Any Electricians around here?

[hanoverphist]

Yep! I do mostly industrial construction right now. I eventually plan to move to service work, doing mostly motors/vfds and control/automation stuff.

i design the GUIs for controlling a lot of that stuff, fun work. mostly water/ waste water tho, and a bit of motion control here and there. hard to break into the biz tho, lots of people looking for a few jobs. pretty much every electrician on staff here has asked me to help them break into the programming side of it...

 

[DrPizza]

at least until they learn enough to be "not totally worthless."

lmao, my son was just told last Tuesday - they start at 7am, he arrived at 6:45am, a couple of guys were already there; "what the hell are you doing coming in so late? You're just an apprentice. You need to be the first one here to warm up the trucks for us, because you're pretty much useless for anything else. I don't want to have to climb into a cold truck."

Each place he's been, they rip on the apprentices pretty bad; generally just joking around though. They've taken him out to some nice places after work though & have treated him quite well.

 

[DigitalCancer]

So I called my local JATC and you're right...it is kind of demanding as far as getting in. She said that you need to have HS transcripts and have taken Alg. 1 and birth certificate, etc., lol. Then, assuming you make it through that, there's an interview and then an aptitude test in March (3 months away), and then, depending on how you rank, you could start in September! Wow...lol.

A couple questions...

I've been out of since 2002, so, what do I need to brush up on as far as the Algebra goes? Just basic Algebra? Are there any study guides for the Aptitude test, just general, I'm not asking for an answer key. ^_^

What happens in the interview? Do they just try to determine if you're good for the line of work?

 

[us3rnotfound]

Can you do this kinda thing if you already have a BSEE?

 

[Gibson486]

Can you do this kinda thing if you already have a BSEE?

yes

 

[BoomerD]

lmao, my son was just told last Tuesday - they start at 7am, he arrived at 6:45am, a couple of guys were already there; "what the hell are you doing coming in so late? You're just an apprentice. You need to be the first one here to warm up the trucks for us, because you're pretty much useless for anything else. I don't want to have to climb into a cold truck."

Each place he's been, they rip on the apprentices pretty bad; generally just joking around though. They've taken him out to some nice places after work though & have treated him quite well.

Yep. About all my working life, if you weren't 30 minutes early...you were late. Started when I was an apprentice...served me well my entire career.

So I called my local JATC and you're right...it is kind of demanding as far as getting in. She said that you need to have HS transcripts and have taken Alg. 1 and birth certificate, etc., lol. Then, assuming you make it through that, there's an interview and then an aptitude test in March (3 months away), and then, depending on how you rank, you could start in September! Wow...lol.

A couple questions...

I've been out of since 2002, so, what do I need to brush up on as far as the Algebra goes? Just basic Algebra? Are there any study guides for the Aptitude test, just general, I'm not asking for an answer key. ^_^

What happens in the interview? Do they just try to determine if you're good for the line of work?

I imagine the better you are with algebra and higher, the better you'll do in the test...(duh) There may be some study guides available. Check with the local hall, or contact the IBEW.
The interview will indeed be to determine if you're right for that line of work, and to determine if you're likely to actually complete the program and work in the trade. It would behoove you to do as much research as possible on what an electrical apprentice will do, as well as the work of a journeyman. It sucks for an apprenticeship program to spend the time and money training people, only to have them decide halfway through that it's just not for them. Not only is it a waste for the program, but it also takes away a spot that someone else could fill. With construction already being in the shitter, spots are very valuable...and in high demand.

 

[NL5]

So I called my local JATC and you're right...it is kind of demanding as far as getting in. She said that you need to have HS transcripts and have taken Alg. 1 and birth certificate, etc., lol. Then, assuming you make it through that, there's an interview and then an aptitude test in March (3 months away), and then, depending on how you rank, you could start in September! Wow...lol.

A couple questions...

I've been out of since 2002, so, what do I need to brush up on as far as the Algebra goes? Just basic Algebra? Are there any study guides for the Aptitude test, just general, I'm not asking for an answer key. ^_^

What happens in the interview? Do they just try to determine if you're good for the line of work?

Algebra and Trig are huge. You will most likely have to take the NJATC math course, so if you're serious, I would just take it now, as that will look really good when you go to your interview. It's like $115 or so, but it will be good to get out of the way, and then you'll know you're pretty prepared for the apprenticeship. Other than that, AC and DC theory classes would be good.