Speaking at the annual meeting of Wall Street trade group, Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, in New York City on Monday, former NYC mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg offered some unusual and unexpected, career advice for high school seniors. Bloomberg advised graduates to consider becoming a plumber over going to college. Considering the current job market landscape, with technology making middle class professions significantly lower in pay, Bloomberg feels careers such as plumbing are even more important now. This advice seems especially unusual coming from Bloomberg, who attended both Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Business School.
“Today if your kid wants to go to college or become a plumber, you’ve got to think long and hard.” said Bloomberg. “If he’s not going to go to a great school and he’s not super smart academically, but is smart in terms of dealing with people and that sort of thing, being a plumber is a great job because you have pricing power, you have an enormous skill set.” he said.
“You could pay $50,000 to $60,000 a year to Harvard or you could make that much as an apprentice plumber.” he continued.