Opinion: It’s Time to Change How We See Trade Careers

​For an industry that prides itself on powering the future, the data center sector still talks about talent as if it belongs to the past.

Mention careers in tech to a teenager or a parent and the mental image will be a lengthy and expensive stay in higher education.

The people who build, maintain, and operate data centers, remain invisible in the career conversation.

Electricians, cooling specialists, fiber technicians, facilities operators, and other skilled trades keep the cloud going, yet their roles are often treated as a fallback rather than a first choice.

This perception problem is a long term risk for the entire digital economy.

Data centers are not niche infrastructure. They are the backbone of the modern tech space, supporting AI, streaming, finance, healthcare, and national security. Demand is surging, yet the talent pipeline for hands-on technical roles is thin and undersupplied.

At the same time, millions of young people are being funnelled toward degrees that are expensive and oversubscribed… we’ve built a cultural narrative that rewards only degree level education, but overlooks the trade people who keep the whole thing running.

The irony is that trade roles in data centers increasingly offer what many graduates say they want:

•Strong pay

•Tangible impact

•Job security

•Clear progression

A skilled technician can, earn while learning, avoid significant student debt, and develop expertise that can migrate across industries.

So why the perception gap?

For decades, “trade job” has been advertised as second-best in many school systems and households. University became the default signal of ambition, with educators simply not understanding what modern data center work looks like. The result is a giant gap between perception and actual opportunity.

Another factor is visibility. Software companies market themselves brilliantly to young talent. Data centers, by design, are quiet, secure, and out of sight. You can’t aspire to what you never see. A teenager is far more likely to meet a social media manager than a data center technician, even though the latter may be earning more and working on mission-critical systems.

Improving perception requires much better storytelling and structural change.

First, the industry needs to treat employer branding for trade roles as seriously as it treats customer branding. Show the environments, the technology, the career journeys. Let young people see that these are high-tech, high-responsibility roles, not dusty backroom jobs.

Second, partnerships with schools and vocational programs should start earlier. Waiting until university age is already too late. Exposure in secondary school is essential. Via site tours, guest speakers, apprenticeships and internships, these companies can normalize DC careers as prestigious and future-ready. When a 16-year-old understands that they could work on infrastructure that powers AI or global platforms, the outlook changes.

Finally, leaders must genuinely value these roles internally. If technicians feel like second tier staff compared to corporate or software teams, it spreads like wildfire. If the culture treats operational expertise as strategic, the market will notice.

None of this is about diminishing degrees. Higher education has immense value. The point is optionality and alignment. A healthy ecosystem needs architects and operators, designers and builders. Right now, we are oversupplying one and undersupplying the other.

The data center industry sits at the heart of the modern economy. Its talent strategy should reflect that importance.

If we want a resilient digital future, we should start by rethinking who we invite to build it, and how early we bring the in to the industry.

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