Becoming an electrician can become a fun and rewarding job, especially if you like working with your hands. However, if you want to become an electrician you will have to jump through a few hoops before you can start working as one. When you first start out to become an electrician, the main goal is to become fully certified and licensed. There are many schools out there that give courses to help you become certified. However, schools and classes are only good up to a certain point. At some point you will need to become an apprentice to a licensed electrician before you can start working on your own.
The day to day work involved to become an electrician requires good hand-eye coordination. This means that you cannot be color blind. After all, wires tend to be color coded to make the job easier. But going back to apprenticeship, there is no substitute for onsite hands on training. Class room study will only be able to teach you theory, building codes and electrical theory. The idea is to learn both ways, from class room study, as well as an apprentice working with an electrician. This is how most electricians today become qualified.
In order to become an apprentice there are some minimum requirements. These can differ from state to state. However, you can count on the following basic requirements. You must be at least 18 years old and hold a high school diploma or higher, along with the above mentioned physical requirements. As far as taking courses are concerned, there are four basic ways you can go about it. They are online schools, community colleges, trade schools and even the military. Choosing one will depend entirely on where you live and what your financial resources are. There are many people who consider the military as the best option.
Once you start off as an apprentice, you will mostly be doing simple tasks such as drilling holes in walls and setting up anchors. However, before long, you will start to do more complicated tasks such as drawing diagrams and putting up wiring. After you have finished becoming an apprentice, you will get promoted to becoming a journey man. The time it takes to complete your apprenticeship will vary from state to state. However, you can count on investing at least four years of your life. To some this may sound like a long time, but it is not the case, because there is a lot to learn. During those four years, you should clock around 2000 hours per year of onsite work with approximately 130 hours in the class room.
After all of this is done, then you will be able to sit for the exam for electrical theory, building code and electrical codes. Even after you become a full fledged electrician you will need to attend classes to stay up to date on matters, and stay licensed. All this may sound like a lot of work, but the way to look at it is that being an electrician is well paying job with plenty of job opportunities. In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, electrician jobs are slated to grow at around seven percent for the next five years. The good news is that even as a trainee or apprentice, you can expect to make a decent salary. Once you have become a full fledged electrician, there are career advancement opportunities into other positions such as project manager, supervisor, estimator and inspector.