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commercial electrician?

M

Mafioso

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decided to get back into an electrical apprenticeship program here pretty soon. i just got a job working solar panels and figured i might as well jump back into the program since it pays more and in 5 years i can become a journeyman.

any electricians out there? alot of the older guys i work with tell me to go to school, but i feel like if they had the chance to go back to school they would probably make the same decision they did- drop out and start working. ive been out of highschool for 3 years now, 1 year electrical experience, about 1/2yr of college completed, and thats bout all i've accomplished since hs. electrical and construction isn't something i love, but its something i don't hate doing and it pays better than any other job i can find right now. any opinions about a better direction i could go in? is it hard to find steady work as a journeyman/electrician?
 
my dad has his own business and he is a electrical contractor. ive been working with him since i was 16, in the summer and when i get time off from school. im in college now studying electrical engineering. electricians do get paid decent, more so journeymen. but why not try to go to college and get a degree so you wont have to be a journeyman and work your ass off while someone going to school will have more opportunity than you? i mean, you can work your way up pretty high into a business, but what i see is the guys that went to school are the ones that own the businesses making millions, while the drop outs sweat and work they're asses off for 15-20 bucks an hour.
 
I have no idea of where lostsoul.. came up with a prevailing wage of $15 < $20 for IBEW journeyman electricians . Try $26 < $40+ depending on jurisdiction .

I am a blue collar mutt that worked journeyman in a different trade and out earned my college educated peers for decades. I have worked with commercial, journeyman electricians and their hourly rate was greater than we maintainence machinists were getting .

Residential electricians are a different story as work is dependent on many changing factors
 
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