My BIGGEST Struggles as an Apprentice Electrician

electrician apprenticeships generally take anywhere from 4 to 5 years to complete and that's because there is so much to learn over the course of those four to 5 years you're likely to go from knowing little to nothing about the electrical trade to suddenly becoming a journeyman yourself and eventually teaching an apprentice of your own someday now apprentices struggle with all sorts of different things from learning electrical Theory to learning code from bending pipe to learning how to wire different types of circuits and so on I defin only had my fair share of struggles as an apprentice and so today I want to share the top struggles that I had as an apprentice with you so the first thing that I found to be quite challenging actually was learning all the different tools and material that you use as an electrician while some people started their apprenticeship having worked in construction before I started my apprenticeship with practically no prior trade knowledge or construction experience whatsoever now don't get me wrong I definitely did my research and I knew what I was getting into when I applied for the electrician apprenticeship it's just that I had no prior background in construction before applying and I'm willing to bet that a lot of you who are looking into becoming an apprentice yourself are probably in the same boat now when it comes to hand tools and power tools there are tons of different types of tools that we work with as electricians and probably a lot of tools that you have never even heard of if you've never worked in the electrical trade before and it seems like for every single tool there are like five to 10 different things that that tool can be called let me give you an example this is a tick Tracer and this is a voltage tester this one is a non-c contct voltage tester this is a glow tip glow stick hot stick voltage sniffer in last but not least this is a capacitive voltage sensor and one thing that I found to be pretty hilarious about tools especially here on the Internet is even though there are thousands of different things that you can call the same tool everybody has a specific name that they call the tool and if you don't call it the same thing that they do even if it is a legit name for that tool you are wrong but anyways that aside if you have prior trade experience you may not find it as difficult as I did to learn all the different tools but like I said for me who basically had never worked a day in construction I didn't even know what the difference between an impact and a drill was so I had a lot to learn as an apprentice and like I mentioned earlier there are also tons of different types of material that we work with as electricians and just like with the tools there's like a thousand different things that you can call each piece of material which can be a little overwhelming at first and it can take a little while to get all the lingo down and learn what everything is called All that being said while tools and material were a struggle for me early on I did finally start over time to learn what these different things were called but I will say you will never actually know all the different tools that are available to you as an electrician and all the different materials as different things keep on coming out in different situations that maybe you've never worked in before will require different types of material so the learning never stops before I move on to the next thing I want to give a quick shout out to one of my great buddies Jeff from the 360 electrician YouTube channel he makes fantastic electrical content especially if you are interested in eventually becoming an electrical contractor so after this video make sure that you go and check out his channel give him some likes give him a subscribe and show him some love now I'm going to be a little bit vulnerable with you guys as I talk about this next thing that I struggled with as an apprentice as it was probably my biggest struggle throughout my apprenticeship and it may be something that you've never even thought could potentially be a struggle so before I became an electrician I was actually a store manager for AT&T I had quickly worked my way up the ranks there and I had eventually become somebody that all the other store managers in my district would reach out to if they ever had any questions on promotions or procedures or really anything else related to running a store my numbers were great I was getting recognition and my store was even setting new records for the district in general it was just something that I felt really confident in and I felt like I was really actually pretty good at so as you can imagine it was pretty difficult for me to go from a place where I felt like I was excelling at my job and I was the guy that people would reach out to if they ever had any questions to suddenly being the greenest of the green and pretty much knowing absolutely nothing about my job it was a very humbling experience and I remember wanting so badly to get back to a place where I felt like I was good at my job and that I really knew what I was doing like I said at the beginning of this video though there is a reason why electrici apprenticeships generally take 4 to 5 years to complete you cannot expect to learn this trade overnight but just know that gradually over time by showing up day in and day out and slowly learning new things every day on the job you will eventually get to a place where you feel confident in your knowledge and abilities as an electrician in all honesty for me it probably took a good 2 years before I really started to feel like I was gaining confidence in my abilities as an electrician but that confidence did eventually come and those things that I found to be quite challenging at the beginning of my apprenticeship were eventually no big deal at all and at this point I feel like I'm actually a pretty decent electrician now for any of you who are about to start your apprenticeship or you just started your electrician apprenticeship and you're feeling a bit discouraged let me give you just a little bit of encouragement the sheer amount of different things that there is to learn about being an electrician can seem very overwhelming at first and it is completely normal to feel like you are never going to get to a place where you feel like you know everything that there is to know but that's just the thing no matter how many years you put into this trade or no matter how experienced you are you will will never know everything that there is to know and I think that's actually one of the things that I've really grown to love about being an electrician while I do feel confident in my knowledge and abilities as an electrician now the learning never stops which really just always keeps this job fun exciting and interesting if this is a trade and a skill that you really want to get down and become good at like I said by showing up day in and day out you will gain that knowledge and that confidence to eventually become a fantastic electrician now if you've gone through an apprenticeship whether it be an electrical apprenticeship or another trade I'd really love to know the different things that you personally found to be a challenge as an apprentice go ahead and put that information down in the comment section below as I'm sure that future apprentices looking into this trade will eventually stumble upon this comment section and find it to be encouraging if you've enjoyed this video and found it to be beneficial in any way go ahead and just hit me with a like so that the YouTube algorithm will know to boost this to more people so more people can also benefit from watching it and also if you don't want to miss out on any other future content that I post make sure that you subscribed to my Channel with a notification Bell turned on and also make sure that you subscribe to my newsletter at mad electrician. comom if you want to stay up to date with all things mad thanks for watching and have a good [Music] one [Music]

Channel: Mad Electrician

Views: 12,947

Keywords: electrician, electrician tools, apprenticeship, electrician apprentice, apprentice electrician, my biggest struggles as an apprentice electrician, is being an apprentice difficult, how to become an apprentice electrician, mad electrician, ibew, ibew local 48, electrical work, apprentice advice

Id: n7w2xHL06xY

Length: 7min 36sec (456 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 11 2024