Should I Become An Electrician?: What Type of Electrical Work is right for you?
Now you’ve made your decision, you want to be an electrician. So what’s next? Now we must ask ourselves two questions:
What type of electrical interests you the most?
What type of electrical suites your needs?
Commercial electrical is where most of my initial experience came from so you can rest easy you are hearing this from the horses mouth. I spent 11 years building things like dentist offices, hospitals, office buildings, schools and prisons. The days are long, the conditions are not great, and there is lots of traveling. But the pay and benefits undeniably more substantial. Due to the nature and scale of commercial construction, companies taking on these projects must be far larger than a typical mom and pop operation. With larger budgets there is typically room for higher pay. Also with larger labor pools, these plus size companies qualify for insurance and other benefit packages smaller companies simply don’t have access to. These can be ideal conditions for some. Maybe you’re a single person excited to take on large projects for months or possibly years at a time that are not always close to home. Hotel jumping and seeing new and interesting places might be just what you need at this phase of your life. This can be a perfect fit for the adventurous or rouge type person.
Industrial electrical is more of a specialty all to its own. Being a commercial electrician for so long offered me perspective into the life of an industrial tech as we helped on many a shut down, or power outage of a local or distant dog food plant, water treatment facility, and many other manufacturing operations. If you can get used to the hair nets, beard nets, ear plugs, safety glasses and hard hats these can be excellent and long lasting careers. Most who follow this path will end up with a very specialized set of skills such as bus ducting, ladder logic, controls, rigid and Rob Roy piping just to name a few. In our area alone there are many factories and manufacturing or shipping plants that offer high wages and excellent benefits for those looking for long term factory employment. This is definitely one to consider if consistency and certainty is very important for you. In this trade you will know where you will be every day, what time you will get off and will most likely have benefits open to you no other part of the electrical field will see.
Residential is obviously closest to our hearts as that is what we specialize in here at Electrical Specialists. Being able to have a personal relationship with each client is something that doesn’t go unnoticed. We enjoy the interaction and being able to personally serve each individual based on what their individual needs are. If you were to ask us some of the things that we love best about being in residential, it would definitely have to start with people. You absolutely have to be a people person. A commercial electrician may go an entire project without ever meeting the client. In residential, we are in the market of building relationships. You must like engaging with people, and solving their problems. Before we go any further, we want to acknowledge there are two different styles of residential. There are home builders, and there are service technicians. We find ourselves squarely on the service side. But we highly respect the process of those who wire new homes. That is almost a microcosm of mixing residential and commercial.
A residential wireman’s responsibilities lie in the start to finish speed and accuracy of their installations. They will not have much if any interaction with the client. The job is to get each home done as quickly as possible and move on to the next. Speed and Volume is the name of the game. You will be on the same project every day, but typically that project will change about every two weeks. Just be prepared to wire the same layout many times before moving on to the next project. Due to the privacy, there is typically no dress code, and clean up is not as vital. When it comes to a residential service technician, it is very different. We may be in as many as 5 homes in one day. We wear uniforms, boot covers, watch our language, park in the street and even limit any tobacco consumption away from the premises. When it comes to dealing with our clients, the experience is everything. It takes a person able to communicate with each and every client well enough to process the situation, and create the best solution. Lead techs typically find themselves at the top of the residential pay scale, and are supplied with a company service vehicle. Since we deal with mostly existing structures, there are many calls for a troubleshoot/diagnostic. We get to play Superman and come save the day, which is absolutely one our favorite parts. As far as pay, service technicians can expect to make slightly more than residential wireman, but less than their commercial counterparts. However there are new hybrid systems being deployed which are a mix of base pay and incentive bonuses.
These systems offer the technician a way to take control of their own pay and remove the restriction of the hourly wage cap. This is why we here at Electrical Specialists are changing with the times and adopting methods such as this to ensure our employees have every opportunity necessary when it comes to career acceleration and advancement.
