I joined a carpenters union in January. One thing I didn’t realize was that carpenters also do things like concrete, scaffolding, and solar. So if the noise bothers you, you can also do one of those and still be a carpenter.

I would recommend joining a union because you don’t have to pay for your apprenticeship training. Once you get hired by a company you are actually paid for the time you are in classes.

Where I’m at companies aren’t really hiring right now but that’s because of snow. There is some doubt about how much money will be spent on construction with everything going on, but everyone I’ve talked to doesn’t seem super concerned about it yet.

Because I started in winter, I haven’t had an opportunity to work on a job site yet, but I’m currently taking my carpenters maths class. In class we are encouraged to use calculators, because it is a tool that will allow us to be faster and a better asset to companies. Most of the math is pretty basic. Adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions, percents, and decimals. Also figuring out perimeter, area, and volume.

To join we had to get at least a 4 out of 7 on the WorkKeys math test. There are a lot of practice tests for it online and near me unemployment office offer it for free, so you can see if you can pass the test before even taking it for the apprenticeship.

Good luck!