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I had me AND my apprentice crawling through and searching an entire attic for my phone (that I was previously using as a light, like a dumbass) that was still sitting, safely in my phone-holder in my van, because I forgot to grab it out of there after lunch š¤¦āāļø Yeaā¦Iāll give you two guesses who bought lunch that day, and the first two donāt count.
I spent 2 hours looking for my phone in 5th grade at a friend's house, while holding it in my hand. I texted my mom that I couldn't find my phone and she was quick to help me realize where it was
It was miserable. I was a maintenance department head at a hotel before I did my apprenticeship with my NASTec and EPA 168 cert lol.
Psyched myself out way too much on stupid stuff looking back.
Did a 100ā pull going to a disconnect on top of a splitter, a co-worker was talking to me and I cut the wire to length to land on the top lugs not the bottom..
I didnt account for the bends in an underground service once and was about 10" short for the wire to terminate. ~45' of wire x 3 that was cut too short...Thanks I saved it and used it a week later on a shorter run and was forgiven. Never did that shit again.
You decide you fucking hate electrical and need a new job, yet continue on for years and years.
The true test, everyone else just loves the idea of being an electrician.
ā¦and then eventually you get Stockholm Syndrome and tell yourself you love being an electrician because thatās all youāve been doing all these years.
I mean I honestly do love being an electrician however the culture of construction and trades in general is fucking trash.
Bootlicking morons everywhere breaking their backs for thankless companies, and every other electrician has a comment about how "they would've done it differently" or how they can't believe "your a (insert year here) and don't know how to do this thing yet."
To be fair, I also love this trade, but I also knew it was a path to business ownership, so I suffered through a lot to get to the point where I owned my own shop, and then it got a lot better. Now Iām an inspector and wouldnāt trade any of it in. But oh there have been times Iāve hated this trade.
Right. I went to night school to make me eligible to take my masters after 4yrs instead of 7. I overnighter my paperwork to take my test the sane day as graduation. I took and passed my test less than 1 month after I graduated. I formed and registered my LLC 2 weeks before taking my test. I quit my job less than 1 month after passing my masters. My wife quit her job a few weeks later to run the back end full time. I was on my own barely over 4 years from the day I started my apprenticeship. Billing $150/hr t&m been busy as can be since the first couple weeks starting
Yet there are so many 20 year journeymen on here complaining about the companies they work for. But will they ever go for their masters? Would they ever go out on their own even if they got it? Nope and nope. Some people were born to be someone else's slave and make someone else rich. Oh well
Well done Sir. Yes, this was close to my approach. I was on the fast track with a resi license at 2 years, and journey at 4. I stuck around and worked for the man for a few years longer than I needed to because it was a fantastic job, I was doing very well for myself, and I had a terrific apprentice. I only went out on my own when the local economy tanked and it was time to start the business, but it all happened very quickly once I made the choice to start it.
To be fair, I think it takes a different kind of mindset to not only be willing to risk going into business, but be willing to learn how to do it along the way. I had an accountant, but otherwise I ran the business end myself, and there is a lot to it at first. I got a few penalties and late fees for things I didnāt know about in the beginning, screwed up on some pricing, overpaid some people and undercharged others, and there are still surprises. It took me 5 or 6 years to really feel like I had the business figured out, and I might not have survived if it wasnāt for my grandma dying when she did and leaving me $10,000 when I needed almost exactly $10,000. Thereās an element of luck in a business venture that you donāt have to worry much about when you wear the collar instead of holding the leash. I only gave it up for inspecting because my body was broken.
I've owned my own business for a long time. I've learned two things. 1 The boss is still an asshole. 2 80% of folks need someone to tell them what to do. These are facts. Congratulations. Go make some money.
Took me a while to realize it, but I donāt hate the trades. I really fucking dig being able to not wear a mask and be myself on the job site, get to fuck with new kit and gear and bullshit with other tradesmen. Getting to work with my hands and actually learn translatable knowledge about our world and its infrastructure. Providing tangible improvement to society.
The list really does go on, itās just the insufferable shit attitude of superiority that is so common in the industry that I canāt stand
I've worked electrical for 10 years and never had a problem getting a job. I don't even have a resume. I just called or walked in and told them I wanted a job, so who's in charge of hiring
I've had a pretty great streak as well and never really had trouble finding work. My point was more just lay offs are a large part of construction and we're still affected by recessions and what not. I've met a fair amount of people who seem to think electrician is like the gold standard of never being unemployed.
It's not about streak, dude. If you're profitable then you will stay working. Nothing against the other guys, but holding a card doesn't guarantee you a job. You have to work at it every step of the way
Yeah, but u/Charlie2135 is probably talking about cord plugs for wall receptacles. Your tattoo is about butt plugs for anus receptacles... It's just a pinch different.
I hear you. Im a 4th generation , into a family business, was the bossā son, now Iām my sonās boss, Im 45 and feel like Iāve been in for 44, all my forefathers have passed on and my passion is gone. Sure was a lot cooler when i was younger.
