why do most people put you down

[assegayer]

Hi guys,

Recently when im studying at college and on my work days as a mate, i constantly hear the same old moaning from electricians saying 'if i could pick something else back in ur time it sure wouldnt be this' ..i always hear this from them and to be honest it really can discourage you...there nice blokes but when it comes to their job views they seem to look down on themselves... i like electrics, and would jsut like to ask is the trade really that bad, is there no future job prosepcts in it?....u have probably heard this so many times jsut really annyoing me...


but then what else is there to do?,, office jobs are just as **** and boring and offer no 100% job security..

 

[Guest125]

Stick with it mate. Make your own path. I love my job and always have done. Sure there will be bad days, weeks and months but all in all. I love it.

 

[assegayer]

u see this kind of comment can really just change the whole mood, how long you been sparking for?

 

[Sintra]

I tried to talk 2 of my sons out of being sparks but they didn't listen.

 

[assegayer]

I tried to talk 2 of my sons out of being sparks but they didn't listen.

why is that? do you really think its that bad? what else would u want them to do that is deemed good in your eyes

 

[Sintra]

I really just wanted something better for them as this job takes its toll on your body after a while. I've been in the game for 30 years and I must say I love it really but my knees and back are screwed. Saying that one of them has completed his apprenticeship and the other is in his 3rd year and both are doing well at it.

 

[Guest125]

I started straight from school in 1999. 4 year apprentiship. Left to be self employed then started my own firm in 2010.

 

[trev]

I love my job. I'm 52 now, one Friday when I was 16 my school closed it's doors to me and on the Monday I started my apprenticeship. In those days being an electrician was a goal few reached, it was a very well respected trade. Now it's not like that so much.
However, for someone who, as you appear to be, wants to work at it and learn then the world can still be your oyster, just don't give up on the studying and always reach for the next goal which might appear at the time to be unreachable but trust me, it isn't.
There is always a new situation waiting round the corner for you that you won't have experienced before, one which will make you stand back and scratch your head for a while until you figure it out.
Every day is a school day if you want it to be.
Good luck, it will be the ride that you want it to be if you're prepared to work for it.

 

[assegayer]

I really just wanted something better for them as this job takes its toll on your body after a while. I've been in the game for 30 years and I must say I love it really but my knees and back are screwed. Saying that one of them has completed his apprenticeship and the other is in his 3rd year and both are doing well at it.

i 100% agree with you about the toll on the body, but these days more ppe is worn (not in anyway saying it was bad back in your days) such as knee pads etc.. i really like the jobs

 

[assegayer]

I love my job. I'm 52 now, one Friday when I was 16 my school closed it's doors to me and on the Monday I started my apprenticeship. In those days being an electrician was a goal few reached, it was a very well respected trade. Now it's not like that so much.
However, for someone who, as you appear to be, wants to work at it and learn then the world can still be your oyster, just don't give up on the studying and always reach for the next goal which might appear at the time to be unreachable but trust me, it isn't.
There is always a new situation waiting round the corner for you that you won't have experienced before, one which will make you stand back and scratch your head for a while until you figure it out.
Every day is a school day if you want it to be.
Good luck, it will be the ride that you want it to be if you're prepared to work for it.

thanks for the words of wisdom, they really help

 

[assegayer]

I started straight from school in 1999. 4 year apprentiship. Left to be self employed then started my own firm in 2010.

thats the dream hopefully after gaining a good amount of experience, how is it going you working alone or have some lads

 

[Guest125]

thats the dream hopefully after gaining a good amount of experience, how is it going you working alone or have some lads

There is a team of 7 of us. All we do is railway work.

 

[jase]

As with any job or even any trade, some people excell an go on to run their own successful businesses, some just plod along working for someone else, it's upto you what you do with what you learn, I used to think that "the game" wasn't as it was and that the golden age of a sparky being an elite trade was long gone and that my training had been for nothing and maybe I shoulve just become a plasterer, but then I lost my driving licence through my own stupidity and took a job in a local factory on a production line working a 40 hr week for minimum wage doing the same thing day in day out. And I realised just how much freedom, variation and downright job satisfaction being a sparky is. And sometimes it's not even about that latest re-wire on a 5 bed townhouse with intelligent lighting and home automation that has tested all your skill. It's the little old lady who has called you out because her cooker doesn't work and she's worried about how shes gonna make dinner, and all it takes to put her at ease and make her day and put her out of her worry is just to change a 13A fuse.

 

[Knobhead]

The only words I’ll offer are,
Try your best to get in to the industrial side of the trade. Domestic electricians are ten a penny.
The number of industrial electricians is falling. Due, like me, to retirement. Someone is going to have to replace us. It won’t be easy and its bloody hard work but it kept me interested for forty years.

