Advice for 30 year old trying to become an electrician?

[Jc Djenton]

Hi everyone hope your all good.

I've been training to be an electrician for 2.5 years and in that time ive achieved the following qualifications:

2365
2382-18
2391-52

I've been applying for jobs for a year now but had no luck, i cant even get a position as a mate.. Which is why i decided after finishing college, to go ahead and do the 2382 & 2391, to continue my learning and possibly improve my chances of finding work.

I have no real world practical experience whatsoever.

What are my options going forward?

I've been eyeing the 2396 level 4 qualification just to keep the ball rolling. Its all theory based and i think i could pass it but what i really need is some practical experience..

Is going it alone an option? Like is it technically possible for me to be self employed without the NVQ?

Any advice whatsoever would be greatly appreciated, cheers guys.

 

[Deleted account]

Qualification wise. A good start, but I would personally recommend holding off on more training until you get some on site experience. The on site experience will help with the courses In future.

take a part time ad hock role with any electrician just to gain experience. Offer yourself for free.
At the moment you are not worth employing due to your lack of experience. I don’t say that to be mean or negative.

as soon as you start getting more experience you become much more attractive to potential employers.

stick with it. It really is worth all the effort and you will reap the rewards if you have what it takes.

good luck.

 

[Dustydazzler]

In reality you have to start as an apprentice on site , I started on a big new build site as an apprentice. It was wiring by numbers , fitting boxes and doing all the simple jobs while the sparks got on with he needed to do like planning cable routes and marking out where stuff needed to go. You need this basic 101 site experience to move forward.
I feel lucky that I had a decent 5 year apprenticeship and received not bad money at the time.
My first then proper job as a sparks was doing council rewires , now that was a learning curve in itself...

At 30 you are still easily young enough to get an apprenticeship surely ?

 

[Deleted account]

An apprentice is the best route, but not the only route.

in an ideal world there would be loads of apprentice places, but there arent. So an alternative route must be available or there wont be any electricians in 10-15 years.

 

[Dustydazzler]

But there will be loads of Domesticated Installers ?

 

[Jc Djenton]

I'm open to doing an apprenticeship. I've applied for a fair few, in the last 6 months especially but no dice.

I've been mulling it over all day and I don't suppose doing another course is going to improve my chances by any considerable amount, but if I start searching nationwide and thinking about relocation that's going to make more of a difference.

 

[BiddeldyBwah]

Like is it technically possible for me to be self employed without the NVQ?

Yes. Although i wouldn't advise it, you will get stuck and will have nowhere to turn. Even just some LED light fittings can be wired up in exotic ways that don't immediately make sense. Experience with qualified people is the best bet. Get your ECS labourers card, and things like IPAF licence, own tools and van etc are a bonus.

 

[Jc Djenton]

I just googled IPAF license, I will be on that pronto thanks very much. I already bought hand tools, power tools, megger mft etc, still waiting for the right van to come along.. But yeah ill look into that IPAF license good shout, cheers ?

 

[BiddeldyBwah]

I'm open to doing an apprenticeship. I've applied for a fair few, in the last 6 months especially but no dice.

I've been mulling it over all day and I don't suppose doing another course is going to improve my chances by any considerable amount, but if I start searching nationwide and thinking about relocation that's going to make more of a difference.

You won't get one now anyway, courses have started for the year and are in their second terms now, loads of work and exams already completed.

The problem with courses is they are great for book knowledge but most of the job is about experience.

You can know how to wire lights up but when you get on site it's a completely different matter. You can have 15 or 20 cables falling out of one ceiling void and as a qualified man you'll be expected to be told what they are for (usually by looking at what's written on them) and then crack on and make sense of it yourself. If you've only done wiring on a 3x4 plywood board at college it's not going to make sense to you and employers know it.

Then you have all the other iterations that you might not see at college - emergency lighting, multiway lighting, PIR, timed, emergency/normal mixed lighting, that's just lighting. Then you've got maglocks, fire break glass, CAT6 for several things, Vesta systems, fire alarm panels, sub boards, running man signs, electronic panels for machinery to communicate with its computers, roller shutters, isolators, SWA size of your arm, tray, trunking, basket, unistrut, gripple wiring.

That's just off the top of my head in the first 2 months of me being an apprentice. Throw in all the different ways you can first fix all that stuff and it's a minefield of 'easy enough but if you've never done it you will be stumped'. You can never know how to do it without having done it, so someone taking you on knows they will have to babysit you for 6 months while you figure it all out.

