# Experience



## 223apprentice (Feb 22, 2019)

Hello I am a 2nd year 2nd semester IBEW apprentice. I worked 6months at a prefab shop and 6 months at a car plant. Now I am working with a new contractor and it’s just me and a journeyman. I am having trouble with things I feel I should already know how to do although at the car plant I wasn’t allowed to do very much mainly gopher material be ground man clean up etc I did at times get to do things but not on a consistent basis. I don’t like messing things up when I am working and sometimes I don’t want to ask a question because then I will just get yelled at by the journeyman. I don’t feel like I know very much and I’m already in my 2nd year 2nd semester do you guys have any advice did you guys have any similar troubles while going threw the apprenticeship? I want to learn and I’m not lazy I show up on time everyday but I just feel like I’m not very good at what I do. Any advice will help thank you all


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## brian john (Mar 11, 2007)

You can only have the experience the local has afforded you.

Ask questions an apprentice not asking questions in not learning.

If the JW yells at you for asking INTELLIGENT QUESTIONS he is a flaming AZZHOLE, and needs to be hit upside the head (BUT DO NOT DO THAT).

If you are 1/2 smart and can learn you will get it, this stuff ain't all that hard.


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## nrp3 (Jan 24, 2009)

At twenty some odd years in, I'm still learning things. You probably won't see everything there is. Do the best you can and learn as much as you can during your apprenticeship, it's not the end of the learning process.


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## HackWork (Oct 2, 2009)

brian john said:


> If the JW yells at you for asking INTELLIGENT QUESTIONS he is a flaming AZZHOLE, and needs to be hit upside the head (BUT DO NOT DO THAT).


It depends on the situation. There is a time and place. If the JW is frustrated and trying to concentrate and the apprentice is asking about something completely different, he might get bit. 

One of the best times to talk and ask questions is right as a task is completed and you are wrapping up. Sometimes you can ask questions about the task while doing it, but at the proper time. You will learn your JW's mannerisms so you know when to talk and when to just let him do his thing.

I remember having to *****foot around a JW I worked with for 6 months in this way. Many would call him an asshole, but the truth is that he just got very stressed and overwhelmed and then frustrated. At the beginning I wanted to smack him with a pipe wrench, but then I learned how to deal with him. He was a great electrician and taught me a lot. I relate to him because I often get irrationally overwhelmed at things that I have done a thousand times.


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## joebanana (Dec 21, 2010)

Patients grasshopper. There's a lot to know in this field, and learning it takes time. When you're assigned a task, ask your j-man "how do YOU want it done?". That will put some of the responsibility on him, besides it's his duty to teach you how, not yell at you for not knowing. Don't be afraid to carry a note pad and write stuff down, as you're being told, for future reference. Do you own a code book? If so, keep it in your lunch bucket, and read it during breaks, and lunch, right in front of everybody. (It shows incentive)


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