From fine arts to plumbing, Erin Swetland shares her story into the trades.

After an encounter with a plumber she hired to help update a home she bought on the cheap, Erin Swetland quickly realized, “This guy’s job is awesome!”

She says young girls are never told, “Get into a trade, you’ll make a shit ton of money, and you can have a lifelong career.” But that didn’t stop her. Swerland completed a year’s plumbing program at a tech college and sought out to get a job immediately after.

When questioned about why she wanted to be a plumber, Swetland simply said, “I want a skill that can’t be outsourced. I want a trade that will be with me forever.”

She talks about her journey into the trades, the doubt, the banter among her male colleagues, and her perseverance to just get the job done. 

“I started out installing toilets and now I help build hospitals and stadiums, so these days I deal with fewer actual turds than one might think. But oh gosh do I have stories from my days of domestic plumbing…”

Read her full story.