Should I consider giving up my education and pursuing a career in trades instead?

Employment

Hello everyone, fresh grad here. My entire life's plan was to get a lot of in demand degrees, moving to a first world country and making it big in finance(only field of some interest to me). I did my undergrad in my home country(best uni for it), and had to abandon the idea of pursuing master's abroad at the time because of covid. So I got master's at the same institution, same field(econ with finance specialty), and recently moved to Toronto, got master's in management at Schulich(finance felt a bit too math heavy to me so I thought having something in business would open a few doors to something more people or corporate structure oriented). But when I started to look for work here, my plan just disintigrated.

The "job search help" I got was just basic understanding of local market, no direct placement, no effective networking events. The program didn't have an internship in it either, just a consulting project. As a result, I have scraps of experience, and it is mostly irrelevant. Applied to over 1000 jobs, raided bank branches, harassed people on linkedin, tried to use all of my network - had one scam interview and another one where I got ghosted. Everyone says that it is crazy competitive, I need more experience, I need to study even more(imagine how burned out I am being 24 and doing nothing but studying hard for the entirety of my life making no money at all for the most of it), feels like there is just no need in me at all, and no one cares.

Today was the last day I could afford to just job search only, decided to start looking for something in trades to at least make ends meet. What do you know, first call I made - I already got a job installing tiles which will pay more than a project management position I've had here(and about 30% more than entry level positions I aimed at). It's not even like the ceiling for salary would be much lower, feels like a top tier tradesman makes as much or even more than a top tier banker! Should I just abandon trying to get into finance since it's this oversaturated and get into trades since that is what ACTUALLY demanded in this economy? I just don't feel motivated to lick everyone's feet to get scraps and abuse or promises to help with no tangible prospects in finance/accounting at this point.

Any ideas on this, feedback or empathy would be appreciated.

Posted Nov 1, 2023, 4:01 PM UTC

317
Loading comments…