I have often told the young if you aren’t looking at the trades, especially electrical, you have 0 room to bitch about money.
I’m an E&I tech, Electrical and Instrumentation. The field is short staffed by up to 45%, and with my now 30 yrs or so in with experience on both installation and maintenance I can pretty much write my own ticket. Was it a long road of 6 or 7 days, 12 to 14 hrs a day most years? Yes it was, but the dividends its paid in the last 10 yrs is worth every drop of blood, sweat and toil put in. The ones young that get in now are the ones that will be thankful by 40-45 yrs old.
edit: I should point out industrial electrician. I don’t do residential or commercial. Power plants, major industrial facilities, that’s where both the education and the money is. I paid my own way through the apprentice progam, today may be different, but $49k for my initial 5 yr apprenticeship.