So, what’s an electrician? An electrician is a highly skilled professional that can specialise in a wide variety of things, from planning and installing wiring in a new residential home, to testing and maintaining electrical equipment and planning. They also specialise in the running and maintaining the power supply to major public events.
You can choose to become a generalised professional or find a niche in areas like solar panels. Because of how an electrician can specialise and choose how they work to some extent; different electricians tend to have very different things to do on a daily basis. This also means what you can expect to earn can vary immensely between your specialism & location.
Electrician Working Hours
Most electricians work a standard 8 to 4.30 shift 5 days a week, while others might work from 7 until 3.30 or work fewer hours over more days. Either way, many electricians have to be prepared to work during off-hours, as wiring and voltage problems occur at all hours of the day. This is common enough that many electricians offer on-call emergency electrician services.
Depending on whether you’re an independent contractor or working for a company, you’ll either schedule your own work or be assigned jobs for the day or week and complete jobs across various sites. Electricians also have to prepare for jobs that take longer than planned. For example, you might go to fix one wire at a house and find it’s part of a bigger problem that will take more time to fix.
Common Tasks
Most days, general electricians will tend to carry out a set of common electrical services required by homeowners and businesses such as wiring and rewiring, installations and repairs. These jobs tend to involve tasks such as:
- Connecting and disconnecting wires to circuit breakers, fuses, transformers or other components.
- Diagnosing problems with wiring, poor connections, failing components, overloaded circuits or imbalanced loads using tools like thermal imaging.
- Repairing or replacing wiring, equipment and fixtures using hand and power tools.
- Planning, writing and interpreting wiring diagrams and floor plans.
- Assembling, installing, testing, maintaining and repairing electrical or electronic wiring, appliances, apparatus, equipment and fixtures using hand and power tools.
- Testing electrical systems and circuits in electrical wiring, appliances, equipment and fixtures, using devices such as ohmmeters, voltmeters and oscilloscopes.
- Planning layout and installation of electrical wiring, equipment and fixtures, based on job specifications and local codes.
- Inspecting electrical systems, equipment and components to identify hazards, defects and the need for adjustment or repair and to ensure compliance.
Electricians are Qualified Professionals
As you can imagine, working as an electrician requires many skills. They require reading comprehension and analytical skills so they can troubleshoot problems, and diagnose operating issues to execute a solution that is the most time and cost-efficient.
Due to the complexity and safety risks involved in electrical work, it’s essential to always use a licenced electrician to ensure the job is done properly and safely, no matter how simple it may appear. Risking danger and non-compliance with DIY or unlicensed electrical work is just not worth it.
Train to be an electrician
The Trades College can help you train to be a fully qualified electrician. Want to learn more? We have a blog with more information so check it out and begin your journey today! You can also check out our electrician course on our website.
