ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Son of Sparky

Just got his J-man ticket, passed 1st shot.

So we've another sparky in the family (which are all stocking up on candles) .....:) It's interesting from a perspective of mid 80's to be part of a 'millenia' (sp?) coming to fruition.

(iirc , there was a trade rag article recently)....

But it's the #'s that really get me, around 10-12 4th yr grads in '16 looking to test, as opposed to 10X's that in my day

Is it worth it ?(I've been reading you Reno) ....you tell me

~S~

I think there is plenty of opportunity in the sparky biz but the people who can move up will know about big copper and bending pipe but they also need to be computer literate because big switch gear is going to have a computer running it. The closer you get to the end user, the more computers you are going to see.
Remind the hard core geeks, the computer is just blinking lights until you can connect it to serious amps and get some work done. The money will be for that guy who can stand in both worlds and keep them hooked together and humming.

~s~:

First, congrats to Son of Sparky!

As Greg said, those coming into the trade have to keep up with the NEC, and keep up on technology which is moving fast.

Another suggestion, think about getting inspector credentials 'in your wallet' for when you get tired of the tools and/or the hassles of running a business.

Yeah he did well , and i found that article



I agree with you gentlemen on 'keeping up', i would encourage considering a 'trade niche' of some sort, seems to be a lot of them growing in popularity these days.

And i hold an IAEI cert HotOne , i'm even back to attending meetings @ the Green Mountain chapter , only 50 odd members in the whole state......:(

I'm unsure if i'd be good on your 'side of the fence' or not , but i will say that if there's fewer AHJ's, there'll be fewer EC's , so albeit sounding somewhat self serving, i am supportive.....

I'm waiting for my young man to get carded , maybe tip off my ahj ahead of time , get 'his work' inspected while i go off for a coffee ...:)



~S~

~s~
FWIW, heard from a lot of guys, something to the effect of
"a good inspector comes from good sparkies, both j-men and ECs"

Congratulations Steve and to your son.
There is nothing nicer than the smell of a freshly printed ticket.
I have to agree with the comments of Greg though, gone are the days of an Electrician, merely pulling wires and hooking them up, that was OK back in the day, these days the Electrician needs to be more savvy.
I've found that in the years that I've been involved in the Electrical trade here, you have to be much more than an installer, you need to do the little intricate things like PLC's, smart relays, and all the relay and control stuff that we always did.
These days though, we are required to do all sorts of things with apps (where smart-phones control this, that and the next thing), customers require this, as a turn-key option.
Those that can embrace that and pick up the ball and run are going to be the ones that make the money.