Electrician Starting

[KJBO]

Hey everyone, i hope this is the right place for this thread, i was looking for some advise and feedback. I'm currently 18, i left school at 16, jumped into a media course because at the time i used to use the computer alot and thought that it would suit me the most, however 3 of my friends were doing electrical installation level 2 course, 2330 level 2 or what have you. I decided i had to get out of my course and tried jumping into that, but where i started the year late, i had to do the basic course (level 1), so i completed that, and i completed level 2 last year, now im on my final year (level 3) - inspection and testing. I haven't really done much electrical work, had some site experience from work with my dad but that's from painting, not electrical or anything, and i just feel like i know NOTHING, literally, if i was asked to do something electrical, id mess it up or wouldn't know where to begin. And i keep hearing about it's all experience, today i started a job with someone to do with the family, and it was such a poor job, in a loft, covered in dust and all, no where to move just hell, but im guessing you get bad jobs, it's just i felt like most of the day i was doing nothing, i was asking questions and all, but none of it sinks in or seems to interest me at all.

When i did some work on the boards in level 2 pratical, as long as i knew what i was doing, then i enjoyed it, if i know what to do in terms of wiring and all (don't have a scooby) then id enjoy it more, but i don't know what im going to do, i feel as if ive wasted the past 2 years?

My dad says to stick to it, but to be honest im really not finding it enjoyable, i know work isn't fun, but as least be able to get on with things and find it ok.

 

[KJBO]

Thanks guys some interesting comments, im not earning 26k a year, god i wish i was, probably around 5k, as of now, a mixed bag of responces and maybe im judging things too much as the guy i did 4 days work with said it was the worse job he had in years (this rewire house), and that if he priced it and actually looked at it himself, he wouldn't of started it, so maybe im being too skeptical.

It's just things like college that **** me off, surely it's only 1 day a week i can manage that, but im not learning much, for example i have a homework sheet about capacitors and capacitance, 1st question,
1. State the name of the effect of excess electrical pressure between the plates of a capacitor.

Now this makes absoultely no sense to me, it's like a different language, but the tutors even say thereselves once we take the test we can forget it all, so it's making me think what the hell, and every electrician ive spoke to so far has said the same, i guess i'll have to get my head down and somehow pass through the year and just make sure i do alright at the pratical.

But things like, do you use drills a lot, is the job more easy or hard, in terms of graff, because i don't mind working for money, but when your going to college for 3 years + i feel there ought to be some decent benefits from what im hearing.

And Lenny the leaflet was newcareerskills - probably just making you join a course.

 

[Guest123]

And Lenny the leaflet was newcareerskills - probably just making you join a course.

you knows it.

 

[Jas0n7]

He does have a fair point tho. I'm JIB approved, 2391 electrician, 13 years experience and im the lowest paid on site. Painters earn more than me. I am employed mind and not working for myself :/

 

[N.LDN]

He does have a fair point tho. I'm JIB approved, 2391 electrician, 13 years experience and im the lowest paid on site. Painters earn more than me. I am employed mind and not working for myself :/

Where part of the country are you working in?

 

[Jas0n7]

Northamptonshire

 

[davemc]

While I was doing my level 2, four years back I was re-wiring council houses. Some weeks I'd earn around £100, others closer to £300. Not a great deal of money and the guy I was working for was a total s**thouse! Plus, anyone who's ever re-wired council properties will tell you how horrendous the conditions usually are. But the experience was invaluable. I then got into a decent local firm and had a year there earning a little more money. I finished college but was laid off a few months later when a lot of firms were going under.
Having been out of the game for a couple of years, and with only two years working experience under my belt, I don't hold much hope of resuming my career anytime soon. I still do the odd bit of work at home and for friends/family as I enjoy it, but with the ways things are, if you can earn £26k, you really shouldn't be whining about it.

 

[KJBO]

I'm really having second thoughts and i don't know what to do with my current situation.

 

[J@mes]

jack it in, go on the dole and let someone who is keen and willing to stick out the crap jobs in order to make a success of him/herself have a go at it.

sorry!

