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How many hours would I have to work per day?
I wanna know how long I would be away from home
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Liam’s Answer
This is a great question because it can vary. I worked as an electrician for a while and the answer that Rafael gave above is true for most electricians on most large projects. Most of the time if you are working for a large company on a larger scale job you will be working an 8 hour shift with a half hour break in between so 8.5 hours on the clock. Most jobs that are priority you will be working overtime (OT). OT is usually 1.5x your current pay meaning if you are making $40 an hour regularly, if you work more than a 40 hour week you will be making $60 an hour on that time past 40 hours. This is sought after by electricians because they can work more than a 40 hour week and make more money. This all depends on you, your company, the specific job, and what the rules are in your area for overtime. Most of the people that I know are electricians are working around 60 hours a week because of this. While that sounds like an undesirable schedule this will allow you to save up money when the job ends and there is no work, you will have enough money saved up to wait a couple of months for the next job to start. Again, this would be for a construction electrician on a large scale job with a large company. As Rafael mentioned above you also have the option to work for your own company and set your own schedule. I know electricians that are skillful with setting up their work on schedule and are able to work five or so hours a day five days a week and make a modest living. Likewise I know electricians that work for themselves and take any project that is presented to them and they work sometimes up to 80 hours a week. Your time is dependent on how skilled you are, the business relations you have and make, the types of work you are qualified to do (like what kind of licenses you have and in what areas), and the amount of risk you are willing to take on to make sure the job is done safely and to completion. I would say that an electrician in particular is not a normal "one size fits all" schedule, but the average I think is well explained above!
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Rafael’s Answer
Hi Tobias, great question and I totally get wanting to know how much time you'd be spending away from home. While my background is in engineering and consulting rather than being an electrician, I can tell you that most trade and professional jobs follow a similar structure. In my experience working in variety of roles, a typical day runs about 8 to 10 hours depending on the project and deadlines . For electricians specifically, most work a standard 8-hour day or about 40 hours a week, but overtime can bump that up especially if you're on a big project or handling emergency calls. During some of my consulting projects I had intense periods where I worked longer hours and even traveled to different cities, and electricians can have a similar experience when they're on commercial job sites or doing on-call work. That said, one of the cool things about the trades is that once you gain experience and maybe get licensed to work independently, you can have more control over your schedule compared to a lot of office jobs. I'd recommend talking to local electricians or checking out an apprenticeship program in your area because they'll give you a realistic picture of the daily routine, and just know that putting in those hours early on in your career is what builds the skills and experience that pay off big time later!