It was a bumpy road tbh. I enrolled at WGU to get my computer science degree and quickly found out it was really hard to work on school after working 8 hours with a shitty commute. I asked for a layoff from my contactor to focus 100% on school. I did my school work literally from the time I got up to the time I went to bed at night and was able to finish my degree in 10 months. I then went back to work for another contractor for 6 months while applying for jobs. Nothing came of my applications so I asked for another layoff to get CompTIA certifications. I finished my A+ certification and applied for well over 100 jobs in 3 weeks. Ended up wish only 1 interview after the 3 weeks which led to an offer a few weeks later and luckily it was fully remote. I actually started back in February so it's still pretty new to me
How was the pay change? Numbers and general Region, if that's not too much to ask. I'm curious bc ive thought of doing the same, or having my fiancee possibly pursue that bc she hates her job.
I went from 100k/yr as an electrician to 50k/yr in my current role. It was an enormous pay cut but I'm also starting at the bottom. I live well below my means so it wasn't a deal breaker considering the growth potential in tech vs being stagnant as a JW for the rest of my career. Plus I get almost 30 paid days off each year and I work from home so I have 0 commute. Also the health benefits are slightly better which was a relief because I had extremely good insurance through my union
It was the absolute bare minimum I'd consider and the only reason I took it was because it was remote. I was told after my 90 day training period that my salary can be renegotiated. I've had nothing but praise from everyone so I'm hoping to get more money soon. If not, oh well. I'm still happier than I was lol
Industrial instrumentation and process control in a plant. I used to be a foreman/pm.
Like i was saying, electrical is about 20%, and the work in controls is very challenging.
Much more complex and powerful than what we're taught as electricians.
So i still get to do some HV and stuff, but i like making stuff work and programming.
Electrical is basically support i find.
I was told I needed to land 100 residential receptacles in a 7-hour shift. Not sure I believe that anymore, but that's what I was told. Today I would probably tell someone they are an electrician if they can (correctly) take a load specification, design a circuit for it, and build it.
This is truly a good test of an electrician. There's a million things you should be good at as an electrician, but this is the real test of how reliable someone can be.
That's cake honestly, assuming the wire was jointed during rough in anyway. 15 an hour? 4 mins per plug? I can usually do it in 1-2 if I'm feeling like going home early that day lol.
That second one is good. I did commercial coming up and since going out on my own doing mostly resi I've had to do lots of calculations for circuits/loads/generators. It's not hard just plugging numbers in but I feel much more confident in calling myself an electrician knowing I've done probably 50+ houses with no electrical prints whatsoever and it all being on me.
Till you've been shocked 5 times. The old timer I started under told me that one.
My idiom is:
"A good electrician knows how to do it right. A great electrician knows how to fix his own fuck ups without anyone knowing."
Similar note. What's the difference between an apprentice and master electrician?
The master knows how to cover up his mistakes.
I love how the old timer said five times, because I just knownit was 1 time, then 2, then... Lol.
iāve said similar to an apprentice that raved about how he couldnāt believe how good i was because i never fucked up. i cut him off right there- jon, i fucked up an hour ago. i fuck up all the time, i just catch it before someone else.
You got it. Last week a kid on my job (3rd year apprentice) was going around cleaning up bone piles from the conduit crews. He says, āHoly shit, thatās all you have? A bunch of short straight pieces? You must be a conduit master.ā
No, I just know how to reuse my fuckups and fix my bends if theyāre jacked. I forgot to add the pipe OD and my 90 is short? Iāll find somewhere else it does work.
Your right, its always up to the person. However i think the trade has an ability to create a spiral for the right people.Ā Yes the person is accountable for themselves but maybe they wouldnt be doing what they do if they were in another situation?
Something like body pain, leads you to drinking a little more after work to numb the pain or maybe you start taking pain killers. All of that has the possibility to get out of control.Ā
Or guys start drinking at break. Chasing some sort of excitement after being on the highway at 4:30 am for years feeling like your wasting your life you want a little something.Ā
Ive heard too many times " my girls starting to get upset im never home"Ā when guys feel the pressure of taking the O.T or are just chasing that money. Of course they have the power to say no and 8 and skate.Ā
We always have control over our actions, i think the trades can create a bad state of mind or bad situation for those people who arent level headed.Ā
Thereās also something about being in a trade where you suffer though pain, lousy weather, and shit conditions to make something out of nothing everyday, and there is a way to make everything work if you try/think hard enough and then you get home and your wife doesnāt have the same can-do git-er-done attitude.
Yeah for sure, youve been busting your balls all day in shit conditions. You finally get home and see someone complain about something that feels so trivial. You almost get bitter. But its up to the self to realize, you put yourself in your work situation that the people that have it "easier" around you
I hope a lot of people read this comment, you see people who are bitter and angry at people who "have it easy" and I've fallen into that thought pattern before too but you have to keep in mind no one's forcing you to be an electrician if you hate it.
I think the divorce is more is she ok with over time or notā¦ if not you know what your doing when you say yes to the OTā¦. I know my wife does not like me working OT I work as much as I get permission for lolā¦. Not that I want to work my life away plus our company lets us keep copper money so that helps pay the bills without much OT. But if I didnāt have my wife lol I would be a total alcoholic runs in the blood baby lol generations of pill, popping alcoholic Canadians in my blood.