My advice is hound every single electrical company in the vicinity and concentrate on bigger companies with commercial contracts, they're more likely to give you a start since you're less of a hindrance if 15 blokes can share the burden of teaching you the ropes as opposed to a one man band who will have to stop to help you all the time.

Hound them, email, follow up with calls, put cards in electrical suppliers, put your CV anywhere you can get it.

Don't bother with the sob story of 'i'm passionate and looking for someone to give me a chance' they get 20 of those a week, bullet point what you can do and why you're useful to them. Get down to brass tax - they want to know you will not cost them money.

 

[Jc Djenton]

Yeah I know what your saying, books will only get you so far wont they. And that's some solid motivational advice I really appreciate that actually mate, been losing hope a bit last couple weeks, but your 100% on the money, just have to keep on getting after it!

 

[BiddeldyBwah]

Yeah I know what your saying, books will only get you so far wont they. And that's some solid motivational advice I really appreciate that actually mate, been losing hope a bit last couple weeks, but your 100% on the money, just have to keep on getting after it!

Well....i did it myself. Took me over a decade to get my shot and now i'm on a full level 3 apprenticeship at 35. Took probably 500 rejections and then i got offered about 4 jobs at once. They do class me as an 'improver' though since i already have building trade and construction skills. It's basically the only reason they hired me and the apprenticeship tag means they can pay me less so it's win/win.

 

[casperLennon]

Ring agencies and get experience that way. Then get a job on the books, if that’s what you want

 

[nicebutdim]

You won't get one now anyway, courses have started for the year and are in their second terms now, loads of work and exams already completed.

The problem with courses is they are great for book knowledge but most of the job is about experience.

You can know how to wire lights up but when you get on site it's a completely different matter. You can have 15 or 20 cables falling out of one ceiling void and as a qualified man you'll be expected to be told what they are for (usually by looking at what's written on them) and then crack on and make sense of it yourself. If you've only done wiring on a 3x4 plywood board at college it's not going to make sense to you and employers know it.

Then you have all the other iterations that you might not see at college - emergency lighting, multiway lighting, PIR, timed, emergency/normal mixed lighting, that's just lighting. Then you've got maglocks, fire break glass, CAT6 for several things, Vesta systems, fire alarm panels, sub boards, running man signs, electronic panels for machinery to communicate with its computers, roller shutters, isolators, SWA size of your arm, tray, trunking, basket, unistrut, gripple wiring.

That's just off the top of my head in the first 2 months of me being an apprentice. Throw in all the different ways you can first fix all that stuff and it's a minefield of 'easy enough but if you've never done it you will be stumped'. You can never know how to do it without having done it, so someone taking you on knows they will have to babysit you for 6 months while you figure it all out.

My advice is hound every single electrical company in the vicinity and concentrate on bigger companies with commercial contracts, they're more likely to give you a start since you're less of a hindrance if 15 blokes can share the burden of teaching you the ropes as opposed to a one man band who will have to stop to help you all the time.

Hound them, email, follow up with calls, put cards in electrical suppliers, put your CV anywhere you can get it.

Don't bother with the sob story of 'i'm passionate and looking for someone to give me a chance' they get 20 of those a week, bullet point what you can do and why you're useful to them. Get down to brass tax - they want to know you will not cost them money.

Every word of this^

I'm in exactly the same position.

 

[Typhoonut]

I'm in the same boat. I'm 31, have been studying evening over the past 2.5 years and coming to the end of my level 3 in a few months. I've just managed to secure employment as an electrical labourer before Christmas while working alongside my other job while the transition slowly happens.

I've been advised the same about continuing with further courses like 2391, to hold off until I've got slightly more industry experience involving testing and inspecting on a regular basis.

Keep calling around companies, someone will need the labour eventually, especially for the bigger jobs, giving you a foot in the door.

 

[Deleted account]

I'm in the same boat. I'm 31, have been studying evening over the past 2.5 years and coming to the end of my level 3 in a few months. I've just managed to secure employment as an electrical labourer before Christmas while working alongside my other job while the transition slowly happens.

I've been advised the same about continuing with further courses like 2391, to hold off until I've got slightly more industry experience involving testing and inspecting on a regular basis.

Keep calling around companies, someone will need the labour eventually, especially for the bigger jobs, giving you a foot in the door.

Well done. This was exactly the way I did it.
other than an apprenticeship there is no better way.
Mid 30s I retrained. Made big bucks . Now semi retired at 49.