176
g/apprentice • Posted by u/new_to_trades_nate •

What does a good first-year actually look like? Asking as a first-year who cannot tell. Question

Three months into an electrical apprenticeship. I have no idea whether I am doing well.

Nobody yells at me. Nobody praises me either. I get told what to do and I do it and then I get told the next thing. I cannot tell if that means I am fine or if it means nobody has any expectations of me.

For the journeymen and foremen here — what separates a first year you are glad to have from one you tolerate? Specific things, if you can. I would rather know now.

💬 7 replies

Log in or sign up to leave a reply.

u/conduit_king •

Specifics, since you asked.

A first year I am glad to have:

  • Shows up ten minutes early and is actually ready to work at start time, not arriving at start time
  • Knows where the material is because they paid attention when it got staged
  • Asks the question before doing it wrong, not after
  • Cleans as they go without being told, because they understand the site is safer that way and not because they are being watched
  • Remembers what I told them yesterday
  • Says "I do not know" instead of guessing

A first year I tolerate:

  • Does exactly what is asked and nothing adjacent to it
  • Needs to be told the same thing repeatedly
  • Disappears when the task ends instead of finding me
  • Is on their phone

Notice that none of the good list is about skill. At three months I do not expect you to be able to do anything. I expect you to be reliable and paying attention. The skill comes later and it comes faster for people who were paying attention.

152
u/new_to_trades_nate OP •

"Remembers what I told them yesterday" is the one I am least sure about. I get told a lot of things and some of it definitely evaporates.

62
u/three_phase_phil •

Notebook. This whole board is going to tell you notebook and we are all right.

Write down what you got told at the end of the day, not during. Five minutes in the truck. You will remember about 80% of it at 4pm and roughly 20% by the next morning, and the difference between those two numbers is the entire value of the notebook.

88
u/admin_jake ADMIN •

One more that is not on the list above and matters more than any of them: notice when something is unsafe and say so, even at three months, even when you are not sure.

The first year who says "hey, is that ladder supposed to be on that?" is worth more to me than one who can bend perfect conduit. You can teach conduit. You cannot teach somebody to speak up who has learned not to.

94
u/osha_omar •

Adding to this because I see the other side of it: in incident investigations, there is very often somebody who noticed and did not say anything. Usually the newest person on the crew.

If you are three months in and something looks wrong to you, you are not being naive. Fresh eyes catch things that familiarity stops seeing. Say it.

66
u/sparky420 •

The silence you are describing is normal and it is not a verdict. Most journeymen do not give feedback unless something is wrong, which is a bad habit that the trade has and that I am also guilty of.

If you want to know, ask directly. "Is there anything I should be doing differently?" at the end of a week. Most JWs will give you a real answer to a direct question and will never volunteer one.

71
u/first_year_felix •

Nine months in and I needed this thread as much as you did. The "nobody says anything" thing had me convinced I was doing badly for about four months.

43