7 Professional Skills Every Electrician Needs To Be Successful
When starting out as an electrician that can sound a different language.
These are some of the skills you will naturally develop over time.
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist!
Although some of us are pretty clever electricians. Especially when you turn up to a fault and find it in 10 minutes — I want a badge every time that happens.
I would have at least 2 by now.
The skills needed to be a good electrician doesn’t happen overnight, they are learnt over time.
I'm going to explain 7 skills you will need to work on, not just to become a good electrician — but to get better and better every day.
Tool box Talks For Electricians the only podcast Loading Electricians with the tools and skills they need to reduce stress, gain back time, and earn more money.
If you are a thicko and you have started to train to become an electrician and completely lost with everything……
Don’t worry — that’s how it all begins.
When I was an apprentice I hadn’t got a clue what the electrician was on about.
Over time, with asking 100s of questions I began to learn.
Along with the electrician talk you’re gonna have to develop skills too. 7 of those skills you will find out here.
The first skill is knowing what things are and how dangerous they can be. Electricity isn’t visible, so one wrong move and it could be your last.
Not any cable is suitable for any environment, to this day I still see twin and earth grey cable clipped on the outside of houses.
Yeah it will work, but after a while — when that cable has been open to the elements of the weather, rain, cold and heat.
That cable is going to perish and cause a fault.
Using the right tools for a job is another skill you learn over time.
Some electricians love to do everything up with an impact driver. Mistake!!
An impact driver can easily cross thread the terminal and leave them useless.
This happens far too often in consumer units. When the breakers are done up with an impact driver you don’t know until it’s too late.
If that terminal is loose and starts to arc, then that’s a fire waiting to happen.
Something that will come over time with experience is that the electrician that did the job may not be as good as you.
The amount of times I have been to a property to fix a fault, only to spend the whole day fixing what had been done wrong before.
Never assume it’s just a repair, it’s gone wrong for a reason. More than likely DIY Dave has been there before.
The second skill is a must — Be a team player.
Electricians often work alone. Going from job to job being the only trade on site. I like jobs like that.
But that’s not the case all the time. With builders, plumbers and carpenters all on site you need to be a team player to get the job done.
After all, you all have a job to do and are there to keep the customer happy. You need to be patient with good communication skills and be friendly with others.
This can pay off in the long run too with other jobs in the future.
The third one is to be a good problem solver. Electricians never get called out because everything is working, and they just want to make sure.
It’s always because there’s a problem.
There are some Electricians who give up and turn round to the customer and say “I can find the problem — Goodbye”
Don’t be one of those. Understanding how electricity works and how it should be wired is a skill you will just know naturally.
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I wired out a block of flats for an old people’s retirement home years ago. All tested and signed off.
But of course I was still waiting for payment.
The day everyone moved in there was a problem. The bathroom light has just stopped working.
So I got a call. I was more than happy to go. It turned out one of the lady grandsons put some pictures up for her.
Stuck a nail straight through the cable.
The lady was so happy I fixed it, she grabbed my hand and gave me a pound coin tip.
Number 4 is more a physical fitness than a skill.
You need to be an acrobat sometimes to get across some of the lost spaces. The larger electricians I can imagine how they even do it.
You have to be strong to pull in some long runs of cable at times, and nimble enough to get yourself into tight spaces.
If you’re colour blind — forget it. You need to be able to see what colour cable goes where in order for things to work.
Being flexible is number five. It’s not like you can put time on every job.
We can estimate how long it’s going to take if we have quoted and been to the job, but with callouts — how long is a piece of string??
When a customer has a fault. They want to know How much it’s going to cost to fix and how long the electric will be off for.
Questions that nobody can answer over the phone.
With most properties being protected by an RCD these days it’s a lot more difficult to find a fault.
There no BANG or black mark where something has blown up. It’s just off and tripped.
10 x better for the customer, but a little harder for the electrician when there’s a fault.
The sixth one is maths.
Have you heard of Ohm’s law? If you haven't you soon will.
V = Voltage
I = Current or Amps
R = Resistance
Or as ben from brp electrical would call it Viragia In Rear
To be honest, these days there’s an app to do your cable calculations that’s a lot quicker working things out.
But knowing how to do it if you did need to will help you out one day for sure.
The last one and the seventh skill you really need to be a good electrician, that I find is dying out among the young people.
Social skills with the customers. If a customer doesn’t trust you or even like you, they are not going to remember to call you again.
You can be the best electrician in the world, but if you can’t talk to the customer and make them feel confident you’re good at what you do, it’s not going to leave a good impression.
Even going over the top and explaining why you’re using SWA for an outside light buried in the ground protected by a 6 amp type B RCBO will help.
You may get looked at with total confusion, but being able to explain why you’re doing the job the way you are will help the customer feel confident you’re the right electrician for the job.
All these skills and more you will develop over time. Many of these skills will help your electrical business grow.
Along with some other steps mentioned in another podcast
How These Simple Easy Steps Will Fill Your Diary With High-Paying Customers All Year Round.
That's episode 2 on toolbox talk for electricians.
Go check that one out now