u/z283848

From a health standpoint ,if pay were equal would you rather have a Monday-Friday 8 hour day/job that is pretty heavy workload and physically demanding, or pretty mild work load (maybe a couple shifts a month may require some physical labor) but working 12 hour rotating shifts (DuPont schedule.) I’m currently 9 years into rotating shifts and thinking about changing careers to something that would up my workload a good amount but also put me on a human life schedule lol curious what others thoughts are?

I’m considering joining a trade apprenticeship , I am currently scheduled to test for IUEC ( I know that means nothing and I’m still a long shot away from getting in) and may be applying to some other apprenticeships in the near future. I have always worked blue collar and am quite familiar with laboring , less than ideal conditions , excessive overtime and the whole 9 yards. However I’m not super great mechanically. My job doesn’t require much mechancial aptitude and quite honestly my dad never had the patients or desire to teach me anything like that when I was younger so I’ve been sorta rawdogging adult hood. I have done normal homeowner stuff myself such as replacing water heater , installing softener, dishwasher ect, and basic car repairs. However everything i do seems like it takes me 3x longer than it should and I usually have to watch YouTube videos over and over, and if I had to do the same job 2 years later I’d likely have to refer back to YouTube. My biggest goal right now is to become more mechanically inclined, I have the drive to do it and I want to throw myself into , so I’m used to seeing it every day. My biggest problem now is that I dont have enough consistent exposure to feel comfortable doing mechanical things all day. ( I also have a pretty good Mechanical knowledge on paper as far as mechanical aptitude tests, but real world is a different story) am I setting myself up for failure or is this normal to be this way until your more exposed to it? Thanks in advance any other tips are appreciated as well.

TLDR; I don’t do a whole lot of mechanical things, when I do It takes me forever and I don’t retain it well, I want to join a skilled trade, am I screwing myself or is this what it takes to become Mechanically savvy.

I finally decided to dig into my rattling sound on my 14 1.4l Cruze , i found that the bolt has completely backed out and is lost from the ac compressor bracket. I’m not having luck finding that bolt online. Everyone I find seems to be discontinued. Any help would be appreciated

If the vacation pay is 6% under 5 years, does that mean you will make 6% over your base salary? I know it pays out twice a year but for easy numbers it an apprentice is making 35/hr, that’s a base salary of 72,800, your two checks combined would equal 6% of that 72.8k right?(assuming you don’t use any of the vacation) Is overtime excluded from that?

I’m a 27m looking to get married in the next year or two. I’m considering getting a prenup but not sure if I’m thinking too much into it. My income is about 125k a year in a fairly LCOL area. I have about 145k in my 401k and I have about 100k equity on my house. My partner makes about 40k/year with a few thousand in retirement. If I do get a prenup, as far as my 401k, will the growth on that amount be spared to me in the case of a future split, or only the original number? The 401k is the only part I’m genuinely concerned about, and I’m never going to be a super low percentile earner so I will likely make a fairly equivalent income my whole life with cost of living raises included.

Looking to go to either 7 sisters springs and along the Chaz, or to rainbow springs. 7 sisters would only be about 35 mins where rainbows springs would be a bit over an hour, looking to mostly see some wildlife and will be taking paddle boards, which do you recommend?

I’ve always had really tight hamstrings , and while I’ve not been the best about consistently stretching them enough, I do think I have something else that’s causing that to some degree. For reference I have very good external leg rotation, I can do butterfly stretched and get my head down fairly far, but if I do a similar stretch like a pancake stretch with the legs straight out and apart, I can’t even get my spine below 90 degrees, while there is tension in my hamstrings it doesn’t feel like that’s the mobility limiter, it doesn’t even hurt it just feels like with my legs straight out in front of my back just doesn’t bend any further forward, is this potentially a lower back stretch issue or something in my hips. (Also for reference, I’ve never been able to touch my toes, yet I used to be able to put my foot behind my head, and I still can get pretty close)

I’ve read a few occasions where it sounded like you didn’t have to live within your local, but I’m being told in another post comments now that you must live within your local? Seems to have been some contradicting info on this. For reference I’m applying this month, I live about 20 mins north of the cutoff from the locals jurisdiction. However I’m about an hour an 10 mins from the main city they’re based out of. Is this acceptable?

Would like some insight from some elevator guys if possible. Im 27 and currently work in a steel mill, rotating 12 hour shifts so days/night and alternating , I make about $3/hr less than my local elevator mechanics currently. A semi-nearby local is about to be hiring within a couple months and I’m very interested in applying (I know it’s extremely competitive to get in and nothing is guaranteed) but if I were to get a shot should I jump on it? I currently am in an operations Role, and work with maintenance fairly regularly, on a technical level I’m not great but I can turn a wrench and know tools pretty well, for the most part my job is fairly laid back and stress free. I aspire to be more mechanically savvy than I am, and absolutely hate the rotating shifts and even the free time I’m not fond of , but feel dumb for wanting to walk away from a good paying job that’s not strenuous and is close to home. It would be a well over hour drive each way until I could either relocate or transfer to the slightly closer local (45ish mins) knowing what you know now about the elevator trade, and what I’ve described, what would you recommend someone in my shoes to do? Any advice is appreciated (edit: I am aware of the apprenticeship pay scale in the local I’m applying to, I can handle the paycut as long as I thought it will be a worthy decision in the long run )

