My NECA/IBEW Apprenticeship

Time Flies

2011-05-01T12:44:00.000-07:00

As we enter May, I'm struck by the fact that it's already been almost a year since I graduated from the apprenticeship. This time last year, I was nervous about what my transition would be like but excited for the graduation ceremony.

A year later, I'm finally starting to feel comfortable in my new role. I look at other mechanics as my peers and don't hesitate as much in choosing a course of action to take on a project. I doubt that I'll ever feel like I know everything about the trade, especially since it seems like it grows and changes every month, but I'm starting to realize that I know what I need to know... and that's a great feeling!!

I can't get over what a remarkable program the apprenticeship is. Almost six years ago I was reading the want-ads, trying to find a job in the industry. Now, I feel comfortable and confident as a professional in the field. For five years I had a team of people working hard to employ me with companies who would teach me exactly what I needed to know to build a career as an electrician.

I'm proud to say that we have a new 1st-year apprentice blogger. His name is Michael Gerrick, and his blog and record of his experiences can be read here:

http://necaibewmgerrick.blogspot.com/

I look forward to following along on Michael's blog and reading about his experiences from year to year. I especially look forward to five years from now, when we are reading about his up-and-coming graduation! Who knows what kinds of projects and technology IBEW electricians will be dealing with then? Whatever it is, I trust our apprentices to be perfectly equipped to handle to work!

Nice to Hear

2011-01-25T15:21:00.001-08:00

Today as we got in the company van and rode off campus to where our cars were parked, a couple of guys were talking about the new apprentice who has just started with the company this week. The apprentice had taken the metro home already.

"What year is the new apprentice on John's job?" one guy asked.

"A first-year," was the reply.

"Is he going to make it to his second year?" asked one of the guys, trying to coyly determine the skill-level of the new-recruit.

I was very surprised when, at the same time, two of the mechanics in the van exclaimed, "We'll get him to his second year!"

I hadn't expected that kind of support, especially when the new guy wasn't around. These guys were both correcting the other who was trying to be funny and showing their feelings about the union. I was really, really surprised.

"This is a brotherhood, man," one of them said to me the next day when I mentioned the incident in passing. "We have to look out for each other. It's up to us to help new guys become IBEW electricians. It shouldn't make any difference that this is his first week in the trade. It's our job to see that he makes it through the apprenticeship and keeps the union going strong."

I just thought that was an incredible thing to hear. Wanted to pass it on!

More Mechanics

2011-01-19T17:41:00.000-08:00

I've bounced between four different jobs in the last four months but seem to have found a new home. I'm working on a decent sized job at NIH which looks like it'll keep me busy for awhile, and I'm happy to be so lucky!

I've spent the last couple of weeks planning out pipe runs and building racks to hang pipe on and now, as material comes in and more and more sections of the job are ready to be started, the foreman has started calling for more men to come to the job. This is always an exciting time for me. You never know who's coming out to help--perhaps it's someone you've worked with before or maybe it's someone new. Maybe it's someone you're going to be working with for the next year or more. You never know!

Two mechanics arrived this week to help on the project and it's been great. Both guys have been with the company for awhile, but none of us have ever met before. We're all mechanics, and it's like we all speak the same language. I'm learning that a lot of what a mechanic brings to a job is intangible. They're not intimated by the size or difficulty of different tasks, they approach problems which calm and reason, and they bring the "can-do" attitude which comes from experience (the "have-done!"). I know that these qualities come from experience, just like speed does, and it's fun to meet more people who've been around the block and bring that sense of capability to a job.

Speed Control

2010-11-26T10:33:00.000-08:00

One problem I'm having as a journeyman is speed. I'm having trouble getting tasks done fast enough, or at least at a rate which I feel is expected of me. I realize that I'm being paid 20% more per hour than I was as a fifth-year apprentice, and so I really feel like I need to be 20% more "valuable" to my company, which to me oftentimes means being 20% faster.

I suppose part of the problem I'm having comes from the "learning curve" which you encounter on every new project you take on, but a large majority of it comes from the heightened sense of responsibility that I feel as a mechanic. Since there's no longer anybody coming behind me to make sure I'm doing the job correctly, I tend to over-think each task to make sure that it's being done correctly and efficiently. When I described this feeling to one of my teachers at the hall, he introduced me to a term which perfectly conveys the feeling: "analysis paralysis." I couldn't believe how apt that description is. I was very relieved to learn that this is a common feeling that new mechanics get!

