, which, if you're not a cishet man, is disproportionately important for you as a new worker on a construction job site.
"The U.S. Department of Agriculture is accepting applications for 40 newly-created Climate Change Fellowship positions.
The positions will be filled with the intention of assisting the record number applications from farmers, ranchers and rural small businesses seeking funding for clean energy projects under the Rural Energy for America Program.
According to the job posting on usajobs.gov, the anticipated salary for the positions will range from $57,118 to $89,835. The new positions are being funded by the Inflation Reduction Act."
Not sure how I feel about this... but it popped up in my climate change RSS feed and there might be someone here who could do some good with this position? Yale is looking for a Data Scientist, focused on machine learning, "to lead the design, development, and implementation of machine learning models and operations as part of an academic organization devoted to supporting academics and practitioners in climate change research and communication."
Any administrative assistants out there looking for steady work? It's not top dollar (45k - 49k) but the bennies are good. Location is Delaware County in New York, or somewhere adjacent. They have a decent WFH policy but the job itself is highly localized. DM me for deets if interested. Be my coworker! #FediHiring#GetFediHired#FediJobs#JobsOfMastodon#jobs#JobOpportunity#AdministrativeAssistant
I’m completely frustrated by my inability to find someone to employ. Seriously, there’s got to be SOMEBODY willing to come to Blacktown to teach voice and piano at my music school. Surely?
I care about team dynamics & good communication, but also about good engineering practices. I understand tech debt is a given, but I'm not ok with unjustified & careless bad practices.
Specifically running away from bad communication and bad "engineering" practices.