A Day in the Life of an Electrician

In order to understand how an electrician’s typical day goes, it’s important to know the differences between types of electricians. There are electricians who have completed trade school in both installation and maintenance, but more commonly an electrician specializes in either one or the other.

Installation Electricians

These guys typically start out their day very early, waking up and driving to the location of a construction site. Usually when the construction of a building is about halfway done, the installation electrician is called upon to wire the building. The installation electrician will follow the building’s blueprints and determine where the circuits and outlets will be located. They are also responsible for ensuring that the blueprints are within the local regional electrical codes as well as the National Electrical code.

Once the blueprints have been assessed, installation work begins using tools like hacksaws, conduit benders, drills and wire strippers. After the installation is complete, the electrician goes over and reviews all of the work he has done with the construction superintendent, packs up his bag and moves on to the next job. Jobs like these sometimes take several days to complete and others can be finished in a day.

Installation electricians also perform jobs for homeowners who need projects completed like installing updated wiring or lighting, ceiling fans, and even home theaters. Like the construction site jobs, the jobs for homeowners begin with the electrician assessing the project, providing an estimate, completing the work, reviewing it with the homeowner and moving on to the next job on his list.

Maintenance Electricians

Unexpected surprises are the usual theme of a maintenance electricians day. He may start off with a list of appointments and then get bombarded with emergency calls. He spends his day replacing circuit breakers, fuses, outlets and switches. If the maintenance electrician is employed solely by one factory, he must have the knowledge and ability to repair and maintain specific machinery, motors, and even robots.

Whether he’s an installation electrician or maintenance electrician, an electrician never has the same day twice.