r/electricians is a good place to lurk to get more inside information about this trade. As you note, there are definitely sectors, like resi(dential), commercial, industrial, and they work by different rules.
The speed needed by a residential electrician is very different than the long-term outlook you hear from industrial electricians (“label that box because the next guy to service it could be you”).
Another recurring trope is the perceived hierarchy between the trades. I lose it when a plumber is described as a “turd herder.” And drywallers get no respect.
I find this especially unfortunate given that, in my experience, drywallers understand the rest of the trades far better than vice versa, since they're in the position of being able to see everyone else's completed work.
seeing someone else's work does not mean you really understand it. We've all seen Michelangelo's David, but none of us could recreate it. Just because you've seen the wiring/conduit in the wall does not mean you know the hows/whys about it.
Yes, but a person who has visited hundreds of art museums will have a better understanding of art than a guy who only paints landscapes or carves wooden figurines. You can learn a lot by observing what is good work and why, even if you didn’t produce it yourself.
The best advice (a good) spackler ever gave me, started with his question "why do you make all your wiring holes so small?"
In my apprenticed ignornance, I figured I was "doing the gypsum guys a favor" (by not cutting large holes everywhere) but it turns out cutting larger holes made both trades' lives easier.
Making a large cut-out "disappear" is actually much easier to conceal than a smaller opening.
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That, and wet sanding (it's incredible how many people dry sand - all the dust!).
Drywallers don’t understand anything except “it’s my turn to hang gypsum board.” It will be one of the first trades that is completely automated.
Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing contractors need to understand the most since their work goes all over the building and they’re on the project from start to finish.
Drywallers just come in and put up gypsum once walls have been framed and MEP has been roughed in, and then they leave.
Tapers and mudders command my respect, that’ a difficult trade to perfect. Holding up 4’ x 8’ sheets of gypsum and screwing it to studs might be hard work but it’s dead ass simple.
airbreather · · focus · HN ↗
There is the house wirer, the panel builder, automotive electrician, HV, marine, drilling, industrial, maintenance etc etc.
Some kinds pay better, others yield work almost wherever you go, others lend themselves to starting your own business better.
It is nowhere near as homogenous as often described.
mturmon · · focus · HN ↗
The speed needed by a residential electrician is very different than the long-term outlook you hear from industrial electricians (“label that box because the next guy to service it could be you”).
Another recurring trope is the perceived hierarchy between the trades. I lose it when a plumber is described as a “turd herder.” And drywallers get no respect.
cperciva · · focus · HN ↗
I find this especially unfortunate given that, in my experience, drywallers understand the rest of the trades far better than vice versa, since they're in the position of being able to see everyone else's completed work.
dylan604 · · focus · HN ↗
MisterMower · · focus · HN ↗
gjvc · · focus · HN ↗
ceejayoz · · focus · HN ↗
But you can probably tell the difference between it and a crappy version.
edoceo · · focus · HN ↗
ProllyInfamous · · focus · HN ↗
In my apprenticed ignornance, I figured I was "doing the gypsum guys a favor" (by not cutting large holes everywhere) but it turns out cutting larger holes made both trades' lives easier.
Making a large cut-out "disappear" is actually much easier to conceal than a smaller opening.
----
That, and wet sanding (it's incredible how many people dry sand - all the dust!).
quickthrowman · · focus · HN ↗
Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing contractors need to understand the most since their work goes all over the building and they’re on the project from start to finish.
Drywallers just come in and put up gypsum once walls have been framed and MEP has been roughed in, and then they leave.
Tapers and mudders command my respect, that’ a difficult trade to perfect. Holding up 4’ x 8’ sheets of gypsum and screwing it to studs might be hard work but it’s dead ass simple.
ProllyInfamous · · focus · HN ↗
This is incorrect; they know what my hammer means. Not just anybody's, mine.
–(former data center) Electrician
contingencies · · focus · HN ↗