First Few Months

2010-11-02T17:50:00.000-07:00

Over the course of the 5 years that you spend in apprenticeship before becoming a journeyman electrician, you become a really good apprentice. When I started out in the trade, I didn't know a thing about electricity and I didn't know a thing about construction sites. But as graduation grew closer and closer, I felt more and more comfortable in my role as an apprentice. You learn what's expected of you in many areas of performance: attitude, manual skill, knowledge of the trade, forethought and planning, etc. As a first year student, I looked up to 4th and 5th years in much the same way as I looked up to mechanics. I could see that these men and women knew what they were doing.

Coming into this summer I felt like I knew what I was doing, finally, too. And it was that comfort which I relied on to keep me rolling as a new mechanic. But I noticed that some things were different.

As I met new people on the job I was now introduced as a journeyman--not an apprentice. These people never knew me as an apprentice, and I suddenly started feeling a new sense of responsibility settling on me. What kind of jobs would I be asked to do? Could I ask questions if I had them? Apprentices are full of questions and are always learning. I still had a lot of questions!

I'm still learning what's expected of a journeyman. I've got the tools, I've got the training, and I'm ready to work. What I've found to be most helpful to me as a journeyman are mental techniques. I try to approach every new task or new jobsite with optimism and a "can-do" attitude, even if I'm not feeling too confident or sure of what I'm doing. I'm trying to ask fewer questions of my foremen. I think we know more than we think we do at this point, and we just have to trust ourselves (this is the part that's particularly difficult for me!).

Also, I'm trying to quickly engage the task at hand and be the one who is "leading" the work to it's completion. As an apprentice, you sometimes have to sit back and let the mechanic drive the tempo of the work being done. Sure, there are many apprentices who are faster than mechanics, but I'm realizing that it's our job to pace the work. It's successful completion rests on our shoulders.

It's been an interesting few months so far. I'm looking forward to the work ahead and finally getting comfortable in my new role!

We did it!

2010-06-13T14:32:00.000-07:00

I can't believe the time has finally come for me to say this, but I'm officially a journeyman electrician now! Our class graduated this past Saturday, June 5th, bringing 5 years of hard work and study to an exciting finish. The JATC did an amazing job of celebrating our successful completion of the program. We had a wonderful ceremony at Martin's Crosswinds in Greenbelt consisting of a formal graduation as well as dinner with family, friends, members of the JATC and several members of the electrical industry. Although the spotlight was on us apprentices and our graduation, I think everyone involved could see that the event was just another indication of how well organized and talented the people who run this apprenticeship really are: it was unforgettable.

So after five years of being an apprentice, I really look forward to working as a full-fledged journeyman. This past week at work has been very interesting for me. Nothing has changed to an outsider's perspective, but I feel compelled to work as fast and as diligently as possible and to make as many independent decisions as I can. I'm working under a terrific foreman who isn't putting any extra pressure on me because of my new electrical status, but I still feel like it's my job now to emulate the work I've watched countless mechanics around me perform for the past few years. The best journeymen I've worked with have all had one quality in common: regardless of their differing strengths as electricians, they've all brought a can-do attitude to the tasks they've been asked to perform. Although I still feel like there are plenty of things I don't fully understand in the electrical field, it is this quality with which I hope to approach my job every day.

A Different Feel

2010-04-05T15:21:00.000-07:00

I'm really getting a new feel for what it's like being an electrician while I'm working on the job I'm currently on. We have had a very small crew--just a foreman, myself, a second-year apprentice and a helper--for the majority of the three months that I've been out there. Only recently have we added another fifth-year apprentice and occasionally a mechanic who helps us out when he's not busy doing service calls for the company.

With this set-up as it is, a lot of "important" work has fallen on my shoulders. What I mean by "important" work is work that ordinarily is automatically given to an experienced mechanic on the job--exposed pipe-runs that have to look just right, large runs with difficult routes, building electric closets, setting switchgear, etc. I have repeatedly been very surprised to realize that, most of the time, I am the most experienced electrician on the job outside of the foreman...and with graduation only two months away (!), I'm almost a mechanic.

It's really been a lot of fun. I feel great knowing that I'm being trusted to perform tasks which aren't 100% straight-forward and simple. To me, part of the experience of being an apprentice has been realizing that there's a lot I don't know and--as a result--holding a great deal of respect for the vast amount of knowledge that a mechanic has about electric work. I never really knew what sort of change to expect once the time came to become a mechanic myself. I guess I just imagined that I'd suddenly know a whole bunch of stuff that I didn't know before. As it turns out, as graduation draws closer, I'm understanding that a lot of the feeling of transition will come from the respect and trust that others put in me. This is a cool feeling; one which, by itself, is worth five years of hard work.

