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Comment by bluGill | Hacker News Reader

If you get into any construction job you need to expect to move job sites regularly. If it is a single family house that might be as much as twice a day. If it is a large industrial site it might be every few years. However it is unusual to work at the same location for much longer.

You are also subject to the economy more than most jobs. When things start going bad you are the first one cut.

It can still be a good career overall, but it does have downsides and isn't for everyone. I'm not leaving my job even though I know how to do construction.

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If the demand is great enough, they can fly trades to site and put them up in a hotel, just like any consultant.

That is done, but it is more expensive so it isn't common. In most cases the trade is needed and busy in their local city so why would they leave to a different place. Trades that have niche skills fly all over, but electricians are something that you need all over and so most can stay busy working close enough to their house to see their kids every night.

This is rare. Some times they'll have people drive in from a couple hours away and put them up in a hotel for some nights.

If you're unlucky, the job will be far away but below the cutoff for a hotel, so you have to choose between driving home every night or paying for your own hotel. Younger people sleep in their car some times.

Any long distance site starts excluding more and more of the older workers and those with families. It's a younger workers game for the most part

> put them up in a hotel

the hotel rates in Abilene TX are comically high and all the RV parks are filled up too. I have friends/roots there so make the drive from Dallas every so often. The stargate datacenter is certainly a popular topic of discussion both good and bad.

It’s a good career if your unionize ie electrician, plumber, HVAC, fire protection, steel, concrete, and it also helps if you’re operating within the radius of a large city and all the suburbs around it, ie Santa Barbara to San Diego, Los Angeles to Palm Springs within that radius, very good opportunities, and very good living if your unionized.

I have friends on both sides of the union debate in construction. There are pros and cons. the unions try to tell you that they are much better, but in reality there are pros and cons and you need to figure out what is best for you.

When I look at the benefits of being in a union or not, the benefits show up when you get close to retirement age at the end of a working lifetime you have more to lean on than being non-union.

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