 

[brucelee]

Hi mate

dont give up unless your really sure its not for you

as i for one now 40 have regretted a similar action when i was a 16 year old apprentice i did what you are thinking regretted it every day since mate and i am now 40 spent the last 24 years still involved on and off in electrical installation but with no quals
wiring new build for £26 day rate -35 a day for price 3 years working sometimes for upto 22 hrs and i only got £80 for that this was between 1989 and 1992 until the recession then no work and beacause of no quals no work for years
the last 2 years i have been paying to do short courses with private training providers for a very large amount of money as well as 2391 at college just recently all funded by my partner and i tried to get on 2330 always told to old now its to late
to enable me to set up self employed ad do NVQ 2356 to get jib status as a electrician but this to is ending soon as i am a full time carer and believe me no work is not good i would swap to be in your shoes even for the amount you are getting because trying to get anywhere in the future without any quals is nearly impossible
no matter what job you do they are all hard its about what you want to get from it in the end
you have to take rough with the smooth and nearly always there is more rough
believe me every other job i have had other than electrics has been worse and low pay and my £30 apprenticeship was better than any others i have had since
Think carefully mate only fools rush in where angels fear to tread and if you jump to soon you may regret it
as they say the grass is not always greener on the other side
good luck with your decision

 

[dook]

I'm 33. Paid £6000 to re-train. Have found a company that were willing to take me on but I'm starting at the bottom. Hard with a mortgage and a little boy but in a couple of years if I'm on £26,000 I'll be ecstatic. It took me until I was 30 to realise what I wanted to do. I wrote over 100 letters and made endless phone calls to get my break. If you're already at college and have employment at 18 think very carefully before jacking it in. There are thousands of people that would kill for your situation.

To answer one of your questions you keep coming back to. I've been in the trade for three months now and the first thing that hit home for me (and very quickly) is how physical the job is. Being up a ladder trying to drill a hole through a six inch joist, having your arm in a hole that barely fits pulling in 25mm cables, crawling in loft spaces trying very hard not to put your foot through the ceiling again (oops) the list goes on. If your impression of the job when you're qualified is being in the warm wiring up a CU then you're in for a shock.
Having said all this, I love it which is the difference between us by the sounds of it. I know a sparks that earns over £200 a day but he works self employed, gets up at 4 am, commutes to London, works a 9/10 hour day and gets home about 8 or 9 pm without seeing any of his kids.

My advice to you is stick with it, learn all you can and try not to be too influenced by others attitudes at work. Focus on what you need to learn.

The reality is, that if you stick with it, get qualified and work for a firm, you should be fairly grateful to earn £26,000. Sorry if thats not what you want to hear but thats the industry as I see it.

Good luck mate.

 

[KJBO]

Hey, it's just i feel Electricians deserve to earn more, painting you don't really need qualifications, you can pick it up, i know several people that have done so, say they earn an average around 24k a year, not bad, sure there's some things like going up real high ladders painting roofs, but it's painting, you're at no risk of hurting people and all. I'm currently signing on (first time i have ever), and am unemployed, i feel im no good at electrical although i've had hardly any experience, when i did 5 days with a guy i knew from my aunt, i was doing a bit of chasing in, was alright even though i made a bit of a mess of it, then next thing i knew, i was drilling into a wall, i put the drill down whilst doing other stuff (putting a gromet on a steel box) and then i smelt burning, looked down and the drill had caught alight onto the dust sheet - just my luck, thankfully it wernt a big deal but it gives off the wrong impression about me. Another thing like we were drilling through joyce under the floor boards and it took me almost twice as long to do so as he did, it just made me feel useless and weak, which i don't feel i necessarily am as i workout, i know that's nothing releated but anyway.

Electrician is a good job, i just don't find no interest in it for me personally, but im worried as i don't know what else to do with my life, i just can't see myself doing it as i don't think im competent enough, im on my 3rd year (inspection and testing), im considering throwing in the towel but it's the last year they do the level 3 so im thinking just to finish it, but even then there's more to it.

I really don't know but i don't want to leave things to late, i feel useless.

