How to become an electrician

[michael4244]

All this electrical debating has got me thinking, im 6 yrs from retirement from my civil service job, (no i do not want to stay a day longer)and i'll be 46 when that day comes...

how can i get into the electricians field of dreams now???
where do i start? i know its a long way to go but i dont particularly care to push papers for pennies either when im done ...

 

[inndee500]

Re: How to become an electrician

get hired by a contractor and become a helper and then work under an electrican and pay attention

 

[infinity]

Re: How to become an electrician

Originally posted by inndee500:
get hired by a contractor and become a helper and then work under an electrican and pay attention

I would add that you should receive some sort of formal education relating to the electrical trade. Be it an apprenticeship program or an evening trade school. The electrical trade is ever changing and becoming more and more complicated. Some form of formal education will help you to better understand the reasons why we do things and how codes and standards affect the electrical trade. This will also greatly help if you choose to become licensed at some point in your career.


Trevor

 

[wyatt]

Re: How to become an electrician

I hope they don't pee test at your civil service job, but it isn't all a field of dreams
The field can be real muddy especially when your up to your belt digging in the slab work. Its a long road from start to dreams. but a good job if you got the stay power to stick with it.

[ February 19, 2006, 09:08 PM: Message edited by: wyatt ]

 

[haskindm]

Re: How to become an electrician

Although you are certainly not too old to become an electrician at 46, are you willing to work for near minimum wage until you are eligible for Journeyman or Master status? As others have said the electrical trade can be very lucrative, but you need to get your experience first. While you are getting that experience you may be asked to do some very dirty, uncomfortable, nasty jobs. Rough wiring a house with no windows in a snowstorm is a memory that stays with me, wading in mud up to my knees to put in under-slab work. The grass is not always greener on the other side.

 

[lanowets]

Re: How to become an electrician

Michael, depending on your background and the state you live in you definitely need some sort of educational training. I would recommend checking with your states labor department and see what the prerequisites are and/or if you already have the qual's. The educational portion can come from a lot different soruces. I would recommend a state approved apprenticeship and try getting hired with a contractor that is a member of the IEC (Independent Electrical Contractors) and/or if your lucky you can find a GOOD minority contractor as well. The reason i say this is because 9 times out of 10 they will always have work.

Good luck

 

[jimwalker]

Re: How to become an electrician

Why not pick something better like an easy job at home depot that offers a retirement plan. While it pays low to start they can do ok and lot easier work.Your looking at about 5 years to get anywhere near what big orange can pay.20 years ago i would say go for it.Whats happening now is minorities get hired first because the good old gov pays part of wages.Do a lot of thinking first.

 

[charlie b]

Re: How to become an electrician

I have deleted two posts that contained comments (favorable or unfavorable, it did not matter) on the subject of unions and non-union work. That subject is not permitted to be discussed on this Forum.

 

[ramsy]

Re: How to become an electrician

On Feb. 19 & 20, 2006, I witnessed the most egregious act encounted in public commerce. This occured in Mike Holt's "Electrical Contracting and Estimating/Management" forum, after a topic Titled: "Help, I got smoked" was posted on Feb. 18th.

This entire topic regarding industry practices was halted by user/moderator ryan_618, and then completely deleted along with three separate and carefully written speeches that used the most appropriate language, and civility between opinions. Similar personell-management issues were discussed throughout this forum and this was by no means unusual, libel to myself, or to Mike Holt's Statitory Immunity. (Charlie moved this link here)

This arbitrary act of sensorship was disturbing on another level. Because the purged speeches addressed a questionable industry practice, at least one speech could be federally protected wistle blowing, also common to public domains. This sensorship not only violated everyone's first amendment rights, it injured the ability to communicate with qualified persons within that public domain; it may also contribute to an obstruction of justice, if not aiding and abetting illegal business practices by sensoring this speach within this public commerce.

Whether we agree on what type of moderation is best for Mike Holt's forums, or if similar fear and intimidation works well in the trades, including ours, most community experience and tallent won't tollerate this kind of sensorship before discourangement sends them packing.

After giving a lot of my time researching obscure standards and product listings for nothing in return, my first request for Help was met by those who could not speak, after being arbitrarily sensored and shut down.

If there is any doubt of my position on this treatment, before my current user account gets involuntarily scrubed, my will and testiment claims all speech accompanied with my current user name is to be replaced by the "Withdrawn" placeholder, which will accurately represent the sensored skeleton this forum has become.

[ February 23, 2006, 08:16 PM: Message edited by: ramsy ]

 

[charlie b]

Re: How to become an electrician

Originally posted by ramsy: This arbitrary act of sensorship (sic) was disturbing on another level. Because the purged speeches addressed a questionable industry practice, at least one speech could be federally protected wistle (sic) blowing, also common to public domains. This sensorship (sic) not only violated everyone's first amendment rights, it injured the ability to communicate with qualified persons within that public domain; it may also contribute to an obstruction of justice, if not aiding and abetting illegal business practices by sensoring (sic) this speach (sic) within this public commerce.

