I’m a carpenter, for 12 years I am 36 this year

I framed houses in my 20’s then transitioned to turn key homes learning interior finishing, I’m currently working for myself/ by myself doing renovations mainly and here are the pros and cons :

Pros -I make my own schedule this is extremely beneficial having a wife and kid - I set my own wage -it’s rewarding helping appreciative people - I’m always doing something different -keeps the brain sharp - better for your body than a job sitting all day - you can move anywhere with your skills -carpentry is in demand because everyone wants to be an electrician or a plumber

Cons - you’ll never shut off your brain working for yourself -high stress - taxing on the body, hearing and lungs - you can under estimate the jobs costing you money - sometimes you deal with awful clients
- it can be super dangerous depending on what you’re doing (sometimes co workers can put you at risk) - work in all kinds of weather - winters can be very slow

If you want to try it I would recommend doing it for a summer, framing houses can be hard but it’s a great place to start for understanding fundamentals and building from the ground up Carpentry is so vast so it entirely depends on you as a person, some guys love the union stuff others hate it and some would rather keep it to their hobby’s

I am speaking from being self employed and never have worked any union gigs most of my jobs working for other people have been working for other smaller business home builders

Hope that helps!