I (20M) am currently an apprentice commercial/industrial electrician making $18.50 an hour with zero benefits of any sort. It’s a very small LLC with only myself, my coworker, and my master electrician boss. The owner of the company is too old to be in the field anymore and stays at home most of the time, handling billing and all that paper work of the sorts. I’ve been here since April 2023 and it’s been on and off full time/part time as I had previously tried automotive school, worked in a dealership, got my class A CDL, went to lineman school, and worked for a local power company. I’ve come full circle back to working full time with this electrical company and I will have my 4000 hours needed to get my journeyman’s (Living in SC) later this year. I know for a fact that I don’t want to stay at this company considering my boss isn’t interested in growth of the company it seems and I have no benefits. Thankfully I’m young and on my parent’s insurance for now so I’m fine.
With all of that said, my uncle has a job offer for me doing data/communication type of work(I’m sure it’s not called that, I don’t know much about it). He said that since I already have a little bit of experience in that field and some certs, I could start out at 20-22 an hour plus, I’ll get per diem since it’s travel, $80 a month for phone bill, full benefits, 401k match, guaranteed 40 hours plus as much overtime as I want, and a few other things. It sounds great and he said the people are good there too. This is option A.
Option B is if I should stick with the electrical field and get my journeyman’s and just go find another commercial/industrial company to work for. Possibly even get into residential.
I’m torn right now and I’m unsure as to what I should do. Figured you all could give me some insight and advice. All is greatly appreciated!