Thread: electrician as a career path?

Hope you don't mind my chiming in when I don't actually have experience in the field. (Though I did know and admire an electrician who was a friend of my parents when I was a kid. I liked the man a lot--still do, in memory; and thought his shop was fascinating.) But your thread caught my eye because that trade has always interested me. I think I'd have gone after an apprenticeship if I had not gone to college, and I've suggested it once or twice to my son, who was in college for a while but says he's not that interested in going back. Being an electrician seems to me to be one of the most intellectually challenging and stimulating of the skilled trades, for one thing: you're always solving problems of one kind or another, and you have to master some pretty sophisticated concepts to really understand the work at the highest level. And hey, you get to spend your career playing with a powerful invisible force! What could be cooler than that?

It also seems to me that being an electrician would be more recession-proof than some lines of work. General construction, even carpentry, you're more at the mercy of the economic cycle: when the economy goes south, new construction slows down or stops. Not that anyone is immune, but after all, people are always going to need electrical work done.

You know, one thing that occurs to me is maybe it doesn't have to be an either-or choice here. I don't know how apprenticeships work, is it something you can pursue during the summers, or does it have to be all at one go? If the former--or if you could at least get a start this summer--then you might do some coursework in electrical engineering during the school year (maybe business management too, if you think you might want to go into business for yourself); and you might be in a strong position to get a part-time campus job related to the field. Again, I'm not speaking from personal experience and I can't say if it would actually work, but it strikes me that a college degree and an electrician's certification could be a pretty good combination.

Good luck, whatever you decide to do!

~Rich