Domestic, commercial or Industrial Electricians

[Pete999]

Don't fall for it Pete, "they" wouldn't walk into a bar!

Exactly why I didn't answer

 

[electric al]

Truth is I can't tell you it anyway - turns out it's not kosher but they must have been very careless because the bar turned out to be an iron bar .

 

[Rpa07]

I can hear the lack of profanity now!

Truth is I can't tell you it anyway - turns out it's not kosher but they must have been very careless because the bar turned out to be an iron bar .

 

[Phil Thompson]

Thankfully I got a wide variety of experience in my apprenticeship. Mainly domestic and commercial. With a wee bit of industrial.

I try and stick with that now, very rare to do industrial, though there wouldn't be a lot of that type of work around here.

I know some guys and all they know is basic house bashing, and quite often they don't even attempt to gain any further knowledge & experience.

Many of the guys I went to college no longer do electrical. The majority having worked as intruder and fire alarm guys and the market isn't really there for the more specialised stuff.

I like the day to day and week to week variety, not just the same thing repeatedly.

 

[Pete999]

Thankfully I got a wide variety of experience in my apprenticeship. Mainly domestic and commercial. With a wee bit of industrial.

I try and stick with that now, very rare to do industrial, though there wouldn't be a lot of that type of work around here.

I know some guys and all they know is basic house bashing, and quite often they don't even attempt to gain any further knowledge & experience.

Many of the guys I went to college no longer do electrical. The majority having worked as intruder and fire alarm guys and the market isn't really there for the more specialised stuff.

I like the day to day and week to week variety, not just the same thing repeatedly.

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.

 

[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