 

[telectrix]

some of what you are saying takes me back a long time. we had no cordless drills, a decent drill for drilling masonry weighed in at 20lb. we had to drill joists using a brace and bit. we bent steel conduit over our knees. we carried our tools to work on a bicycle. a megger was a honking great box that you had to crank the handle on. what i am trying to say is. we've all had it rough at some time or another. stick with it. it can only get better. if you can't, then it's not for you, take up IT or banking , wear a suit to work and jeans for going out.

 

[Benny2]

When i left my 30k a yr lighting tech job, for being a spark i had gained Nvq level 3 and 16th edition and at the age of 23-24 earning £300 a week before tax again was abit of a shock, also this was before the resession. But money and experience doesnt grow on trees, dont be scared to work for different sparks they all do different work with different experiences. I remember talking to an apprentice a couple of years ago he was moanin that the new build sparks he was at college with were on £10 an hour n he was on like £7 ish, but i said forget the money the experience he was getting in petrol stations,commercial shops,idustrial 3 ph stuff ect ect over weghts the money big time and i just wonder how much those new build college lads earn now or if they still have work? like we all say things arent easy or nor come on a plate i honestly dont think you have given things chance yet, you will find somewhere to work and you ll settle in well but if you dont only you can tell in time? atleast if you finish your college and you dont like the trade it will look good on a cv as you finished what you started.

Just read through some older posts, sounds like you want something for nothing, i do agree though sparks are hard done by with regulations. But i Have grown up on farms all my life and my parents still have one now.
Try working 7days a week 12months a year inc bank hols and xmas day ect to milk the cows and do all the jobs that need doing in all types of weather. then mr tesco that sell his milk for loads of profit decides this month he will only pay the farmers 20pence per litre for there milk this time, but what the general public dont realise when they buy all this cheap produce it cost pretty much 20pence per litre to preduce so there would be many months where my dad may have earned only £50 in a month with no other income! unfortunately it still happens to this day and it only the tip of the ice burg. sorry to turn this into a farming forum but just thought it was pretty relivant.

 

[davemc]

Hi mate

dont give up unless your really sure its not for you

as i for one now 40 have regretted a similar action when i was a 16 year old apprentice i did what you are thinking regretted it every day since mate and i am now 40 spent the last 24 years still involved on and off in electrical installation but with no quals
wiring new build for £26 day rate -35 a day for price 3 years working sometimes for upto 22 hrs and i only got £80 for that this was between 1989 and 1992 until the recession then no work and beacause of no quals no work for years
the last 2 years i have been paying to do short courses with private training providers for a very large amount of money as well as 2391 at college just recently all funded by my partner and i tried to get on 2330 always told to old now its to late
to enable me to set up self employed ad do NVQ 2356 to get jib status as a electrician but this to is ending soon as i am a full time carer and believe me no work is not good i would swap to be in your shoes even for the amount you are getting because trying to get anywhere in the future without any quals is nearly impossible
no matter what job you do they are all hard its about what you want to get from it in the end
you have to take rough with the smooth and nearly always there is more rough
believe me every other job i have had other than electrics has been worse and low pay and my £30 apprenticeship was better than any others i have had since
Think carefully mate only fools rush in where angels fear to tread and if you jump to soon you may regret it
as they say the grass is not always greener on the other side
good luck with your decision

Who told you that?! When I did my 2330 4 years ago, there was an old chap in our class who was 59 years old. He wasn't looking to become a fulltime spark, but he was semi-retired and just interested in getting the qualification to do work at home and a few local jobs to keep him busy. There were a few over 40s though.

 

[Wicksyp]

Hi KJBO
I agree with the other posts as when i started in a factory as a trainee industrial electrician when i was 16 some 23 years ago all i got was a brush and clearing up duties in-between college and after that it was pulling cables and fetching tools etc.
This is my third year of running my own business and i too would say to you if after your first day you are dis-heartened then i would suggest you take up another career or go on the checkouts at asda like quite a few of the young lads ive had with me have done.
Personally this trade has been good to me but i had to work really hard to get there and i had to be patient to wait for my time to shine.
You need to be eager to learn and study hard and be an asset to the company you work for, now that doesnt happen overnight mate.
Hope this advice helps ace and stick it out it will get better
Wicksy