The Charming Artisan

I spent a couple years after high school attempting to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. The only thing that I knew for sure was that I didn’t want anymore full-time schooling in my life at that time.

I applied to welding shops and electrical shops with not much more on my resume than some petroleum transfer technician experience and some odd manual labour jobs that I worked after school and on weekends. I had helped my father with some carpentry as well, but had no real construction experience.

The phone rang a couple days later. One of the electrical shops called and asked me a few questions. Was I afraid of heights and did I have any tools? (Probably a few others as well, but it’s been like 26 years) Also, when can you start?

Thanks to the help of some family (the best in the world), I started there shortly after. They even bought me my first set of tools!

To say the learning curve was steep is an understatement. I went from gas station attendant to Industrial Electricians Apprentice overnight and it was a whole new world.

The men I worked beside were very old school in temperament. If you talked to colleagues now the way we talked back then you would be invited to visit the Human Resources Department in a matter of minutes. The lessons were pointed and they didn’t suffer fools easily. If you messed up, you heard about it.

On the other side of the coin, the places we worked had a very wide range of technologies in use. From fully manual industrial control set-ups to the newest of automation techniques. I learned a ton about the electrical trade as well as how to work in construction in general.

The pay started at minimum wage until a three month trial period ended. After that we would decide whether or not I would be signed up to the apprenticeship program. I don’t recall the actual time periods (26ish years ago) but eventually I was signed up and earning hours. The pay rate then was fifty percent of the shop Journeyman rate.

First Year Apprentice – 50%

Second Year Apprentice – 60%

Third Year Apprentice – 70%

Fourth Year Apprentice – 80%

The schooling in my local area was awesome too. Some schools had a work at your own pace program. (I could’ve done my first year schooling in like three weeks)

Most schools though had set programs like:

First Year – 8 Weeks

Second Year – 8 Weeks

Third Year – 8 Weeks

Fourth Year – 12 Weeks

This schedule fit in well with my disinterest in full-time schooling. We could also collect Employment Insurance from the government while going to school.

The perks of the trades are entirely subjective to your own likes, but for me it was the variety.

I worked inside and outside.

I worked with steel, wood, aluminum, stainless, fibreglass and pvc materials. I connected machines and equipment in mechanic shops and cancer fighting machines in hospitals. I’ve climbed like a monkey through massive steel structures installing the backbone of the electrical systems in multi-billion dollar projects.

There are opportunities in local communities and out of town. I’ve travelled full days to get to a job site and worked for six weeks at a stretch, food, transportation and lodging all paid for. (Before the wife and kid…)

My tool work lead into quality control and other project management opportunities.

Residential, Commercial, Institutional and Industrial sectors are all available to pretty much any tradesman out there. No two days need to be the same if you don’t want them to be.

The greatest perk would have to be the tool shopping though. Christmas lasts the whole year through sometimes. I would get told to stop buying tools a couple of months before Christmas so the family would have something to get me.

The short of it is this, if you want a career that can be super fulfilling, exciting, hard working, and sometimes very dangerous; pick up a trade. If you pay attention, work hard, learn something new everyday and enjoy physical activity there is every possibility that it will last you the rest of your life.

More to come…