6 Lessons I Learned as a Plumbing Apprentice

hi everybody my name is Jared I'm a plumber I've been in the trade for 17 years now I'm going to tell you about the things I wish I would have known when I was an apprentice [Music] when I was an apprentice starting out this trade in 2005 I started as an 18 year old right out of high school for me you know when I was younger the one thing that I think was was important was uh and something that's very important to me today is showing a genuine interest in in learning this trade when I started it was yes sir no sir yes ma'am no ma'am but I didn't always pick up what everybody was putting down and one thing I know for myself that was huge that I picked up on from watching Apprentice that were older than me was when my journeyman is working with a tool he would be working on a piece of pipe or something he'd go to measure that piece of pipe well I would grab a saw for him so when he set that tape measure down then he was just ready right there I had the tape measure boom and I would hand it to him and it just kind of showed that I was really paying attention to what he was doing and what was going on be that guy be that woman that's there ready for the next task I know when I'm plumbing and I got somebody with me and I'm cutting a piece of pipe and they're already handing me a deburring tool you know then they're thinking about the next step in this process and how we're putting this pipe together other there's a purpose to all of this and if somebody has a passion you can really pick up on it next ask a lot of questions they told me when I started in this thing right payday was on Friday don't bite your nails and poop runs downhill but why did we size this water closet with a three inch drain line you know why was it mandatory to have a two inch vent you know why were there these certain requirements and those were questions that I didn't necessarily ask because in the beginning like anything else I was overwhelmed you know there was so much information that for me it was like okay the my journeyman laid out this hole so I'm going to drill this hole right here and I'm going to try and keep it straight like that was it instead of asking you know hey what is this half inch water line coming up right here for you know what is a water closet I want to explain this to somebody coming in so I appreciate a lot of questions if a journeyman's not willing to explain what's going on then he's really not fit to be in that position because the only way this trade is going to carry on is by explaining to the younger generation and the people coming in why we're doing what we're doing don't be afraid to ask questions if it does come down to where somebody's gruffing at you for asking the question just be open about it and say Hey I want to understand this more so I can be better to benefit you and benefit the company so the next topic is keep up on your coursework man I did not like school you know I didn't want to go to college because I did not want to do homework the original four-year degree the apprenticeship you know ah this will be easy I go to work and they'll pay me to go to school and I won't have to do any more homework well that's not the case I would take all the way up until it was time to renew my license that last week I was trying to cram you know 360 days worth of information into that last little day before I started realizing not only am I not really understanding the material but I'm not able to apply it every day at work either I mean us plumbers have a certain code that we follow and it's a it's basically our Bible for us here in Montana it's the uniform plumbing code you know it was things that started to stick out where all of a sudden I was on the job site and I was like oh okay that's a wet vent now I understand this oh that's a continuous waste there was things that just started poking out to me because I was involved in that coursework and I think the other thing that was really great that helped me to actually transition from an apprentice to a journeyman was do doing schematic drawings water pipe sizing waist sizing taking actual residential houses and and plumbing them out on a piece of paper now I may not be able to walk into the building at that time and Plumb it out but I could definitely tell you the fixture load and what was going to take place and what the pipe needed to be and it was because I got myself involved in the book it makes me a better plumber if I know the information and information means money you know in this business if you can learn this this code and learn this trade and then actually apply it out in the field we make good money and I think you can advance a lot faster I know I could have definitely Advanced a lot faster if I would have taken it more seriously from day one keep up on the coursework that's super important foreign so the next one is check your ego at the door and boy does this one hit home for me once it became a career for me and I started picking up on the book work I started learning things I wanted to be that knight in shining armor you know my boss here calls it the master Apprentice you know I want it to be that know-it-all I wanted to be the guy that my journeyman came to and said hey how are we sizing this thing here because I haven't looked at the code in a while you know for me at that time I was 21 you know I got a new truck and uh thought life was pretty good I know all the answers so I'm going to make sure you