How to become Electrician in 2024

Electrician Install, maintain, and repair electrical wiring, equipment, and fixtures. Ensure that work is in accordance with relevant codes. May install or service street lights, intercom systems, or electrical control systems.

Electrician is Also Know as

In different settings, Electrician is titled as

  • Control Electrician
  • Electrical Journey Person
  • Electrical Troubleshooter
  • Electrician
  • Housing Maintenance Electrician
  • Industrial Electrician
  • Inside Wireman
  • Maintenance Electrician
  • Paper Mill Electrician
  • Wireman

Education and Training of Electrician

Electrician is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Electrician

Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.

Education Required for Electrician

Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Degrees Related to Electrician

Training Required for Electrician

Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Electrician in different industries are

What Do Electrician do?

  • Assemble, install, test, or maintain electrical or electronic wiring, equipment, appliances, apparatus, or fixtures, using hand tools or power tools.
  • Diagnose malfunctioning systems, apparatus, or components, using test equipment and hand tools to locate the cause of a breakdown and correct the problem.
  • Connect wires to circuit breakers, transformers, or other components.
  • Inspect electrical systems, equipment, or components to identify hazards, defects, or the need for adjustment or repair, and to ensure compliance with codes.
  • Advise management on whether continued operation of equipment could be hazardous.
  • Test electrical systems or continuity of circuits in electrical wiring, equipment, or fixtures, using testing devices, such as ohmmeters, voltmeters, or oscilloscopes, to ensure compatibility and safety of system.
  • Maintain current electrician's license or identification card to meet governmental regulations.
  • Plan layout and installation of electrical wiring, equipment, or fixtures, based on job specifications and local codes.
  • Direct or train workers to install, maintain, or repair electrical wiring, equipment, or fixtures.
  • Prepare sketches or follow blueprints to determine the location of wiring or equipment and to ensure conformance to building and safety codes.
  • Use a variety of tools or equipment, such as power construction equipment, measuring devices, power tools, and testing equipment, such as oscilloscopes, ammeters, or test lamps.
  • Install ground leads and connect power cables to equipment, such as motors.
  • Perform business management duties, such as maintaining records or files, preparing reports, or ordering supplies or equipment.
  • Repair or replace wiring, equipment, or fixtures, using hand tools or power tools.
  • Work from ladders, scaffolds, or roofs to install, maintain, or repair electrical wiring, equipment, or fixtures.
  • Place conduit, pipes, or tubing, inside designated partitions, walls, or other concealed areas, and pull insulated wires or cables through the conduit to complete circuits between boxes.
  • Fasten small metal or plastic boxes to walls to house electrical switches or outlets.
  • Perform physically demanding tasks, such as digging trenches to lay conduit or moving or lifting heavy objects.
  • Provide preliminary sketches or cost estimates for materials or services.
  • Provide assistance during emergencies by operating floodlights or generators, placing flares, or driving needed vehicles.
  • Construct or fabricate parts, using hand tools, according to specifications.

Qualities of Good Electrician

  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.

