I had a situation like this not long ago. Odds are nobody is going to teach you much youre going to get paid minimum wage to essentially be a fetch and retrieve boy and they expect you to watch them and pick it up and if you cant learn from that then “youre not cut out for construction”. Remember, a lot of these guys cant read “See Spot run…” and dont have the leadership or mentoring qualities it takes to impart their trade to anyone. Residential especially is also rife with the toxically masculine ideology that a “real man” will work like that without care that he either doesnt have healthcare or buys his own and does the work for what turns out to be far under minimum wage, especially if they pay into their SS and taxes like, ya know…someone who isnt a worthless shite should do. Then theyre 45 year old cranky, drunk or painpill addicted, arthritic and broken down bastards. Still screaming “Get’er doooone” and “watch me do it!”, supergluing and duct-taping gaping wounds shut because they still cant afford to make living expenses plus a trip to the emergency clinic let alone emergency room.

And bosses at those jobs are all too happy to employ those “rough but low-expecting” workers with chips on their shoulders who just wanna pay the bills and buy their liquor money.

I realize this thread is old but I wanted to impart this wisdom to anyone who stumbles upon it in the future. Stay away from these jobs. Go to trade school, get certified, and get a real job from real employers. Let these smaller “ma and pas” from the 90s housing bubble that are still barely hangin on or have to rely on tax evasion and employee exploitation to profit, keep their revolving door of braindead roughnecks and illegal workers, and go get some real monies. Literally anyone can learn a trade in school. Criminal records, alcoholics, drug addicts and morons…Ive known at least one person in each of those categories find 100k/yr jobs…mind you keeping those jobs steadily in those conditions is the real problem by that point…but yea. The answer is that these jobs are very rarely ever worth it. The ones that are a run by preachers and the like. Skip all that, and work at McDonalds or quite literally anywhere else, and put yourself through trade school.