 

[andyelectric]

First time I think I've ever agreed with Tony. In my view the new Domestic Installer category is here to stay and therefore the domestic market will remain flooded. Therefore the way to go is industrial.

My personal view is that users of this forum are likely to be further disappointed and that there will be a future deskilling of industrial also(due to lacknof apprenticeships and guys like Tony retiring) , but not to the same extent as has happened domestically so still the safest option.

 

[Darkwood]

Ill second Tony's post forget domestic and aim for industrial - even if you have to do 5 yrs in basic electrics thn go for the big one, the old stock are retiring daily and there is a 25yr pot hole of people to replace them, I'm turning down work weekly now because of this and cannot find anyone to help me with similar skill level.

 

[Knobhead]

The industrial sector can’t risk having ill trained wanabe’s let loose and this is where the big crunch is going to come.

As DW said there’s a 25 year hole to be filled. I’m sorry but the “bolt on” 5 day additional course “introduction to 3Ph” isn’t going to fill it.
You have to have a good grasp of maths, logic, physics, chemistry and be able to learn an industrial processes to be safe not just for yourself but for others.

Years ago I nearly killed three people and I’m the one that’s supposed to know what he’s doing. That’s stuck with me ever since.

It’s never been easy to get in to. Now I’m going to be honest, I don’t know how you break through that barrier now. All the training seems to be aimed at the domestic market.
I’ll help anyone that really wants to aim for that goal. Believe it or not Andy, I’ll go out of my way to help. For the simple reason this country is heading for disaster due to short sighted training policies of 30 years ago. Policies I fought tooth and nail against. I’m no mystic but I foretold this impending crunch all those years ago.

 

[Essexboy7]

Hi guys,

Recently when im studying at college and on my work days as a mate, i constantly hear the same old moaning from electricians saying 'if i could pick something else back in ur time it sure wouldnt be this' ..i always hear this from them and to be honest it really can discourage you...there nice blokes but when it comes to their job views they seem to look down on themselves... i like electrics, and would jsut like to ask is the trade really that bad, is there no future job prosepcts in it?....u have probably heard this so many times jsut really annyoing me...


but then what else is there to do?,, office jobs are just as **** and boring and offer no 100% job security..

i have been in the game for 34 years and hate it

I have seen every aspect of it go steadily downhill

The pay,the conditions,the standard of work,a once respected trade now flooded with unskilled/semi skilled cheap labour,building sites that used to be a great crack turned into miserable prison camps,health and safety gone mad,agencies,payroll companies and if you are looking for 100% job security then this DEFINETLY aint the game to be in

At the moment i am doing substation work on the railway and pay and conditions are better then anywhere else but there are so many wretches who can put you out of work in an instant

 

[Knobhead]

i have been in the game for 34 years and hate it
I have seen every aspect of it go steadily downhill

The pay,the conditions,the standard of work,a once respected trade now flooded with unskilled/semi skilled cheap labour,building sites that used to be a great crack turned into miserable prison camps,health and safety gone mad,agencies,payroll companies and if you are looking for 100% job security then this DEFINETLY aint the game to be in

At the moment i am doing substation work on the railway and pay and conditions are better then anywhere else but there are so many wretches who can put you out of work in an instant

Why do you think I advise against the domestic sector? New builds or modifications it’s the same day in day out. I’d rather watch paint dry.

 

[Besoeker]

The industrial sector can’t risk having ill trained wanabe’s let loose and this is where the big crunch is going to come.

As DW said there’s a 25 year hole to be filled. I’m sorry but the “bolt on” 5 day additional course “introduction to 3Ph” isn’t going to fill it.
You have to have a good grasp of maths, logic, physics, chemistry and be able to learn an industrial processes to be safe not just for yourself but for others.

Years ago I nearly killed three people and I’m the one that’s supposed to know what he’s doing. That’s stuck with me ever since.

It’s never been easy to get in to. Now I’m going to be honest, I don’t know how you break through that barrier now. All the training seems to be aimed at the domestic market.
I’ll help anyone that really wants to aim for that goal. Believe it or not Andy, I’ll go out of my way to help. For the simple reason this country is heading for disaster due to short sighted training policies of 30 years ago. Policies I fought tooth and nail against. I’m no mystic but I foretold this impending crunch all those years ago.

I agree. It's the same thing I've been saying for years about my field - mainly power electronics.
No new blood. I'm beyond retirement age, and both my chief project engineer are in their fifties.
My very able assistant recently retired - she is also in her fifties.

I'm dealing with the same people on many sites that I've dealt with for decades. A bit saddening really.