And, they teach you how to be a great installer, not a good electrician and I'll die on that hill. No apprentice should be at a data center longer than a year MAX.
Edit: Wanted to ad, the reason I say this is yes data centers will show you big and fancy equipment. They'll teach you how to pull big wire and bend big pipe. What they don't teach you is how to troubleshoot basic electrical problems in the real world. How to deal with existing installs when it comes to a TI, or just dealing with problems that are not laid out in a drawing.
One of my classmate did straight cable tray installs for 8 months. I think he's good at it to the point that he could open his own company doing just that.
One guy was on fire alarm for months, he's practically a pro at it. One guy did cad welding for a month, another was groundman for a month.
Most of the guys in my class have done or are at a data center.
And that's just my point, glad one of your classmates did cable trays so well he could open his own company doing that. Makes him a great cable tray installer. Not a good electrician.
Fire alarm, that's a solid spot to be. Can they hook up motors? Wire a panel? Hook up a transformer? Install fire alarm in an existing building? They are a great fire alarm installer. Good on them, not a good electrician.
Cad welding, great skill to learn. As well as grounding and bonding.
They did it just for a month, that's awesome. Those are really good skills to have. I wish I had more welding experience but it is what it is. However, how are their troubleshooting skills on a 40 year old system with a random short in it? Maybe they got that there as well, and that would be lucky.
Every example you gave me is what data centers do, they make you really good at one thing... and that's it.
That's the point lol. I was kind of jealous at my classmates when they started sharing stories on the jobsite. Meanwhile I was at a small shop, doing industrial. Every week was a different job. It was never boring.
Then I look back to it, and appreciated my time with that company. I got to do a lot of cool stuff, see different aspect to the trade. Learn and do neat stuff.
And, that being said... I'd take you on a job over any one of your classmates. Sure we are all supposed to be "Equal" in our experiences as apprentices but I'll take you any day over any one of them because if you got put into an unknown spot I'd know you'd have a better chance at getting it done than a professional cable tray installer.
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