Maybe just a FNG question, but thought it might be worth askin'...

Seen several mentions in other posts about occupations other than electrical (i.e. Fire Service), and it makes me wonder...what do you folks do other than the electrical biz? Which one do you consider your "primary" or "secondary" occupation?

To lead it off, I've been a full time Firefighter / Paramedic (24/48) for a suburban department outside of Chicago for 8+ years. I consider it my "primary" job, since I've been doing it longer, and I'm building a pension at it. Electrical work takes place on my "off" days.

On the flip side, my foreman is a Lt. on our volunteer dept., and considers electrical to be his F/T gig. No hard feelin's or conflicts, as the combo works well for the shop. (We're too small during slow periods for 3 F/T'rs, and they know I have another source of income)

Just curious.

Doug

I do EMS

Doug, off the subject but relevent to your status, save yourself some grief and drop the FNG title.

Roger

The electrical work is a sideline here.

Full-time gig is as an electronic instrument designer for an environmental engineering lab. Lots of long-term field installations of water quality and meteorological stations, as well as the design and construction of specialized instruments that we cant purchase commercially.

The field installations often involve either photovoltaics/inverters or utility power to run the equipment, so my employer actually paid me to get my electrical license a few years back, so they would have someone on staff, and not have to hire out the power wiring.

So they got their in-house electrician, and I developed a decent weekend/evening business doing mostly residential work.

My main work is in electronics: Radio, TV, telephone etc. The electrical wiring is part-time, as and when anyone needs my services in this rather quiet, rural area.

Electrician 24/7 I guess I should start looking for a second job.

While we are on this subject, what is the relationship between firefighter/rescue workers and electricians?

It seems the majority of electricians I know that have two careers are firefighters.

Electrician 24/7, work full time for my employer, plus I have my own small business.

I work as the E & I technician for a chemical company. With 23 years here, I have plenty of vacation, all but which about 1 week goes to working my electrical business.
Fortunately, I can take my vacation in 1/2 days. So it allows me to operate the business to some extent during the daytime.

electrician by trade .city electrical inspector occupation with building and accessibility responsibility. PEACE

[This message has been edited by GEO (edited 06-18-2003).]

[This message has been edited by GEO (edited 06-18-2003).]

Sr. Electrical Designer by day...
Lead guitar player at night.

you know what they say ... "all work and no play..."

Daytime job, electrical installation engineer
(i consider this to be my main job)

but at weekends (daytime) i repair motorcycles,(as i belong to an MC club)

weekend evenings i am a nightclub doorman.

just like to add that the correlation between my part time jobs is its all a good laugh,

iwire posted:

Well, they are both called Sparky in parts of the country.

Operations manager for a large Data Center by day. Lots of wires and HVAC.

Electrician by night and weekends.

Electrical contractor is my full time thing, and I took a position as an electrical inspector for two days a week to see the other side of the fence. May be a thing to do if & when I "retire".
Also, have a part time (evenings) instructors position at the County Vocational School, Adult ED, or Continuing Ed teaching various electrical trades courses.

My free time, I like to spend on my boat, weather permitting. The "season here in NJ is April to mid October, so ya got to take it when you can.
John

computer repair by day.
general contractor all the other times.

Full time equipment repair for gasoline dispensing equipment and other stuff related to gas stations
On the side I like to Eat Drink and be Merry, life is too short

I fixed my own A/C compressor last night. Does that count? Well, it was an electric wire that corroded off, so I guess not.

All my income comes my my electric business. I like to work my investments in the stock market, but that's not a job, its an adventure!

I used to work days in maintainence at a wire making plant,and nights and weekends doing residential.

Now,electrical,plumbing,or digging with a small trackhoe 8 or 10 hrs. a day,5 or 6 days a week is all I can stand.

Don't "need" as much as I used to.


Russell

My first job is an AHJ here in NJ and that takes up more than 50 hours a week. My second job is hanging around BB's like this and discussing code. (Maybe I should get a new life? LOL) NAW! I would miss you guys on this BB.


