do you like being an electrician

[Des 56]

When I started in the sixties it was to get a pay packet
Nothing much has changed, except the pay packet takes more effort from me as time goes by

Without the pay packet,the attraction of being a spark would not exist,but whilst I need that pay packet,sparking makes it bearable

 

[Guest55]

When I started in the sixties...........

did dinosaurs still roam the land back then ? lol !!
;-)

 

[telectrix]

yep, there was me, geordie, tony, eng54, plenty of us left around.

 

[Des 56]

did dinosaurs still roam the land back then ? lol !!
;-)

Typical 80s child remark lol, the Dinosaurs came later

 

[Guest55]

at 42 *today* , i've never felt so young.
:-D

 

[Richard Burns]

Happy Birthday, only 42, I do not know, kids today!
Think they are the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything!

 

[Guest111]

I'm glad I'm out of it too be honest,it's gone down hill now and there are not that many true electricians left.The world is full of DI's and Electrical Trainee's,my old fella used to say that 90% of house bashing could be done by a trained chimp.Sadly I never thought I'd see that day arrive but some of the stuff you see nowadays looks as though the chimp's been but the spark never followed up

 

[Brightspark2]

Couldn't see myself doing anything else...

Quite a lot of doom and gloom about the trade on this site. I love it though...have a passion for it too.

 

[Guest55]

Think they are the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything!

according to the super computer deep thought , the answer is 42.
just like my age today.
there's probably some cosmic relevence to this co-incidence.
lol.
;-)

 

[craigj85]

No I got sick of it thanks to recession & lack of work. I was an electrician but after being laid off several times & working for an assh@#! I quit.

 

[sparks will fly]

I enjoy it, I can't think of many other trades where the work you're doing can differ so much from one week to the next, one week might be house bashing week after might be installing cabling and connecting UPS or generator systems.

 

[SPARTYKUS]

42 Biff? You're a young 'un ;-)

 

[Knobhead]

I was very lucky my brother was an apprentice industrial electrician. He’s nine years my senior (to the very day). He set up a board in the garage for me to play with. 230V control no RCD if I got a belt off it, it was my fault!

I was hooked!

Over the years there’s been the down side, I never saw my son open his Christmas presents, I was at work.

The up side, there’s too many to list.
An £8M protect starting up at the press of a button (did it bollox, a week spent sorting out glitches).
Sat in the office with the senior engineer from a major contracting firm confidently telling me “all the drives will run the correct way.” They didn’t! A hangover from when we had our own power station, the phase sequence was BYR.

 

[dcelectrical]

I'm glad I'm out of it too be honest,it's gone down hill now and there are not that many true electricians left.The world is full of DI's and Electrical Trainee's,my old fella used to say that 90% of house bashing could be done by a trained chimp.Sadly I never thought I'd see that day arrive but some of the stuff you see nowadays looks as though the chimp's been but the spark never followed up

every one is entitled to their opinion and I did not want to take on an apprentice as who could be bothered.
I personally have consumed and forgotten more info than most electricians will ever want to see
I am not being big headed just I made it my business to learn stuff - I did take on a Electrical Trainee and today I took him upon a roof of a school that had had 4 other 'engineers' looking at it and walking away.
after 20 minutes up there he is starting to understand the basic principles of IF AND OR and NOT
I cannot change how the powers that be make the rules or stop the cheaper plastic sparks from nicking my jobs
all I can do is to impass my knowledge and do what I do to the best of my abilities and hope that in 10 years time he will be able to tell his boy that we do it like this because of this reason not just because that the way we have always done it.
the upshot was the system is back online and the kids can have hot meals - because engineer no.5 does the job he loves and loves the job he does
and in turn his Electrical Trainee loves his chosen career.

 

[7029 dave]

It was once a respected job, when I started in this industry 1979,I loved it, was proud as punch.30+years on with the dumbing down of skills etc,Electrical Trainee an all that ,the enjoyment has had the stuffing kicked out,(tin hat on).