How did you get started?

[pierre]

I graduated from college and was working in my chosen endeavor when I met my wife. Her father was the Chief Electrical Inspector. He said to me that I could work less hours and make more money if I joined the electrical union.

Pierre

 

[ryan_618]

Re: How did you get started?

When I was 17 I was a carpenter. My brother was older than I and was an electrician. I soon realized that his checks were larger than mine, so when I turned 18 and was able to get licensed, I started doing electrical

 

[bennie]

Re: How did you get started?

Ryan: Now I really feel old. I'm 74 almost 3 times your age.

When I was 25 I was working at the Nuclear Site in the Marshall Islands.

When I was 50, I was at the South Pole.

 

[dave81]

Re: How did you get started?

I started right out of high school as a greenhorn I was 18. I'm 22 now and I still love my job I just love turning things on including lonely house wives jk. I think that this is the best trade it keeps you thinking and you always run into something new. I'm from chicago well about 30 miles west of and I'm pretty much a bungalo buster.

 

[mjf]

Re: How did you get started?

Iwas 20 years old when I got laid-off (along with 15 other guys) from an asbestos removal company that did not get a West Point annual contract renewed. My neighbor worked p/t for a licensed electrician who wanted an extra guy to dig a ditch from house to above ground pool. I worked for this guy for the next 4 years. btw my neighbor never worked for him again. I weighed about 135 lbs at the time and was broken in drilling joyce with a holehog. Much fun for the wrists!!!!!!!!!

 

[hurk27]

Re: How did you get started?

Ok when I was a brat ) "84". Been working in the trade ever since. with a short period of contracting until a bad car wreck :roll:

[ March 05, 2004, 12:40 AM: Message edited by: hurk27 ]

 

[caosesvida]

Re: How did you get started?

3rd generation electrican, I guess it runs in the blood. I was "unhappily" hossing around rolls of bx cable when I was 12, man was that stuff heavy. I remember one time my father had me cutting 4" rigid with a hacksaw, that was a long endeavor. I started my own bussiness in 83, went on to get *** . in hvac. Always a challenge, thats what I like about it.

 

[brian john]

Re: How did you get started?

Barely graduating high school and working at a gas station, a friend of mine told me of a job unloading trucks at a construction site. Never did unlaod many trucks, luckily this electrician grabbed me to help him "on the floors". That was July 5th 1970, by fall all the college kids had gone back to college and the boss aked me if I was staying or going. I was not sure so I said hell I have no were to go, guess I'll be an electrician. 34 years later.........here I am.

 

[tony_psuee]

Re: How did you get started?

Got out of HS and proceeded to try and find an easy way to make a lot of money. No luck, and several jobs later started going back to school. I had worked in construction and found it would be cheaper to go to college for a year than pay my "application fee" for an apprenticeship slot. Did it the hard way, was already married, with family and a mortgage. Six years later in 1995 I received my BSEET. I'm a second generation EE. My dad worked in defense/electronic warfare, I work in industrial/manufacturing.

Tony

 

[bthielen]

Re: How did you get started?

At the age of 30, recently divorced from my first wife and business partner, I decided to go back to school. The electrical related industry seemed to offer the best opportunity for future employment so I chose a technical institute program for automated systems maintainance. I was hired by my current employer in 1990. We build packaging machinery including casepackers, cartoners, shrinkwrappers, palletizers, and conveyors for world-wide markets. I have held positions as electrical assembler, field service technician, technical advisor, and now electrical designer where I am involved in design and redesign of our products. We work with relay logic, PLC programming, servo controllers, touchscreens, and just about any other electronic gadget our customers want us to employ. I also serve on our product safety committee, employee training, and was involved with implementing our employee purchase of our parent corporation.

I find my position challenging and rewarding although it can be quite frustrating at times.

Bob

 

[charlie b]

Re: How did you get started?

I went to Notre Dame on a Navy ROTC scholarship. My first Navy assignment was Nuclear Power School. I spent nine years on active duty, then moved to the Chicago area. I worked for a nuclear utility, and as a consultant to the nuclear industry, for the next fifteen years. I stepped away from nuclear when I moved to the Seattle area. Over the past four years, I have been performing electrical design for commercial, industrial, educational, military, and health care facilities.

The engineering consulting business has slowed down in recent months and years, at least in my area. What do you think, guys? Is 50 too old to try my hand as an electrician trainee?