Once in a Lifetime!

2010-02-17T18:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, my time as an apprentice at Local 26 reached a height I never dreamed it would when I began training:

I had the tremendous privilege of meeting President Barack Obama!! You could have knocked me over with a feather.

The President visited our training facility yesterday morning before giving a speech discussing job creation and our nation's energy sources. He was given a tour of the hall by our directors and teachers, getting lessons on topics ranging from AutoCAD to PLC's. He was delighted to pull one of the fire alarm system display's pull stations: "I got a chance to pull the first fire alarm since I was in junior high and I didn't get in trouble for it!"

It is difficult to attempt to describe the honor that we feel as an organization at having been recognized and commended by President Obama and his administration. What an enormous testament to the hard work of the directors and staff of the JATC---it's their constant dedication to developing the apprenticeship program that led to this exciting day!

We were additionally thrilled to have had several other important members of the business and industrial communities with us. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, and IBEW President Ed Hill also came to share in the activities of the day.

I am immeasurably grateful to the JATC for having been given the chance to participate in this amazing event. It serves as a huge inspiration to me and I'll never forget it.

I can't say it enough: the opportunities provided by this apprenticeship program are endless. One minute, you're sweeping the floor at the jobsite. The next minute, you're shaking hands with the President of the United States!!

Back to it!

2010-02-14T18:26:00.000-08:00

I just returned to work this past week after being gone for a few weeks. I traveled to Port-au-Prince after news of the earthquake to help out at a school I used to work at in the city. It was an interesting trip and I felt very useful--amid all the chaos, it felt great to be able to provide solid, professional support in the form of electric work. I mention this just to illustrate the utility that I find in being trained in this field. The work we do is helpful to people all over the world, and I was happy to explore new environments with my tools in hand.

Getting back to work on the job I'm currently working on has also been an experience. This week really drove home for me how much of a career being an electrician truly is. I believe it is a life-long experience, not something you learn how to do one time and then you've got it. After missing only three weeks of work at my job, I found myself fumbling to re-center my mind and focus on speedy and satisfactory completion of the tasks I was presented with. Let's just say that there are a couple pieces of pipe that I hope nobody notices sitting alongside of the dumpster!

I'm looking forward to a focused week ahead and getting fully back into the groove. Weather permitting!

New Year

2010-01-11T19:06:00.001-08:00

So the new year finds me at a new contractor and in a very different situation than I was in with my old company! Such is the nature of the apprenticeship and honestly, it's one of my favorite parts about it.

At the beginning of December, I transferred to a new company for my final transfer. I decided to return to the first electrical company I ever worked for. The past couple of weeks have been a lot of fun and a lot of hard work: they've been fun for the simple reason that I've been lucky to work with a lot of people that I remember from my first year in the trade, and they've been hard because I have a lot more responsibility than I did during that first year!

For the last two and a half years, I've been on really large, new construction jobs, working alongside several other electricians--dozens at a time--apprentices and mechanics alike. Now, suddenly, I'm on a job with a foreman and two other apprentices. It's quite a change and probably a major cause of the increase in responsibility that I'm feeling. Nevertheless, I'm having a blast.

You wouldn't believe how fast a work-day goes by when you are personally responsible for getting projects done. Without having a mechanic by my side for the majority of my day, I have to make a lot of choices and decisions that were ordinarily not mine to make (how should this pipe be run, where should we mount a pull-box, etc.). I also have to set my own tempo, which is perhaps the strangest feeling of all--without realizing it, over the years I've grown very used to tailoring my work pace to that of my mechanic so that we work well together. I feel like I'm getting a glimpse of what life as a journeyman is going to be like: and that's a good thing, because it's only six months down the road!

Final Transfer?

2009-11-06T18:00:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago we were given our notices about the up-coming final transfer for 5th-years. Come December, if we choose to do so, we will be able to make our last transfer. Otherwise, we can just stay on with the companies we are currently with and continue working. Now is the time when we have to make that decision and get all the required signatures, etc.

I've been thinking about this transfer for a long time. To me, in terms of employment and the future, it represents the largest stroke of independent decision-making that I've had to make so far. I have to consider all the relationships I've forged in the past 4½ years as well as the different types of work I've encountered with each company, not to mention the availability of work that each company may or may not have at this point in time. I have to assess my opportunities.