Tools Used by Electrician

  • Adjustable wrenches
  • Air compressors
  • Allen wrenches
  • Ammeters
  • Automatic insulation strippers
  • Awls
  • Backhoes
  • Bandsaws
  • Bear claw wire threaders
  • Bucket trucks
  • Butane soldering irons
  • Cabinet tip screwdrivers
  • Cable benders
  • Cable butt trimmers
  • Cable cutters
  • Cable gripping gloves
  • Cable jacket strippers
  • Cable labeling machines
  • Cable lacing needles
  • Cable sheath strippers
  • Cable splicing knives
  • Cable tie guns
  • Capacitance testers
  • Channel lock crimping tools
  • Channel lock pliers
  • Circuit testers
  • Circuit tracers
  • Circular saws
  • Clamp-on ammeters
  • Claw hammers
  • Coaxial cable cutters
  • Conduit benders
  • Conduit deburring tools
  • Conduit fitting and reaming screwdrivers
  • Conduit levels
  • Conduit locknut and reaming pliers
  • Conduit measuring tapes
  • Continuity coaxial testers
  • Cordless drills
  • Crescent wrenches
  • Current clamps
  • Cutting torches
  • Depth gauges
  • Desktop computers
  • Diagonal cutting pliers
  • Diggers
  • Double-end can socket wrenches
  • Drill bit sets
  • Electric conduit benders
  • Electricians' scissors
  • End cutting pliers
  • End wire strippers
  • External snap ring pliers
  • Feeler gauges
  • Fish tape pullers
  • Frequency meters
  • Fuse pulling equipment
  • Gas leak detection devices
  • Generators
  • Ground fault circuit interrupter GFCI testers
  • Growlers
  • Hacksaws
  • Hammer drills
  • Hammers
  • Hard hats
  • Heat guns
  • Heavy duty longnose pliers
  • Hex key sets
  • High-leverage cable cutters
  • High-leverage diagonal cutting pliers
  • High-leverage side cutting pliers
  • Hole saws
  • Hydraulic conduit benders
  • Hydraulic presses
  • Hydraulic punching tools
  • Inductance testers
  • Infrared scanners
  • Inspection mirrors
  • Insulated bolt cutters
  • Insulated cable cutters
  • Insulated nutdrivers
  • Insulated pliers
  • Insulated screwdrivers
  • Insulated socket sets
  • Insulated wrenches
  • Internal snap ring pliers
  • Ladders
  • Laser plumb bobs
  • Laser printers
  • Lighted magnet pickups
  • Lineman's pliers
  • Magnetic locators
  • Manlifts
  • Megohmmeters
  • Metal locators
  • Micrometers
  • Milliameters
  • Multimeters
  • Needlenose pliers
  • Nibbler cutting tools
  • Non-contact voltage detectors
  • Notebook computers
  • Nut drivers
  • Ohmmeters
  • Oscilloscopes
  • Personal computers
  • Phase rotation meters
  • Phillips head screwdrivers
  • Polyvinyl chloride PVC cutters
  • Programmable logic controllers PLC
  • Pump pliers
  • Punchdown tools
  • Ratchet crimper kits
  • Ratcheting pipe wrenches
  • Razor knives
  • Resistance bridges
  • Respirators
  • Round shank screwdrivers
  • Safety glasses
  • Scaffolding
  • Screw-holding screwdrivers
  • Self-adjusting insulation strippers
  • Shears
  • Side cutting pliers
  • Single reel cable trailers
  • Soldering tools
  • Square shank screwdrivers
  • Staple guns
  • Strap wrenches
  • Tablet computers
  • Tap sets
  • Tape measures
  • Tapered reamers
  • Tapping tools
  • Telescoping lighted pickups
  • Tension gauges
  • Terminal crimpers
  • Test lamps
  • Threading die hand tool
  • Tin snips
  • Tongue and groove pliers
  • Torpedo levels
  • Transfer impedance meters
  • Truck cranes
  • Two way radios
  • Universal stripping tools
  • Utility cable cutters
  • Utility knives
  • Volt tick meters
  • Voltmeters
  • Wattmeters
  • Welders
  • Welding hoods
  • Wheeled wire dispensers
  • Winches
  • Wire crimpers
  • Wire crimping tools
  • Wire cutters
  • Wire dispensers
  • Wire dollies
  • Wire hand caddies
  • Wire loop pullers
  • Wire strippers
  • Wire wrap guns

Technology Skills required for Electrician

  • Adobe Acrobat
  • Autodesk AutoCAD
  • AVEVA InTouch HMI
  • Computer aided design CAD software
  • Construction Master Pro
  • Craftsman CD Estimator
  • Database software
  • Electrosoft FlashWorks
  • Elite Software E-Coord
  • Elite Software Inpoint
  • Elite Software Outpoint
  • Elite Software Short
  • Elite Software VDROP
  • Insight Direct ServiceCEO
  • Lighting calculation software
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft Windows
  • Microsoft Word
  • One Mile Up Panel Planner
  • Programmable logic controller PLC software
  • Resolve Systems Service Management
  • Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate
  • SAP software
  • Shafer Service Systems
  • SmartDraw
  • Socrates Contractor's Library
  • SoftEmpire Electrical Calculations
  • Spreadsheet software
  • Supervisory control and data acquisition SCADA software
  • Turtle Creek Software Goldenseal
  • Word processing software