The EC & his new Electrician

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dillon3c

Senior Member
What does a Electrical Contractor most look for in his new employee? Might it be:
(A)-Speed
(B)-Knowledge
(C)-Job Safety-(insurance rate) :eek:
(D)-Craftmanship
Noted: Everyone wants all,but YOU may only pick of THREE(3)..What three attributes would mean the most to you,and your professional organization?

Please give brief explanation,of most important and why..

[ April 30, 2005, 06:11 PM: Message edited by: dillon3c ]
 
Re: The EC & his new Electrician

dillion if you dont mind me adding another question to yours of these three that you chose is most important and why
 
Re: The EC & his new Electrician

You have left out the most important attribute and the one that would take care of everything, and the one I feel is the most important is:
ATTITUDE
I can tell a mechanic with the good attitude and that one will take care of all of the rest.
Naturally, I would like to see KNOWLEDGE,
I also measure APPEARANCE.
With the right attitude, knowlege, and appearnce,
I feel that I have a good employee.
The safety, speed, etc., that will come with the proper training. But, you can train a new employee who has the right co-operative attitude.
 
Re: The EC & his new Electrician

None of the above. Look in their vehicle. Be it a car or truck for side work. If it is a mess then most likely the person is a mess as well. This translates into all aspects of the employees job habits and skills. A, B, C, D can all be dealt with but a slob is a slob and that won't change.
 
Re: The EC & his new Electrician

In the past ten years we have had two tech that were "slobs" when it came to their vehicles. Never once in those ten years did we ever have a call back or failed inspection on any of their completed jobs. Their work was impeccable and we have received many customer compliments and referrals from the work these two have done.
The reason their work trucks and personal vehicles were a mess? They"re in a rush to either get to work or from one job to another, hence everything gets thrown around.
As the old saying goes "don't judge a book by it's cover."
 
Re: The EC & his new Electrician

Originally posted by electricmanscott:
I'll stick with my opinion.
Click to expand...
Looks like I should forget about working for you.

My jobs are neat, the inside of my truck is usually a mess.
 
Re: The EC & his new Electrician

Originally posted by iwire:
My jobs are neat, the inside of my truck is usually a mess.
Click to expand...
I'm with Scott on this, but of course there are rare exceptions. :p

Personally, I can't work out of a messy vehicle, but that's just me. It's how I was trained and how I do things.
 
Re: The EC & his new Electrician

I don't have a preference for messy trucks or not.

What I care about is whether the work looks good or not. I have seen some electricians using vehicles that looked like they were on their last legs do some really nice work, and others with brand new equipment that could not even bend pipe correctly.

I know many engineers who have rather messy offices but do good work, and conversely some that have very neat and clean offices and do poor work. I have yet to find any correlation to neatness of offices (or trucks) and how well the work is done.

<added>
I can tell you one thing that I am pretty sure about. The vast majority of the poor engineers I have run across over the years habitually wear ties, sometimes even jackets/suits. Not that every engineer who does so is not a good engineer, but that the bad ones tend to try and fool people by their choice of clothing. They also tend to spend a lot of effort on getting certificates to hang on their walls.

I always worry about engineers wearing ties and jackets with lots of certificates hanging on their walls and an abnormally clean office. That is usually a bad sign.

[ May 01, 2005, 12:55 PM: Message edited by: petersonra ]
 
Re: The EC & his new Electrician

I don't agree that a messy personal vehicle or even work truck means they do poor work. Work quality has nothing to do with organizational skills. My wife will agree that I am not the neatest of people, but when it comes to my work I am a perfectionist.

My wife has seen my job sites and doesn't understand why I cant keep the house clean when my work is so neat, I reply with "Well that's why I married you!"

I make it a point every Friday or Saturday to clean out my work truck. During the week I am to busy running around taking care of business to keep the truck neat, so on the weekend I get back in order and start fresh on Monday.

Just my 2 cents, Steve
 
Re: The EC & his new Electrician

I would say D,B then attitude. I would also take in to consideration how your other techs are i wouldn't think you would want all your techs fast,knowledge, and safety but then they all are not that great for other features such as craftmanship (just examples). I wouldn't worry about a sloppy truck, they might of just came off of a camping trip or somthing.Appearence is a big plus i think that says alot about somone.I also don't care to much if my tech did side work as long as it doesn't affect me (don't encourage side work).Most good techs will be selfemployeed sooner or later you can't stop them just make them mad.I don't think most contractors can afford to make a good tech mad. This is just my opinion.
 
Re: The EC & his new Electrician

There are alot of people who work for companies where they don't have the luxury of time to be able to keep their trucks or vans neat as a pin and totally organized. Add to that the fact that they're suppposed to be self-sufficient "supply houses on wheels" and it gets real hard. I've known quite a few people where you couldn't see the floor of their vans that did excellent work. Likewise I've seen folks with shiny vehicles and neat organization of contents that I wouldn't hire to string Christmas tree lights!
 
Re: The EC & his new Electrician

You show up with the proper attitude and a williness to work and the rest I'll supply. Having said that Work quality, and appearance are a plus.
 
Re: The EC & his new Electrician

I think attitude and neatness are best. Although neatness will improve with practice, you will get faster with practice...but a good attitude is something I'd look for first thing. What do you guys mean by craftsmanship?
 
Re: The EC & his new Electrician

Craftsmanship is work done by any skilled person who takes upscale pride in his or her work and displays their work for all to see.
Too many EC's have lost this phase pride which was started years ago by those that went before us.
 
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