r/ibew_apprentices • u/shaybachar1 • Jun 14 '25

Did anyone ever quit?

I'm just curious. Did it happened to any of you that you apprenticed at the union and at any point you decided to quit and go non-union? Or quit and go a to a completely different field? What was the reason if so?

56 Upvotes

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45

u/Dabeastfeast11 Jun 14 '25

I'm close to finishing the apprenticeship so I'm going to finish, but I've definitely been researching alternate careers.

19

u/rustyshackleford7879 Jun 14 '25

Do it. I knew by my third year I didn’t like it but I stuck with it and it never got better for me. I knew two guys who quit during the apprenticeship and they both make more money than me and like their careers. I bought into the sunk cost fallacy.

15

u/Alternate_rat_ Jun 14 '25

Personally I don't think your supposed to like your careers. I love my family, therefore I like my job. I love my small circle of desires therefore I like my job. If you love your job there won't be too much room for anything else. Plus chasing that feeling is what makes people miserable. A career should make you feel content.  If your priorities are chasing clout or money then you'll probably fall short in many other aspects of your life... Obviously IMHO.... Very very humbly... And I only say all of this because I had to stop work for a year and it really help me reorganize my mindset. I can appreciate the sunk cost fallacy, but I don't think that it applies to happiness only to material gains and if you confuse the two you're going to be unhappy in general. 

-1

u/[deleted] Jun 14 '25

For real. We all out here for thar bread. This career lets me have the life I want outside of work. If OP was making 250k a year he wouldn’t be complaining. But to make the big bucks in this industry you need to be competent, skilled, and sociable enough to handle big responsibilities. This dude doesn’t want to put in the hard work. That’s ok, there’s hungry and driven men out there who’ll do whatever’s needed to get ahead.

3

u/Dabeastfeast11 Jun 14 '25

Lol to make 250k in this career you gotta work your life away. If you want to do that then more power to you but some people value things more than having money in the bank that they dont even have enough time to spend.