Licensed electrician and master tradesman Carl Murawski has dedicated himself to promoting the trades and restoring dignity to the working class. As part of this mission, the videos on his popular YouTube channel guide young workers in the trades, divulging the secrets of these professions to help them succeed.
“Restoring dignity to the trades is important to me because of a long history of being made to feel ‘less than’ only to realize that my crooked path has led to a prosperous life,” Murawski explains. “I want more people to know that the trades are a good career option and that they can be proud to pull on their work boots each day.”
The making of Carl Murawski
Murawski entered the trades himself as a young man because he didn’t have any other options. He and his sister lived in an affluent suburb of Connecticut until his parents’ divorce, at which point he, his sister, and his mother struggled financially.
“With my father out of the picture, I was left on my own to figure the world out,” he remembers.
His high school guidance counselors never mentioned the possibility of a career in the trades. Instead, they pushed him toward college. He applied and was accepted, but he never had the chance to attend.
“As I watched my friends go off to universities, I had the hard conversation with my mom that the college I had gotten into wasn’t financially possible for us,” he says. “So, with no other options, I went to work at the local auto shop down the street. There, I learned how to fix engines, tow cars, and even do a little paint and bodywork. However, the wages were barely enough to get by. I felt trapped and frustrated. How could I earn more than minimum wage without a college degree?”
One day after work, he drove to his community’s local tech school. “I decided I’d be an electrician,” he says. “It was the best choice I ever made. That was in 2004, and since then, I’ve grown in my career from apprentice to journeyman, from journeyman to foreman, and so on. I now earn enough to support my family in relative comfort, surpassing many of my friends who went to college. My biggest frustration is that this path was never discussed; I had to figure it out on my own.”
For this reason, he is determined to give young and aspiring tradespeople the pragmatic advice and encouragement that he himself didn’t receive.
Demystifying the trades for others
“A lot of the information I wanted to be successful wasn’t readily available as I was coming up,” Murawski says. “It was only through mistakes and experience that I could put the pieces together. I want to demystify the trades for people considering these career paths. Which trade is best for them? How can they get into an apprenticeship? What kind of gear should they buy? Nobody is out there setting people up for success with a new career in the trades.”
Until Murawski came along and started posting his videos, that is.
“I remember sitting in my work van, angry that the pants I had just bought were tearing after only a few weeks,” he says. “Internet searches only resulted in ads or articles masquerading as advertisements. I thought, ‘If only someone could cut through the junk and give me some honest advice,’ and that was the spark that eventually became my YouTube channel.”
He started the channel in 2016. “My first video was on a ratcheting belt I had bought,” he recalls. “I always liked the idea of torture tests on products, so I went to the animal shelter I volunteered at and let an 80 lb pit bull play tug of war with the belt.”
His second video explained why blue-collar workers should dress well on the job. “This is a topic most people didn’t seem to grasp,” he says. “In that video, I described how dressing well — by that, I mean clean clothes and a polo or work shirt rather than a ratty tee shirt — helped me grow in my career.”
In Murawski’s experience, few people promote the trades without some kind of ulterior motive. “Either they own a company and need workers, or they’re just trying to get clicks,” he says. “Or you have people who talk about trades careers but have never worked in them, so they never talk about the downsides. I think people deserve someone with experience and facts to help them with a life-altering choice like a new career. That’s what I hope to provide.”
As of this writing, Murawski has over 193,000 subscribers on YouTube and continues to attract more every day.
Taking blue-collar work seriously
Blue-collar work deserves to be taken seriously, and Murawski is leading the way.
“Culturally, the mindset is shifting, but the truth remains: too many people believe that people take up blue-collar work as a consequence of not being very smart,” he says. “I’ve been socially shunned several times because I was wearing work boots, jeans, and a hard hat. I’m certainly not the smartest man around, but blue-collar work is smart work — especially now. I’ve been lucky enough to work with some exceptionally bright people who would be successful in anything they set their minds to.”
Murawski has worked in blue-collar roles for 26 years and has been in the electrical trade for 21 years. “I worked as a mechanic and tow truck driver from right out of high school until 2004,” he says. “I began my electrical apprenticeship in 2004 and became licensed in 2008 or 2009. Since then, I’ve worked in many roles in the electrical industry, slowly transitioning away from physical work into leadership.”
He also graduated from college. “I did eventually get a college degree by attending classes at night,” he says. “I figured it would help me grow in my career eventually. I learned video and audio production to make YouTube videos because it’s interesting and fulfilling to teach people en masse through video.”
His legion of followers is glad he did.
“Getting here was a hard-fought battle,” he says. “My goal is to make it easier for others to follow my path.”
