ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Too old to Apprentice?

Not to discourage you Wrangler but some negative things I've seen personally from older apprentices is:
1) The have a hard time taking direction or even advice from younger employees or supervisors, even if they have years of experience on them.

2) Some older apprentices don't know there place. Meaning you’re still an apprentice. Which means you are the one to dig, go in the attic, crawl in the crawl space, pull the wire, ect.
As long as you are dedicated and strive to learn the trade I'm sure you'll do fine

I know I would have a difficult time telling an older person to do this, do that, get this, and get that. I would have to predict that the first 2-3 years would be the most difficult. Making dumb mistakes is easier to take when you are younger. As you get older there is less leeway (sp?) to make dumb mistakes.

I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from getting into this trade, but these are a few of things I can see happening early on. Give 'em hell, and best of luck to you.

Thanks Guys for taking the time to give an opinion. You helped a lot.

I find that older helpers are easier to get to do the dirty work. The young kids give you this stupid look when you tell them to get in the attic!
Oh yeah and by the way, the dirty work doesn't stop when you become licenced. It's a clean trade but still a trade!

A lot of great info here.

I just want to stress what J_Erickson mentioned.

If your going into electrical construction be well aware you will be expected to work regardless of the weather conditions. No work no pay.

Many times it's great to be out in the fresh air, other times when it's 2AM and your at the 7 degree seashore running threaded conduit you start to question how much you like it.

Seriously this trade has been great to me, I like even with its tough times.

Another apsect to consider: work culture in the trades is a lot different than work culture in the office. The office system of paid "sick days" and "personal days" is non existant. You can take time to be sick or go to the dmv for a day but unlike in the office, you ain't gettin paid to do it. Office workers tend to use and abuse personal days for hangovers or to get 3 day weekends in or whatever.. that doesn't fly in the trades. Our "work" is actual *work* and it *needs* to get done- you won't be just a body at a desk killing time, and collecting a paycheck, you will be doing purposeful work that has a distinct beginning, middle and end. But the flip side of that is that you get all major holidays & weekends off, and the day begins before morning traffic and gets out before morning traffic.

Consider the cultural differences as well. I won't say its not as cushy or flexible as an office job, just cushy and flexible in different ways and in different places.

Never too old. I teach 3rd year apprentices and one of them will retire 3 years after I do. Since I'm 57, you can figure out her age. She evidently felt it was worth the effort. Her grade point average is 2nd out of eight students.

Until recently i was a third year apprentice with 5000 hours completed along with the required 375 hours of code class. I had a little less than a year and a half to go before I got my license. Although I nolonger work in the field Im 48 and had very little if any problems doing the work its self. Find a reputable contractor to work for and you should be fine. Just be aware there are more trip and falling hazards along with electrical shock than you can shake a stick at. I also found out that most contractors do not offer any kink of health insurance so this may be a issue if you have kids. Best of luck to you,
Steve

Have a 44 yr old "helper" (I am 56) who is old enough to have developed a good work ethic (he's a bull)and has become pretty helpful after 18 months in trade. Maturity is worth lots, and early 40's is YOUNG to a 56 yr old! Lots of good years left to give. He gladly takes orders and "lessons" from some of our twenty-something yr. old guys with 5 yrs experience. Going to night school for the classroom time needed for a license in this state, and taking that seriously as well. I'm sure there are some pride issues, but don't let that stop you...it's a very interesting (but physical) trade.

Had two individual's in my apprenticeship that was over 40.

One 48 other 46ish.

One dropped mainly cause he was too caught up that he was older then everyone and felt he knew it all because of that (I think when a 23 y/o master showed him up, really did it for him).

Other stuck it through.