On becoming an electrician

There is a broken light in this mess…started taking down the old stuff.

TJT said:

Sir. Bring fire.

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Only seen a few live spiders, surprised anything is alive up here. Between the insanely hot summers and the thick film of machine dust it is 99% dead.

Hatorade said:

There is a broken light in this mess…started taking down the old stuff.
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I was given the cheapest shovel in the world and had to hack this old line up. Was all rocks with a little bit of dirt. It is in a heavy traffic area so we replaced the pvc. The wind was blast sand every few minutes in my eyes. Still a better day than working I.T.
Used my new skills to put canless LEDS in the closests, pantry, and bathrooms. Wife loves it.

Well shit, the company/building put the master on hold so today is my last day of work for a bit. I hope it isn’t for long but may have to find work elsewhere. Is this normal for trade work?

Hatorade said:

Well shit, the company/building put the master on hold so today is my last day of work for a bit. I hope it isn’t for long but may have to find work elsewhere. Is this normal for trade work?

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Really depends. If the guy you work for is hopping from residential job to residential job and he isn't one of the big players in your area then it might be spotty. If you're doing bigger commercial jobs or work for someone that has so much work that he has multiple crews then it's going to be a lot more steady.

As a PM doing pools for a company that builds 250+ pools every year I can say that all our subs have all the work they can handle. But the last two months have been shitty weather and we've been shut down a lot. But I contrast that to when I was younger and worked for a guy that GC'd small residential remodel jobs solely on word of mouth and his reputation and there would be some lulls occasionally between jobs. Also the economy is absolute dogshit right now in regards to people that want to do big ticket items like remodels/additions. Not sure exactly where you're at in regards to that but 2024 isn't going to be great for a lot of tradesmen. If you want steady work for eternity be the guy that answers the phone at 9pm to go unclog someone's toilet or fix a blown breaker.

Appreciate the feedback, this is commercial/industrial work and they 100% need a fuck ton more lights installed at least so unless he is being removed as primary electrician I expect to be back shortly.

Running about 4-6 spools of SOOW cable from the roof to avoid cranes into outlets so they can plug in and upgrade the CNC machines. 8 down, 25 to go.

If you live near an industrial area normally the union will have classes or training setup for people to support it. I know people that went that way ane worked for decades at the same location and company. No traveling around, no layoffs and such which to me would be a huge bonus. A couple eventually went off on their own doing the same work for the same company now just as owner.

I did some work where the company had bought a process to make fiberglass pipe from South Africa and were putting it back together in a large building. A number of the guys working on it were all new and in that school program. It looked like pretty good work. In the shade, semi air conditioned, sitting around on the floor making their connections and then the electrician would come by and look at it and walk off. They said they were making pretty good money, no idea what that was to them. Beat the shit out of crawling around in an attic in the summer when it's 105F. And I am sure none of them had a college degree.

I think the best gig is doing control wiring in a panel shop - usually indoors, mostly self contained and ergonomic, most things land on terminal blocks and are routed in wireway or a loom. Forgiving if you mess something up and easy to test. Money's not the best unless you are willing to go out in the field to commission the equipment though. There's a definite art snd skill to doing it quickly and cleanly.

Kobayashi said:

I think the best gig is doing control wiring in a panel shop - usually indoors, mostly self contained and ergonomic, most things land on terminal blocks and are routed in wireway or a loom. Forgiving if you mess something up and easy to test. Money's not the best unless you are willing to go out in the field to commission the equipment though. There's a definite art snd skill to doing it quickly and cleanly.

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"Money's not the best" would be an understatement, although i have to agree that's it's a nice, relatively easy job. Maybe useful as a stepping stone to an instrumentation career?