# Advice on certifications, advanced studies, welding, etc...



## PopPop (Nov 12, 2020)

I'm a 3rd Year Apprentice in the IBEW. So far I love it! We can start welding this year (it's not part of the curriculum but we have some welding booths at the Hall and can come in on our own time and learn...with an instructor, of course). The Hall also offers some introductory classes on things like Fiber Optic (already taken), medium voltage splicing (already taken), and some others but no true certifications. Is it worth the time, effort, and money to actually become certified (Like a CFOT, Instrumentation, etc...)? What about welding? I want to learn as much as I can and I'm willing to commit the time but I just don't want to waste the money and effort towards something that's not really in our wheelhouse and won't keep me employed going forward. Are there some other certifications that are worth having that I haven't mentioned? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance!


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## BillyMac59 (Sep 12, 2019)

Any extra education/training you undertake will always be of benefit. At the very least, it shows a prospective employer a wide variety of skill and a willingness to learn. Of course, taking courses to improve your everyday skillset would be ideal. As you progress in your apprenticeship, you'll find a wide variety of electrical work - some you'll like and some that'll make you wish you were a plumber instead. For example, I'm an industrial electrician by trade spending my career in a factory environment. I've pick up skills like welding and machining as well as PLC programming and troubleshooting. I don't have any paperwork for these extras, but they have made me a valuable employee.


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## eddy current (Feb 28, 2009)

Fire alarm


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## micromind (Aug 11, 2007)

As noted above, just about anything 'non-electrical' will make you more valuable. Not especially in terms of $$$ but the most versatile people are usually the ones kept busy. 

Learning how to program VFDs is always good. Often, I'd get sent somewhere to install a VFD and being able to program it was the difference between sending me or someone else. Sometimes 'someone else' didn't have any work but I was always busy. 

Learning how to weld stuff like unistrut is pretty valuable as well.


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## u2slow (Jan 2, 2014)

Welding is a good skill to have. Glad I got some training, and weld at home. OTOH, I do not feel its a very healthy or stimulating trade on its own, to bother with the ongoing certifications for it. 

A first-aid certificate (i.e. industrial, level 3, etc) could put you to work sooner, increase job security, and make a little extra hourly - or a monthly allowance.

A better driver's license, air brakes, can tap you into better work - linework, boom truck, etc.

I've often wondered about hydraulics/pneumatics courses that millwrights take. Would be handy for the realm of work I'm in now (not that it would pay me more).


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## HertzHound (Jan 22, 2019)

AutoCAD MEP, Revit and Navisworks manage could be a benefit. Although learning the software inside and out could take years. Getting the 20% of the software down that you use 90% of the time isn’t to bad. Even if you don’t get a job in the office working with the software, it would still benefit your understanding of why things are designed and drawn the way they are. There’s probably no better way of learning blueprint reading. 

In my world the contract drawings are the design intent. It gets built with shop drawings from each trade. 

Revit you can download a 30 day trial. After the trial, don’t open it with the desktop icon. Open it with the start menu and choose Revit viewer. It’s the full software. You just can’t save, print or export. If your studying with books, they come with chapter and mid chapter files. So you don’t really need to save. You can also just leave the computer on and set to not automatically update. Revit is more than likely the future, although conduit routing is so much better with Acad MEP. AMEP is still used more by the trades. Revit by the architects and engineers. Both use Navis to view the model. 

AMEP you can get a student version cheap. You just have to buy a student on eBay willing to share. Student version will contaminate any non-student version. If your not sending files to the GC, nothing to worry about. It also prints with a water mark, but I think you can save. Some of this last paragraph may have changed. I had a 2012 student version years ago.


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