r/ibew_apprentices

One of my classmates was late (he’s going through some personal things) and our instructor said if I can do 15 curls with a 50 pound dumbell he will remove his tardy. What’s a way I can increase my reps within the next 2 hours and keep him from having to do a makeup day.

Edit: I didnt get it. He has a makeup day now.

Applied sometime around mid 2025 for inside wireman, no previous electrical experience. Interviewed around September, got a fairly high ranking, got called in April to go for orientation. Bootcamp went well, instructors were great, but I failed my first CML test, I got 13/20 and needed 15/20 to pass. Took it again and got 14/20. I was off by one question.

Sent an email asking to schedule a retake, didn't hear back for a week until the program director called me to tell me that they're "withdrawing their offer for apprenticeship, it's just not a good fit". Encouraged me to reapply in 6 months.

One of the questions I got wrong was:

"Why is it important to develop good financial habits" I put "to be prepared for unforeseen financial circumstances", which was incorrect, the correct answer was "to achieve your financial goals".

Another one was "which of the following is NOT true" I put: "apprentice linemen are expected to work during emergencies"

which I didn't feel was correct, but the correct answer was: "apprentice lineman are expected to work both inside and outside"

which I also felt is incorrect, because they do on occasion work indoors.

It's my own damn fault for not memorizing every correct answer from the modules, but damn this is incredibly frusturating when I have to wait probably another year for failing a test like this. I just hope i'm not being lead on to apply again and i'm just going to be told to F off we don't want you after waiting the 6 months.

The job I’m on is a 60/60/50 but I haven’t worked a Saturday yet, I work 50 hours a week(5’10s) but I need the weekends. Since I’m a first year apprentice I didn’t take the call I got placed there and my foreman says I need to start working the Saturdays or else the GF is going to have a talk with me. I hit up the hall and they said OT is not a requirement. In the PLA it says the call is for 5’8s but they can change that to 6’10s at their discretion. Honestly I’m struggling with the 50 hours let alone 60. Does this mean I have to work the 60 hour weeks or do I have ground to stand on? What’s the best way of going about this? I should add I’ve been there 2 months with absolutely nothing to do, no material, no plans, no info. Slowly but surely we’ve gotten tools, carts, gangbox but no work. They tell me to just look busy. They say it’ll pick up soon but I’m not sure they’ve been saying that since I started. I would ask the JATC to just put me somewhere else but this job comes with an extra $10 an hour incentive pay and I don’t want to lose the extra cash if I don’t have to
Edit: appreciate all the replies!

I’ve interviewed for inside wire apprenticeship program and did not receive a satisfactory ranking. It was recommended that I obtain my blue card (which I have) and get at least 1000 hours as a stockperson to qualify for another interview and hopefully increase that ranking. However, I have been unable to get work as a stockperson so far. Is it typical to struggle getting hours for entry level work? Are things just really slow right now? Should I be looking for something else to get hands on experience?

I wanted to ask some more veteran brothers and sisters for any advice or insight as to how I should navigate this. I really want to improve my rank and get into an apprenticeship program. I don’t have experience with electrical so entry level work is really all I can qualify for. I’ve called around to local contractors asking for work and have had no luck.

I am a 7th term apprentice in my local. Which if we do the conversion ratio between how all our different locals rate apprentices it would put me right around 3ish years (60%-70% there, depending on local.)

I thought it would be helpful to put down some tips & tricks you've learned on the job that other apprentices may not know about. So we all improve together. I'll also comment on this post with a list of the tricks that have saved/helped my ass on the jobsite to get started.

Is there a large degree of nepotism or is hard work and personality rewarded? Wondering how i should be conducting myself towards other apprentices and journeymen

I received a 47.78 on my personal experience and aptitude test, which I know isn’t a great score, and I want to improve my chances of getting a phone call. I don’t have any experience in the electrical field, so I know I didn’t earn many points on the personal experience portion. I also don’t think I did too badly on the aptitude test itself. However, I can’t seem to find any companies willing to take on someone with no experience to gain electrical hours. What should I do?

So it’s my 6th day working, and i’m on a small time job, me and my journeyman, everyone else is at a different facility the foreman travels back and forth, and because he takes the time to stop and explain things to me, it ends up taking longer to get the work done, and my jman gets frustrated, i have no prior experience, and i do everything that he asks me to do, but of course i’m a lot slower since most of it i’m doing for the first time,i’m trying my best but i don’t want to let him down or get him in trouble, i really appreciate this job and i like it, but there’s this pressure to do everything fast when did you guys feel less useless and kindve figure everything out ?

My foreman messages me every two weeks asking how my schooling is going. Keeps me in the loop on what’s going on in the job and has encouraged me that I have work when I’m done with school. He knows I’m terrible with math, and he’s even offered to tutor me on the weekend so I can pass. I’ve shared my worries with him and he knows exactly how bad at math i am with. Im halfway through and I’m sitting at an average of 74-76%. 70% is passing. I study every single day, and for the last 5 weeks I’ve had no life. However, my grades are slipping as I’m starting to get overwhelmed. I am constantly losing sleep, thinking about how big of a disappointment I would be if I come back as a “how could u fail level 2”… I absolutely love the work and would rather work 16 hours than study, but if I can’t pass level 2 after trying my hardest, why even attempt level 3? Should I be looking for a new career?