But I also have to sell myself to a certain degree, or at least realize the fact that the day-to-day work that I've done since June 2005 has been my sales-pitch so far. This transfer has pushed me to evaluate myself more objectively: I'm comfortable with my skills as an apprentice, but do I make a good journeyman? I haven't had to consider this so honestly before. I've only got 7 or 8 months left as an apprentice. The company I choose to transfer to will be treating me like a journeyman in a matter of months. Whoa!

A Light Week

2009-10-26T01:31:00.000-07:00

This past week on the job wasn't terrifically exciting but was plenty of work for me. I actually didn't have enough time to do everything I wanted to get done, even with 8 hours of overtime on Saturday!

My only task this week was to light up the elevator machine room. Simple enough--at first glance--but it has involved more work, thinking, and material than I originally anticipated. I spent the first few days of the week laying out and hanging racks to hang the lights from and the next couple of days hanging the lights themselves and starting to pipe them in. I feel like this entire project should have been completed by Friday afternoon, but here it is Monday morning and I've still got some work left to do! Also, I'm working with a mechanic who is an extraordinarily fast worker, and it's a challenge for me to keep up with him. One good thing I've noticed this week is this, however: when you're focused on getting a particular job done within a particular window of time, the days go by really quickly. It's 2:00 p.m. before you know it!

I noticed in particular this week that there always seems to be more than one way to do a job. I walked around that elevator machine room several times trying to come up with the perfect plan for how to lay out the lights, and then a perfect plan for how I was going to hang them. And I came up with what I thought was a pretty good plan. Sure enough, halfway through the week, my foreman came up to check on my progress and asked a lot of questions that began with the words, "Why don't you just..." It was frustrating to me that he was able to so quickly determine a faster and easier way to do my job, but once I got over that frustration, I was glad to see that there was more than one right way to do what I was doing. Hopefully, over time, I'll be able to more quickly figure out the quickest and easiest way to go about my work. As for this particular elevator machine room, however, you can expect to see carefully calculated light falling from the ceiling by the end of today, I expect!

More on the Solar Decathlon

2009-10-16T01:23:00.001-07:00

At the risk of repeating myself, I want to take a last opportunity to encourage anyone and everyone to visit the Solar Decathlon this weekend on the Mall before it ends on Sunday, October 18th (http://www.solardecathlon.org/).

After two weeks of being back at my regular job, I still am (perhaps over-)impressed by the five days that our group from the JATC spent down there helping out. We brought along our personal tools, two carts full of power tools and a portable generator, and our knowledge from the field and did everything we could to get these teams up and running electrically so that they would be ready to be tied to the grid when the proper time came.

Due to the rush to get their houses completely built and functioning, the students were grateful for our help. As I said in my last post, we did a lot of work with grounding and bonding that was a little bit out of the ordinary. Since these houses were predominantly pre-built and then dismantled, only to be reconstructed once they arrived in Washington, most of the internal wiring was already complete by the time we showed up. That meant that the electrical panels were already wired and were pretty much sitting ready waiting for the meters from the utility.

The contest is special this year because the houses are all tied to the grid. At the last decathlon two years ago, when the JATC brought a class of third-year students down to help out for a day, a lot of the work that our apprentices did was helping out with the bank of batteries used for storage. Our experience was entirely different. Being tied to the grid means that no battery bank is necessary. One category of competition is seeing how much energy each house produces and is able to return to the utility, something that local utilities around the nation pay (or at least credit) private clients for doing. It is a very positive initiative.

As a result of being grid-tied, however, and due to the specifications set up by the contest organizers, each house was required to have a disconnect mounted to the exterior of the house before the feed enters the panel. This disconnect and its connecting raceways requires grounding, of course, and its existence upstream of the panel requires it to be the point of the main bonding-jumper. This was news to a whole lot of people! Understanding grounding and bonding, a very important safety and proper-functioning issue, is part of our course material in the apprenticeship and something you learn in your third year. And understanding the role of the main bonding-jumper and where it needs to be placed is at the heart of the subject!

We therefore had a big job of mounting disconnects and correcting a lot of the grounding systems that the students had installed. We re-pulled feeders and re-landed a lot of the equipment grounds in the house panels. This was all in addition to the work with the PV systems and solar arrays that we were lucky to get involved with!

Our experience made us realize how crucial the work of a knowledgeable electrician is to the developing field of alternative energy. The field is changing every day and is guided by the work of students like those at the competition who are designing practical, beautiful houses like those you can visit down on the Mall.

We met tons of these students who were enthusiastic about their projects and the future of solar and other alternative energies. Their positivity was contagious! Go down there and check it out before it's too late!