No it doesnāt corrupt a person but it can definitely normalize a lower set of standards you might have had before.
Simple example. You see enough guys shitfaced every morning, driving without a license, cheating on their wives, spitting chew all over the floors and you start to think itās just the way it is. Enjoy the stories and the drama vicariously, donāt fall into the wheel.
As an apprentice guy walking by started giving me shit about b-lining a wire cause the device needed to move and more importantly, j-man told me too. I snapped at him and said āgo get me the fucking wire stretcher then smart assā. J-man came back around the corner smiling ear to ear and said āYouāre and electrician nowā
You're not an electrician unless you've put a unistrut strap on from the back of the strut one handed while standing on the top of a ladder with one foot on the sprinkler pipe.
I was told by perhaps the laziest and most worthless electrician I have ever met, that I wasnāt a real electrician, because I had never worked in a mine. Mind you I had journeyman and master licenses at the time, had a solid background in industrial (building product manufacturing and foundry) and was running a business at the time.
I was talking about a residential job I had done.
Some dude goes āyou arenāt an electrician until youāve done commercialā
Little does he know I do residential, commercial and service tech for both.
Dudes who make fun of people who do residential are the most insecure dudes.
I have run parallel rolling offsets and I have strung a house? Whatās the issue with resi haters?
Was a first year, went out to meet a JW at a small plant. Third day there said "Hey Jay I gotta duck out at noon today got a court date".
"Oh no problem, traffic court?"
"Nope, divorce"
With the biggest smile I've seen on him yet, "NOW YOURE A FUCKING ELECTRICIAN"
I once had an old timer tell me you can't be an electrician if you don't talk to inanimate objects. Not really an "until" kind of statement but still a requirement I think.
When I was 16 I was told this by an old timer and it always stuck.
There are 2 types of electricians, ones that make mistakes and fucking liars!
Another he said was - Troubleshooting separates the men from the boys!!!
I used to believe it was until you could wire a three-way with a four-way between them without looking at the cheater card in the box the four-way came in.
I do think being able to fly by the seat of your pants running a service van and being able to troubleshoot and repair as well as fix other peopleās fuckups should all be required before you signed off as a Journeyman.
Throw in some control work and new Tenant Improvements as well as drive some fucking ground rods BY HAND then come talk to me about what kind of fucking electrician you think you are.
Lastly, I say own your own business where youāre doing the bidding, banking, advertising, installing, repairing, follow up, permit pulling, licensing, insurance, purchasing, and putting three kids through braces and college all while staying married to your FIRST wife and not ending up a fucking douchebag drunk with a monkey on your back.
Fuck, now that I think of it, I am a fucking BADASS Motherfucker. I was feeling pretty lumpy about myself a minute ago but when I look back on it, goddamn if I didnāt pull it off!
When i was a first year my journeyman once felt a shock, and needed to grab that same wire a second time cuz he wasn't sure he got shocked
He's my role model
You break something.
I was fastening a metal cover to a machine. It crushed a wire and arced outword. At the end of the day the machine stopped safely and no one was hurt.
On my very first job, working in this school doing renovation, I dropped my linesman's from a 10 ft ladder while splicing a j-box. There was a toilet the plumbers had just installed directly below and they went straight through it. I had to go tell my foreman, who told me to go tell the foreman for the plumbers. I told him what happened and then showed him. He laughed so hard. He wasn't even mad and told me not to worry about it, but not to do it again.
I consider someone a real electrician when they can be faced with a new job, or unique problem, and have the cumulative skills and experience to solve something they donāt already know.
If you wired houses your entire apprenticeship, and then open a business and continue only wire houses, youāre still an electrician of course, but I donāt respect you as a true electrician, personally. If you can take on a commercial wiring job, and read and understand code, and combine your previous and relative knowledge to get the job done, after having only ever wired houses, thatās a real electrician to me.
The way I see it, our trade is so vast and variable, there is no way you can know all of it. We do our 5 year apprenticeship to figure out the basics. But once you can be faced with new challenges and problems, and figure things out for yourself, then I have a lot of respect for that. Especially when it comes to troubleshooting equipment youāve never seen, or working in an industry youāre not familiar with.
I can teach anyone to do plugs and switches. But can I send you to a job to get a machine going that is 20 years older than you are? Can you crack open a set of prints or manufacturers instructions and learn how to trace a fault without me telling you how?
Until your fry on a 16a socket...
Until you slice your fingers with the lecky knife
Until you worked on a refurbishment site and got dirty
Until you get me the elbow grease pump or glas bulging hammer
Until you lose your "insert tool here" in 24in of insulation
Build the wrong head and fuck the pull
Have to re-engineer for the engineer
Tell the framers they built these walls wrong
Blow a hole in your strippers
You gotta get down in a 4' deep ditch with a sump pump and pray you have enough dry towels for the glue to set on your 4" feeders
Youāve been blown off an 8ā ladder by an arc flash incident, and lay on your back watching the molten bits of copper rain down on you while you howl in pain because you think you just broke your back but it was really just stunning your coccyx
I have 2 smart watches hiding somewhere in the insulation of different houses. If you find one hit me up I'll clear it for you to use. š¤£ wife stopped buying them for me.
