Choosing Your Trade At A Technical High School | Advice From My Experience

I didn't have a typical high school experience. Sure, I had the standard classes, homecoming and prom, extracurriculars, SATs, and my fair share of the teenage milestones one might expect.

But my school wasn't your typical high school. It was a technical high school.

Sometimes known as vocational high schools or trade high schools, tech schools offer your standard academic classes like English and math, but also allow students to enroll in a trade.

At my school, these included:

• Autobody

• Automotive and Collision Repair

• Bio-Environmental Technology (BET)

• Carpentry

• Computer-Aided Drafting and Mechanical Design

• Cosmetology

• Culinary Arts

• Electrical

• Hospitality and Hotel Services

• Information Systems Technology (IST)

• Plumbing

I was enrolled in the Drafting program.

Every school has different programs. For example, I know there's one on the other side of the state that offers Economics, Nursing, and Music Production.

Depending on the trade and the requirements of your state, many technical high school students graduate not only with their high school diploma but also with certifications and credentials needed to jump right into the field, whether that's an apprenticeship, internship, or a bona fide Cosmetology license.

In a day and age where the necessity of college is increasingly debated and careers in fields like Plumbing and Electrical are on the rise, attending a technical high school is a fantastic opportunity. But selecting your trade can be an overwhelming decision, especially when you're at an age where you're only beginning to get a sense of who you are as a person.

I graduated from high school in 2014, so I imagine a lot has changed; for one, they've introduced a digital media production trade at my alma mater. But to borrow from my current historical romance project, for every thing that changes, another stays the same.

Whether you're an incoming freshman already enrolled at a tech school, a middle school student beginning to evaluate your options, or a parent looking to learn a little more about tech schools, welcome! In this post, I'm offering some things to keep in mind as you're deciding which trade to enroll in based on my own experiences and things I wish I knew back then.

But first...

How Does Trade Selection Work?

This will depend on your school.

At mine, you would either be rotating through your standard academic classes or in your shop for the entire day, switching off every two weeks or so.

Your first trade cycles as a freshman were known as Exploratory. This was a two-day trial of each trade. This usually involved small graded projects, like curling a mannequin's hair and giving a classmate a manicure in Cosmetology (much to many male classmates' chagrin) or assembling a small wooden basket in Carpentry. After, you'd select your top three trades—mine were Drafting, BET, and Cosmetology—and spend an additional four days in each one.

Just before winter break, you'd attend Shop Selection Night, where your parents or guardians would get to tour your top three programs with you and meet the instructors, and you would sign up for the shop of your choosing. Most people got into their first choice, but since spots were limited, priority was based on your cumulative grades for Exploratory; a friend of mine wanted to get into Culinary but ended up in Autobody until a spot opened up and he could transfer towards the end of freshman year.

In the event your trade wasn't a perfect fit after all, my school would allow you to transfer to another up until the tail end of sophomore year or so because, at this point, some trades like Cosmetology would begin actively earning hours towards their state certifications.

Now that we've gone over how trade selection worked at my tech school, let's talk about choosing yours.

Go In With An Open Mind

One of the reasons for Exploratory was giving everyone a chance to test out all of the trades and see which would be the best fit for them.

When I entered my tech school, I was dead set on Cosmetology. I already loved doing my nails and was becoming more and more interested in makeup and hair. But once I got in the classroom, it wasn't what I expected.

Sure, I enjoyed the manicure portion of Exploratory, but I struggled quite a bit with setting pin curls on my mannequin head and that stressed me out massively.

A lot of the trades had a business side open to the public where upperclassmen could get some real-world practice. Culinary had its own restaurant. Automotive and Autobody had garages. And Cosmetology had an actual salon. I kind of realized through Exploratory that while I liked doing my own nails for fun, the salon wasn't an environment I wanted to be working in.

Drafting didn't have that business element, apart from being able to take the NOCTI exam and one or two graduating seniors getting a summer internship at the subase. The classroom environment felt like a better fit for me compared to the salon or kitchen. I also liked the prospect of the technical writing unit (which we never actually got to do, it's a long story).

I'd like to hope that I would have eventually picked up pin curls and all of the other Cosmetology stuff, or at least have found my specialty during a different unit, but it just wasn't for me. Had I stuck to my initial intent and enrolled in the program, I probably would have been miserable.

Go into every trade with an open mind. Even if you think you know for certain which one you want to enroll in, you might surprise yourself along the way.

Consider Your Strengths And Preferences

As an incoming freshman, chances are you're a couple of years away from dreaded job interview questions like "Tell me about your strengths."

However, you might want to keep your strengths in the back of your mind when you're looking at trades. You might already have a good idea of your strengths and preferences, and you'll likely discover others as you explore your school's programs.

