We remain... Analog

Monitor

Return of the trades

With technology jobs tarnished and more careerists now searching for 'meaning,' specialized, hands-on work gains new allure

When Billy Cleland drives in and around Washington, D.C., he sees more than monuments and grand buildings: He sees the fruits of his own labor.

Mr. Cleland has been a stone mason since 1940, and his work has included building the columns of the National Gallery of Art; setting the stones at John F. Kennedy's grave site; and serving as master mason of the National Cathedral in its final years of construction, setting the last stone finial in place in 1990.

"I've been very fortunate," says Mr. Cleland, now retired. "I've had the privilege to help build this city and many of its monuments.... Any craftsman who's worth his salt is able to stand back at the end of a hard day and look at his work and say, I did that."

Scott Holloway has never met the master mason, but he wants to be able to say the same things about his own work one day. Cleland's junior by more than 40 years, he is just embarking on what he hopes will be a lifelong career as a skilled tradesman. Mr. Holloway recently tired of office work and decided to find something more meaningful. He's now enrolled in a trades program where he is learning to make terrazzo - a specialized tile floor that involves mixing crushed tile with concrete and pouring it into place.

"It's exciting, I feel more of a sense of worth," he says of the 12-week course he's taking at the International Masonry Institute in Cascade, Md.

The terrorist attacks tore up New York City, he adds, "and that's where I'm from - and I could be part of rebuilding it."

Holloway isn't alone in his enthusiasm for the skilled trades. During a decade in which the media's career-and-workplace coverage has been dominated by Wall Street and the dotcom generation, the skilled trades have quietly been enjoying a renaissance in this country - attracting renewed public appreciation for their craftsmanship and quality, as well as a new generation of workers eager for the hands-on satisfaction of creating work that is meant to last generations.... [read more]