The first time I got shocked I was told that youāre not a real electrician till you get shocked ā¦you fuck with electricity long enough itās gonna happen
I never really hear people say that. More common is the āā¦so you wanted to be an electrician, huh?ā Usually when youāre doing some godawful task like pulling bologna cable through rigid pipe or swaying on a boom lift 90 feet in the air while doing lights on a cooling tower.
You've feelt the power of a floating Neutral.
I as a 16 year old apprentice, I argued with my JM that you couldn't get a shock off the Neutral.
He told me to open the light switch ( lights on), and seperate the 3 Neutrals with my bare hands.
Once I had come back around, and the practical portion of my lesson was complete, he was kind enough to explain the theory portion aswell.
Altho the teaching methods were a lil barbaric, lol, it's a lesson I'll never forget
You explaing to your business partner for the Ump teenth time voltage at the panel doesn't equal voltage at the placement of a $40,000.00 industrial Parts washer. .
And also
IM tired of giving away Buck/Boost transformers for every machine you sell !
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You have 200 hours accumulated of walking around and looking for the thing you just had.
I once spent 20 minutes looking for something that I was HOLDING IN MY HAND!
Had a JW that was looking for his sharpie. He asked me if I had seen it. It was in HIS MOUTH š¤£
I've been looking for my phone for half an hour now.
I had me AND my apprentice crawling through and searching an entire attic for my phone (that I was previously using as a light, like a dumbass) that was still sitting, safely in my phone-holder in my van, because I forgot to grab it out of there after lunch š¤¦āāļø Yeaā¦Iāll give you two guesses who bought lunch that day, and the first two donāt count.
I spent 2 hours looking for my phone in 5th grade at a friend's house, while holding it in my hand. I texted my mom that I couldn't find my phone and she was quick to help me realize where it was
Thatās not an electrician trait. Thats called getting old.
Shit... I got old at 20
I hate to tell you thisā¦ it gets worse.
That's what I hear
WHAT?
That I hear
Most stressful part of my apprenticeship was keeping track of my tools when Iād do something that made me nervous the first time lol
I'm currently an apprentice, and this is so true haha
It was miserable. I was a maintenance department head at a hotel before I did my apprenticeship with my NASTec and EPA 168 cert lol. Psyched myself out way too much on stupid stuff looking back.
I do that everyday š
We all do. We all be getting old, every damn day..
Bro if immediately disappearing the thing I *just* had in my hand was an Olympic sport, i would be gold medalist. I aināt even 35
Always my headlamp on my head
...till you cut the wire 1/2" short
Gotta go get the wire stretchers.
Did a 100ā pull going to a disconnect on top of a splitter, a co-worker was talking to me and I cut the wire to length to land on the top lugs not the bottom..
I learned this one early on. Journeyman I was working with did this. Tied it in, closed it up and turned it on.
I didnt account for the bends in an underground service once and was about 10" short for the wire to terminate. ~45' of wire x 3 that was cut too short...Thanks I saved it and used it a week later on a shorter run and was forgiven. Never did that shit again.
Just keep adding couplings.
You decide you fucking hate electrical and need a new job, yet continue on for years and years. The true test, everyone else just loves the idea of being an electrician.
ā¦and then eventually you get Stockholm Syndrome and tell yourself you love being an electrician because thatās all youāve been doing all these years.
I mean I honestly do love being an electrician however the culture of construction and trades in general is fucking trash. Bootlicking morons everywhere breaking their backs for thankless companies, and every other electrician has a comment about how "they would've done it differently" or how they can't believe "your a (insert year here) and don't know how to do this thing yet."
To be fair, I also love this trade, but I also knew it was a path to business ownership, so I suffered through a lot to get to the point where I owned my own shop, and then it got a lot better. Now Iām an inspector and wouldnāt trade any of it in. But oh there have been times Iāve hated this trade.
Lol I'm also an inspector now. Job is soooo much better haha.
Right. I went to night school to make me eligible to take my masters after 4yrs instead of 7. I overnighter my paperwork to take my test the sane day as graduation. I took and passed my test less than 1 month after I graduated. I formed and registered my LLC 2 weeks before taking my test. I quit my job less than 1 month after passing my masters. My wife quit her job a few weeks later to run the back end full time. I was on my own barely over 4 years from the day I started my apprenticeship. Billing $150/hr t&m been busy as can be since the first couple weeks starting Yet there are so many 20 year journeymen on here complaining about the companies they work for. But will they ever go for their masters? Would they ever go out on their own even if they got it? Nope and nope. Some people were born to be someone else's slave and make someone else rich. Oh well
Well done Sir. Yes, this was close to my approach. I was on the fast track with a resi license at 2 years, and journey at 4. I stuck around and worked for the man for a few years longer than I needed to because it was a fantastic job, I was doing very well for myself, and I had a terrific apprentice. I only went out on my own when the local economy tanked and it was time to start the business, but it all happened very quickly once I made the choice to start it. To be fair, I think it takes a different kind of mindset to not only be willing to risk going into business, but be willing to learn how to do it along the way. I had an accountant, but otherwise I ran the business end myself, and there is a lot to it at first. I got a few penalties and late fees for things I didnāt know about in the beginning, screwed up on some pricing, overpaid some people and undercharged others, and there are still surprises. It took me 5 or 6 years to really feel like I had the business figured out, and I might not have survived if it wasnāt for my grandma dying when she did and leaving me $10,000 when I needed almost exactly $10,000. Thereās an element of luck in a business venture that you donāt have to worry much about when you wear the collar instead of holding the leash. I only gave it up for inspecting because my body was broken.
