>>510336653 (OP)I used to be blue collar and I want to go back to it. Just hard because I learned on the job without going to trade school or anything and it's hard to get hired at the skill level I actually have. What makes it even worse is my old boss won't vouch for me because I turned him down when he tried to hire me back. (It would've meant staying in a city I fucking hated every second of living in.) I'm thinking about spending a year taking the local community college's welding/manufacturing course just so I can get a piece of paper that says I know how to do shit that I already know how to do.
>>510339176Depends on the trade and where they're doing it. More technical trades, the kind of stuff that sometimes gets called "gray collar" (though that can include jobs that require degrees), can have pretty good people and a decent environment. The further you get from normal consumers (residential construction/repairs, basic car mechanics, etc.) the better it usually is too - aircraft maintenance, race car builders (what I used to be), commercial/industrial construction, heavy equipment service, aerospace/scientific/chemical welding/machining, and so on are usually way more together and have better pay, better working conditions, and better lifestyles.