Domestic, commercial or Industrial Electricians

[Pete999]

Right people, you have done all the courses, have all the cards required to get you onto sites, including the pseudo qualification "Part P". you're an Electrician.
You start out on your own, but the only work available to you at the moment is house bashing and the odd Domestic job, suddenly an opportunity of a years work refurbishing offices comes your way.
Do you think nah I'm a Domestic Electrician can't be doing that sort of work (forget the Domestic installer at the moment) you're an Electrician be proud of it. Because you are more skilled at Domestic stuff do you go for this or leave to others because you class yourself as a Domestic Electrician? even though your best mate who you trained with is now working on the office refurbishment and loving it, the same could be said about Industrial work.
I guess what I'm saying is what do you class yourself as Domestic, Commercial or Industrial, in fact should you be classifying yourself at all, you have all the relevant tickets,cards qualifications etc.
I was lucky I worked for a contractor that did all 3 of these installations so I had a well rounded Apprenticeship, so come on Guys and Gals you're Electricians don't think that just because you are more experience at 1 or the other that's all you should be doing, easier said than done you may say, but you're ELECTRICIANS be proud of that fact. Sorry for the rant. What do you think?

 

[Pete999]

I can see your point Phil, but my initial gripe was how can you be just one type of Electrician? if you're an Electrician that's what you are.

Sorry should have edited, guess what I'm saying is you shouldn't just limit yourself to what you are good at, just advertising yourself, say as an Industrial Electrician limits the work requests you may receive, if you don't want any particular job you can always say you can't do it in the time frame specified, or some other excuse, in my opinion you're doing yourself a disservice almost saying I can't do that work. Sorry for the long post but that's just how I feel, our trade has been watered down to much already, you will probably answer with " let the Domestic Installers deal with all things Domestic" but they aren't Electricians are they?

 

[Phil Thompson]

I personally try not to turn anything away, my apprenticeship was spent doing anything and everything, and have always thought that doing something else just adds to my skill set.

However I notice quite a few supposed sparks only learnt basic housebashing and don't have the knowledge base, or the incentive to improve themselves.

I had a guy who asked me to give a hand. He didn't know how to do Alarms or 3 phase work. Struggled with heating systems outside the basic 3 up 2 down or combi boilers using hard wired stats.

Not once did he even attempt to learn how to do them either. Never once watched me or asked how to explain. I didn't see the logic myself. I'd have been looking to learn and therefore not need to bring someone else in.
I think a lot of it comes down to confidence though. At least with that guy he lacked the confidence to even attempt anything out of his comfort zone. He was offered maintenance for a small chain of BBQ restaurants here and declined it, though he does the work in the owners houses through a joiner/builder.

 

[Pete999]

I can see your point Phil, but my initial gripe was how can you be just one type of Electrician? if you're an Electrician that's what you are.

Sorry should have edited, guess what I'm saying is you shouldn't just limit yourself to what you are good at, just advertising yourself, say as an Industrial Electrician limits the work requests you may receive, if you don't want any particular job you can always say you can't do it in the time frame specified, or some other excuse, in my opinion you're doing yourself a disservice almost saying I can't do that work. Sorry for the long post but that's just how I feel, our trade has been watered down to much already, you will probably answer with " let the Domestic Installers deal with all things Domestic" but they aren't Electricians are they?

I personally try not to turn anything away, my apprenticeship was spent doing anything and everything, and have always thought that doing something else just adds to my skill set.

However I notice quite a few supposed sparks only learnt basic housebashing and don't have the knowledge base, or the incentive to improve themselves.

I had a guy who asked me to give a hand. He didn't know how to do Alarms or 3 phase work. Struggled with heating systems outside the basic 3 up 2 down or combi boilers using hard wired stats.

Not once did he even attempt to learn how to do them either. Never once watched me or asked how to explain. I didn't see the logic myself. I'd have been looking to learn and therefore not need to bring someone else in.
I think a lot of it comes down to confidence though. At least with that guy he lacked the confidence to even attempt anything out of his comfort zone. He was offered maintenance for a small chain of BBQ restaurants here and declined it, though he does the work in the owners houses through a joiner/builder.

Just goes to show Phil, many of these so called Electricians are what they are, Domestic installers only interested in what they can do in a house.

 

[Midwest]

Personally I think you should do what you want and what your comfortable with. I did apprenticeship that did domestic, commercial & industrial. I finished off on large industrial installations, 3p supplies, bus bars trunking, wiring up steel presses & automotive machines & conveyor systems, etc, etc. I then popped off and did something completely different (no MP jokes please).

Having returned to the industry recently, I confine myself with domestic work. Something I feel comfortable with, but no less taxing. Lets not get snobbish about things and say domestic work isn't noble or industrial is more superior. IMO

 

[Phil Thompson]

Pretty much, except this guy passed his AM2, and is a fully qualified electrician somehow lol