How to get ahead in the workforce

Start somewhere and network. Trial and error.

Start at the bottom and be labourer. You'll learn things from good tradesmen you'll learn things from shitty ones. Over time you get better at stuff and learn what you like/good at and what you don't.

Slowly but surely you get smarter, better, faster, and pay goes up accordingly.

I'm an Electrician. I just got wrote the final exam to finish my apprenticeship of Friday. (Canada)

>>18337673
How would you describe the kinda work as being?
Is it a high stress job? Dangerous at all?

>>18337682
>Stressful
Yes if you are someone who gets stressed easily then you might not like it because sometimes you have a really tight schedule but you don't have to ever take your work home with you which might make it less stressful than an office job.

>Dangerous
Apparently it is but you're not even allowed to legally work on live electricity now with out a shitload of paperwork (we all do anyway) any job is dangerous if you get complacent, maybe electrical moresore. I've been jolted a couple dozen times with your standard commercial voltage 120/208v and it's harmless.


Great thing I love about electrical work is there is so much variety you're never doing the same thing repetitively

I work at a pretty advanced factory for a very rich company.

I started doing the manufacturing. Hydraulic press, bending, inserting, boring mundane shit.

I went to a local Community College and got a TIG welding certification. Also took the OSHA course while I was there.

As soon as I told them I got certified they hired me as a MIG welder. Not TIG, but better than what I was doing. After they realized I could TIG weld better than most of their welders they hired me as the 1st shift TIG welder.

A robot welder does most of the work, I just put in the parts for it to weld then TIG weld the spots that need to be repaired. I make more than everybody at the factory except the veteran welder. It's a good life. I make good money and get out at 3:30 PM everyday so I have plenty of time to date and pursue my goals. I make music, TIG welding is great because it allows you to earn good money without sacrificing your dreams or life.

>>18337699
That sounds interesting. Is the schooling tough? Id hate to try out in a field that requires a shit ton of schooling and has all sorts of pre requisites

>>18337700
Sounds kinda similar to what i do. I use punch presses and hydraulic presses and welding presses to make parts for foorball helmets.
I got an uncle who's in welding and ive been considering having him take me under his wing but my eyesight is really dogshit and pretty fragile so I'm not sure if i should get into that field

>>18337703
Well like i said i'm canadian so i don't know how it is where you are.

You need your grade 11 math and science to start the apprenticeship. You either do a pre-apprenticeship course to make you more employable or you find a job and jump right in with no experience. It's a four year apprenticeship so you have to work 9 months of the year and go to school for 2 months.

The school isn't that hard, the hardest math is still just algebra. Most of the final exam was just on the Electrical Code and you get to take the codebook with you for the exam.

>>18337716
Currently living in the states. Thanks for the insight, i might do some research into this kinda work.

>>18337712

Welding helmets protect your eyes super well m8. Just make sure to get an automated one and turn the shade on max.

Don't think about your fears, m8. Every job carries risks.

>>18337699
How does it feel to get jolted?

>>18337725

You can get jolted from TIG welding too especially in the beginning it will happen once or twice.


Your arm locks up and you get a quick burst of adrenaline. It builds character.

One day I was welding and was super stressed and kept shocking myself. By the fifth or sixth time my arm felt like it was bludgeoned with a baseball bat.

>>18337723
Its what my uncle said as well. Maybe if i get canned from my factory job I'll ask him to take me with him and see if i can get into it.
Love welding on the machines, everything from the smell to the sounds just feels right to me for some reason

>>18337463
cna is a fucking joke. most factories shits get paid more than a cna that wipes ass and deals with stupid faggot shit. either go for your RN or get a trade. trucking is fucking awesome and pays well, the smarter fags that are Owner ops make bank. check it out fag bro

ps im a trucker for a local factory. 50k a yr full bennies. easy fucking job. so easy its not even funny

>>18337738
Bunch of guys at my factory quit so they can get into trucking. Still not old enough to get the licenses for that shit. Gotta be 21 where i live, but if its that easy i might wind up doing the same

>>18337725
With the lower voltage I work with 120/208v it isn't that bad. It's like a combination of being hit in the funny bone and bit by a dog at the same time but it leaves no permanent damage.

I've never been shocked with the higher commerical voltage 347/600v but from what I hear it is excruciatingly painful. People have described it as the most painful experience of their lives and it actually can kill you. It can also make you lock onto the source of electricity so you don't have control of the muscles effected.

However very few electricians are killed or injured by electrocution. The biggest danger is arc flash which is an explosion caused by a high current fault near the service which ionizes the air.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6hpE5LYj-CY

>>18337734
>>18337748
Not OP just lurking but I'm a sadist I guess. Thanks for the replies it was fun reading them, got a shit ton of questions like why the hell would you put yourself in an uncontrolled situation like that with actual electricity running right beside you but I guess it's not the same as fixing a broken light (like you cant turn off the whole factory's electricity so you fix shit safer) and if getting hit by an arc flash is just bad luck or just a case of carelessness but I don't really have an underlying reason as to why I'm asking

File: download.jpg (4KB, 225x225px) Image search: [Google]

4KB, 225x225px

>>18337779
An arc flash can be caused a lot of ways.

One easy way is to drop a screwdriver between the two phase buses in a service panel. The size of the fault is proportional to how much wire is between you and the service transformer so it is huge right in the panel. The fault in that video is caused by them intentionally wiring a dead short between phase A and B so it would be compareable if you dropped a tool between them.

Another bad cause of arc flash is these old high voltage disconnects they used to make that "racked out". With High voltage when you disconnect it under load it always wants to arc between the two contacts through the air to keep the circuit going when you initially open them.

Nowadays we make the breakers filled with sulfurhexafluoride or within a vacuum because electricity can't run through those (a perfect vacuum has infinite electrical resistance) but back in the olden days they made these disconnects that you'd crank up to load a spring so that they'd shoot open so fast that an arc couldn't be established. Terrible idea. Nowadays safety is so strict you couldn't even touch one without wearing a bomb suit like in pic related but it wasn't always that way.

Here is a vid of guys getting flashed racking out a breaker. You can see the guy cranking it and obviously it goes of the rails when he opens it. Too many mechanical parts man, so much can go wrong.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tglwN4AfDL0