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After 15 years doing software development, I started training to be an electrician a month ago (in the Bay Area). The two people I work under are chill / patien

After 15 years doing software development, I started training to be an electrician a month ago (in the Bay Area). The two people I work under are chill / patient. Sometimes when dragging myself and wire though tight rat-shit crawl spaces... I yearn for my nice little home office. But, overall, I enjoy the work. It feels good to do work in the physical world. A lot of electricians are nearing retirement. Meanwhile, electrification is picking up steam. The National Electrical Code 2020 is letting distributed / behind-the-meter software do a lot more heavy lifting (e.g. its letting software manage loads so that (expensive, delaying, and grid-taxing) utility service upgrades can be avoided)[1]. There's already big demand for electricians, let alone when EVs (and level-2 EV chargers), solar + batteries, and other flexible loads become mainstream. My aspiration is to spend one week a month in the field, leading an electrical project (and taking all or most of the profit). With a low-cost lifestyle, I think I'll be able to spend the other three weeks improving processes / tooling around that electrical work. And working on related FOSS and education resources. 1. https://www.dropbox.com/s/klt1zzc7zxqwrfe/IAEI_Bill-Brooks_2020_March-April.pdf https://www.dropbox.com/s/klt1zzc7zxqwrfe/IAEI_Bill-Brooks_2...

Denzel 5y ago
Are you still doing software while training to become an electrician? I'd like to become a licensed electrician. After completing a few successful projects around the house, and studying the 2020 NEC inside out, I looked into becoming licensed. The required 4 year apprenticeship, before I'm able to take the exam, turned me off. How would I ever be able to satisfy that requirement while keeping my day job. It's like a forced pay cut to become licensed. What's your arrangement look like?
- mcbishop 5y ago
  I do field work 3-4 days a week. In the other 1-2, I set aside time to do software. Relying on electrical work for income, the pressure is off to monetize the software work. ...This has made it more fun. Yeah, people learn / master at different rates so it's too bad they require so many hours to qualify for a license. Once you're a journeyperson and have your chops, you could arrange a profit share (or something) under a licensed electrician. ...Where you're pretty much "owning" the project, but they're available to answer questions and review you work. And take liability.
  - Denzel 5y ago
    Props to you for designing the life you want and thanks for the reply :) Happy to hear you're having more fun in this arrangement.
JKCalhoun 5y ago
Good for you. Once I had a family, I decided I didn't want to rock the boat, kept the comfy(ish) coding job so I could afford to take them to places abroad, pay for their college. I sensed you could make good money in the Bay Area in any contractor-type field: electrician, plumber, etc. When we needed an electrician it was often hard to find one (and that didn't, for example, only do commercial electrical work).
chime 5y ago
Props to you my friend. This is a great way to leverage your past skills and experience, get into a new field, and help improve things at a national level, while getting personal satisfaction. The binary view of 'white collar' vs. 'blue collar' prevents growth. Just like farm work has been modernized and companies like Leaf and FarmLogs are bringing the efficiency of tech/automation to millennia old practices, coders branching into EV, grid-based projects is fantastic!
deleted 5y ago
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Denzel 5y ago

Are you still doing software while training to become an electrician? I'd like to become a licensed electrician. After completing a few successful projects around the house, and studying the 2020 NEC inside out, I looked into becoming licensed. The required 4 year apprenticeship, before I'm able to take the exam, turned me off. How would I ever be able to satisfy that requirement while keeping my day job. It's like a forced pay cut to become licensed. What's your arrangement look like?

mcbishop 5y ago
I do field work 3-4 days a week. In the other 1-2, I set aside time to do software. Relying on electrical work for income, the pressure is off to monetize the software work. ...This has made it more fun. Yeah, people learn / master at different rates so it's too bad they require so many hours to qualify for a license. Once you're a journeyperson and have your chops, you could arrange a profit share (or something) under a licensed electrician. ...Where you're pretty much "owning" the project, but they're available to answer questions and review you work. And take liability.
- Denzel 5y ago
  Props to you for designing the life you want and thanks for the reply :) Happy to hear you're having more fun in this arrangement.

JKCalhoun 5y ago

Good for you. Once I had a family, I decided I didn't want to rock the boat, kept the comfy(ish) coding job so I could afford to take them to places abroad, pay for their college. I sensed you could make good money in the Bay Area in any contractor-type field: electrician, plumber, etc. When we needed an electrician it was often hard to find one (and that didn't, for example, only do commercial electrical work).

chime 5y ago

Props to you my friend. This is a great way to leverage your past skills and experience, get into a new field, and help improve things at a national level, while getting personal satisfaction. The binary view of 'white collar' vs. 'blue collar' prevents growth. Just like farm work has been modernized and companies like Leaf and FarmLogs are bringing the efficiency of tech/automation to millennia old practices, coders branching into EV, grid-based projects is fantastic!

deleted 5y ago

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