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Hello from Sunny Scotland

I started off in 1980 as apprentice Electrical fitter for Scottish Power at Kincardine Power Station (coal fired)

1984 Distribution Fitter Glasgow (11-33Kv)

1985-90 Electrical fitter Grid telecoms (Signaling and communications equipment)

kinda lost my way for a year then
1991-92 Approved Electrician varrious contractors both industral and domestic work.

1992- (present)Prison Officer HMP Glenochil
1999-2001 Electrician looking after all security systems in the prison
2002-05 Instructing inmates in the mantence and repair of whitegoods
2005-(present) Instructing inmates on basic electrical principles and construction wiring

Hobbies http://www.sen-no-kai.org.uk/

NC licensed since 1981 with overall 35 years experience in residential wiring, commercial wiring, electrical maintenance in local hospital, and local food industry.
Currently self employed, for the past 6 years. ( owner, secretary, accountant, sales rep., installer, etc. etc.....) I should be making big bucks for all them credentials Still learning. Appreciate all the input here at the forum. Steve

Alan,
Are you suggesting that we should have asked to start at the top on our job applications?.
IMO "serving your time" is a real qualification, look at all the poor treated apprentices through time.
First question at any interview I've been to, "where did you serve your time?."
Often the answer would get you the job.
Qualifications?.

Might as well put my two cents in this, although this really will date me. Started Television repair in 1973,
Electronic Engineering degree 1984
Started electrical apprenticeship 1988
Completed 1993 specialised in Commerical and industrial.
Started electrical designing for modular wiring in 2001 been doing that every since

Well, I’m not an electrician, but I have a long time interest in the field. I did the nuclear navy during the 1980’s, meandered thru various schools and electrical related jobs until I finished my BS in Electrical Engineering Technology in 1996. Since then it has been nuclear power plant robotics, metrology, semiconductor manufacturing, and pharmaceutical and medical device packaging.

I do not have my own business and I have the utmost respect for those of you who do make a go at it. I have lurked here for close to 5 years and have learned a HE** of lot.

Larry Coster

Don't take this the wrong way, but just 'serving your time' as an apprentice gives small indication of your skills, value, honesty, ambition, cleanliness, timekeeping, trustworthyness or any of the other things a prospective employer might like to see in the perfect job applicant, any more than a couple of years flipping burgers at MacDonalds. Valuable experience gained, oh yes! Potentially better than a man without papers, indeed yes, but a qualification? I must beg humbly to differ. Plenty of Old-Etonians residing At Her Majesty's Pleasure in jail will testify that having been there ain't the same as being good.

OK. Here's three [real] ex-apprentices of yore;
1. 'A', who joined my company, [ Alfred Herbert Ltd, Machine Tools of fond memory ], when I was in year 2 or 3 of my time, [ and who co-incidentally was a relative of my future wife to be ]. In 5 years of total incompetance he wrecked 3 machines, the most infamous of which was to put the table of a Stirk Planer, c/w half a ton of castings, straight into the Works' Ablutionary Facilities, ( taking our tea-swindle and my meat pie with it for good measure- unforgivable! ). He simply 'forgot' to replace the reverse stroke cam.
2. 'B'. Me. I've already described myself in these Forums, as a young person, by the epithet "Who was that idiot?".
3. Another of our apprentices, 'C', who won a coveted City and Guilds London Institute Gold Medal for Welding.

Now, we all duly got our 'papers' at the end of out time. No mention in them of my CGLI Distinction in Craft Practice Fitting and Machining, or Famous Gold Medals or of breaking the vise and all the teeth off the crown-wheel of a shaper with a badly-set toolpost or peppering the Turning Department with segments of a large unbalanced grinding wheel and frightening the bloody living-daylights out of yours truly.