Are you detail-oriented? Creative or more calculated and by-the-book in problem-solving? Comfortable in the spotlight or prefer to be behind the scenes?

Do you prefer a busier or quieter setting? What about collaborative work with a team or independent work? Physical, hands-on work like Plumbing or something more desk-centric like IST?

Building on your natural strengths and personal preferences can be a great starting point.

Consider Your Weaknesses

On a similar note, it can also help to think about things that aren't your forte. Knowing that I can be pretty clumsy was one of the things that kept me out of Carpentry because I didn't feel comfortable operating that kind of machinery. If you get squeamish, a medical trade may not be for you.

Just like your strengths, you might have an existing understanding of your weaknesses or discover more during your exploratory period.

Looking Ahead

While this may not be a top-tier consideration for everyone, you might find it worth researching the potential future of your chosen trade. In retrospect, I do wish I'd thought more about it, even though I was confident that I'd be majoring in English and wanted a career in writing or something writing-adjacent.

You may prioritize one of these aspects over another, but it can be worth considering what additional education would be needed to pursue a career in that field after high school (e.g., apprenticeships, certifications, degrees, etc.), the kinds of jobs that your skillset can translate to, the average salary for an entry-level position, or if you'd be interested in working for a larger company or doing freelance work or even starting your own business.

Remember, the world is always shifting. There are plenty of established, essential trades that aren't going away anytime soon, but there are also plenty of career fields on the rise; I'd have loved to go into digital media production had my school offered it while I was a student, and I expect that its increasing prevalence in the age of social media influencers was among the reasons for it being added to the roster (while that wasn't as much of a thing in the early half of the 2010s).

Don't Choose Your Shop Based On What Your Friends Or Your Significant Other Pick

I distinctly recall one of the Drafting instructors cautioning us against choosing our trade based on what our significant other chose. It seemed like a weird remark to make.

But yeah, it's happened. Usually, it's not wise.

Let's get real for a sec: as an incoming freshman, you may be in your first romantic relationship and want to spend all of your time with your significant other. And if you're able to be in the same trade and spend an entire school day together, well, wouldn't that be great?

I know a couple who did this. And guess what? They broke up by the end of the first year. Forced proximity doesn't always have a favorable outcome.

So now they're enrolled in a trade that one or both of them may not have been interested in and are stuck being around their ex (which can get messy) for the entire school day.

Do not base your shop selection on your significant other or your friend group. Focus on YOU and your individual interests.

Ideally, you'll make friends within your trade, and you'll still be able to have those friendships outside of it. Don't feel like you have to go into Carpentry because your bestie from homeroom is. The program that suits them might not be the best for you.

Also, side note for down the road: don't pick your college or your college classes based on your significant other's, for the same reason. I know a girl who made sure she and her boyfriend were taking every class they could together and it did NOT go well when they split. The boyfriend transferred to a different college halfway into that semester, and I don't know if these arrangements were a factor, but I can only assume...

What If I End Up Not Liking My Trade And Don't Want A Career In That Field? What Then?

People change.

My Drafting days are well behind me (unless you count drafting not-yet-published romance novels). And you know what? That's okay!

Some of my peers chose to join the workforce in their trades. Several of my Drafting peers work in various departments of a local submarine base. One of the Plumbing guys got an apprenticeship shortly after graduation and has been in the business for years. One of the BET gals now works with a sizeable agricultural program that partners with several nonprofits and food pantries in the region, and she brings out currently-enrolled BET students to help with planting and harvesting crops.

Then there's me. I went to a four-year college, got my B.A. in English and Communications with a Creative Writing concentration, and I'm now working at an escape room and writing in any precious cracks of time I can find.

Back in high school, I worried that I was the anomaly because I knew as early as Junior year that Drafting wasn't my career path. I remember a family member more or less saying that I wasted my years at a tech school because I wasn't going to pursue it after graduation.

But not everyone stayed with their trades long-term. As a few examples: one of the gals in BET is now a licensed massage therapist, one from Culinary completed a nursing program last year, one from Cosmetology works for an insurance company, one of the Drafting guys from the class before mine became a middle school history teacher, and one of his classmates has her own wedding photography business. Some of my classmates also joined the armed forces after high school.

A lot of us are still figuring out what we want to do over a decade later.

There's a lot of pressure that gets put on teens to sort out what they want to do in adulthood, even though they don't have a fully-formed frontal lobe yet. A tech school might help you figure out what that is, but it might also help you figure out what that isn't.

A technical high school can put you on a path to success on paper, but choosing your trade program comes down to more than logistics.

Let me leave you with this reminder: high school is temporary. Even a technical high school. Focus not just on what looks good externally or on a resume, but on what either excites you or brings you peace internally.