Career Change? Questions to Ask Before Becoming an Electrician

If you’re considering a job change, you aren’t alone. Job-hopping is becoming increasingly common. While plenty of the new workers who switch from company to company stay in the same profession, others are ready for a whole new career. Whether you’ve only been out of school for a few years or you’re considering a midlife career move, changing professions can be a rewarding decision.

If becoming an electrician is at the top of your career-change list, take a look at a few questions you should ask yourself before making the choice. Keep in mind, switching careers (whenever you do it) is a major life change. That means you need to be completely sure about it before you began the career-change process.

Becoming an electrician means going back to school and getting hands-on training/experience. This takes time and hard work, making your career-change decision a serious one that you shouldn’t make on a whim.

Why Become an Electrician?

More precisely, why do you want to become an electrician? Chances are you didn’t just pick a career out of thin air. There’s a reason why you want to go into this highly technical profession. Consider the parts of your old job or career that you actually liked. Now think about what you didn’t (you’ve probably been fixating on these, and that’s what’s pushing your career change).

Make sure that the parts of your old career that you didn’t like won’t make a repeat appearance if you choose to become an electrician. For example, if you couldn’t stand working for someone else, you’re going to have a boss (at least at first) as you apprentice and begin your electrician career. But, after gaining experience, you may be able to work for yourself.

What Do You Know About Being an Electrician?

Are you choosing the real career, or are you choosing a fictional image that you’ve gotten from the movies? Make sure you know what it really means to be an electrician. Talk to people who work in the profession and find out what they do on a day-to-day basis. This process helps to paint a picture of the reality of being an electrician.

When you’re unhappy in your job, such as you might be in your current career, it’s easy to focus on the fantasy aspects of something new. Instead of assuming the grass is greener, make sure that you understand exactly what the job entails and what you should expect from this career.

Along with learning about what being an electrician means, it’s also advisable to research what becoming one includes. You’ll need to enjoy the training process if you want to make a career out of working in this field.

What Kinds of Opportunities Are There?

Obviously, you don’t want to switch careers just to find out that you can’t get a job. That might require yet another career shift. Luckily for you, electricians are in demand. The projected job growth in this field is much faster than average, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). It’s estimated that between the years 2014 and 2024, the number of electrician jobs will grow by 85,900 positions.

This data shows that there are plenty of opportunities for future electricians. So if you’re on the fence about switching, this is a field with room to grow. Along with being able to get a job, you’re likely to get a job that pays a decent wage. In 2016, the median pay for an electrician was $52,720 per year, according to the BLS.

If your career change includes becoming an electrician, you need to start with a solid education. IEC Greater Cincinnati has apprenticeship and training programs that can help you to start your new professional path.