know that I know all the answers somebody that comes in and thinks they know it all can kind of change the dynamic of how a job site Works people around the shop you know they wanted camaraderie they wanted you know fellowship and and teamwork and unity and what it did was you know it ostracized me from everybody else because I stopped thinking about how I could help the team and I started being selfish but when I was younger I didn't see that it took a couple years to kind of dig out of them right until before I could really humble myself and realize that you know my problem was this attitude that I had that I knew it all and I wasn't even a journeyman yet so just checking that ego at the door my career would have taken off a heck of a lot faster had I done that all right so the next topic is be neat I mean one thing about Plumbing right I think is the word plum itself it's stuff that's level I can see when I walk into a room if a pipe has great or if it has back grade I can tell when that man woman was drilling out those holes if they were putting it a quarter inch you know per foot on the grade there's one man that stands out a man named Stephen Stephen R I'll call him he was this guy that when he ran his waste pipe he took time to line the letters up all on the face of the pipe so when he turned to Corner you could read them left to right if it was a vent pipe like you could read a story from seeing that Crestline pipe right there the whole way going up but it stuck with me you know just that cleanliness of the product even though it's going to be buried behind sheetrock it's going to be buried behind a wall buried underneath the ground buried in the ceiling you know when we walk away from that it leaves it leaves me feeling like yeah man I did a good job on this I think it also says something about the company that I work for when I come to work I'm a representation of this name right here on the T-shirt right and I want them to look like they're the best and I know when that inspector comes in there with the general contractor and he sees it too he's probably not going to ask a whole ton of questions because the work itself is very clean and very neat over the course of four years in an apprenticeship you get faster at it I don't think it's anything that I picked up on day one or year one or year two even if we're not really fast at it in the beginning it's something that we Aspire towards take pride in what you do the next topic is collect as many tools as you can probably my third year as an apprentice that I I realized this is definitely what I want to do I saw the opportunity for growth it was time for me to start tooling up I remember when I got my first impact driver and I had the the bag and and my charger and my battery and it was something that once I started to acquire a toy it almost brought me a sense of Pride like okay now I'm doing this thing because these tools that we use on The Daily you know they mean something you know I'm a plumber you know and so by that I want to have the tool to do the job to kind of just touch on the financial aspect of it especially these name brand tools we want the biggest the best and what's new on the market and that can be overwhelming for somebody who's who's young coming into this trade just trying to pay rent trying to pay a car payment or just trying to get themselves you know caught up and sit some money in savings anyways there are some companies that offer tool incentives where they will help you buy your tools on an installment plan where you can take a draw out of your paycheck and I had a man that helped me do that in order to acquire my first cordless kit he allowed me to uh take a draw out of my paycheck for a few hundred bucks buy my sweet impact driver that I was talking about in my battery charger and then over the course of the month he took you know 50 bucks out of my paycheck if I have an apprentice show up on the job site that's tooled up ready to go ambitious you know and they've been studying their books they're real eager I know this person is ready to go to work I'm definitely grateful for the trade of plumbing and this is an amazing trade looking back over it now I think the biggest piece to my puzzle would definitely be uh to stick with it it's for so long I was unsure about if this is what I really wanted to do when I made the decision that this was what I was going to be and I'm a plumber and I'm going to be the best plumber I could be I think my life my professional life and my personal life drastically changed because I was committed I was sold I was 100 in had it not been for the trade of Plumbing you know I don't know where the heck I'd be and it's something that I see myself doing 20 years from now and helping other young people come into the trades and teach this stuff that has been taught to me foreign [Music]

Channel: Williams Plumbing & Heating

Views: 84,138

Keywords: plumbing apprentice, apprentice plumber, plumbing apprenticeship, plumbing apprentice tips, plumbing apprenticeship tips, how to become a plumber, career plumber, journeyman plumber, plumbing career advice, plumbing career, how to become a plumbing apprentice, plumbing apprenticeship day in the life, plumbing apprenticeship advice, plumbing apprentice tools, uniform plumbing code, plumbing apprenticeship coursework, 6 Big Lessons I Learned as a Plumbing Apprentice

Id: ZtrmqaZZyao

Length: 9min 2sec (542 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 13 2022