HE

Harold,

We'd miss you too ..


Bill

I'm a software engineer at a test equipment company. I'm not a licensed sparky, but am one of the few around here (other than our facilities electricians) who know enough about code to design the AC power distribution boxes for our larger testers...

/mike

I'm an industrial maintenance electrician on 3 shift, work as a small residential/light commercial contractor on evenings & weekends. Also can't forget the "honey do "list either.

i work as electrican for main job and second job is diesel mechanic i work all size from little single chugger to moster 16 to 24 cylinder engines and few other handy trade as need to keep me busy and spend some time here to trade tips and help other sparkys as we work together

merci marc

Wife/mom 24/7, communications and project controls analyst by day, and surfin' queen/info junkie the rest of the time with a penchant for projects (woodworking, crafting, sewing, gardening, etc) and volunteering.

I work for a warehouse as a full time electrician, then have my own business on the side which keeps me busy! Of course the wife also is a good foreman in case I get LAZY!

Working every 3rd day as a firefighter for the past 13 years, and the off days trying to build a business to pick up where the pension will leave off. 50% after 20 years won't pay off a 30 year mortgage.

The fire salary pays the bills right now and is steady with benefits for the family. However, it's getting tougher to keep everyone happy and on schedule. It's amazing how that one day can mess up a schedule. I am already using vacation time to do the electric work. My wife wants a second truck on the road within the year. My concern is having someone counting on me to put food on their table. I am just happy to be busy.

Electrician 25hrs per day...lol, i use to enjoy playing music but now i have let that go due to the demands of my company.

Funny how many fire fighters work in this field. Two of my employees are fire fighters, each on a seperate shift. It works out well for me and them. I think the rest of my crew wants to get on at the fire house for the benefits..lol

arseegee,
It is quite strange how many Electricians are also Fire-Fighters.
I think it's the "Hands-on" thing that draws us all to it.
Being a Fire fighter myself, I just got into it, purely to help people, and it's really satisfying too and to think that at one time I got paid for it too!.
Marc,
I never knew that you were a Diesel Mechanic!, you guys rule!!.
Roger,
What does FNG mean, by the way?, if I may ask?

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 06-20-2003).]

Trumpy,

The language that the initials stand for would not be appropriate here.

Bill

Fat Nasty Goof

just kidding Bill!!!!!!

The originator is just using it to mean (ahem ahem) New Guy.

Bill,
I get your drift.
I hate it when people use profane terms like this!!!!!.



[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 06-21-2003).]

The side of what?

I think that term originated in Vietnam as a way to describe someone who was green to combat.

A builder I work for,who is a Vietnam vet has used that term before as a term for someone who doesn't know his trade well.

When a job gets close to completion,he refers to it as being "short" the term used in Vietnam to describe how much time was left on your tour.

I've heard him say" I'm so short on this one I could trip over a dime".

Russell

Hello From South Dakota!!

Electrician, Father, and Husband 24/7 - 365.
Woodland Firefighter, fisherman, and craftsman.

Just a thought, but it may be that we all have the inherant knowledge to be "our brothers keeper", and "to care for the earth", and that is why we have so many firefights in this trade.

Jon

Husband of 1, Father of 2 young uns, Part time inspector of 2 towns, back up inspector of 1 town, try to put on the tools occasionally for small jobs to keep up on my skills and for the quick money. Other than husband & father it is all side stuff! I like to relax at the family cabin by the lake in Maine, with my family.
Rick

(with apologies to Bill...please delete if this is not appropriate here...)

I know this is not the right place for this, but...Has anyone heard or seen anything of Sparky66'WV (aka Virgil)? Haven't seen him around in a long time. I hope all is well with him!

Mike (mamills)

Whoa...Lotta replies! Thanks to everybody for the feedback. It's nice to get background.

It does seem that there are a lot of FF's in this biz. I suppose that a lot of FF's were in the trades before they got "on the job". It's good to have the background about hw buildings are put together when they're in the process of coming apart!

