Electrician - Job Profile

An electrician is a tradesman specializing in electrical wiring of buildings, fixed equipment and other related equipment such as fire alarm, access control or emergency lighting.
As a qualified electrician you would install, test and repair electrical wiring systems in domestic, commercial or industrial environment.

Your duties as an electrician would include:

• Simple jobs such as adding new lighting points or new sockets to an existing installation
• Planning and erecting new installations on customer demand
• Building new electrical installations by following designer plans and drawings
• Full of buildings
• Installing fire alarms, access control equipment and emergency lighting
• Inspecting and testing your installations
• Periodic inspection and testing of existing installations
• In-service inspection and testing of portable equipment (PAT testing)
• Electrical fault finding and repair
• You would be required on working flexible working hours such as weekend work or nightshift work. Many times you could only work while the power supply is isolated which in some cases could be only at night when the premises are not in use. Also, working as an maintenance electrician you could not expect that electrical equipment would always go wrong during normal dayshift so you would have to be on call 24/7.

Your starting salaries as electricians mate would be around 23,000 GBP a year. As qualified electricians you would expect starting salaries from 28,000 GBP a year. Experienced electricians with JIB grading could expect salaries from 32,000 GBP up to 35,000 GBP a year.

You could get employed by a firm working on new build systems or on the maintenance of existing electrical installations and equipment.

Go for the domestic electrician route. Become an electrician and set up your own business and get Part P approved by registering yourself for a Part P Self-Certification Scheme through any of the scheme providers like NAPIT or NICEIC.

You could also work as an electrical contractor accepting work directly from clients who need the work to be done by an approved firm (you). In this case you can work alone (as a Sole Trader) or form a Limited Company and employ other electricians to work for you. Working as an Electrical contractor is much more demanding since you would need to take care not only of the work related to the job at hand but do all the necessary paperwork such as accounting, payroll etc. Off course you can always hire people to do parts of the work that you don`t like or are not familiar with but this could impact your earnings especially at young age of your company.
Being an electrician can be demanding, but the rewards are high as well! From a fairly good salary to the freedom of working on your own (even as an employee) you could find high personal satisfaction in the work you do. If you like an ever-changing career where almost every day is different from the days before and if you are not afraid of challenges than an electricians career is for you!

Good luck!