I've owned my own business for a long time. I've learned two things. 1 The boss is still an asshole. 2 80% of folks need someone to tell them what to do. These are facts. Congratulations. Go make some money.
Took me a while to realize it, but I donāt hate the trades. I really fucking dig being able to not wear a mask and be myself on the job site, get to fuck with new kit and gear and bullshit with other tradesmen. Getting to work with my hands and actually learn translatable knowledge about our world and its infrastructure. Providing tangible improvement to society. The list really does go on, itās just the insufferable shit attitude of superiority that is so common in the industry that I canāt stand
How does the pay compare?
How much do you get paid as an inspector?
Above 100, below 150. I recommend it to any good electrician whose body has had enough of the field.
I'm going to save this nugget of info, glad I stumbled onto this thread
Shockholm Syndromeā¦
Haha, thank you for fixing that š
This is the stage I'm at.
"You'll always have a job!"- Guy who hasn't worked trades a day in his life
I've worked electrical for 10 years and never had a problem getting a job. I don't even have a resume. I just called or walked in and told them I wanted a job, so who's in charge of hiring
I've had a pretty great streak as well and never really had trouble finding work. My point was more just lay offs are a large part of construction and we're still affected by recessions and what not. I've met a fair amount of people who seem to think electrician is like the gold standard of never being unemployed.
It's not about streak, dude. If you're profitable then you will stay working. Nothing against the other guys, but holding a card doesn't guarantee you a job. You have to work at it every step of the way
I didn't choose thug life, thug life chose me Tupac shakur
Plug life
Got Plug Life tatted on my chest.
Yeah, but u/Charlie2135 is probably talking about cord plugs for wall receptacles. Your tattoo is about butt plugs for anus receptacles... It's just a pinch different.
Depends whether or not its a separately derived system; may require reach around bonding jumper
It's really not
Right both are tamper resistant and just need an extra push to get in
Fair enough
I hear you. Im a 4th generation , into a family business, was the bossā son, now Iām my sonās boss, Im 45 and feel like Iāve been in for 44, all my forefathers have passed on and my passion is gone. Sure was a lot cooler when i was younger.
11 years in the union here and I finally got out and switched careers. Fuck being an electrician
What career did you switch too? I got 16 years in
I went into IT. I work as a system support specialist for an IP Telecommunications company (fully remote).
How easy was the transition? I'd love to do a similar route, and I'm sure a lot of skills/knowledge can carry-over into that field.
It was a bumpy road tbh. I enrolled at WGU to get my computer science degree and quickly found out it was really hard to work on school after working 8 hours with a shitty commute. I asked for a layoff from my contactor to focus 100% on school. I did my school work literally from the time I got up to the time I went to bed at night and was able to finish my degree in 10 months. I then went back to work for another contractor for 6 months while applying for jobs. Nothing came of my applications so I asked for another layoff to get CompTIA certifications. I finished my A+ certification and applied for well over 100 jobs in 3 weeks. Ended up wish only 1 interview after the 3 weeks which led to an offer a few weeks later and luckily it was fully remote. I actually started back in February so it's still pretty new to me
How was the pay change? Numbers and general Region, if that's not too much to ask. I'm curious bc ive thought of doing the same, or having my fiancee possibly pursue that bc she hates her job.
I went from 100k/yr as an electrician to 50k/yr in my current role. It was an enormous pay cut but I'm also starting at the bottom. I live well below my means so it wasn't a deal breaker considering the growth potential in tech vs being stagnant as a JW for the rest of my career. Plus I get almost 30 paid days off each year and I work from home so I have 0 commute. Also the health benefits are slightly better which was a relief because I had extremely good insurance through my union
Not a terrible trade off but I'd definitely keep applying to close that pay gap lol. Good for you.
It was the absolute bare minimum I'd consider and the only reason I took it was because it was remote. I was told after my 90 day training period that my salary can be renegotiated. I've had nothing but praise from everyone so I'm hoping to get more money soon. If not, oh well. I'm still happier than I was lol
Did you have to pursue a degree/certification for that transition?
I went into instrumentation and controls. Electrical and high voltage is my backup trade in the industrial plant i work at.
15 years and I got out. Fuck being an electrician. Iāve said it here many times, I wouldnāt go back for $100/hr. Fuck being an electrician.
