Reflections on 150 days of work

by biographicalnewbie

Tomorrow is my 150th day of work as an electrician. Just to say that I have learned a few things in that short of time is dramatically understated.

I can now run pipe pretty well on my own, making fairly complicated bends in order to get from point to point in a way that is somewhat pretty. It is still gray metallic pipe, but at least it does not look like complete garbage. I’m not sure if I am ready to call myself “proud” of the pipe I put up. I need to be, though. Why? Because it is one of the primary things which this job relies on. Without the conduit, there are no wires running to switches, nothing to connect to lights, nothing to connect to the breaker panel. I need to work out any second guessing come to a point of 100% confidence. I am sure that will take awhile.

So, about the other aspects of the job: I have worked in the heat and cold, from a stagnant and humid space to a cold and windy rooftop. I have pulled and pushed wire of all sizes, made up joints, cut boxes into walls, run metal encased wire, put up lights, wired receptacles and switches, wired roof top HVAC units, read blueprints and other things that I am forgetting. There have been slow days and hectic, long weeks.

Most important of all is that I have made plenty of mistakes. Most of them have been minor – forgetting to tighten a connector or bending a pipe crooked or twisting wires the wrong way when making up a joint. A major mistake happened early on. I ran a steel fishtape (instead of fiberglass) down some conduit toward a hot breaker panel. I could have been seriously injured if the steel hit the live wires in the panel. Luckily there was an open box in the ceiling before the panel, so the fishtape ran out of that instead of continuing toward the panel. Another person caught the error and was able to stop me from doing anything else with it.

The point of mistakes is to learn from them. Everyone I have met doing this job has told me that mistakes are sometimes the only way to learn many aspects of the trade. And I have learned from every single one.

 

Boot marks in the roof frost.

Overall? I like this job, a lot. It is difficult work both physically and mentally, but that is what I like about it. Everyday is different and often challenging. I love learning to use new tools, too. Now that I have been learning the “hows” of the job, I am ready to learn some of the “whys” of what we do.

Aptitude test for the IBEW electrician apprenticeship

by apprenticeshipbiographicalunion

Brushing up on my math skills

I first spoke with the IBEW Local Union 553 about their apprenticeship program (Raleigh-Durham Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee (JATC)) this past January. I missed the deadline for an apprenticeship this year, but my hope is to be in the program starting in January 2019. But first I need to take (and pass) an aptitude test and gain an interview with the JATC.

The test is composed of two parts: math and reading comprehension. The math is all Algebra I. I have brushed up on my equation solving, sequences, graphing, fraction-to-decimal conversions, dividing fractions, and calculating percentages. It is hard to find examples of this particular test, so I have relied on examples from other trade programs as well as a textbook that the Electrical Training Alliance (NJATC) puts out. I bought it for a couple dollars on Thrift Books. I am also working my way through the Math Aptitude training that is partnered with the NJATC. It costs $50 but has been well worth it to get the cobwebs out.

I wouldn’t say my math skills are terrible, but if you think about it when was the last time you used FOIL to solve a binomial? Or remember the order of operations using PEMDAS? Or how to simplify an improper fraction? If you are a person in their mid-forties like me who does not have a math based career, it has been a very long time. So I’m rusty, let’s just put it that way.

What is this all about?

by biographical

M

y name is Trace, and I live in Durham, North Carolina with my partner and two children. I have a mortgage to pay just like most people my age, so changing careers in mid-life is a big leap. With that comes nervous worry but also excitement about the challenges I will face.

I got a wild hair and decided to become an electrician. This is after close to 15 years spent in the organic produce world with a more recent short stint as the mail-order fulfillment person at Merge Records in Durham. I am also a writer and zine maker. You can check out that world over on my author page.

My interest was piqued when my friend Maryah (Director/Instructor, Construction Trades Career Readiness and Skills Training), from Durham Tech, came to dinner one night in December of 2017. They were talking about how the electrical union was going to start holding their training classes at the school. I asked about it, got the contact information for the union folks and applied for an apprenticeship. I was too late to begin an apprenticeship for 2018. In April of 2018 I called the first electrical contractor that came up on a web search. I called Kemco Electric of Burlington on a Monday and was hired the next day.

What you’ll find here is a blog about what my experience looks like as a “green”, middle-aged electrical helper working in a space where all my bosses are younger than me. There isn’t much information out there about second or third careers in the trades; I hope this blog will remedy some of that information gap.