Something New!

2009-10-07T18:19:00.000-07:00

AND......... just when I was getting a little bored doing the same old thing at work day-in and day-out, I'm slapped in the face with what has undoubtedly been the most exciting and interesting experience I've had so far as an apprentice.

I'm talking about the Solar Decathlon, which is currently taking place on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The Solar Decathlon is a competition between twenty teams from colleges and universities around the world to design and build the best and most energy-efficient house possible. It's called a "decathlon" because there are actually 10 different categories in which each team's house will be judged. For a full description of the competition, visit this website: http://www.solardecathlon.org/

I was very, very lucky to have been asked, along with five other apprentices from Local 26, to participate as a volunteer in this year's competition. So, from last Thursday through this Monday, the six of us and two of our instructors set out to lend a hand wherever we were needed on the Mall.

It's situations like these that make you realize what a valuable set of skills we learn as we become electricians. Once we made the teams aware that we were available to help, we were constantly busy getting their electrical installations up to snuff. Our group did a lot of work with grounding for the houses, tying in meters and panels, and, of course, installing solar panels! The teams were all extremely appreciative of our help, and we were equally (if not more-so!) appreciative of the opportunity to be involved. Personally, having worked predominantly on commercial installations throughout my time as an apprentice, I'd never had the chance to tie-in a meter on a house or even drive a ground rod. And I'd also never worked with any solar installations or any DC systems whatsoever. In the five days I spent on the Mall at the decathlon, I feel like I gained a year or two's worth of exposure. What a great time!

Anyone who's interested in electrical work, alternative energy, and the future of our field should take a couple of hours and tour the houses on the Mall once they open to the public on October 9th. I'll be there myself just to take a more complete look at the final products and to talk to the students about the amazing technologies and concepts they have incorporated into their designs.

I have plenty more to say about our time volunteering at the decathlon. Right now, I'm still processing it all! I send a hearty thank-you to the local and our JATC for getting our union involved in such a great project!

Nearing Completion

2009-10-05T17:02:00.000-07:00

The past couple of weeks at work have been a winding down, of sorts. We've gotten to the point in the job where most of the work is completed and people are being transferred to new sites. All of the electrical closets have been built, all of the big pipe in the penthouse is run, and we're really just finishing up little projects that have been missed.

At this point in the job I don't have a steady mechanic to work with as I have had throughout most of my time on this site. I've been bouncing around helping guys who need a hand pulling wire, hanging lights, wiring controls for the generators, etc. Work has a different feel to it. On the one hand, I'm glad for the variety of projects I'm getting involved in; on the other hand, I miss being able to work steady -- start to finish -- on a particular task.

As I've said, I've been at this particular site since October of last year. We're coming up on one year exactly within the next week or two. The change that you can see in the building is extraordinary. When I first arrived, demolition was just still being completed and pieces of the new switchgear were still arriving every week. It was a mess, and it was hard to envision what the final product was supposed to look like. Now, we're doing finish work and hanging chandeliers over beautiful marble floors. The difference is amazing. It's extraordinarily fulfilling to see how everyone's hard work has translated into such a great looking building!

Back Into the Swing of Things

2009-09-09T16:27:00.000-07:00

Fall classes started for me yesterday at the hall. Over the course of the summer when night-school classes are not in session, I really forgot what it was like to be in school. It's a little bit tricky for me to get out there by 5:00 p.m. and have much time to take a break after work (my job lets out at 3:30 p.m.), and I suppose it can be a little bit daunting to think about sitting in air-conditioning and comfortable chairs after working hard all day (and not start to nod-off!), but I really enjoy the nights I have class.

I realized last night that you forget how big the union really is and how many friends and acquaintances you've made during the course of your time in the apprenticeship. I ran into so many people last night that I knew from day-school and other jobs that I didn't even get a chance to say hello to everybody. It's great knowing that your network and co-workers are a much larger group than the people that you happen to see every day. It's refreshing.

What's more, my class was loaded with mechanics whom I've never seen before. That's an awesome thing to see. None of these men and women are required to be present, and nevertheless there they all are, taking time out of their evenings and paying close attention. It's just remarkably interesting to me. These people have been out in the field working for longer than we apprentices have, seeing all sorts of work and situations, and they've come back looking for something in class. For some reason, it makes me sit up straighter in my seat.