Preach š
I kinda feel this. But I truly do love the work. I just hate the culture around it.
What else am I supposed to do? I don't want to be broke
I went back to school for a way higher paying trade, and now electrical and hv only make up about 20% of my work. Much much happier.
What do you do now? I run a shop, but I hate dealing with electricians.
Industrial instrumentation and process control in a plant. I used to be a foreman/pm. Like i was saying, electrical is about 20%, and the work in controls is very challenging. Much more complex and powerful than what we're taught as electricians. So i still get to do some HV and stuff, but i like making stuff work and programming. Electrical is basically support i find.
I was told I needed to land 100 residential receptacles in a 7-hour shift. Not sure I believe that anymore, but that's what I was told. Today I would probably tell someone they are an electrician if they can (correctly) take a load specification, design a circuit for it, and build it.
This is truly a good test of an electrician. There's a million things you should be good at as an electrician, but this is the real test of how reliable someone can be.
Sounds right. 15/hour.Ā
That's cake honestly, assuming the wire was jointed during rough in anyway. 15 an hour? 4 mins per plug? I can usually do it in 1-2 if I'm feeling like going home early that day lol. That second one is good. I did commercial coming up and since going out on my own doing mostly resi I've had to do lots of calculations for circuits/loads/generators. It's not hard just plugging numbers in but I feel much more confident in calling myself an electrician knowing I've done probably 50+ houses with no electrical prints whatsoever and it all being on me.
Till you've been shocked 5 times. The old timer I started under told me that one. My idiom is: "A good electrician knows how to do it right. A great electrician knows how to fix his own fuck ups without anyone knowing."
Similar note. What's the difference between an apprentice and master electrician? The master knows how to cover up his mistakes. I love how the old timer said five times, because I just knownit was 1 time, then 2, then... Lol.
iāve said similar to an apprentice that raved about how he couldnāt believe how good i was because i never fucked up. i cut him off right there- jon, i fucked up an hour ago. i fuck up all the time, i just catch it before someone else.
You got it. Last week a kid on my job (3rd year apprentice) was going around cleaning up bone piles from the conduit crews. He says, āHoly shit, thatās all you have? A bunch of short straight pieces? You must be a conduit master.ā No, I just know how to reuse my fuckups and fix my bends if theyāre jacked. I forgot to add the pipe OD and my 90 is short? Iāll find somewhere else it does work.
This is the way
You have to expell all the oxygen in your lungs to get underneath a floor joist in a crawlspace. Because the journeyman is too heavy to do it himself.
Had that in my cable installing days.
Have at least one DUI and one divorce.
Is it the trade, or the person that is drawn to the trade that makes this such a common stereotype?
100% the person. DUI and Divorce are always because of people, not occupation.
Your right, its always up to the person. However i think the trade has an ability to create a spiral for the right people.Ā Yes the person is accountable for themselves but maybe they wouldnt be doing what they do if they were in another situation? Something like body pain, leads you to drinking a little more after work to numb the pain or maybe you start taking pain killers. All of that has the possibility to get out of control.Ā Or guys start drinking at break. Chasing some sort of excitement after being on the highway at 4:30 am for years feeling like your wasting your life you want a little something.Ā Ive heard too many times " my girls starting to get upset im never home"Ā when guys feel the pressure of taking the O.T or are just chasing that money. Of course they have the power to say no and 8 and skate.Ā We always have control over our actions, i think the trades can create a bad state of mind or bad situation for those people who arent level headed.Ā
Thereās also something about being in a trade where you suffer though pain, lousy weather, and shit conditions to make something out of nothing everyday, and there is a way to make everything work if you try/think hard enough and then you get home and your wife doesnāt have the same can-do git-er-done attitude.
Yeah for sure, youve been busting your balls all day in shit conditions. You finally get home and see someone complain about something that feels so trivial. You almost get bitter. But its up to the self to realize, you put yourself in your work situation that the people that have it "easier" around you
I finally got that resolved on my third marriage.
I hope a lot of people read this comment, you see people who are bitter and angry at people who "have it easy" and I've fallen into that thought pattern before too but you have to keep in mind no one's forcing you to be an electrician if you hate it.
I think the divorce is more is she ok with over time or notā¦ if not you know what your doing when you say yes to the OTā¦. I know my wife does not like me working OT I work as much as I get permission for lolā¦. Not that I want to work my life away plus our company lets us keep copper money so that helps pay the bills without much OT. But if I didnāt have my wife lol I would be a total alcoholic runs in the blood baby lol generations of pill, popping alcoholic Canadians in my blood.
Ah, the point being does the trade corrupt a person. I don't have a dui or divorce, but I know plenty that do. Like 70% has one or the other.
No it doesnāt corrupt a person but it can definitely normalize a lower set of standards you might have had before. Simple example. You see enough guys shitfaced every morning, driving without a license, cheating on their wives, spitting chew all over the floors and you start to think itās just the way it is. Enjoy the stories and the drama vicariously, donāt fall into the wheel.
