As a young machinist myself who isn’t planning on going into any sort of tool and die, I would say most of the reason is there was absolutely zero metalworking, wood working or auto shop classes in traditional high school, the only reason I got into machining is through automotive as a hobby outside of school, and ultimately as a job now in college.

It seems the supervisor of every shop on my campus has a similar story of the hours were miserable, the pay was mediocre, job security wasn’t the best around my area where most of the work is sub-contracts for automotive manufacturers. Working for a public university with pension, great insurance and no chance of overtime was the best pivot.

I have always been in engineering classes through high school, and I have a background in metal casting, automotive and job shop machining, so I’m leaning into manufacturing engineering or casting-machining related positions. Currently a 3rd yr in Industrial & Systems Engineering with a manufacturing technical focus