Choosing Your Own Course

2009-08-20T13:42:00.000-07:00

Back in June, all of the apprentices were bumped up to the next level: first-years became second-years, second-years became third-years, etc. There is a sense of pride associated with the change and also a fair amount of added responsibility. Every now and then somebody on the job will ask you what year you are--just out of curiosity--and as time goes by you surprise yourself with the words coming out of your mouth: "I'm a third-year," for example, when you still feel pretty new to the trade. And the change isn't just in name only: apprentices also get their 10% raise, which amounts to an increase of almost $4/hr. You can't beat it!

I mention all of this because it means that I'm officially a fifth-year apprentice. I've got two semesters left of night school, and night school really is quite different than the day-school that you attend during your first three years. Night classes are once a week from 5:00 until 8:00 p.m., and you get to choose which courses you want to take. On top of that, these courses are also open to journeyman electricians who wish to continue their education. Your class discussions get taken to a whole new level.

The list of classes to select from gives you a fair idea of the wide range of work in the field. Their are hands-on options, like welding, high-voltage splicing, and conduit-bending, as well as more theoretical subjects such as power quality analysis and industrial power. The most popular class, and the one I'm hoping to take, is without a doubt the new alternative energy systems class. It covers topics such as solar power and fuel cells--pretty relevant stuff in today's world. It's so in demand that the hall offers two different nights of it per week! The complete list of classes can be viewed here: http://www.washdcjatc.org/classes.cfm

Day-school

2009-07-21T14:42:00.000-07:00

A third-year apprentice named Tommy approached me on the job today and was asking me about the study-habits I had back when I was in day-school. He's got a test coming up this Thursday on motors and has a lot of studying left to do.

He's a couple of lessons into Book 4 of the cirriculum, which covers motors and motor control. The first third or so of Book 4 covers motors in general--understanding their construction and how and why they work the way they do. The rest of the time is spent on motor control, a topic which gives many electricians, myself included, that "A-ha!" moment where things REALLY start making sense and you feel like you've got a pretty good handle on things. Finally, at the end of Book 4, each apprentice creates a motor control diagram on their own to solve a "problem" presented by the teachers. It's super cool--you have to apply everything you've learned in class in order to create a workable diagram. The sense of accomplishment is huge!

Anyway, I did my best to help my buddy out at work. I remember very clearly the test he's about to take: it required reading quite a bit in the motors textbook as well as answering a lot of questions out of the workbook.

Going to class that one day every two weeks can be kind of nerve-wracking, to be sure, if only because the first thing you do when you walk in the door is take that test to see what you have learned. So I could understand Tommy's nervousness. And although everybody's study-habits are different and some weeks present you with more material to cover than usual, you always go in knowing that you've had a solid preview of the lessons the class before. That's one thing I tried to remind him of. You've also got the readings and the workbook problems to review, plus the slide-sheets that the teachers presented in class.

I don't know how much of the reading Tommy had already gotten through, but I think he felt better just talking about motors for a little while. That's another great thing about the apprenticeship: chances are you'll have plenty of men and women around you who have been through the exact same thing several times before. And my buddy was going one step further: after work he was headed over to the hall for the extra tutoring that's available all week. I'm sure he'll do fine come Thursday.

Learning-curve

2009-06-27T15:28:00.000-07:00

I tell you what: if you do anything long enough, for hours a day, you're going to get it down. Anything at all. There's always a learning curve at the start, where you're not quite sure how best to do the job, but you always end up fine-tuning your movements and finally fall upon the best approach to the task; after that, any job that seemed difficult at first becomes easier. And you feel more capable. That feeling has kept me moving for the last four years!

Well, once again I had a special mission this week. I was asked to work for a day with a new mechanic to bang out a quick job. Forty-eight receptacles had been piped-in and mounted in an outdoor parking lot. Scott and I were called in to pull the wire and tie in the two panels which served twenty-four each. I should point out that the panels we were using were installed years ago, and we were simply pulling out the old branch circuits and bringing in our new ones.

Together we pulled our wire. Easy enough. A basic, enjoyable, typical experience for electricians of all skill-levels.

Scott then took over tying-in one panel and asked me to take care of the other. I was excited at the opportunity--it was probably only the third or fourth panel I've had all to myself to fully prepare. In my opinion, tying-in panels is another typical task for an electrician, but it's one where I've noticed a great deal of variety in execution and where I've heard a lot of opinions expressed over methods. And everybody sees a panel. It's right there mounted on the wall at eye-level. What's more, any future electricians coming in months or years later for maintenance or to diagnose problems are almost certainly going to open the panel. My point is, you want it to look good.