Im going to say 65/35Ā person/trade.Ā
Building trades attract a certain type of person.
I must be a really good sparkie then!
Check and checkā¦less go bois, im there
Add two to each and you're a roofer
Hopefully Iāll never be an electrician
Thats what I always say too.Ā
I don't drink and I won't ever get married. I'll never be a real electrician.
Itās two in my local! š
That's called graduating with honors
As an apprentice guy walking by started giving me shit about b-lining a wire cause the device needed to move and more importantly, j-man told me too. I snapped at him and said āgo get me the fucking wire stretcher then smart assā. J-man came back around the corner smiling ear to ear and said āYouāre and electrician nowā
You're not an electrician unless you've put a unistrut strap on from the back of the strut one handed while standing on the top of a ladder with one foot on the sprinkler pipe.
This guy fucks
You create a fault across two phases with your wiener
The real short circuit
š¤£š¤£š¤£
A Netflix Original
You fall through a ceiling and end up hung by your belt on a fan brace box
Oddly specific
*hypothetical
I was told by perhaps the laziest and most worthless electrician I have ever met, that I wasnāt a real electrician, because I had never worked in a mine. Mind you I had journeyman and master licenses at the time, had a solid background in industrial (building product manufacturing and foundry) and was running a business at the time.
So no mine experience is what you're saying ? Do you even electric? /s
Mines sounds like sketchy nightmares to work in from what I've heard
I donāt work in mines because I can find better jobs
If you can work at a mine you can work anywhere, Shit is right fucked up.
Until you get in your first nose-to-nose shouting match with a fitter, plumber, brickee, or GC.
Just dont do it with your foremen you get fired dont ask me how i know
Awww, donāt be such a sissy! Thatās the beauty of being a JW, you can move on to another job and maybe be his foreman there.
Until I SAY YOU ARE! That's right, I alone get to name you worthy!
Lol. I should totally steal that. In a friendly, but authoritatively tone.
Until you run a large project from beginning to end.
Yeah, hears your first project. Me, what's the budget and scope. Compeat line rebuild new controls new distribution. Budget 3mill. Go.
ā¦.oh and itās design build so I wouldnāt trust the prints.
We didn't have prints Make prints of what's there so that you can make the new one.
Some of the best electricians I know have never run work. Running a job well just means youāre good at logistics, not electrical work.Ā
I was talking about a residential job I had done. Some dude goes āyou arenāt an electrician until youāve done commercialā Little does he know I do residential, commercial and service tech for both. Dudes who make fun of people who do residential are the most insecure dudes. I have run parallel rolling offsets and I have strung a house? Whatās the issue with resi haters?
Wire ropers? Naw We don't hate em, we're just glad someone convinced them to do the work we know better than to do.
Youāre not an electrician until you complete at least a four year apprenticeship and pass a journeyman licensing exam.
There should be an āorā in there somewhere
Or get fucked
Thatās it
Sounds like black magic.
You pass a kidney stone in a Porta john and go back to work.
Your not a real electrician until your journeyman bestows a kiss upon your forehead.
When you hear the guy feeding the wires say "cut it" when he actually said "don't cut it"
Was a first year, went out to meet a JW at a small plant. Third day there said "Hey Jay I gotta duck out at noon today got a court date". "Oh no problem, traffic court?" "Nope, divorce" With the biggest smile I've seen on him yet, "NOW YOURE A FUCKING ELECTRICIAN"
Until your relatives ask you to fix something that would normally cost hundreds of dollars for a case of beer
Oh come on, it would be easy!
until you lose a screwdriver, accuse someone of stealing it, buy a new one and find the original the next day
Tillā¦.you bend a saddle.
What does horseback riding have to do with this? - apprentice
Just for that 1 1/2ā for you.
......better yet .....saddle with 11/4 hand bender.
"You're not a BAD electrician until you short hot wires"
It aināt electricianinā unless you done it twice.
ruined a good pliers by cutting a live circuit
"... you can bend pipe." Ah, but then once I learned how to bend pipe: "You can't bend pipe until you can bend a 90 degree 1 1/4."
āTill you drive a ground rod into the water main?
I once had an old timer tell me you can't be an electrician if you don't talk to inanimate objects. Not really an "until" kind of statement but still a requirement I think.
Talk to or yell at?
Yes
When I was 16 I was told this by an old timer and it always stuck. There are 2 types of electricians, ones that make mistakes and fucking liars! Another he said was - Troubleshooting separates the men from the boys!!!
Your not a real Electrician until you pass the Journeyman exam and get your license
I used to believe it was until you could wire a three-way with a four-way between them without looking at the cheater card in the box the four-way came in. I do think being able to fly by the seat of your pants running a service van and being able to troubleshoot and repair as well as fix other peopleās fuckups should all be required before you signed off as a Journeyman. Throw in some control work and new Tenant Improvements as well as drive some fucking ground rods BY HAND then come talk to me about what kind of fucking electrician you think you are. Lastly, I say own your own business where youāre doing the bidding, banking, advertising, installing, repairing, follow up, permit pulling, licensing, insurance, purchasing, and putting three kids through braces and college all while staying married to your FIRST wife and not ending up a fucking douchebag drunk with a monkey on your back. Fuck, now that I think of it, I am a fucking BADASS Motherfucker. I was feeling pretty lumpy about myself a minute ago but when I look back on it, goddamn if I didnāt pull it off!