Mid-30s here. Bachelor's degree, spent the last several years in corporate America doing management and sales. On paper, it looks fine, but honestly, I've been watching this lifestyle up close for a while now, and the cracks are showing: limited upward mobility, the grind culture, and let's be real, AI is starting to eat into a lot of what white-collar work actually looks like. I've been thinking hard about a change.

Electrical keeps coming up for me. I want to go all the way, apprentice, journeyman, master. I'm not trying to do the bare minimum; I want to actually be good at this and build something real.

Here's where I'll be honest with myself, though the pay cut during the apprenticeship makes me hesitant, and I know how that sounds. You're literally getting paid to learn a skill that nobody can outsource or automate. That's not lost on me. It's a little boujee of me to even say it out loud.

What I'm really trying to understand is the true earnings potential on this path long-term. Not just journeyman wages, I mean, what does this look like when you've put in the work and stacked the licenses? I'm not trying to get rich by working 60+ hour weeks forever, but I'm absolutely down for overtime when it makes sense. I just want to build a life where the ceiling is real, and the work actually means something.

I've already got plans to sit down with someone in the industry directly and get more specific answers, but figured I'd throw it out here first and see what you all have to say.

Appreciate any insight. Real talk only.

So I’m very new into the apprenticeship. I’ve been working for about six months so far as a first year. Before blue collar I was working in a warehouse and I was so used to seeing everybody every day. And some people will leave with most of the time it would be the same faces.

I’m working my current job and my journeyman left is dragging up for better calls. But I work with them for about four months. So my question is is it ever normal having your tooly leave? I know compared to most jobs ours is kind of change pretty often. But does it ever feel normal?

Cw-1 here just wondering what locals in America go striaght into the apprenticeship and don’t have that cw- pre bs

Thanks

I’m at a crossroads and I’m looking for some advice. I’m a relatively new apprentice who has been at this certain shop 1 year as of today. To make a long story short, this contractor is awful and I’ve hated it here ever since.

The main reasons being is I have had to work over 2 hours away from home, which has caused me to be away from my wife and my 14 month old son, who I have felt like I’ve missed growing up since I’ve started. Second, this shop and foreman have done nothing to help me improve or get better. I’ve shown interest and always try to ask questions, but only getting to clean and organize carts, dig, sweep, or just clean the job trailer for the last year has gotten a little old. The only electrical work I’ve been lucky enough to do was take apart lights and install new ones in classrooms at a high school and elementary school all winter during nights.

Also, I’d like to mention that this contractor strong-armed me into working Sundays for straight time for months and months just so I could hit my 40 hours and my insurance hours, and I’m still new and have a little child and wife I’m trying to provide for. They don’t follow the agreement on so many things, but like I said, I feel like I can’t say anything.

The past month they’ve gotten rid of working Sundays for straight time, but now I’m only getting 30 hour work weeks in as an apprentice. The annoying part is that our local has so much work that they need apprentices everywhere, so my contractor will not lay me off. On top of that, our apprenticeship is supposed to transfer us every 6-12 months to get exposure to different contractors and job sites, and everyone in my class has already been transferred except for me. I don’t know if my contractor is blocking it or what, but it’s just another thing that makes me feel like I’m being left behind.

The other thing I’m struggling with is I’m going to get to a new contractor eventually and then they are going to quickly realize that I don’t know anything. The advice I’m looking for is I want to talk to my Business Manager at our local tomorrow before I have class, but I don’t even know how to go about it. I don’t want to look like a whiner or an apprentice that doesn’t want to work hard, but I hate it here and I don’t know how to bring it up to him and to my local.

3rd year apprentice here. Recently got put on a job that is obviously severely under bid. GF recently bought us note pads and told us we have to start documenting everything we get done during the day. We meet at the trailer at the end of the day for them to enter it into the computer. Which is fine because I keep my head down and work. However working without a JW I obviously get less done than the other apprentices my term that have a JW. I feel like they could hold this against me without looking at the circumstances. I am probably overthinking it though. Is this normal?

Edit: This is a smaller job site. 20 guys or less. We are checked on periodically.

Been on solar over a year now. Working delivery aswell after work to help pay bills. I’m a 1st year apprentice, and I feel burnt out. I’ve been doing electrical work non union for about 4 years before this and was always okay, but that’s without the schooling and the long drives making 2 days out of my week the whole day and night at work/school then with no sleep. I’m sure you guys know how it is, but here’s my question…. What should I do? How can I help this? I feel burnt out, I feel as if I hate my job, I feel like I wanna fake an injury and sit out for 2/3 months and just do schooling. Idk any ideas/advice. I’m blessed with this opportunity and don’t want to let it go to waste.

For reference I have 2 years of non union experience residential and light commercial. I applied in March took my aptitude in April. Got my interview scheduled. I got a call saying they had work for me and I could skip the interview and just start. I have orientation Friday at the job site. I get to keep my hours too and they will be putting me into third year. I don’t even know what to say to be honest.

Got my email today, got an 85.67. I did notice that I was applicant #2587 so I feel like im cooked lol I am also a veteran so maybe not, who knows? 😂

Edit: I never said it was my ranking, just noticed it was my applicant number.

Anyone have a real hard time leaving the program? To elaborate the local making it hard on you to quit?