What is the professional, well-paying equivalent to a factory worker?

First, you should probably read this article and its second part, which argues the benefits of blue-collar jobs over white collar.

Here is a list of “professional” jobs that are more physically active:

Camera Operator
Underwater Welder
Ship’s Pilot
Field Robotics
Fire Fighter
Paramedic
Crime Scene Technician
Field Biologist

Many blue-collar folks earn a heck of a lot more money than a desk jockey. If you own your own business or partner with someone, your income can easily hit 100K a year.

A friend of mine was a Shakespearean scholar, English major and graduated summa cum laude. He went into home-improvement/renovation to take a break before going into graduate school, did his own work, and was so good that within 1 year, he had to hire 3 people to work for him. Then, within 8 years he was working on multi-million contracts in a 6-state area. He loves his job. I’m in a professional job and still haven’t cleared 40K, even with 12 years of education. Moral of the story: if you really love hands-on work and are that good at it, don’t knock the pay just yet.

Welcome to Fluther! :)

RE answer above: developing a building contracting business, you have to be good at doing some of the work [carpentry, masonry, electrical] both to get the hands-on activity and to earn the respect of your works so you can get good work from them. Lots of of jobs that involve THINGS and EVENTS, such as being an architect [which has a mixture of desk and field], or something in film [directors don’t sit around on their butts all the time], designing exhibits, being an antiques buyer for the rich [with lots of European and other foreign travel, dickering in flea markets, walking around looking].

A fraternity brother of mine, after getting his degree, became a precision machinist for some local companies that needed a good hands on person to create prototypes. He’s done very well, and still gets his hand on the equipment everyday.

Two areas that get all the business they can handle are appliance repair and handyman/small house repairs.

And of course there are a lot of “green” collar jobs opening up. Solar panel installation, wind power maintenance, house retro fitting.

So when job hunting, find your bliss!

Machinists usually make decent money. Median income for someone at my level is just under $40k, and the better/more experienced ones can earn far more; think $50+/hr. Even starting wages for a marginally-trained, no-expereince n00b are $15+/hr

You like a little thinking? Programming? Designing a fixture?
How about moving heavy objects, cutting metal, and occasionally just breaking shit?

Oh wind power. A friend from the Smithsonian left to go into that and loves it. Lots of exciting open-air work and some risks [he witnessed a death of a coworker who I think fell from a wind turbine he was working on]