Anyone who wishes to express an opinion on any topic whatsoever is certainly free to do so. Anyone who wishes to "blow the whistle" on a "questionable industry practice" is certainly free to do so. But nobody has the right to walk down a street and enter each house, in turn, without knocking, at 3:00 in the morning, step into the living room, and begin speaking out. Nobody has the right to walk into a church in the middle of services, step up to the podium, take the microphone from the presiding minister, and begin speaking out. Nobody has the right to stand in the middle of a busy city street, and begin speaking out. Nobody has the right to log onto an Internet site that exists because one man has paid the costs of setting it up and maintaining it, and in violation of that man's expressed wishes, begin speaking out on a topic that he has forbidden to be discussed on that Forum.

"Free Speech" does not mean "freedom to speak anywhere, anytime, under any circumstances." It means that you have the right to speak. So if you want to discuss topics that are forbidden here, and the topic of "union versus non-union" is among them, then go find another venue. Try the newspapers. Try some other Internet site. Try picketing in front of some public building (take care of the trespassing laws). The last time I was in Chicago's O'Hare Airport, they had a booth in the public area for the use of anyone who wishes to speak out, or to hand out flyers, and you could try there.

 

[bthielen]

Re: How to become an electrician

Excelent response, Charlie!

One HUGE misconception in this country seems to be that our "Bill of Rights" somehow guarantees us the right to do what we want, whenever we want. This is so not true. Our rights are only extended to us until we get to the point of infringing on another person's rights. We also seem to have this dilusion that anyone that is in business, whether it be a retail outlet or internet site, is public domain. We keep forgetting that when we enter a business establishment, in most cases we are entering private property.

Bob

 

[iwire]

Re: How to become an electrician

Originally posted by bthielen:
Excelent response, Charlie!

Ditto.

Bill Of Rights

Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Now I am not a lawyer by a long shot but it looks to me that applies to the Government, I see nothing extending it to private parties.

Most newspapers publish editorials from the readers, does that mean if I write an editorial that they must publish it.

No not at all, they can pick and choose as they see fit, they can even intentionally create a bias if that is what the owners of that newspaper want.....THAT is freedom of speech.

Mr Holt has the freedom to run his forum how he sees fit.


Beyond all that, look at the name of this forum.

It is a forum about the NEC, not about politics.

Surely there are forums on the web that you can talk politics why try here?

 

[celtic]

Re: How to become an electrician

Let's not forget we are "guests" at Mike's party...Ryan (and the other moderators) are the equivolent of security. If you can't abide by the rules on your own, you'll get a little help.

I'm sure we have all the signs at 7-11, restaurants, bars and amusement parks:
MANAGEMENT RESERVES THE RIGHT TO RESERVE SERVICE

...be in the real world or the 'net - same principle applies.

 

[tom baker]

Re: How to become an electrician

ramsy
This site is hosted and the hosting paid for by Mike Holt.
We follow his rules.
there are other sites where you can express your opinon.
If you want to set up a web site and host it, then you can set your own rules. Keep in mind the Mike Holt web site is the #1 rated electrical web site in the world.
Let us know when you get you site set up.

 

[ryan_618]

Re: How to become an electrician

I've been out of town all week teaching, so I missed most of this. I would like to say thanks to those who had my back during this nonsense.

I agree with the others. If you don't like it here, please feel free to leave. If you do like it here, like many of us do, please follow the rules of the forum, and let us continue to have the #1 electrical related site in the world.

 

[growler]

Re: How to become an electrician

First let me say I like the site and don't want to break any rules. But I would like to ask a question after reading the responses to the original post. Why does everyone assume that construction is the only industry to employ electricians? This is the only one that requires a license but the electrical trade is very broad. There are maintenance electricians ( technicians ) that know very little about the construction industry, maybe never have opened a code book but they make decent money ( machine controls ). I talked to an automotive electrician that was making close to $30 an hour for hooking up diagnostic equipment to BMW's and replacing wiring harnesses ( you have to admit it sounds better than digging ditches ). So if someone is 40 years old and has an interest in electrical work with 6 years to retirement I would suggest night time enrollment in a technical college. When I was in school there were many retired military people there and I don't think any of them ended up in construction. Hospital maintenance or hotel maint. One of the guys that I ran into a few years later is a technical writer for a large corporation. He has never pulled his first wire but he writes the manuals telling others how to install and maintain equipment. He just need to familiarize himself with the terminology so he could understand the engineers. There are companies out there that hire people just to wire control panels ( heated and air conditioned buildings with better pay than Home Depot and better working conditions ).

 

[bthielen]

Re: How to become an electrician

I agree, Growler. Michael4244's idea of a "field of dreams" may be entirely different from you or I. From personal experience, I had barely any idea what electricity was until at age 28 I decided to enroll in an automated systems maintenance program at a local technical institute. I graduated at age 30 and am still working for the same company that hired me from that school. I have been fortunate for many opportunities ranging from starting out as an electrical machine assembler then getting into program debubbing, field service, and now machine design. It's been a rewarding and challenging career for me.

Bob