>Construction/Maintenance/Residenti al/Commercial/Industrial

>>1090706

Maintenance as in institutional? Like at a college or hospital or school system?

Not an electrician but I have had two institutional stints and because I was mostly low voltage I worked with the electrician plenty. All maintenance/institutional have incredible benefits. Health insurance, retirement, PTO, etc. Also a rather relaxed and mostly stress free setting. Hectic times and emergencies, sure, but the rest of the time is PMs and CMs with decent time frame expectations.

I can't speak on the pay but that dude drove a fucking Benz to work some days. Other days he took public transportation. He was an odd cat. Never heard him once complain about pay though. He only bitched that they wouldn't let him take all his PTO at one time - but he bitched up the corporate ladder and was able to.

I also helped out a guy that owned his own electrical company and he did mostly renovations. That was also very relaxed work. We completely rewired many houses in under a day. Decent pay, no benefits. I would assume that's standard with smaller electrical companies. I know there are many outfits in town with 20+ electricians on staff and I guarantee those guys had benefits.

If you're fine with working out of a truck, mobile work, commercial or residential, is fun. I definitely enjoy the change of scenery - you're always learning.

Industrial pays the best, and has way more types of equipment to work on. Harder to get into though, and alot of it is away from home.

Commercial, I hope you like running EMT.

Residential is easiest to get a foot int he door, after a year though you'll pretty much know enough to wire any house you'll ever run into.

>>1090713
Yeah, hospitals/universities/schools is what I was talking about. What you're saying sounds about right, here in Canada those are basically government jobs, which means slightly lower pay (although you'll hardly be broke), but great benefits and rock solid job security. It seems like there is a lot of that work available, especially if you are willing to relocate to a smaller city.

>>1091001
Is it common for a new electrician to start out doing residential or construction work and then move into industrial? The trade school program I am registered for seems to be structured that way,

Second Year IBEW Inside Electrical Apprentice here. Get prepared to get treated like shit.

Pros: Many different Jobs constantly moving and working with different people.

Cons: Every Commerical Job is the same. Underground, Rough-In, Run Conduit, Switch n Plug, Hang Light Fixtures, Mount Switch Gear.

>>1091203
>Get prepared to get treated like shit.

How so? I get that apprenticeship is tough and I'll be at the bottom of the ladder doing grunt work and perhaps being the butt of jokes, but I have no intention of taking actual abuse and I don't know anyone else who would either.

>>1091203
Stop acting like a retarded apprentice and fucking things up and you'll be fine.
>>1091007
You can do everything listed in OP with a 309A ticket in Canada

Commercial is pretty sweet, pay is good and in high demand where I'm located but be prepared to travel frequently, and to some real shit hole towns.

Industrial is where my interest is. Be prepared to get fat if you follow this route.

Don't follow residential for your whole apprenticeship. You won't learn much and your career will become limited. A 4th year residential is the equivalent to a 2nd year commercial industrial.

>>1091001
A year to learn how to wire a house? I could complete a build after the 3rd. Residential is monkey work.

>>1091696
Industrial is moreso what I'm interested in as well, I just don't see many opportunities for apprentices in that area. I guess the best bet is to start off doing residential and try to get into industrial as a 2nd or 3rd year apprentice.

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>>1091203
>he fell for the union meme

>>1092571
>higher wages and job security is a bad thing

>>1091007
>Is it common for a new electrician to start out doing residential or construction work and then move into industrial? The trade school program I am registered for seems to be structured that way,
Yes it's very common, don't hang out doing Residential too long though, industrial companies won't touch you if your a journeyman with nothing but residential experience.

>>1092589
>higher wages and job security is a bad thing

You won't learn shit as an union apprentice, enjoy pulling cable for 4 years.

>>1092882
This is the kind of advice I came here for. So basically if I have steady work as an apprentice doing residential work (which I know I will get) I need to suck it up after a year or two and move on to something different (industrial work, in my case).

