When Devon Redmond graduated from Dunbar Vocational High School, he had no idea what the next stop on his career path would be. He’d held jobs before but didn’t consider any of them to be long-term career options. Then at age 25, a friend convinced him to try plumbing. Redmond admits that he had never considered the trades before. But he was encouraged to pursue plumbing after seeing how it had enabled his friend to maintain a comfortable lifestyle and take care of his family. “I didn’t know what I was getting into. I was super green and didn’t have any experience in the field at all,” he says. 

Things got off to a slow start for Redmond, who says he felt more like a laborer than a plumber in the beginning. “You come home and try to tell yourself that you’re a plumber, but you’re not doing any plumbing,” he says. But he eventually got his chance. Redmond recalls being in charge of a floor on a project as one of the first times he felt like a real plumber. “I felt like I was doing something,” he says. “It was important to the job, and it was on me to get things right.”

Now that he’s working consistently in his field, Redmond says he’s enjoying the opportunity to learn a valuable skill that he can pass down to future generations of his family. He admits the last five years have taught him that there is much more to plumbing than fixing clogged sinks and toilets. “I only pictured the kitchen and the bathroom, but there are so many other avenues,” he says. “It’s a skill that can carry you places,” he says. 

Redmond says he’s proud to be a plumber and encourages anyone who is thinking about getting into the trades to pursue it without hesitation. He says he’d love to see more people of color entering the field, and feels the information should be more readily available to people in the inner cities. “No one from the union is coming to our neighborhoods to tell people to come in and apply. I think the numbers [of people of color in the trades] would be way higher if more people knew,” he says. 

Looking ahead, Redmond wants to be able to bring in much-needed resources to give young men in his community access to homework help and recreational activities. “There isn’t enough funding for after school programs and rec centers. Those things are needed,” he says.