Years of experience

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DAWGS

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Dont know if this is the right place to start this thread but I was wondering how many years and experience some of you guys have? and at what parts of the trade? I have 17 years in mainly industrial, but have done quite a little commercial and resi also. I thought I new alot until I joined this forum. The best part is I am learning everyday again when I am reading posts.:smile:
 
I'll bite. Got my liscence in 96. So i'm thinking I started in 91. 17 years? I'm 47 now. I love my job. Still in the field diggin' ditches.
 
DAWGS said:
... I was wondering how many years and experience some of you guys have? and at what parts of the trade?
Click to expand...

Let's see...in my 20+ yrs at this game....
Started out doing Resi. & Light Comm. for a year and a bit....then did service work for another year and a bit(Resi. Lt. Comm., Lt. Indus.) ...these 2 - 3 years over lapped with 0 formal training.

Did about 7 years in transportation (trains, not DOT)....not much training other than PPE type measures, although I did manage to get my NJ EC's credentials towards the end of that stint.

Then about 10 yrs comm/industrial ...along with 5 years of formal training,

...and now back to resi. for the past couple of years.

In those 20+ years, I feel only about the last 10 years or so I had a clue ....although some here may tell you I still don't have a clue :grin:




DAWGS said:
I thought I new alot until I joined this forum. The best part is I am learning everyday again when I am reading posts.:smile:
Click to expand...

See below:
 
I got started by taking electricity at a vo-tech as a sophomore in high school. I got my first contractors license in the small town of Tuttle, Oklahoma when I was 16 (I gave the town $25 and posted a $500 bond, no test, no requirements). Passed the state contractors licensing test when it was first started in Oklahoma.

30 years later, I'm still at it. Moved to California in 87. For 14 years mostly commercial/industrial, now 50/50 residential/commercial.
 
4 years in the USMC as an Electrical Equipment Repair Specialist (1142)

Got out and did service work of all kinds for years, and then new and remodel construction - Commercial/Residential

Getting on 17 years now... still learning.... Really don't think you can know it all.
 
I started in electrical work in 1972 doing residential and some (very little) light commercial. 1974 I got my Journeyman?s card in Norfolk, VA. 1978 I got my Masters card in Norfolk, VA.

Pretty much just did the resi/lt comm. until a little stint (8-months, couldn't stand to be indoors all day) at the VA. Beach General Hospital. I learned a lot by just looking around at that hospital.

1980 I answered an ad in the newspaper "Master electrician, your license, your tools". It turned out to be a good move. A pump and tank company was tired of dealing with electrical contractors and having no control over the work, so they wanted someone on their payroll to do the work. 1980-1990 I wired gas stations, car washes, convenience stores, and a variety of control systems, all the time learning by osmosis the fuel distribution trade. I got so good at the overall planning and work that they offered me an installation manager position in Winchester Va.

1990-1996 I worked as an installation manager. It was ok at 1st, and then I really got tired of all the complaints. Salesman, customers, employees, etc. all complaining about something.

1996 I moved to Wilmington, NC and started my own business. If me, myself and I couldn't do it, I didn't want it. I do have a helper now. Pretty much wired fuel systems until I met a local dock builder (fixed some fuel problems he had from an unqualified installer). We hit it off and voila; I'm wiring docks now. (I did go back to work for the old pump and tank company as a branch manager for a year 2002/2003).
 
Second generation construction electrician, full time for 25+ years,
Military A school 6332 Aviation electrician,
Three years non-union,
Four year formal union apprenticeship,
Journeyman?s license in 86,
Masters license in 93,
Contractor?s license in 94

Mostly Commercial, then residential, some industrial (not much around in Miami)
 
started 1979, had to thumb to work (to young to drive) went to a voc. as a
teen, worked for small contractors ever since,30 years, i have been on just about every job you can think off. from helper to forman. started the office gig 10 years ago. construction management and estimating.I come from
a family of plumbers. thought i would take the higher road. :grin:
 
One last little comment. I had the reputation of being anal about the code and workmanship. They (the ones that think I'm anal) just don't know how slack I was compaired to most of you guys on this board.
 
celtic said:
In those 20+ years, I feel only about the last 10 years or so I had a clue ....although some here may tell you I still don't have a clue :grin:
Click to expand...

gotta agree with this statement
 
hardworkingstiff said:
One last little comment. I had the reputation of being anal about the code and workmanship. They (the ones that think I'm anal) just don't know how slack I was compaired to most of you guys on this board.
Click to expand...