I’m 27 years old and currently make 125ish thousand a year, I work a decent amount of overtime but nothing crazy, i have a good work life balance and my job is fairly low stress and is only about 25 min commute. The downside is I work rotating shifts 12 hour shifts (alternate between days and nights) and work 2 weekends a month. This job also feels very bland and boring to me, as I feel like I could be somewhere else learning things that could be applicable in other aspects of life. Another downside is if I were to lose this job for any reason, I would be very lucky if I were to be able to replace 60% of my income. The job I’m considering would initially be about a 50% pay cut, over the course of 5 years , at 5 years I would make slightly more than I do now (maybe $5hr more?) each year I would get an interval raise working to that top pay. This job would be more work but would give me a much more normal schedule (6-2) , better benefits, an hour plus commute (I know this part is big, but I’m not opposed to moving or transferring to a different location after I get some time under my belt) the main thing about this switch is I would learn a ton about alot of things and would definitely increase my skill set in and out of work, as well as make my resume much more built up and give me more qualificationss for higher jobs if I were to ever switch. Would love some advice as this is an extremely tough decision to make, I think on paper it doesn’t make sense to do , but something in my gut tells me to go for it.

I’m 27 years old and currently make 125ish thousand a year, I work a decent amount of overtime but nothing crazy, i have a good work life balance and my job is fairly low stress and is only about 25 min commute. The downside is I work rotating shifts 12 hour shifts (alternate between days and nights) and work 2 weekends a month. This job also feels very bland and boring to me, as I feel like I could be somewhere else learning things that could be applicable in other aspects of life. Another downside is if I were to lose this job for any reason, I would be very lucky if I were to be able to replace 60% of my income. The job I’m considering would initially be about a 50% pay cut, over the course of 5 years , at 5 years I would make slightly more than I do now (maybe $5hr more?) each year I would get an interval raise working to that top pay. This job would be more work but would give me a much more normal schedule (6-2) , better benefits, an hour plus commute (I know this part is big, but I’m not opposed to moving or transferring to a different location after I get some time under my belt) the main thing about this switch is I would learn a ton about alot of things and would definitely increase my skill set in and out of work, as well as make my resume much more built up and give me more qualificationss for higher jobs if I were to ever switch. Would love some advice as this is an extremely tough decision to make, I think on paper it doesn’t make sense to do , but something in my gut tells me to go for it.

Pretty new to the Smokey mountain, and I’m curious if you try to get your temp roughly settled in before putting on your meat? On one hand , I know your temp will fluctuate largely when you pull the lid to put the food on anyways, but if it’s settled in and air valves are dialed in , it should roughly return back to same temp I would think? And on the other hand , if you put the food in first than dial in you won’t have to pull the lid and then make sure everything is going get back to where it was. What’s your method?

Been eyeballing the trade for about 6 months now, I’m right in between two locals with staggered recruitment years so ideally I can apply for one each year until maybe i get lucky. One of the recruitments opens next month 🤞🏼But on a side note there’s really not much content out there on what the actual process is of being an elevator mechanic, I know it’s hard meticulous work. If you were to start a new construction today, what’s the steps and time frames? Do elevator mechanics run a vast amount of equipment? Are all parts brought up the stairs by manpower or is there cranes involved to bring stuff up? I’m not here to ask for interview questions, test tips or anything like that , but I’d love for someone to actually break down what the process looks like for someone who’s never seen it before. Thanks in advance fellas.

I’m a 27m whose dad never taught him anything, I’ve been in the steel industry since highschool, I’ve learned a lot in that time and learned it all the hard way. Overall I’ve been around a lot of maintenance work, but not been the main hand in much of it. I’ve replaced my water heater, installed water softener , changed outlets, ceiling fans , done basic car maintenance and light repairs, but every one of those tasks has been a much larger ordeal than it should have been, going over instructional videos over and over to get it done. The moral of the story is, I’m looking to change careers and was wanting to go electrical or elevator mechanic if I were luck enough, and I’m just alittle worried about my ability to take in all that info and being able to retain it and be good at my job. I have a great work ethic and am very driven but my only doubts is my mental capacity. I’ve never had to do mechanical things on a daily basis , so I am optimistically hoping that seeing it day in and day out would make it much more comfortable. Does anyone have a similar experience or any kind of advice relevant?

My nearest local is opening up within the month , curious if testing and interviews are typically strictly one day, or stretched out over a week or two period. I have two vacations planned in the upcoming 2 months and a fair bit of scheduled overtime at my current job. Just curious what to expect , I’m fine with using vacation time if I need to but curious if it’s a “let’s schedule a day this week” or a “come interview on this day” kind of deal.