 

[richwaskowitz]

Re: How did you get started?

What a great question! I knew at 6 years old, that electricity was going to be my carreer field. I read a lot of great books, worked for a few contractors part-time in the 70's, went off on my own for a few years, had a few trucks and a crew of as many as 7, got really interested in industrial controls (overhead crane reworks and such), got into controls design and field work, quit the business and got into automation engineering in 1985 and found my niche. I still maintain my master electrician's license in Michigan and do a little residential and light commercial work to keep up with things but my job is designing and commissioning PLC based automation systems primarilly in the auto industry. I am, however the go-to guy when it comes to code related qusetions so it helps keep me sharp on wiring and installation questions. This code forum was a great find and I intend to use it a lot!!!

 

[Ed MacLaren]

Re: How did you get started?

I wanted to be an auto mechanic, but my parents convinced me that there was a better future in electrical work.

Rural Electrification was under way in the early 50s and there was a shortage of electricians.
Took a one year electrical course at the local trade school at the age of 16.
On graduation day the instructor gave each of us the name of a local electrical contractor. I was hired that day and stayed there for 15 years.

Ed

 

[noxx]

Re: How did you get started?

Dropped out of college at 21 for lack of funds, worked through a few odd jobs and got offered a weeks worth of work helping a friends father with a re-wire.

Ten years later I think I sort of like this job, and I might stick around a while :roll:

 

[macmikeman]

Re: How did you get started?

I enrolled in the house wiring technical program at Lee County Vocational Tech. at Fort Myers Fla. Graduated April 1978. Worked in Fort Myers for 3 months(wiring houses) and saved enough money to buy a plane ticket to Hawaii. I never came back except for a few visits. I opened my electrical shop in 1984 and have been in buisiness since.

 

[mclain]

Re: How did you get started?

I guess I grew up in the electrical field. My father had an electrical contracting business. My three brothers and myself was the preferred work crew. After doing four years in the Air Force I got out of the electrical trade for a while and went into Industrial maintenance. When high interest rate (1980) shut down the plant I was working at I went to work as an electrician on an offshore drilling rig. I worked in the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska and California. For the last eighteen years I have been working overseas. I worked in the North Sea then went into Kuwait after the liberation and worked there until we caught the last flight out before the start of the second gulf war. I am now working in Chad, Africa. Due to the Internet and satellites I am able to post from Chad. I find the forum a great source of information. I have been encouraging the electricians working for me to log on to the forum, as it is a great source of information.

Don McLain

 

[gardiner]

Re: How did you get started?

I worked as a office equipment tech for ten years then in 1982 the company I worked for closed down. The only job I could find was running a forklift which I really didn't care for so one day about 1984 a friend of a friend who owned an electrial contracting company needed some help he said for about six weeks, I decided I'd do it even though I'd loose $3.00 an hour just to get away for the lift. Well his six weeks turned into six years when finally I left on my own to get away from construction and into plant Maintenance, which I stayed in until 4 years ago.

 

[tshea]

Re: How did you get started?

Joined the Marines--they said "YOU are an electrician." Worked various rewarding jobs while in the Corps. Became an instructor and taught while in service. After I got out I started business #1, sol dit, moved to Wis, worked for a contractor (who was a EE & PE)and bought the company from him. Started back in '75.

 

[charlie]

Re: How did you get started?

I got interested while helping dad wire our garage with K & T. Joined the USAF in 63, got electronics training (tubes, not solid state) and worked with nuclear weapons. Started designing transformers (design drafting) for Hevi-Duty Electric in Goldsboro, NC in 67. Started as an Asst. to Eng., Jr. for IPL in 69 and am still here. Along the way I worked part time with an electrician, took a Code class, and then the Block exam. Ran my own business for about five years until I ran into a divorce. Decided it was not worth it and folded it. I have since taught 3rd year apprentices for eight years (learned more than they did) and in 93 became a member of Code Making Panel 10.

Looking back from here, 50 doesn't sound too old to start anything. I am about 12 years your senior.

 

[ed downey]

Re: How did you get started?

I graduated from K-State in 93 (Construction Science & Management) and went to work for a large electrical contractor loved the work from day one. Learned early that if you know the NEC people will think highly of you and you will move up faster. Passed my master electrician test in 96. worked on a very large project that pretty much drained me mentally and physically so I decided to make a change in 2000 and work as an in house electrical consultant for a large general contractor. Now at night school working on my EE degree.