Never leave stuff on the top of a 10 or 12 foot ladder. You will end up forgetting its up there then moving your ladder said item (fatmax tape measure) will fall on someone's head. Don't ask me how i know that😂

Props to you for posting this. It definitely took a lot of courage and says a lot about how dedicated you are to producing valuable content. The key is that you learned from your mistakes instead of letting them hold you back, which is why you are where you are today!

Thanks for putting the ego aside and sharing your mistakes with us. The more people communicate about these things the less likely others will be to make a mistake themselves which could have unfortunately severe consequences. Keep up the good work and thanks for the videos!

I think my lowest moment was when I installed one of my first 320A residential service. I was by myself deep in the countryside on a wet and snowy day. First of all I had a underground meterbase for an aerial service. Had to knockout 2 holes on top. (Not sure if legal but at the end Hydro sealed it) Second of all I broke the inside mecanism of the expensive meterbase by turning my allen-key in the center hole without the meter on. (That was mentally hard, had to order a new 320A gut) Finally, everything was looking good for Hydro to come and connect, I let the boss know to send the permit. 2 weeks later Hydro called me saying that the connection point is unaccessable for them. (it was on a half-roof which I got up on with my ladder, then dangerously climbed with my spike boots on the icy incline). Hydro only work from a ladder or from their boom truck. They don't climb! So I had the extend my parrallel 2" PVC work 😃

I messed up by connecting the black wire to the silver screw and the white wire to gold screw on an outlet I was replacing. It unfortunately was for my chest freezer. That was a mess and wasted food

LOVE your bravery, no one is perfect, learning from mistakes and sharing them openly saves lives

Thanks for your videos man I just interviewed today for local 551 in Santa Rosa California, I feel like I did a great job and wanted to extend a thanks!

We learn from our mistakes. Thank you for the informative video. I appreciate it.

Thanks for the video. This stuff is probably even more important than the tips videos!

Very good video, I agree with you. I have made plenty of mistakes. I have always admitted to them and asked how to do it better. Sometimes, my journeyman was great, walked me through it and I actually learned something. Some other ones, were extremely horrible people, let alone just horrible leaders. I had an experience, where a journeyman, who was not a very good person, fried a PLC system, as he shorted to contacts on a relay blade when he was just let it hang there. 120 went across a 24v relay. Well he tried to blame me for this, as I was his apprentice. Which was rather difficult, I wasn’t there at that time, on site, an hour before this I was called away for a family emergency. I told our foreman, but my journeyman wasn’t around and the foreman would tell him. Well it didn’t go well for the journeyman.

Love your vids. I just got accepted into my local union as a HVAC apprentice. Hope to make use of a lot of your advice.

14:40 “this was definitely sort of a Fluke thing” I see what you did there 👀😂

Thankyou brother for sharing your experiences so we can grow from it; god bless you 🙏🏼

Thanks for the vid! Such great wisdom hard won. Appreciate your bravery sharing.

Awesome video! Thanks for all of the content you produce. Just recently got my ranking for the inside program at Local 48 and I'm sitting at #35. Thanks again!

Low voltage here.. screwed a light switch mud ring by screwing a screw through the wire while installing the bracket for the switch, it was magnetic.. well i ended up shorting half of the lighting system in the entire house.. me, my lead, and another tech ran around chasing the short around from switch to switch for around 45 min at the end of the day till we finally found the screw going directly through the wire.. i’ll be honest I didnt hear the end of it for about a week and a half from my lead cause of that day 😂

I'm a second year, one test away from third year apprentice Local 606 Orlando FL. Just this past week actually, myself, another apprentice, and my Journeyman made a huge costly mistake. We're putting in lights on a remodel and had tied the lights in, we had relays in place and went to energize the circuit. We lost two relays and one light due to a ground fault. the mistake was, when making the terminations in the lights and closing the covers for them, the covers and surrounding edges are razor sharp and scored our conductors causing the short. After a good chewing out by the foreman, we found a better way to make the terminations and ensure there will be no damage to the conductors when closing the covers. Lesson learned and fingers crossed it does not happen again, like I said, those edges are razor sharp and we're having to be extra careful when closing those covers now, which slows the project down a bit.

In california we use 0-10v dimming Mc cable . The 2 18awg dimming conductors were always grey and purple until not too long ago. Because guys were taking that grey 18awg dimming wire to a 277v neutral 👀

Thank you buddy

My biggest mistake was agreeing to shoulder around bundles of rmc until the other apprentice showed up to help with the materials. The foreman first pleaded with me to just carry one more bundle to the roof by myself so he didn't have anyone standing around doing nothing. So I shouldered that burden he put on me and made sure they could produce until the end of the day. There were two workers assigned to move the bundles to the roof but he wanted one apprentice per bundle. Both of us hurt our backs so bad my nerves still get inflamed. What did you learn in your apprenticeship? d=? Could you imagine the difficulties living with a back injury like that? You are never the same.

Almost knocked my teeth out with a pair of bullnose pliers i left on a ladder my first year, if it wasnt for the brim on my hardhat i would have that truckstop smile

There's a tool for aligning holes between floors called a plumb bob.

Hi man, I wanted to let you know that your videos are such a valuable ressource in the Electricians/Electrical apprentices community, and that we re lucky to be in an age where other brothers share their wisdom, experiences and knowledge with others in such a convenient way! I am an IBEW CW2 and I ll hopefully join the apprenticeship classes in September and become an apprentice, so thank you for all the great content you share with us! Also 18min video isn't too long for us! Your videos are amazing and they can be 2 hours, they ll still be enjoyable! Thanks brother!

