New Division

Hey folks I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday break, I know I did. But back to the work world. So I think I've been officially been traded from Mona Life Safety large projects to small contracts. I originally was only suppose to be helping the division out for a week but it seems the division likes the way I work so when large contracts requested me back they said I was tied up in a project and sent them another apprentice. I know to the big wigs a "helper's" is a "helper" but I have to admit I was feeling myself just a little bit lol. Anyway small contracts is a different experience because the jobs don't really last too long so it's kind of like getting to see a bunch of mini jobs start from finish. It's cool to get to see the job from the foreman's point of view and be a little more involved in everything. I've actually been seeing my awareness grow and I've been feeling more like a tech as of lately. The downside is I get sent around alot more and pretty much take my tools home with me everyday just in case I end up somewhere different in the morning. I can't complain though as long as I am developing new skills and learning I'm going to appreciate and make the best of every opportunity thrown my way.

Parking

I can't explain how good it feels to arrive to a job that has free parking. During the beginning of my apprenticeship I worked mostly in Virginia and Rockville, MD where most of the time the parking was free so I didn't realize how lucky I was at the time. Since I've transferred and a little bit before that I've been working mainly and DC and parking has basically become another bill. I used to carpool to cut the cost but as of recently I've been moving around too much to set something up. Over the past month I'd say I've spent about 200 on parking. Even the metro can be costly because it's still 5 dollars to park along with the fair so in may case I'd still break even. But hey those are the detriments of working in the city. My advice to anyone working in DC is to find a meeting place and carpool if possible, and get to a job early to do a little driving around to find the best garage nearby. In the meantime I'll just suck it up and get tough.

A Craftsman is only as good as his tools

When I first came into the trade I have to have had the worst tools ever. I came to the job with a huge bulky pouch and a set of green commercial electrician tool kit, I guess the green basically summed it up. Well needless to say those tools were quickly a thing of the past and I wish I would have saved my money and brought the quality ones the first time. The extra money you may spend on most of your tools really goes a long way. I couldn't even cut MC with my first set of side cutters. I think I'm starting to develop a pretty decent tool bag now that I'm a little more knowledgeable. It seems like everytime I think I have just about everything I'll use regularly as an electrician I'm sent to a job where everything I have is basically irrelevant. One journeyman used to make fun of me because my screw drivers weren't big enough, now I'm doing fire alarm and my journeyman mess with me because my screw drivers are too big. I hope the new set of first years don't make the same mistake I did and spend the extra bucks on the right tools because I sure wish I did.

Not just pipe and wire

So lately in school and on the job I've been seeing the more technical side of the electrical trade. At Mona I've been a part of the life safety division which is basically fire alarm. Now fire alarm systems deal with a lot of control and have to be programmed which is usually done by 3rd party companies. Well to my surprise Mona actually have their own techs who are part of the local 26. These are guys who have seen the construction side of things and tenant side of things just like any other mechanic. It was kind of inspiring to me to see that there are more options out there for me.

At school we have been getting into dealing a lot with frequency, bandwidth, capacitors, inductors, and just about everything comprises a circuit. Now if you look at any circuit board such as motherboard from your laptop you will find all of these components plus more. The fact that I'm starting to understand the functions of these little things that used to be foreign to me makes me really start considering more possibilities for the future. I can probably be content dealing with construction for a while because I do enjoy working with my hands, but it I also have a very technical mind and think I could enjoy designing some systems. Who knows where the future will take me but its nice to know that I have one.

Rough Day in the Office

So lately at Mona things have been a little frustrating for me in the fire alarm (life safety) division. The foreman I was working with went to a new contractor so I've been bouncing around for the pass the month or so. Well being an apprentice seems to make the new people I come across doubt my ability. Now granted being only a year deep in the trade there is a world of things I will learn and a ton of space to improve, but at the same time there's only one way to learn and this isn't rocket science. The real thing that has been bothering me the most is that when I'm working with a journeyman and there's an issue completely our task in a timely manner instead of stating the reason I've pretty much been thrown under the bus by statements like "well you know Mike's only a 2nd year apprentice". That statement right there just burns me up but I digress.

So yesterday I was was feeling pretty vindicated because I had to organize some material and wasn't a part of the same team I was working with before and the same task we all were working together on the previous day took a little more than twice the time without me. I felt like I dealt a little smack to the face of the whole "well you know Mike's only a 2nd year apprentice" bs.

Well today I was feeling pretty good moving at a good pace demoing and rewiring some duct detectors. One of the journeymen happen to come across one he believed to be inaccessible because of the location. We always mess with eachother so I talked a little trash on how I would make it happen and show him how its done all that good stuff. So I flew through the one I was working on so I could get a shot at this detector and possible bring some credit to my name instead of just being known as the "help". Well it was in a pretty tough location but after moving the 2' by 2' tile while the fixture still attached I managed to get most of the work done as far as the wiring and just had to remove the detector. At this point I just had enough space for my arms but I needed to get my upper body in the ceiling as well and the fixture was getting caught ont he grid preventing the tile from moving any further. So I decided to take the cover off to make a little more room. That still wasn't enough so I noticed the screws holding up the fixture were already loose so I just took them out let the fixture hang and this gave me the space I needed. Well I managed to get the detector out and I was feeling like the man. So I began to put the fixture back and while doing so I was thinking about all the trash I was going to talk to the journeyman and just as im putting the last screw up for the plate bam the plate nicks the wire and causes a big arc than the light goes out. Boy did that suck I felt like doodoo. Luckily it was the emergency circuit we just had to cut the feed wirenut a new piece of wire down to the fixture and everything was all good but it was definitely a humbling experience.

