ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area What Should I Do?

Another “Plan B” approach if you meet repeated reluctance and the “need experience” excuse is to work in a wholesale supply house for a year or two. That way you come to the jobsite knowing the materials, terms and sizes, and it’s a lot easier to learn the trade if you can easily identify components. In the past, I was assigned two guys that had been experienced counter men, and they [very unexpectedly] had the completion beat hands down. Very simply—they were able to make their employers money from day one, and—at least as importantly—make the training process much easier for me as a leadman. With increasingly complex ‘new-tech’ systems, that can only be more valuable these days.

Like others have said here, your own initiative in “off the job” learning can make a big difference in your advancement on the job.




[This message has been edited by Bjarney (edited 08-29-2003).]

["I am proud to report that today every one of them could buy a car wash."]

i should clarify my car wash statement.

to work in a car wash you need no experience. anyone off the street can buy one. but no one off the street can become an electrical contractor. it takes years of experience to become qualified and your wages during that period are probably not going to be any better than any other line of work. at least in my experience. (this area has few unions).

so the return on your investment of time would probably not compare favorably to spending that time in college studying something like engineering where the salary and working conditions would be generous in comparison. from day one through retirement. yes, some elec contractors make a lot of money but they would be the exception in my opinion.

on the other hand, not everyone is suited for office work. myself included.

As noted above yes the wages may be more at the car wash in the starting days, Two of our guys had finished the 2yr college and then went on to a four year apprenticeship program and received some cerdit for the college work. They did not go into engineering, but decided to go into contracting. They said that the college helped them understand how to operate a sucessful business. And yes, they admit is was tough in the starting days.

I'd love to have a 2 year school education on all those subjects DaveBinVa talked about. That was very good to read.

I'll share how I got started, because I saw other new apprentices get started off on the wrong foot and our electrical experiences were vastly different.

I bought two books on home wiring that were fun to read and which had great diagrams and pictures. They were something like $20 each. The presentation of the information made it so interesting and easy to absorb. One is a book published by Black & Decker called Home Wiring or something like that, and it's available at Home Depot. After I read and memorized that book and one other similar to it (a Home Depot Home Wiring book) cover to cover, I bought all the tools I thought I needed.

I knew how to wire 3-way switches, how circuits were wired, how to calculate amp loads, how to use all functions of my multi-meter etc. before I ever started working as an electrician. This gave me a heck of a rolling start compared to going in totally ignorant and waiting for somebody to tell me something, and it was much cheaper than school, but I'd love to have the schooling, don't get me wrong!

I went looking for a job and landed one the first place I went. Beginner's luck. Maybe they liked the fact that I read and memorized a couple of books. Maybe they liked the fact that I already had all the tools. Who knows? I'm just glad they hired me, I don't like applying for jobs.

They let me do work that was interesting and stimulating. I worked for 5 or 6 months, then was working on a grocery store renovation with a guy who was new to the trade. The foreman told us to go out back and carry some pipe in and stack it up. Both of us were apprentices. There were two huge piles of pipe secured in bundles with metal straps. I commandeered a forklift and a four wheeler and pushed the pipe up the ramp and through the building to the stacking location. The other guy said he had to carry pipe in all day long the day before, one or two at a time. He worked slowly and walked slowly. No motivation.

We talked. He had been a house painter until this job. I asked what tools he had for electrical. He said he didn't have any. I asked him if he read any books on electrical. He said no. I asked him if he knew anything about electrical, like how to wire up a receptacle, and he said no.

I went on to another jobsite and didn't see him after that until 6 months later. He was working at the same place I was working, but I was doing electrical and he was painting.

If you put nothing in, you'll get nothing out of it. If you don't learn something before you go in, they'll just have you digging ditches and carrying pipe for way too long before you get to do anything fun or interesting. Educate yourself in advance, there will be rewards in the future, and the work will be ten times more interesting.

So if you don't have enough money to go to school, you might want to buy that book, read and memorize it in two weeks, buy some tools and go for it. You might enjoy the work enough to make a career out of it. Any employer would appreciate that much initiative in a young man starting out.

JSM,

"Any employer would appreciate that much initiative in a young man starting out."

A head start always helps before you jump in.

Unload and bring in the pipe, I think all of us can remember that time in our life.