An interview with an electrician

[kme]

Why not use yellow pages. If it was me I'd write a good, well written letter and send it to them. Make sure you get their name right, and sign in pen. Handwriting the envolope may help.Follow up a week or so later with a phone call. Even if you get nothing - feedback may help.

Also decide what you would be prepared to do - free helping out? That sort of thing. Don't sell youself too short in the letter nor seem to desperate!

`Pache makes a couple of excellent points here ( for the benefit of those of you thinking of heeding his advice).

I, for one, hate to open a letter filled with typos, spelling or grammatical errors, or something that obviously hasn`t been proofread.

If you are going to approach us for work, remember that this job entails a fairly high intelligence level. If you come across as a semi-illiterate oik, your letter is going in the round file (bin).

You are trying to impress us with your knowledge, and make us think you have an education. The 2 most important topics are Maths and English. If your English looks carp, we`re likely to dismiss your maths talents, out of hand.

My opinion, anyway. If you cannot string a coherent sentence together, or spell your own name correctly, you won`t be getting work from me.

KME

 

[Tazmaniandevil]

Well I had a career change too - in the opposite direction. I no longer work on the tools following ilness. So here goes.

1. At what age did you decide to start training to become an electrician?

16. Straight after school

2. What did you like best about the job?

In no particular order... The money, the banter, the money, immense job satisfaction, oh and money helps too.

3. What did you like least?

Bloody B&Q (and their ilk) helping muppets think it's easy to carry out electrical installation work. Main contractors forcing down prices, manufacturers pushing costs up. Customers who always know better than the contractor. Travelling for hours before you even get the tools out of the van. Early starts and late finishes. Oh to be a painter - in the pub for 2PM every day.

4. Did you do an apprenticeship or go to college?

Both. 4 year apprenticeship - 1st year 6 week block release, followed by 2 years day release. Then back to night school for 17th edition update/refresher.

5. How did you find work, did you just phone up all the electrical companies in the yellow pages?

Got my apprenticeship through a family contact. (Something to do with handshakes and cries of "how old is yer granny") Once my time was out, finding work was never really an issue, even during the Thatcher years.(yes, I am that old)

6. Was there much routine in your job?

Sometimes, yes. Larger contracts where you have a couple hundred identical houses, or huge office developments etc. can be tedious.

Any advice for me. I am 26 and thinking about this as a career change.

May I make so bold as to ask from what?

The construction industry goes through phases of abundance and drought in terms of work. I noticed over the years that each successive abundance phase paid less than the last. Elictrical installation work is continually being devalued in the eyes of main contractors and private customers. There is probably very little going on at the moment due to lack of financial confidence. Houses are not selling, therefore the knock-on work is suffering too. Shops are closing which means no shopfitting. Businesses won't expand, meaning no new offices or factory units being started.

My advice for what it's worth is... If you have a job - hang on to it for the time being no matter how much you dislike it.

 

[electrifymylife]

I have a degree in I.T and several years experience flirting around I.T. I quit my job last September for personal reasons, in addition to hating it, and went travelling, before my bank went bankrupt so I came home.

I just want a job that is more mobile, dealing with things rather than people, where I use my troubleshooting skills.

In my previous job in the office, I was a human robot and I could just operate on autopilot all day long. There was so much repetitiveness and the workload so much that it became automatized to the extent that I hated not being able to use my initiative to improve things, there was no time.

 

[Tazmaniandevil]

Yar, folks are leaving the IT industry in droves for those very reasons. I have been lucky enough to land up in the public sector, where the majority of my role is based around developing support solutions.

Being a sparkymatrician is a pretty good life, as long as the construction industry is bouyant. Good luck getting going, it may be a bit of a slog, but will be worth it in the end.