Have a question for you. Once you got sent to the hospital job, have you been there ever since? Do you ever think about dragging and trying something new? Im torn as an apprentice between being well rounded and being an expert in a specific area. Thanks for the vids. Your advice helped get me into local 351.

Hey I live in Portland also. And I'm interest in this program. I might go to PCC to join the program at first.

Thanks for making these, they have helped me so much in making the jump soon. But one question: i may possibly move from one county to another in the near future, can i start with an IBEW local apprenticeship in one place and continue my apprenticeship at another county with another IBEW local? Is this type of continuity possible? Thank you!!!!!

Hey man! Love the videos! I’m around the Salem area and currently have a pretty good job. I make about 25 an hour and have great benefits. But I’m debating on making the change to electrical. Is there a way to start making around that at the beginning? Or are places pretty set on just paying 40% of journeyman wage?

Hey do you recommend any books to read for someone who have no clue about how to become electrician? I have 0 background in the trade but I’m curious and want to learn.

I think most dudes in the trade are afraid to say that they were at fault as either as an apprentice or even as a JW.

Wouldn’t verifying power to the equipment be considered hot work, and Nietc doesn’t allow for unsupervised apprentices.

Im thinking of starting an apprenticeship soon but ive been looking at electrician wages here in the uk, and they seem to be significantly less than what you're making over in America with the ibew.... it looks like when you're full qualified, you will be making like 30k which doest seem worth it for how long it takes to get there

Hey is there any other online course recommended to help get that first job??? All the beginners jobs ask for an apprentice who is already at the end of their apprenticeship. Thank you

please do a video about going from the military to an IBEW apprenticeship, i am trying to find resources and research but haven’t been able to find anything helpful yet. love your videos thank you so much

Question, I am considering this union, but I’m curious, did you have any time when you felt like there was no work? Or had times where you have to pay the union even though you weren’t making any money? Or is that not an issue

This fall I am starting a 13 month program at a tech school to earn NCCER 4 certification for electrician, what do you suggest I do after that? I was thinking of getting journeyman's license or applying for a apprenticeship but I'm not sure what would make the most sense.

I sleep right thru the alarm once I hit a deep sleep

Bro thanks for video. I really want to ask u an important question. I see you have a juge map in your local 48, so is that mean u travel a lot? Should i avoid joining to the huge map? Or your 95% of the work is only in Portland area so u don't travel and u can reach your job location in less than 30 minutes?

I know you said you studied on Khan academy which math did you study pre algebra, algebra basics or algebra 1?

new soon to be apprentice here hopefully ( in the process of it , waiting for letter for aptitude test) can anyone sponsor me or get me going with a job 😭 here in CA . Bay Area and surroundings. Or anyone who can help me with tips and advice

hey its kinda hard for me too say this, but im not doing very well in school and when i say that i am doing horrible and not sure what i am going to be doing in my future, i was thinking on either becoming a plumber or an electrican. Do you have any suggestions on what i should do? Thanks

Hey @madelectrician are all journeyman a holes when it comes to teaching apprentices? I was working with a journeyman and I had just gotten to learning everything and when I would forget something he taught me he’d get mad at me and almost for everything he’d get mad at me I didn’t appreciate the fact that I was trying to learn and he’d make me feel bad for making a mistake as we all do when we’re learning something new, just wanted to ask if all journeyman are a holes and if they are why even bother to teach?

There was no competent journeymen on the job?

I always show up 30 minutes early and wake up at 330 every morning. I do not enjoy being rushed and like to take my time and ease my way into the day.

I appreciate this dude but never feel like he’s speaking to me. He’s like doing storytelling with a few warnings thrown in but I wish he’s be a little more direct in terms of what his advice is

This stuff blows my mind. How do you make any money by doing a “tug test” on every single wire of every single joint that you ever do? Why wouldn’t you just know how to make a joint up right period? And every single circuit turned off? Why not just kill power to the whole block while your at it? Or the whole city? I tried union work, it’s not for me that’s for sure. Actually, it’s more than that. Union labor pisses me off to no end. The fact that y’all get paid anything is infuriating to me. We should get work done in a safe and TIMELY manner. There is no reason whatsoever to do a damn tug test but it makes sense bc it sounds gay af. And dude, the gloves and the 120 story here, I don’t think you were wearing gloves. I ain’t never seen Ppe that protects you a “little bit” from electric shock. If that current hit you then it hit you. If you had a hole in your glove I would think you’d say that, and at that point the glove is more dangerous than no glove at all. If it couldn’t stop 120v from piercing through its resistance then don’t wear them for a false sense of security. Sorry for the rant, I’m ending the video now since I’m so damn triggered over this. Thanks.

dum..b?

It is insane to me that you were only bitten once by 120V, I am in the trade for more than 2 years (About 1.5 year non union and 10 months IBEW) and in my non union days I have experienced Electrical shock (120VAC 240VAC, 277VAC, and more than 350VDC on a roof while doing solar) I ve been lucky enough to get away with it and even get a little bit complacent with 120Vac which is a very dangerous attitude of course! Thankfully since I ve joined the union, I started understanding that getting shocked doesn't have to be part of our day to day as Electricians, and that we re responsible for our safety and we should do our best to make it home safely to our families everytime! The pseudo-machismo "get it done" culture of the trades is toxic and obnoxious, thankfully it's dying off with some of the old heads retiring!

Awesome Video

PFH!