So I wanted my panel to look good. A nicely tied-in panel has a lot of identifiable characteristics: the wires are always neatly routed, bent at nice angles, and are often smoothed out to look their finest. They're also usually tie-wrapped into bunches and stuck in place at the back or sides of the panel. I knew all this going in.

When I opened the panel to pull out all the old wiring and bring in the new stuff, I paused for a moment to look at the work that the previous electrician, several years ago, had done. I had to admit: it looked good. I took a mental picture of it to use as a template for my own installation. I noticed, however, that the guy had not used any sticky-backs to keep everything in place, and yet the panel still looked good. I was surprised. I didn't really ever consider not using them: I didn't think it was possible to do it right without them.

It was around this time that I noticed that I didn't have any sticky-backs of my own to use. Neither did Scott. And we were low on tie-wraps. My project had quickly increased in complexity for me.

Starting off, therefore, I was a little nervous at how it was all going to look at the end. I got about an hour's head-start on Scott, and I had a little dilemma: I wanted to finish as quickly as possible (I wanted to finish before Scott, for sure) but I had to figure out how to do it neatly and without all the material I wished I had at my disposal.

To make a long story shorter, Scott finished way before me. I struggled along the way to keep everything in place and looking neat as I moved along. In the end I spent too much time worrying during the process when instead I could have just made a few adjustments here and there at the end and had everything looking satisfactory. It looked all right, but I had wasted a lot of time. I stumbled all over myself explaining that I felt it would have been better and easier with sticky-backs, more tie-wraps, etc. etc. Scott slapped me on the back and said, "Hey man, anybody can do it with all the right material. You just learned to do it when the conditions aren't perfect."

So, big learning curve for me on panels this week, but I'm eager to take on the next one. And to tell you the truth, I hope we don't have all the material we need. As it turns out, it takes getting out of your comfort-zone in order to get more comfortable. What a thought!

Special Mission

2009-06-18T15:34:00.000-07:00

My foreman called my mechanic and I off of our pipe-run today to quickly pipe-in, pull, and terminate a sump pump disconnect and contactor. The suddenness of the change in task caught me off-guard and I spent the first few minutes spinning in circles trying to locate all the material we needed and the specific tools I wanted on me to do the job. I'd forgotten about this feeling: it was a special mission, and it needed to be done fast.

My mechanic made a bold move. He gave our foreman a completion time before we had our first stick of pipe in the air: "Done by break, man, 11:00." That gave us three hours. And anybody who happened to pass by us in the first hour or so would've been impressed--we were a ball of fire. The pipe practically ran itself. Our wall-penetrations--just guesses--always poked through right where we hoped they would and never even grazed a stud along the way. The wire pulled easily, looked great when we shaped it into the panel, and we were flying. It was only 10:00. And then... the contactor.

It was 3:15 when I finally closed the little door on the disconnect. Five electricians and one control guy later, we were done.

It was a learning experience, to be sure. There were a lot of reasonable explanations for why everyone had such a hard time wiring it up, but it got me to thinking more about what it will be like being a journeyman electrician. There are going to be times where I'm baffled--that much became clear today!

I never tried so hard to decipher a schematic. I found myself calling up a bunch of basic truths that I knew were right that I'd learned in school: "When the water reaches this level, we want the switch to close and the pull the contactor in. That brings power to the pump." I knew that much was true. But here in this situation we had several float switches and an array of possible termination points for various functions. Schematics and real-life situations don't always match up!

The good thing about electrical work is that, for the most part, you know when you're right: the pump runs and empties the sump pit. Perfect. It's getting to the point where you hear that motor kick in that may be difficult. But if it's difficult, you're probably learning along the way. Today I learned three things: 1. how to wire up this particular contactor for this particular pump; 2. don't be embarrassed to ask others on the job for help; and 3. maybe it's prudent not to give your boss a completion time before you begin a project (!).

The Craftsman

2009-06-03T13:26:00.000-07:00

The job I'm currently working on is huge: a ten-story building with three levels of parking garage below ground and a full penthouse above it all. I've been at this site since October and I've been in the penthouse the whole time. There's a lot of work up there!

Back in October, as my transfer approached, there was just one thing I wanted to do: learn how to run big pipe. Running pipe is one of the most common tasks that is required of electricians (you've got to pull wire through something), but it was something that I had only had a few chances to do. There are all kinds of different pipe sizes, from 1/2 in. up to 5 in. or higher, and most of my experience at that point was with the smaller sizes. I wanted the big stuff.