Big Move

This week I have finally moved out of Baltimore and about 35 miles south which is a lot closer to DC and Virginia. I've been traveling on average 100 miles a day for about a year now and I'm extremely excited that I will be cutting that in half. Being an electrician we travel to a lot of different job site locations to the point it becomes second nature so I know this week I am going to feel spoiled.

Experience

Well this week I have been learning a valuable lesson. I'd have to admit doing fire alarm can be pretty boring sometimes especially as an apprentice since we're not always delegated the most complex tasks. But the past few days I've been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to have my own long pipe runs. It's just some 3/4 pipe which it feels like I've ran thousands of times before, but I've usually been making bends and assisting in the thought process but never actually just my own run start to finish. These few days have made me realize that the little things that come with experience are sometimes the hardest. It felt like I wasted lots of times just having to run back and forth to forget some material that I probably should have thought about before hand. Another thing I had to work on was my soft touch. One of my runs was on a wall with slight angle changes neck to a plumbers pipe. So I felt it would only be craftman like to match all the kicks in the plumbers pipe and have everything match up perfect with the wall. Let me tell you this took quite the soft touch and mines needed a lot of work. At the end of the day I've been accomplishing everything and my journeyman thinks my pipe work looks pretty good, so I'm happy to be gaining experience and I definitely notice my own improvement.

The pain of not studying

I know I'm going to get a good lecturing for this one but here I go. So yesterday was the usually bi-weekly class session which of course comes with the usual test. I'll admit that I don't have the best studying habits but I'm a pretty quick learner and I usually go through the lessons and make sure I understand everything before it's testing time. Well this time around I kept pushing back studying til it was the last weekend before the test, but I also happen to be going to NY to visit my family at that weekend so I figured I just bring my books along and study in my downtime. Well I did glance at the books second and than once again pushed studying back figuring that I was pretty comfortable so Monday would be enough time to touch up on my weak spots, which probably would of worked if I didn't leave my books in NY at my mother's house along with the covenanted lesson packet :-|. The test ended up being extremely nerve racking for me just because I had recall stuff I learned 2 weeks ago. I ended up with a mediocre grade which was disappointing but I definitely learned a lesson. Procrastination is never a good thing.

So far so good

So I been with my new contract about 2 weeks now and it's been pretty cool thus far. I'm in the life safety department which means I just service and upgrade preexisting fire alarm systems. Fire alarm systems and service work are definitely different from what I'm used to. The environment is a lot more relaxed and the work load seems a lot litter but the system seems a lot more complex. Sometimes I miss the big construction field since it feels like I was starting to get pretty good and comfortable with everything, but on the bright side I definitely appreciate the opportunity to learn something new. I'm hoping by next year I'll have a new talent under my belt, still retain what I've learned the year before and be able to learn some more new things.

First day with new contract

So today was my first day of work with my new contractor, and I must say it already seems like this is going to be a very different experience. The company I am with is a lot bigger than the previous one and there are some noticeable differences. And the biggest difference I must say is the subdivision. In my previous company I was working doing just about everything except fire alarm. New company what do you know look who's a new fire alarm guy. I'm used to the seeing a bunch of different guys throwing up dry wall and drilling and bending and plugging with all types of dirt flying and now I'm working in nice occupied buildings in nice clean electric closets servicing and replacing fire alarm systems walking around with no hard hat and practically having clean hands at the end of the day. It's definitely a new experience, fortunately my new foreman is real cool and I can see myself enjoying my time with this company if today dictates how my future will go, but at the same time I kind of miss the diversity and manual dexterity required for the big commercial projects.

Last week with my contractor

Well guys this first year of my apprenticeship seems to be flying by and now I'm coming to that stage where I have to transfer contractors. I'm a little nervous after getting so used to the people around me and being unsure of where I'm going to next. The company I'm going to is much larger are here there are advantages and disadvantages with that but guess I'll find out first hand in 1 short week. I'm just hoping that I can learn new things and tune the skills I've already developed. Wish me the best folks!

May 22, 2009

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. My name is Mike and I am currently a first year apprentice of the JATC Local 26. This will be my first time blogging ever but it seems someone out feels I'm qualified for the job so it would be a pleasure to share my experiences.

Well guess I'll start from the beginning. Unlike most I came into the apprenticeship with no previous construction experience what so ever. I've worked continuously basically all of my teenage and adult life but I lacked direction and just floated between various typical and untypical jobs. I heard a little bug about apprenticeships through some casual conversation and it led me to do a little research. Initially I had my mind set on engineering but after a bit of researching different programs the JATC stood out to me the most. To make a long story short I had some job troubles put in an application and after a some interviews and testing I was a union electrician (crazy right).

So what can expect on actually stepping onto a job site? I was extremely worried about my what my first day would be like. I was afraid I'd go to work and be the only one that didn't know a thing and look foolish, but after my first day I realized the whole apprentice thing was a regular process for everyone that's been around and ever tho I was eager to learn I was given some beginner task until I someone got my feet wet. As time progressed I seen my scope of work and knowledge increasing and I'm at a point now where I feel pretty comfortable in the workplace, but of course there is still a world of things for me to learn.

Now onto the school aspect of things. School feels like a day off from work to me. You'll find that all the teachers are very down to earth and since they've pretty much experienced everything that you will in the apprenticeship and as journeymen it has made them very knowledgeable and aware of the tools you will need to succeed. In class the teachers and students speak and exchange thoughts very freely. This definitely helps me personalize information so that I understand it in my own way.

My overall experience in the JATC has been very positive. They've given me an education, career, opportunity and all they've asked in return is for me to succeed. I will keep everyone posted on my progress. Thanks to all of you who have taken the time out to share some of my experiences and hopefully my insight may offer you some of the guidance I wish had before joining.