ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Linework as a Career?

John,
Sorry to come into your topic so late in the piece, but I was actually trying to think of what is good about my job.
{Don't take that as a negative thing, but, I'd never actually thought about it, very hard before}
OK, I'd already served an apprentice-ship with the PoCo as an Electrician, before I was asked if I would like to undertake a Line-Mechanics (Lineman) apprentice-ship.
Personally, you tend to get a wee bit (not much) more respect if you already have qualifications in the Electrical Trades.
In fact, I lost 1000 hours off of my Linemans Apprentice-ship and started on a better rate of pay too, as opposed to a guy coming in off of the street.
John, line-work as I see it, is more mechanical than electrical,(not to say that electrical integrity of a grid is not important) you can make the best connections in the world on your lines, but if the poles and insulators won't take the strain, that could be classed as mucking up.
I've jotted down a few good points about my job:

• You get to work outdoors, nothing worse than being cooped up on a nice day.
• Being part of a good team of workers that know what they are doing when it matters.
• Line-work keeps you fit, I no of no Line workers that have a Gym subscription.
• At the end of the day, you can (or should be able to) see what you've done, in the form of a set of new lines and poles.
• You get to learn how to use a whole new set of tools.
• Oh and the money isn't that bad either.

However John, it's not all beer and skittles though, here are some of the bad things:

• Hieghts- If you aren't keen on hieghts, line-work aint your cup of tea.
  The image of guys working way up in the air is a real one, especially only on a pole belt to prevent you from falling.
• Believe me mate, Line-work is very hard yakka(work), besides the fact that we often have things like Insulated Bucket trucks and Hydraulic gear for lifting, you will be required to lift or pull heavy equipment.
• You get to work outdoors- All year around and the only thing that will prevent this, is a serious thunderstorm, if it threatens your part of the network.
• Call-outs at all hours of the night can strain relationships and it makes you tired the next day too.
• You are expected to work as normal regardless of the weather, time of day, everyone in the team is expected to play thier part.
• Everything is larger with Line work and requires more force to move, bend and tighten things.

John don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to scare you away from this, I'm just saying it as I see it.
One thing you have to be sure of, is that you want to do this, you can't enter a Trade like this with a half-hearted attitude, you have to want it!.
Just to quote the other John in this thread:
Like a worker here that caused 19 loose Neutral connections in the same street here, because of bad crimps.
Big John, if you have any other questions, please fire away!.

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 07-12-2005).]