I'm reminded of a story involving a telemarketer who called the house one evening, trying to sell vinyl siding for my brick tudor or some such...

Let the guy go through his intro, and stopped him, saying "thanks, but Im a firefighter"

The guy, a little flustered, said "well, that's great sir...we're proud that you're serving and protecting, and we finance anybody!"

"You've never dealt with a firefighter before, have you?"

"Uh, no"

"Mot of us work trades on the side. As an example, I'm an electrician on my days off. I work with two generals, three plumbers, two drywaller, four painters, a glazier, a painter, two roofers, and four carpenters. When we work for each other, if it's not for beers, we charge about ten bucks an hours and parts money."[ ]

"So, uh, you could probably beat any bid we could come up with"[ ]

"By a significant margin"

"Have a good evening" [ ]

Hi All, Great Topic

Plant Electrician for a local water company for the first 8 hours. Handling systems from 26,000v to 24v DC. Then operate my own Electrical Contracting / HVAC business the rest of the day.

Then I go into hubby mode with my wonderful and very understanding wife, then take care of the honey do list and play with my 2 little ones.

I would love to voulenteer to join the local Fire Department. As I'm sure you can see there is no time.

I really admire you FF's. I know I would be a great FF but I need to be a great dad first.

Living in NJ and with my wonderful bride staying home with the kids really puts a big burdon on the finances. Hence here I go back to work!! LOL!!

Just one note about the relationship between Electricians and FF's... I think it has a lot to do with the NFPA... I wonder if you will see a lot of sprinkler fitters also associated with the Fire Departments, Just a thought..

Have Fun Guys and Gals!!

Joe

I'm an electrical contractor 24/7, but if I get any "free time"... LOL, yeah right. I have to make that time, otherwise it wouldn't happen! My favorite pass time would have to be off-road driveing, be it in my lifted, big tired diesel one ton 4x4 truck, or out riding my 4-wheeler (atv) when I can. I do my best to give some time to comunity service when I can, I volenteer about a week every spring to a youth leadership group, and also try to educate others on responcible offroading.
ElectricWonder

I fish...Therefore I sometimes swear...S

DougW,
I wouldn't necessarily say that Volunteer Fire-fighting is done "on the side", I have been both a Volunteer and a Career(Paid) Fire-fighter.
And I just love the dedication and comrade-ship that comes from a Volunteer Fire Brigade(Department in the US), regardless of wether you are Full-Time or Part-Time, makes no difference, you are serving your community,and that's all that matters!
My Boss knows that, if my pager goes off, I have to be at the station, no worries and we regularly have a Dinner put on at a number of local restaurants, to say thanks for letting us attend these incidents, but,they know we are providing this service and I quite often, get paid, even though I am attending a Fire Call, it's all about working in together!!.

i'm a soon to be electrician and i have been a webmaster for about 6years now. i do web design work and also run some websites. i will continue to do the webmaster thing even after i become an electrician.

Trumpy:

No offense meant to our volunteer brethern at all. I'm still an Engineer on my VFD (14 years this August), despite working 24/48 for the City.

I know that being a "career" firefighter doesn't automatically make you a "professional" simply by virtue of it being your primary source of income. I've known a lot of volunteers who conducted themselves more professionally than some paid guys.

Mom and I had an interesting debate after I was late for dinner (the first of many times) due to a call. Her comment? "It's not like you're doing it for real".

My rebuttal: "Fire doesn't care if you're career or volunteer, new or old, wear yellow or black. Fire just wants to burn. Besides which, if we weren't doing it for "real" why would (our hometown career department) call us for help at every fire they go to?"

Be Safe!

heh~ you know as well as anyone Doug, that look in the eyes of those who wait out our response times.....

I work full time for a large gov't facility as a planner/Estimator. I also have a part time Electrical contracting company, which I operate.
Very busy with a great wife and 2 kids. Its amazing how busy we get and try to balance everything out. I had a carpenter tell me a long time ago, that you need 1 day a week to "put it all together". That being, not working Sundays if I can help it. It helps balance life