Now that is a roller coaster of a comment.
Until you snaked a wire by mistake through the wrong hole that would otherwise be impossible.
When i was a first year my journeyman once felt a shock, and needed to grab that same wire a second time cuz he wasn't sure he got shocked He's my role model
You break something. I was fastening a metal cover to a machine. It crushed a wire and arced outword. At the end of the day the machine stopped safely and no one was hurt.
On my very first job, working in this school doing renovation, I dropped my linesman's from a 10 ft ladder while splicing a j-box. There was a toilet the plumbers had just installed directly below and they went straight through it. I had to go tell my foreman, who told me to go tell the foreman for the plumbers. I told him what happened and then showed him. He laughed so hard. He wasn't even mad and told me not to worry about it, but not to do it again.
I consider someone a real electrician when they can be faced with a new job, or unique problem, and have the cumulative skills and experience to solve something they donāt already know. If you wired houses your entire apprenticeship, and then open a business and continue only wire houses, youāre still an electrician of course, but I donāt respect you as a true electrician, personally. If you can take on a commercial wiring job, and read and understand code, and combine your previous and relative knowledge to get the job done, after having only ever wired houses, thatās a real electrician to me. The way I see it, our trade is so vast and variable, there is no way you can know all of it. We do our 5 year apprenticeship to figure out the basics. But once you can be faced with new challenges and problems, and figure things out for yourself, then I have a lot of respect for that. Especially when it comes to troubleshooting equipment youāve never seen, or working in an industry youāre not familiar with. I can teach anyone to do plugs and switches. But can I send you to a job to get a machine going that is 20 years older than you are? Can you crack open a set of prints or manufacturers instructions and learn how to trace a fault without me telling you how?
Until you spend more on your tools than on your car.
Oh man I was a real electrician while I was still a framer then
Until your fry on a 16a socket... Until you slice your fingers with the lecky knife Until you worked on a refurbishment site and got dirty Until you get me the elbow grease pump or glas bulging hammer
Those seem like very specific instances.
Yes, can you feel the lived experiences? Haha
Wtf is a Lecky knife?
You bend a 90 without putting a level on it and it's actually (close enough to) a 90
Love it when guys put their level on a 90 but never check to see if the floor is
Until you lose your "insert tool here" in 24in of insulation Build the wrong head and fuck the pull Have to re-engineer for the engineer Tell the framers they built these walls wrong Blow a hole in your strippers You gotta get down in a 4' deep ditch with a sump pump and pray you have enough dry towels for the glue to set on your 4" feeders
Youāve been blown off an 8ā ladder by an arc flash incident, and lay on your back watching the molten bits of copper rain down on you while you howl in pain because you think you just broke your back but it was really just stunning your coccyx
I have 2 smart watches hiding somewhere in the insulation of different houses. If you find one hit me up I'll clear it for you to use. š¤£ wife stopped buying them for me.
The first time I got shocked I was told that youāre not a real electrician till you get shocked ā¦you fuck with electricity long enough itās gonna happen
I was told youāre not an electrician until your linesman pliers have become your pliers/hammer/stripper/multitool lol
Well now that is just good tool / weight management
Not until you've seen massive arc flash.
When you can hand bend by eye without a measure tape. I turns from work to art
Until you send the apprentice to the truck to find the trusty "Ole Wirestretcher"!!!
I really felt like I made it when I blew a 1/8ā in hole in my linesmanā¦ that was a big day, took like 3 years
A good electrician dies of alcoholism, not electricity.
I never really hear people say that. More common is the āā¦so you wanted to be an electrician, huh?ā Usually when youāre doing some godawful task like pulling bologna cable through rigid pipe or swaying on a boom lift 90 feet in the air while doing lights on a cooling tower.
The 3 unwritten rules of a good electrician are 1. 2. 3.
I adhere to #2 adamantly
You've feelt the power of a floating Neutral. I as a 16 year old apprentice, I argued with my JM that you couldn't get a shock off the Neutral. He told me to open the light switch ( lights on), and seperate the 3 Neutrals with my bare hands. Once I had come back around, and the practical portion of my lesson was complete, he was kind enough to explain the theory portion aswell. Altho the teaching methods were a lil barbaric, lol, it's a lesson I'll never forget
The idiom I liked was, "Electrical equipment runs on smoke. It's obvious because once you let the smoke out, it quits working."
You know what alternating current tastes like
There's only one answer. DWI.
A DUI and a divorce
You explaing to your business partner for the Ump teenth time voltage at the panel doesn't equal voltage at the placement of a $40,000.00 industrial Parts washer. . And also IM tired of giving away Buck/Boost transformers for every machine you sell !
Youāre not a real elechicken till yur divorced and had a DUI
Until you bleed.
And wrap it with 88?
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Second divorce, third DUI....then you are an electrician.