I never for once thought I'd be in the trades as a kid, never.
It wasn't even a thought to me.
The idea of becoming an electrician didn't even hit my mind until I started getting like laid off from jobs that I thought were good jobs.
And I started researching what careers, you know, aren't going to be replaced by AI anytime soon.
And I landed on electrical because it was something that you can make a really good living off of.
You get benefits.
And also I liked the idea of being able to work with my hands and still being creative in that sense.
My name is Zen Stewart, I'm 34 years old and I make over 40000 a year as an electrician in Raleigh, North Carolina.
One of the main benefits of joining the union was the health benefits because a lot of times working non-union, you don't really get that support and protection.
I typically work about eight hours a day, sometimes 10 hours a day, depending on the demands of the project and where we're at in the project.
So this is what you call splicing wires.
Right now I'm wiring up a receptacle.
So you always do the ground first and then the neutral and then the hot.
I'll typically wake up around 430 or 5, get up, brush my teeth, have my coffee, get dressed and then I'll drive to the job site.
The day-to-day for the commercial space would be running conduit, running wire, putting in boxes, setting up electrical fixtures, handling material.
We'll be doing that throughout the day and then Typically around 230 or 3 is when we end the day and then you know I'll drive back home and then kind of reset for the next day.
So I just started recording it.
Like you know, simple task and what it's like to go up in a lift and my day to day.
And I found that, you know, a lot of people were attracted to that.
They think of an electrician or construction work and they don't really see the full picture.
So I figured if I could shine my light through my perspective of how it is in my day to day that that could get other people interested in the trade.
So there's a lot of things that I love about my job.
I love that every day is different.
I get to see things from start to finish will come in where it's just completely dirt.
So to be able to see that dirt go to an actual building and then being able to flick on the lights and seeing everything you know come to life, I think that is so satisfying.
I'd say one of the biggest challenges is trying to navigate this male-dominated feel as a woman.
Like yes, I feel safe and secure, but a lot of the times, because I'm a woman, I feel like I have to prove myself more.
Yeah, this is a huge part of our job, is bending the conduit.
A lot of the times, I have to, like, tell them, it's okay, I've got it.
Like, I can do it myself.
I knew in my core that something else was out there for me.
I didn't know what it was at that moment, but I was like again I don't wanna keep wasting money on something that I knew wasn't exactly for me.
I definitely considered the fact that I'm a woman.
You do have to lift and do certain things that are physically demanding.
So I landed on electrical because I figured I'd be able to handle that.
And that same day I went over to their office and filled out my paperwork and pretty much got the job on the site.
And I started working as a helper with the commercial electrical company, literally that next week.
I was pretty much thrown out there.
Like I thought, you know, I'd get like this kind of like a weak cushion where they kind of show you everything your shadowing.
But literally my first day on the job, they had me up on a ladder installing bang-ons for conduit.
And I was just surprised that I was literally just thrown out into the field and started working my first day, which I came to appreciate because you're getting paid to learn.
And that's exactly what I was able to do.
So I actually take my aptitude test in March.
So it's coming up pretty soon.
And then after that, I believe it's about a month or so to when you get your interview date.
And then after that is when you find out if it's a yay or nay.
There's such a huge spotlight on the trades right now that there's a lot of people running to the unions, which is great, but it does make it a lot more competitive because there's so many applicants now.
And they call it a golden ticket because once you get that, you could work anywhere in the U.S.
So if there's a job in New York, I could sign the books for that and I could travel with that ticket and I could work any of the union jobs.
That's a main reason why I decided to join the union as well because, you know, the job search becomes a lot easier.
You could earn a lot more if you do decide to travel, because you get paid the wage of the journeyman in the state that you take the calling.
Plus you get per diem.
So you can make a great living signing the books in other places and traveling.
I feel like you can make as much as you want to make as an electrician.
It just depends on your drive and what you decide to put your focus on.
So for anyone that's wanting to get into electrical trade, i think that is a great step in the right direction.
But the first thing that i would do is i would research as much as you can, and when i say research, i mean like going on youtube and different social media platforms and looking at the different sectors of electrical field, because each sector varies a lot.
Don't let lack of experience be a block that keeps you from entering the trades.
I know it can be kind of scary especially, you know, coming into a male dominated field as a woman, but it's definitely possible.
You just kind of got to power through it and just take that first step.
And then from there, before you know it, you have years of experience under your belt and it kind of becomes second nature to you.
So don't let lack of experience stop you from getting into the trades.