So when I came to this job I was preparing to ask the superintendent if there was any chance I could be put on some pipe-work. On these big jobs there are tons of different crews doing different things--there are pipe-running crews, wire-pulling crews, rough-in crews, fire alarm crews and a whole lot more--and I knew that Day 1 was my best opportunity to get placed with the men and women running pipe. It turns out I didn't have to say a word: as I affixed my name to my shiny, new hard-hat, my new foreman walked in and introduced himself. "C'mon with me up to the penthouse and we'll get you started," he said. "Hope you like running pipe." Sweet.

And that's what I've been doing for the last 9 months. The penthouse is where all of the big equipment is on this job: the cooling towers, chillers, switchgear, generators, transfer switches, pumps, elevator machine rooms, etc. There are gigantic air-ducts and steam and water pipes crisscrossing the whole area. And all of our pipe has to fit in there as well.

Back in October, the ceiling area was still pretty empty. My mechanic (journeyman) and I were running big racks of twenty or thirty pipes and having a ball. We'd have long, straight runs from one piece of gear to another, with only a few corners and minor elevation changes here or there. Now, in June, it's another story. This is where you really become a craftsman. Over the course of these past nine months, ductmen and steamfitters have been working as hard as we have and so there really is no such thing as a "straight-shot" from point A to point B anymore. You have to sneak your pipe through all sorts of tight spaces. And you've got to do this while obeying code and keeping the people coming behind you to pull wire happy: no more than 360 degrees of bending between pull-boxes, no more than 200 ft. of pipe between boxes, pull-boxes mounted in accessible areas, etc. I thought I knew how to run pipe when I could run it straight and level. Now I know I can run pipe because of all the tricky offsets, kicks, and saddles I've had to bend. You keep learning, even when you think you've got it all down pat.

In my experience, the electricians have always been the "can-do" workers on the job. Our general rule-of-thumb has always been to keep our pipes "high & tight:" as high up and tight to the deck as possible. You think about this when you're planning your run and choosing your ideal path. Every now and then, however, another trade needs to put something in the same spot and it's almost always the electrician who chooses to re-route their pipe to make way for the other trades. A lot of people find this to be a frustrating task, but if you think about it, it simply showcases the talent and craftsmanship of the electrician: she or he is flexible and skilled enough to do the job however it needs to be done.

What more could you ask for?

2009-05-26T14:55:00.000-07:00

When I woke up this morning and headed out the door to work, I didn't realize that I was on my way to yet another "eureka!-moment" in my electrical career. It came quickly and easily, and I gained the proud satisfaction of having mastered just one more of the fine details of the trade that make our work so interesting... and this wasn't the first time. As an apprentice working under the guidance of experienced electricians, it happens a lot.

My name is Adam Osielski. I'm currently a fourth-year apprentice with Local 26's JATC (Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee) . Our apprenticeship is a 5-year program which smartly combines on-the-job training and experience with thorough instruction in the classroom. As a fourth-year, I've completed the initial 3 years of day-school and have just finished my first two semesters of night classes.

I decided to join the union and apply for the apprenticeship back in 2005 in order to learn an interesting trade and work in a job that would not imprison me in an office cubicle. At the time of my decision, I was working for a moving company. I made good money, but I wasn't developing my knowledge or skill-sets or adding to my employ-ability in any way. I also didn't have health-care, which was something that increasingly became important to me. The decision to join Local 26 was easy: this is a group of men and women who obviously take pride in their work, and it's an organization which cares for each individual as a whole person.

My time in day-school was great. It was difficult, to be sure, but provided a unique environment where teachers and various students working for various companies could come together to learn, study, share work-experiences and resolve the many misconceptions about electricity and electrical work that pop up as you encounter new and different aspects of the trade. Plenty of eureka-moments in those classrooms and labs...

Of course, a huge portion of my education has come on the job. As an apprentice, you transfer to a new company once every 14 months. You do this in order to get a feel of the different companies out there and you do it to ensure that you get a good look at the wide variety of work in our trade. As a consequence, you never get stuck doing the same thing for long and you meet an enormous amount of people.

So far I've done both new construction and renovation, as well as service-work. What's funny is how your tool-box expands. Maybe for a few months you're splicing wires and tying in panels, using just wire-strippers and a small screwdriver, and suddenly you switch to a job requiring you to run big pipe. Now you've got big channellocks and wrenches. That's just the tip of the iceberg. It's all a part of the trade and, every-so-often, when you clean out and organize your tools and come across something you haven't used in awhile, you think, "Oh, yeah. I can do that, too!"