Now, don't think for one minute that I am denigrating apprentices or the system in any way, nor indeed your good-self with 2 hard-earned sets under your belt. It was a hard road to trudge, I know that, earning a pittance with all your mates earning 'good money' drilling little holes in toothbrush-handles or stamping out thousands of scaffolding fittings on piecework, "flashing the cash" up the 'Palais' on a Saturday night. It gave us brilliant opportunities to learn real trade-skills, the latest techniques, go to tech., advance one's prospects etc., but in the end it was just 'experience', since what you got out of it was entirely up to you, whether you were properly time-served or a proper time-server.

No employer bases applicant selection just on the fact that you are time-served; and I don't care if it was Pratt and Whitney Aero Engines Inc. or Fred Karno's Auto Body-Bashers. He wants to see quality of experience, exams passed to show grasp of subject, [ even MacDonalds'employees can get Certificates in Public Hygiene ], relevance to the work-in-hand and committment, intelligence and perseverance in the form of some certs or diplomas if possible.

"Qualifications", [ as I said a 'moot point' so not, I'll admit freely, something set in stone ], are , to me, those certificates, diplomas, degrees, etc., that separate the 'wheat' from the 'chaff' and have, again IMO, to be qualitative- did you get a pass, get a credit or earn a distinction or fail miserably, ungraded? I doubt if there is an ex-apprentice still alive today who didn't get some opportunity to do 'day', 'block release' or 'evening' classes to get those valued 'Certs' or earn a 'License'. I still treasure mine- earned by tears, hard work and diligence. I'm proud of my Apprenticship Papers too, but they only really show that I stuck it out and finished the term of my sentence.

The days of chaining apprentices to the bench, so they don't run off to the fleshpots, are thankfully long gone. I must have missed that epoch by a couple of years at least!

Alan

Here's mine:

ND Contracting Masters #2387
12 years in the field
Work strictly industrial- new installs and maintenance.
Member of the IAEI.
Learned what little I know on the job.

Credentials? Who cares?

I have none.

I show up to work and do my job. I screw up sometimes. I like what I do and I try my best. I learn something every day. Those are my "credentials."

Peter

I used to fix them in a past life. When needed to the company would call me the state service manager which was kind of funny seeing as I lied at the interview and had never fixed a washing machine before then. Had a couple of "incidents" with gas dryers while working there.

Oh Well here goes.
I'm 63 now and started by holding flashlight for my older brother. We used to solder and tape connections back then.
1961 U.S. Navy Class A electricians mate school. 3 1/2 years shipboard electrician, LST.
Gave up on studying electronics when they said to forget the first year of classes on vacuum tubes because someone had invented transistors.
The worked for electrical transformer manufacturer (Jefferson Electric) in quality control.
Worked for two different elctrical supply houses, and three different contractors, from white paper ditch digging to stocking job trailers and pricing invoices.
Got certified as a 1 & 2 family inspector in Electric, Plumbing, Mechanical and Building when the certification test (NCPCCI) first became available (late 70's or early 80's) so I could inspect manufactured housing for HUD labeling.
Comleted college at 36 yrs with a BA in Business.
Passed local electrical licensing test and became the inspector.
Inspector duties used to include running the municipal elctrical department and maintaining traffic signals.
Shucked those duties off on the engineering department after 10 years and became just the inspector.
Was chairman of the state Electrical Inspectors Association. Still on the executive committee, ex-officio.
Took and passed the Block / Experior Master Electrician exam in 2000.
Have been the chief electrical inspector for the past 25 years and became certified throught the IAEI / NFPA program for certifying electrical inspector: hold Master level certificate number 138. There are less than 100 certified inspectors in the country. Only two of us in Indiana.
Still maintain all my certifications.
I've made proposals and even had some Code changes accepted over the past 20 years.
I'm a life member of the Moose and Mensa.
I write a bi-monthly column for Tom Henry's electricans news letter "The Informer" called Excerpts from an Inspector's Journal.

I love what I'm doing and still run into things I never saw before. I'm still learning. I am in awe of the uses and power of electricity. From lightning to LEDs.
Alan--