Did you spend your childhood collecting rocks? Maybe you had that one special pet rock, better than all the rest for reasons only known by you. Can you name over twenty different kinds of stones? Do you like to build things, like forts, sandcastles, and apartment complexes? Then read on, as we rock out to this guide discussing stonemasonry, one of the oldest and most necessary jobs human civilization has created (yay us).

No, not that boss. (Source)

A stonemason, simply put, is someone who works or builds with stones. This may be a little simplistic, but there are actually a variety of sub-fields and specialties within this versatile career (source). 

If you just want to smash things with a hammer, you're a quarryman. Stones for buildings are cut in a workshop by banker masons, and put into buildings by fixer masons. (P.S. This may come as a shock, but fixer masons also fix broken stones on buildings.) If you're more into fancy designs and neat sculpting, that's the job of the more artistically driven carver mason. And of course, if you own a stonemasonry company, you're known as the boss.

Each of these specialties comes with their own level of salary, but the basic range from apprenticeship to independence is $25,000 to $65,000, with the majority making in the $30,000+ range (source). The more manual your labor, and the newer you are to it, the less you're likely to make. However, since this is a building job, your quality of work will be what gets you the better-paying jobs in the future. So if London Bridge starts falling down, you really don't want to be the one who built it.

So, how does stonemasonry impact your life? You may not realize it, but every piece of stone work you see or walk on was smashed, cut, and laid by a professional stonemason. Those marble floors in City Hall―laid by stonemasons. That granite countertop in your parents' house―carved by stonemasons. 

Heck, even your rich aunt Abigail had to hire a stonemason or two to create the pathways that shape the peace garden in her backyard. The stonemason doesn't just get stones from a quarry, he or she cuts 'em, shapes 'em, makes 'em, and takes 'em, like some late-night infomercial.

Make no bones (or stones) about it, this is a physically intense job. You'll be working five or six days a week (often for more than eight hours) using your back, biceps, knees, and ankles all day every day. It can get very stressful on your body, especially as you get older. There's also the tools and heavy machinery that could easily take an eye, finger, or head if you're not careful. You ain't invincible, no matter how much YOLOing you do, and this job will prove that to you.

Yeah, that thing. (Source)

So why should you choose this job over something less stressful and work-intensive? Because if you build it, they will come. Being made out of stones, your work has the ability to outlast you by tens, hundreds, or even thousands of years. We don't know the names of the people who built the Parthenon, but we can still enjoy its beauty two thousand years later. 

Stonemasons helped revolutionize Europe during the Renaissance, and modern stonemasons continue to take construction forward into the next century. How's that for a hard sell?

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