>>1093156
Yes, if you decide you want to keep doing residential you pretty much need to start your own company. It's a career choice on its own and nothing wrong with it, but if you want to move fields be aware you will get pigeon holed. And stay out of the union until you have a ticket

Hey, I'm a third level apprentice. Started off in residential, moved to commercial after a year.

Residential gets boring quick, you learn everything you need to know basically within a year and just repeat the same shit every fucking day.

Commercial is more interesting, no doubt. Lots of piping sometimes though. I would say commercial is probably a harder go, but way more satisfying.

>>1093212
Move to industrial if you get the chance, the work is more varied, and down the road there are oppurtunities to specialize.

>>1093242
What are these opportunities, like PLC's and things like that? And do you learn it on the job or are there training programs, and if it involves more school do any employers pay for it?

>>1093202
That all sounds great in theory, although it becomes a problem when few companies are hiring apprentices. But hey, it is what it is I guess, apprenticeship isn't supposed to be easy.

Would you actually find a temporary job doing something different/unrelated before adding unnecessary residential hours to your apprenticeship? I don't want to be pigeonholed, but my bills still need to be paid. And do you have any tips for finding these positions? I know I can get lots of residential work, but industrial might be tricky, should I just look up a bunch of huge companies and start writing letters to their HR departments?

I know I'm asking a lot of questions, and I truly appreciate the advice.

>>1093498
>What are these opportunities
You can specialize in PLC's, VFD's, higher voltage stuff, commissioning, theres other stuff too, courses are almost always paid for by an employer.

>>1093498
>Would you actually find a temporary job doing something different/unrelated before adding unnecessary residential hours

No, keep working in the field, absences look worse. As for industrial gigs not much you can do but keep trying, if you haven't found anything by the time you get your ticket or are close, consider joining union, then you can pull the jobs off the board and prior experience won't hurt you as much.

Second year Electrical Engineering student,any tips I should remember?

>>1090706
I do maintenance at an auto assembly plant. That includes mechanical as well as electrical. My job is mostly replacing fuses, relays and fixing electro pneumatic/hydraulic stuff. Pay is decent and the hours are ok, kind of stressful when line machinery is down and 10 managers are breathing down your neck as you're trying to fix it as quickly as possible.

>>1094079

Wait until you have finished your degree and spent a decade or two in the industry before you believe that you actually know about electrical engineering.

>>1094079
We make fun of you guys on the job site

>>1090706
Hvac controls, those fuckershave it easy and get paid, also nepotism, you have to be inituated to join, suck an old dick get paid 25/hour to start.

>>1090706
Maintenance isn't really a trade. doing trade stuff is a side effect of the job sometimes. you mostly move money around and deal with sub contractors.

>>1090706
My buddy was melted by 440 and fuck near died.

Not trying to scare u. But be fucking careful op...

>>1092226
Don't be ridiculous, there's a heinous shortage of industrial electricians worldwide, China will be gobbling them up for decades to come too

>>1094857

That's all situational.

There have been people hit by .5million volts and all that happened is that their fillings disintegrated.

>>1091203
IBEW lineman apprentice here

Man up, pussy. You don't know the half of it

First year apprentice here. My school told me to find a job, and the first and best offer was a low voltage contractor (school thought this was fine). I love the job after 6 months, but I feel like I am limited in learning the full electrical trade, and I'm especially worried I won't have enough hands on experience to pass the licensing exam. We do a lot of pipe work when doing fire alarms, and I expect to learn the essentials in school, but we only work with 120V when powering up, and I won't get any field experience with breaker panels or anything of the sorts. Should I:
>stick with low voltage and make a career out of it
>not worry, school will teach me enough to transition into journeyman electrical whenever I leave
>plan on eventually leaving the low voltage company to complete on job learning
>find side jobs with supplemental experiences, if that is even possible

>>1093202

>be 18
>have family friends in union but they dont have enough pull to get me a job
>they still coach me on what to study for the test
>smoke the test
>get in
>be bitch for a few years
>get upgraded to guy who gets to tell bitch what to do
>making mad bank

Its worth it to get into the union ASAP to get your bitch duty out of the way and start getting hours in so you can be making dat sweet sweet easy dosh.