/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>1616845
it really depends on how far you want to go with this trade, after all there are little niches in the electrical field and it changes all the time.

for instance I'm the same commercial electrician that replied earlier in this thread. For the 1st 7-8 years of the trade using a computer to do anything aside from emails out in the field was pretty rare for me. These days I am sitting on a computer 2-3 days a week keeping up with the latest changes and adding them to my bluebeam files (kinda like paint, cad, and a file system on steroids) or planning out my prefab for an area where bluebeam links in with excel. My company works a lot with nLight products and its easier to program with the computer depending on how elaborate the system is. We have an "IT" guy who used to be an electrician but is now more of an office hand who manages the network and other money stuff. You could also go into the estimating side of things which is 75% on the computer and 25% personal skills. Then you could also be a project manager which mine is in the office 50% working from home 25% and then driving around and visiting jobs 25%.

There are also people who only go around programing different lighting systems, fire alarm systems, security systems, VFD's, temperature controls and other building automation systems. Or go all industrial, or oil and gas, or residential ect.

> If I pursue that for a job right out of high school am I fucked if I want to switch to something else?
lol never, I see guys that are 40 year old apprentices and its really common for people to be in love with the idea of being an electrician only to get 4-5 years in and hate it.
pic related is like 1% of a week of a normal electrician, its actual work the rest of the time and your hard hat and vest will only be that clean on your 1st day.