Fits me as well,

Started tech school in 73?, Journyman license by 79, Electrical Contractor License in 80. Got canned, started own business. While working for others I started in residential remodel jobs and worked on up to commercial and industrial apllications. Boss said my buddy & I were to slow for the spec housing market.

Most of my work since starting business was residential and Ag with an industrial thrown in. Now we seem to be doing a mix of commercial, ag, residential service work with a different industrial thrown in.

I don't like the office/boss postion I now seem to have but there is no one else to do it.
 
started in tech high school in 82, apprenticeship in '84 journeyman in '88. Masters License in '03. Didn't see a need for it before than. First 2 years were residential. Commercial till '95 with about a yearor 2 mixed in. '95 till '03 in the steel mill. Started my own business in '03 doing a nice mix of residential and commercial service, now still do service with new commercial.
 
I Started in the NAVY in 94' and went to military A school in 98' to be a construction electrician which led me to being a Navy SEABEE.

Did three years in mississippi working and deploying to different countries doing mostly commercial/industrial type work. Learned a lot from this japanese electrician about splicing high voltage cable.

From there i went out to california to be a instructor for different batallions teaching high voltage power distribution systems, climbing power poles, generators, motors and controls, interior wiring, solid state devices and AC/DC Theory.

Went ahead and got my journeyman's for cali. and started doing some side work here and there. Then went to virginia beach where i had to take the test for my journeyman's again for virginia and got my Master's and contractors license in April of 2006 so, i've done pretty good for being a electrician for under 10years. Out of all the different areas in the electrical field i like being outside doing PowerLine work the best. Still in the NAVY making it happen teaching junior troops how we do it on the outside.

That's all folk's!!
BIGSID
MASTER ELECTRICIAN
 
To tell a little more. I started trade in 1990 18 years old fresh out of high school and votec. Took apprentice classes, got journeymans in Virginia, Took Masters 1 year later. Took contractors Class A licence and started my own company at 30 myself and 1 employee. ( Got tired of traveling). Now I am 35 14 employees and growing, doing mainly industrial and commercial electrical and low voltage.
 
My older brother was an electrician and took Residential Wiring at the Vo Tech in high school. A friend and I, whose brother also did the Vo Tech, decided to follow in their footsteps. (I think we just wanted the half day away from regular school more than anything else, :grin: ) That was 1987. My second year of VO Tech I applied for and received a work study at Baltimore Gas and Elect. Calvert Cliffs power plant. After high school I went to college in a different field. I met my wife in NC and moved there after graduation and eventually found myself doing electrical again in '96 when needing some work. I decided to go for my license in residential because that was all I comfortably knew at the time and got my first license in '99. Since then I have progressed to my NC Limited and just last month got my NC Unlimited. Most of my experience is residential but now do quite a bit of generator and ATS installs (8kw -300kw has been the range, so far), as well smaller commericial work.
 
vocational electrical training began in 1957--three years till 1960
ran sport fishing boat for two years
enlisted in navy -- three years electrician on conventional submarine till 1964
nuclear power training school till 1965
nuclear trained reactor operator on polaris submarine till 1968
joined union apprenticeship program -- passed journeymans in first year and masters in the third year-------- graduated 1971
general foreman in high rise condo construction till 1980
general foreman in high rise commercial office buildings till 1987
went into business doing tenant buildouts of commercial office buildings till 1992
began specialty services in infrared scanning and power metering till 2005
retired---but still learning (after about 50 years of twisting wire)
 
ole timers club

ole timers club

I was waiting for another ole timer to chime in..charlie tuna has me beat by a lil bit..startred industrial apprentice in '62...journeymn around '70, got out of the trade for a few yeras, then opened business in '78..by '89 I knew a enough about 'tricity that I was hired as an inspector...in a few more years I might be qualified.
 
Started working on one of my father's crews when I was 12. (Begrudgingly) Of course I didn't/ couldn't do much. But by the time I was 14 I was really working with them. Worked summers/ Saturdays/ vacation weeks until after college. (1990) So full time for 17 years, with 8 years part time before that.
 
I'm pretty new compared to some the rest of you. I started in in January of 96, and it was completely unplanned. I was 19 years old and laid off from my summer work living on a low population island in Lake Superior. An electrician needed help and his requirements at the time were that his help showed up on time and sober. I was possibly the only unemployed person on the island that filled his requirements. Almost twelve years later and I'm still at it, licensed, and on my own, but not on that crazy island anymore.
 
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