this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2026

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What blue collar job has the largest cool factor? (lemmy.world)

submitted 20 hours ago by Chippys_mittens@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

68 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'd say high rise iron workers seem the coolest. Think back to that black and white picture everyone has seen of the two guys sitting on a beam hundreds of feet up eating lunch.

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[–] Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 16 minutes ago* (last edited 12 minutes ago)

Not gonna be cool to anyone but me probably.

I made seperator tapes and cable filler for wires. Was extrusion, slitting and spooling all at once.

Its all plasic, but the spooling end of the line looked like textiles. Got to carry a giant ass air "gun" to doff with. That gun was much fun.

Thought it was cool af. Got to do beast mode everyday; there were so many moving parts happening all at once, I never got bored. Leaned to swap products "on the fly". Doing a change over while the machine was still running always gave me good feely feels.

Everyone who could run those lines, well, mind you, were absolute gods to me. Took over a year to train anyone new, and so many didnt last. tough work, super dopamine hitting.

[–] Vandalismo@lemmy.world 4 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

naval carpentry, it's something that differs a lot based in the country, and it's usually passed down from father to son

[–] FunStuffIsFun@eviltoast.org 2 points 1 hour ago

I build spacecraft and I think that's pretty cool.

[–] jeffep@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Plumbers

Source: movies

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 7 points 4 hours ago

[–] fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works 9 points 11 hours ago (3 children)

I've been told fork lift drivers fuck

Almost exclusively by fork lift drivers but they seem really convincing

[–] insaneinthemembrane@lemmy.world 5 points 5 hours ago

You're mishearing. They fork.

[–] Texas_Hangover@lemmy.radio 4 points 4 hours ago

Forklift operator here, it's all true.

[–] Chippys_mittens@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago

They do

[–] Mac@mander.xyz 4 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

So many traditional blue collar jobs have connotations associated with them that make the workers irredeemably uncool.

But, machinists. I just love machining.

[–] VirtigoMommy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 24 minutes ago

Yeah, machinists don’t judge when you start talking about being real into cnc

[–] iamericandre@lemmy.world 50 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

Deep sea welding is pretty badass

[–] njordomir@lemmy.world 13 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I remember watching a documentary about someone who was welding under the ocean, and simultaneously inside of a empty undersea pipeline that they had to swim a ways down to reach the problem area. That's too damn extreme for me. I would sign up to be a doordash driver who only delivers to the worst Karens before I put on a single flipper. :D. Crazy hardcore.

[–] turboSnail@piefed.europe.pub 8 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

And the accidents… Those documentaries are in a category of their own. If there’s a massive pressure difference between two sides of a wall, all sorts of horrible things can happen. Pure nightmare fuel.

[–] scytale@piefed.zip 4 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Not to mention the things drifting around you in the darkness that you can’t see but can probably feel.

[–] turboSnail@piefed.europe.pub 1 points 11 hours ago

Yikes 😱

[–] meco03211@lemmy.world 4 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

Are those the ones that spend long lengths of time at extremely high pressure and need to essentially live in a pressure vessel for the duration of their work?

[–] turboSnail@piefed.europe.pub 1 points 11 hours ago

That’s just one place with great pressure differences. It could also be water on two sides of a wall in a dry dock. Those accidents are equally disturbing.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 5 points 19 hours ago

Saturation divers. Something I didn't realize, they haul the pressure vessel to the surface at the end of every shift, they don't live at the bottom, but they're under pressure.

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[–] makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml 11 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Traditional blacksmith by far

[–] Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 16 minutes ago

honestly, yeah

[–] queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zone 12 points 16 hours ago (5 children)

Firefighters are pretty cool.

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[–] CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world 5 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Anything with a chainsaw

[–] Chippys_mittens@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

Shit is sick

[–] disregardable@lemmy.zip 25 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

I think glass makers are pretty cool. Casually risk 3rd degree burns every day.

[–] njordomir@lemmy.world 5 points 19 hours ago

Hell yeah, I've been wanting to sign up for a glass blowing class. I think it would be so cool to have some self-blown glass on display.

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[–] toiletobserver@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago

Commercial airplane assembly/machinist. Putting together a precision engineered gigantic machine that will last 40 years, carry millions of people, and travel millions of miles.

[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 19 points 20 hours ago (3 children)

Hard to beat those pictures

Id give honorable mention to linemen. Casually handling thousands of volts from the top of a bucket truck while traffic whizzes past is pretty badass. Plus responding to emergencies like hurricanes, tornadoes etc. Its also usually a union job.

Im just a wireman myself, I like to keep my shocks under 277V

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 4 points 8 hours ago

We had a lineman up here get attacked by a cougar. Fought off the cat with a 4-inch pocketknife, got himself out of the bush and to a highway before getting a ride to the hospital.

Absolute badass.

[–] njordomir@lemmy.world 9 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I knew someone who did this kind of work. They don't wait until the weather improves. They climb poles in 70mph winds with sideways blowing hail and lightning if that's what needs to happen. That's crazy hardcore!

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[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 6 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

Linemen also have a cool song about them

[–] rmuk@feddit.uk 4 points 5 hours ago

Years ago I ran a pub quiz and one of the categories was "Name the song from this description of the lyrics":

A low-level government employee abuses his access to national infrastructure to secretly spy on a woman he is obsessed with. He acknowledges that he has a unhealthy obsession and that he really should back off, but quickly managed to convince himself to carry on, assuring the audience that he is still spying on her.

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[–] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 10 points 19 hours ago (4 children)

Do you count movie crews as 'blue collar?'

F1 pit crews?

NASA mechanics?

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[–] InvalidName2@lemmy.zip 3 points 15 hours ago (7 children)

Strippers or bartenders.

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[–] MintyFresh@lemmy.world 7 points 19 hours ago

Tug boat captain.

[–] sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz 6 points 19 hours ago

I felt cool crushing garbage at a landfill. Gross as hell but garbage crusher feels like riding a boat on the ocean

[–] grue@lemmy.world 5 points 18 hours ago

Machinist at NASA.

[–] Hello_there@fedia.io 5 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

Someone who operates giant fucking machinery.

[–] WolfmanEightySix@piefed.social 1 points 1 hour ago

Bagger 288 operator?

[–] DasFaultier@sh.itjust.works 6 points 18 hours ago

You mean like a 40" vibrator, right?

[–] Davel23@fedia.io 4 points 18 hours ago

Driving one of those giant dump trucks you see at mining sites.

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