Insider Info

Fred Black got his start in the electrical field at an early age. "My father was the electrical manager at [a national exhibition], and I started to work for him after high school," he says.

Black spent just over four years learning the trade, with both on-the-job training and through three semesters of trade school. "Proper training is necessary to produce good tradespeople and protect the integrity of the trade," he says.

After working as an employee, Black eventually decided to start his own electrical business, working both commercial and residential jobs. "It allowed me to grow, prosper at the trade, and satisfy my ambitions."

Of course, running your own company takes business sense. You also need to find customers. According to the U. S. Bureau of Labor, only about 10 percent of electricians are self-employed.

"Most contractors are poor marketers and find new customers through word of mouth or the open bid market," Black says.

Black is now semi-retired and working as a consultant for an electrical contractors association. As an employee, he worked 40 hours per week. As a contractor, he could work up to 60 hours per week.

Working conditions aren't always great. Black has worked outdoors in cold winters and in crawl spaces under supermarket floors. Some of his jobs were high-level government security contracts.

Asked which skills or traits good electricians should have, Black says, "attention to detail, [the ability to] work well with others, patience, mechanical aptitude, good hands and instincts for danger."

Electrical hazards are the most obvious potential dangers an electrician might face, but Black says the negligence of others is also a danger. So it's important to be aware of what others are doing around you.

When Sharon Cowman started her five-year apprenticeship in 2001, not only was she the only woman in her class of 25, but at age 40 she was twice the age of most students. "Twenty-four guys and me, and with most of them, I was old enough to be their mom. They were 18 or in their early 20s. It was kind of intimidating," she says.

Cowman had waited to start her apprenticeship until after she had enrolled her youngest child in kindergarten. Her younger sister was an apprentice electrician and told Cowman she'd love it. She did.

Cowman could have chosen residential or communications wiring apprenticeships, but she decided to pursue a commercial classification and became an inside wireman. Commercial electricians typically earn more money, and they can work in all three areas. However, residential wiremen cannot work on commercial jobs.

"Once you're in, they put you with a contractor who asked to have an apprentice," Cowman says. "As a first-year apprentice, you're the cheapest help. I think I started at $9.30 an hour. I'd not done any electrical work. On some first-year jobs you might just be responsible for sweeping up the job site and keeping the material shelves in order. That sounds kind of demeaning, but you learn your parts that way. And a clean job site is a safe job site, so that has benefits, too."

Apprentices work 40-hour weeks, earn 40-hour paychecks and do classroom work, as well. Cowman had one four-hour evening class per week, but some schools have eight to 10 weeks of solid classroom work followed by on-the-job work.

Cowman's first job was working on a state-of-the-art covered outdoor theater. "That was an awesome job. I spent every day for three weeks in a lift 25 to 30 feet in the air, but it didn't bother me," she says. "The first time I went up in the bucket truck I thought I'd freak out, but I'm always focused on what I'm doing, so I didn't really think about being up in the air."

Cowman was pulled from that job when the contractor she was working for got a job to work on traffic lights. Because it was a state job with government funding, the contractor was required to have minorities on the job site -- in this case women are considered a minority.

"I really liked the traffic work," she says, "A lot of electricians don't like it because it involves a lot of digging and underground work. It's a bigger, heavier pipe -- you're running four-inch rigid pipe under the road. It's dirty work and you're always working outside. It's cold in the winter, it's hot in the summer, but I enjoyed it."

Because Cowan finds her jobs through her local union, she never knows what to expect. She has worked a few weeks on wind turbines, wired new dorms at an area university, and recently helped rewire a natural gas compression station.

"We had to wear fire retardant suits all the time," Cowman says. "Every two hours their people came in and inspected for gas leaks, but our 20-hour orientation included all of the information on dangers we needed to look out for."

When the economy is bad, some electricians can go weeks or months between jobs. But many union halls offer continuing education in things like on-the-job safety, tower rescue and CPR, as well as courses in emerging technologies like solar panels and wind turbines. Many electricians take advantage of those classes when their work slows, while some attend night classes even when their schedules are full.

Continuing education is important to Dan Bierly. Many years ago he was unhappy at a middle management job, so he quit and took a big pay cut to work at an electrical company, despite having no experience. A year later, he was accepted into the apprenticeship program at the Western Electrical Contractors Association (WECA). When he completed his apprenticeship three years later, he was at the top of his class.

Bierly did some communications and commercial work, but specialized in residential work for several years. "When I first started in the trades I did some underground work, which is the equivalent of digging ditches," he says. "It was a large range of weather conditions, from the summer heat of 115 degrees to the winter cold of 10 degrees with snow on the ground. Sometimes when you're an electrician you have to work in the elements. It's just part of the job."

Eventually, Bierly became an instructor at WECA. WECA is one of the largest trainers of electricians in California.

"Shortly after, I was offered the job as programs manager for the electrician trainee and continuing education programs at WECA," Bierly says. "It's my job and due diligence to always keep up with the latest codes, both nationally and in our state and in local municipalities. When I was in the field working as an electrician, I would always take classes to keep myself updated."

Bierly says certified electricians in California are required to take 32 hours of continuing education every three years to maintain their certifications. "The reason for the 32 hours of continuing education is to keep them abreast of the new upcoming codes so they always make safe installations in the field.

"I truly believe that the more knowledge you obtain as an electrician, the more respect you receive, which in turn increases how much money you get paid," Bierly says. He adds that when he apprenticed and worked in the field he always worked to the highest standards. "And the only way an electrician can do that is through an apprenticeship program or an electrician trainee program."

Bierly says people can excel in the electrical field if they are self-motivated, eager to learn and aren't afraid of hard work. "When I started I had absolutely no knowledge of how electricity worked or how to wire anything, but in a short time -- through hard work and studying -- I was able to turn out as an electrician and eventually become someone who is able to teach other people to become electricians."