sma123

Hi all. I've been working as an electrician's helper since September, and plan to start electrical classes at the community college in January, and become an "official" apprentice with my company then. Here's the question I have for you all - am I making a mistake? All the guys I work with who have been in the field for years are telling me to get out now and switch to something in the medical field. They say that electrical companies are hiring lots of cheap unskilled labor and that good jobs are hard to find, and that the bottom's falling out of the industry because of the economy.

A lot of these guys aren't licensed journeymen (though they have 10-20 years experience). Would things be different for me if my plan is to become a licensed journeyman? I have 3 kids, and one on the way, so I can't afford to screw around. I really need advice before I throw myself all in to this. I like the work and am good at it (got a $2/hour raise after 6 weeks of work), and I know I'd rather work with my hands in a trade than in a hospital. But I want the best for my kids, you know?

John Valdes

Tough call. But I can tell you that I raised 4 daughters working in this trade. While some contractors are slow now, I expect things to improve in the long run. I would not consider starting a new business, but if you are working for an established company and it looks as if they like you, it might be the place to stay for now. How old are you?

waco

If you are inclined to start your own company and jump through all the hoops that are required.

If you have the aptitude for work in the medical field, you might do better there since what you can earn (as an employee) depends alot on what you can make the company.

In my experience, the biggest drawback to working in the electrical field (heh heh) is that your ability to earn and much of your future depends on the business abilities of whoever owns the company and being a good electrician doesn't make anybody a good business person.

That said, I don't expect the technology to change much in the reasonably near future, but I don't see where the electrical trade is any better than any other skilled construction and/or maintenance trade.

sma123

Thanks for the replies

I'm 29 - was working on a farm for several years, and restaurant management before that - so at my age, I need to get into something that will offer long-term security. Before the economic mess, everything I was reading was saying that the trades were in high demand, but these guys I work with are really scaring me.

Part of my reason for choosing the electrical trade over some others was the idea that even if people stop building, they will still need electricians to work on existing buildings. My wife wants to go back to grad school eventually, and thought maybe I could get a job on a university campus or something, which might mean our kids would get a discount on college tuition - but I don't know how difficult it is to get a job like that. I'm working for a commercial contractor right now, and he's doing pretty well (probably because he's a great businessman), but he also hires a lot of unskilled labor from other countries for $7 an hour (and then has them working on the same stuff as the skilled people anyway), so I'm a little worried that's an indicator of where the trade is going.

480sparky

One thing is for sure.... our work can't be outsourced to foreign workers who get paid 20¢ a day.

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220/221

Well there you go.

Construction will always be subject to the economy. I was just starting electrical in 1974 when the first recession hit, I was doing it still in the early 80's economic mess and I am still doing it today.

The more you know, the more employable you will be and electrical will be the last trade to be taken over by unskilled workers.

Pay attention and ask/understand everything. It takes years but learn to do service/troubleshooting and you will always have a job.

ACB

round here plumbers and hvac guys seem to make more money. don't know if its cause of the diy'rs and the pickup truck handimen not sure what it is.
If you have opertunity to go for something higher paying and more secure then go for it, if youwant to do something you like doing no mater what the wage , hey thats up to you, at 29 you should be seriously planning your future as some proffessions take quite a few years of school before your makin top buck, and you don't want to waist 5 or more years going in one direction to find out or wish you had of went in the other.
I got into it cause it interested me, I had a natural aptitude / understanding for electrical, was very easy for me to learn. I don't allways enjoy the work, but then I can think of a dozen things each morning that I would rather be doing than working at all.

bobelectric

Nobody opened a college class on candlemaking to power your electronics.

brian john

Work to become more than just an assemble line electrician understand what you do and what you are working on and specialize. There will always be work.

My techs make between 70,000.00-100,000.00 a year plus benefits. It is a good way to make a living if you work at it.

kbsparky

In Pennsylvania, there is no state license, nor journeyman licenses, per se.

There may be some local jurisdictions that have licenses, or even electrical licensing boards, however.

This may explain why you know some folks with 10-20 years' experience without having an official journeyman license.

If you are good at what you do, you should be able to command top dollar, even in bad economic times.

sparkyparky

Been a sparky for 20 years+ and ran my own business for almost as long, got to UK and had to start as a worker again...but when the recession is overish it is so easy to start again....much more money when you organize the jobs, and here you just need to register sub-contractors to your company , get the public liability , quote, and your done(pretty much).Same really applies to any country...you don't even have to be an electrician to do this , just business minded..easy really ...send us an email.

Dave

brian john

Dave:

You relocated to the UK from where.

I have an old friend that is an electrician in Brighton.

electrician1957

Oh?........

2towbot

All construction trades suck right now. Hopefully we sill get some trickle down funds from all those government bank subsidies

ACB

UMMMMMMM,,,, I would not be to sure about that in the future, there are to many money hungry bast**** out there who will try anything to make a fast buck. I heard (not sure as to exact facts) that one or 2 oil companies working in Alberta brought in a bunch of workers on temp work visa's, from places like Indonessia, Philopenes, Thiland, among a few other places, and they are working for as little as half the going rates. Its being kept hush so not to cause an outcry. heard this from a welder that went out there and could not get any work last year, at going rates, and from a project manager for one of the oil companies he primarily works over sees, a few members of the crew he commonly uses told him last winter they were issued visas and were going to Alberta.
So there you have it. Any corperation with money to spend can do as they please and that will eventually trickle down to smaller ones like large electrical contractors will soon be able to temperarily import workers to do large progects probley 6 or 8 month and up where it requires a large crew, they'll probley be able soon to staff that crew with 50% or more off shore workers at half or less the cost. That will give them the ability to out bid everyone else and put any other large size contractor out of the market.
It may or may not happen, only the future can tell, and depends on how much it takes to pay off the law makers and regulators of our industries to make it easy to do.

macmikeman

Item #1, I think this is a great trade to be in. If money is your only goal, then probably you should look into producing porn movies or websites instead. There will always be people who make more than us doing something else, but hopefuly you get my point here.

Item #2, So much crybabying about foreign workers coming in here to work. Wake up. The people who send them here are our new slavemasters. They are based in other countries than our own. Our goverment has sold us already to them, we work for them now if we are lucky. If electricians here want to be at the peak of the electrical food chain, they should become fluent in Chinese, Russian, and Spanish as soon as possible. That way they can supervise over the crews sent in by the new world order, that soon will swarm us like we never were expecting.

Sparkyprentice

Dang! All that time spent learning Pashto and it won't do a thing for me as a civilian.

cmec

Plain and simple pennsylvania is screwed up,especially western pa ,we travel 4 states and do davis bacon work,since the politicans and tree huggers ran all the industry out and people think they can live off intangables . After the previous 2 recessions most industrys gone its kind of an entitlement farm with healthcare and goverment being the biggest industries . Only real good work is funded by the govt schools ,military etc. $20.00 seems to be where the wages are stuck at for the average person working in an business or industry thats left or a service business. look at what things cost today and do the math it just dosent work out .

The union crafts around pittsburgh are busy now but went thru a 3- 4 year period with no work .

With no licensing, soon as somone is unemployed they will be your compeditor for 20.00 an hour good luck getting insurance profit and overhead out of jobs.

If you can work this trade and work on your own prodects in slack times or have another business or travel the cost of living is reasonable and you can do well, If you want to work 1 trade for 1 employer it would be best to relocate.

linehammer76

this thread is depressing! lol

yea these are some pretty bad times. just gonna get worse. if you have to ask, maybe it's not the right path for you.

Mountain Electrician

True 'dat!!