“I would never date a celebrity. I would want someone with real skills. Doctor, nurse, electrician… tailor.“

Hannah Gadsby, Comedian

Pros and Cons of Working as an Electrician

You think about becoming an electrician but are not entirely sure whether this is the right profession for you or not? Great!

Stick with me since I will show you all the pros and cons of being an electrician in the following chapters so that you can better decide if you want to become an electrician or if you rather want to go for other job options instead.

Electrician Job Profile

Advantages of Being an Electrician

1. Electricians can make decent money
2. You don’t have a high workload
3. Free weekends and holidays for electricians
4. Good work-life balance in general
5. Good job security
6. Decent future job prospects
7. You can start your own electrician business
8. You can avoid working in classical office jobs
9. Electricians can start side hustles
10. You do an important job to keep our system running
11. Being an electrician can also help you for your private life
12. You can help out your family and friends
13. You can avoid hard physical work
14. Electricians can work indoors
15. You don’t need a college degree for becoming an electrician

Electricians can make decent money

One advantage of being an electrician is that you can make decent money from what you are doing.

Sure, you will not get rich as an electrician and will not make as much as judges and dentists.

Yet, especially if you live in a rather rural region where rents and property prices are low, you will still be able to afford a decent lifestyle.

Moreover, you can also work additional hours to make even more money since good electricians are in high demand and if you know what you are doing, you will often get more jobs than you could ever work on at the same time.

You don’t have a high workload

As an electrician, you will also have a rather relaxed life.

While many other people have to work long hours every day, you will have rather short workdays.

Sure, from time to time, you will also be busy and have multiple clients at the same time.

Yet, the majority of your workdays will be rather relaxed and you will come home pretty early.

You will also not have to work in the evening and this gives you the opportunity to meet up with your favorite people after work while many other people don’t have this luxury and have to work during those unpleasant hours instead of enjoying their leisure.

Free weekends and holidays for electricians

Another upside to working as an electrician is that you also have free weekends and holidays.

You may take this for granted. Yet, the reality is that many other people have to work during those times.

For instance, train drivers and many other people have no choice other than to work on weekends so that people who don’t have a car can still get from A to B.

Consequently, while a high number of people have to work on weekends and even national holidays, you will be the one who can make nice weekend trips or enjoy your leisure with the things you like even more than work.

Good work-life balance in general

Most electricians also report a pretty good work-life balance.

Barely any electrician complains about the workload he or she has to achieve and this is a sign that electricians indeed have plenty of leisure.

Hence, a career as an electrician can also make quite a lot of sense for you in case leisure is more important to you than money and you just want to have enough time to spend it with your loved ones instead of sitting in an office for long hours every day.

Good job security

Another benefit of becoming an electrician is that you will also have pretty decent job security.

In fact, there is a lack of qualified electricians in many regions all over the world and if you are really good at what you are doing, you will not have to worry about becoming unemployed at all.

Even if you do one day, you will still be able to find a new job as an electrician pretty soon.

Consequently, becoming an electrician can also make quite a lot of sense for you if you are the type of person for whom job security is really important so that you can plan your future in a decent manner.

Decent future job prospects

While many jobs in other industries will vanish due to machine learning and artificial intelligence, your job as an electrician will be relatively safe for many years to come since electricians often do work for private households which cannot be carried out by machines anytime soon.

In turn, while many other people will become unemployed, you will not have to worry about these issues that much as an electrician since chances are that you will still get more than enough jobs in the future.

You can start your own electrician business

Becoming an electrician can also make quite a lot of sense for you in case you want to start your own business sooner or later.

While some people out there are happy to work as employees for the rest of their lives, others have the entrepreneurial spirit and if this is the case, you will just never become happy as an employee.

Hence, if your dream has always been to have your own business, you can fulfill this dream as an electrician pretty easily since there are no high upfront costs to start a business in this field.

You could also just work as an employed electrician for a few years, gather some experience, save some money and then quit your job once you are ready to go for your own electrician business.

You can avoid working in classical office jobs

By becoming an electrician, you will also be able to avoid working in classical office jobs.

While some people like the idea of spending their whole workday in front of a computer, it is a nightmare for many others and if you are one of those people who just want to work with their hands instead of just staring at a computer screen, becoming an electrician can also make quite a lot of sense for you.

Electricians can start side hustles

You will also have the opportunity to start many side hustles as an electrician.

If you are willing to learn about digital marketing, you could start your own YouTube channel or blog and write about topics you learn at work.

In fact, many people out there search for solutions to problems in this field and if you are really good at what you are doing, you can help out thousands or even millions of people with their electric issues in the long run.

If you help many people, you will also eventually be able to build a huge audience that you can monetize later on in various different ways.

As you can see, you can make decent extra income as an electrician, at least if you are willing to put in the work and continuously learn about latest technological developments and opportunities.

You do an important job to keep our system running

Another advantage of becoming an electrician is that you will also do a pretty important job to keep our system running. Imagine a world without electricity.

Barely anything would work anymore since humanity has become so dependent on it.

Hence, without qualified electricians who can repair electrical devices, we would just not be able to enjoy the same lifestyle as we know it today and we would also have to spend our time much less efficiently.

Electricity will continue to be one of the most important factors when it comes to future development and you as an electrician will therefore be important so that humanity can move forward as a whole.

Being an electrician can also help you for your private life

A career as an electrician can not only help you to make some money from your job, but it can also help you in your private life.

For instance, if you have electrical issues at home that need to be fixed, you don’t have to call an electrician.

Instead, you can just repair those things yourself and don’t have to spend lots of money on electrician services.

Moreover, you will also be more independent of others since you can fix many things by yourself instead of having to rely on third parties like most other people have to do.

You can help out your family and friends

As an electrician, you will also be able to help out your family and friends once they experience electrical issues at their homes.

In fact, if you are really good at what you are doing, you will be able to do many jobs on the side and will be able to make significant extra money as an electrician.

Don’t underestimate the number of people who need electricians on a regular basis and have no clue about solving electrical problems.

This number is huge and you can therefore help out many of your friends and only charge a fair price for it if you want to do them a favor.

You can avoid hard physical work

While working as an electrician involves some physical elements, you will still not have to work as hard as construction workers, at least not in a physical manner.

In turn, your risk of suffering from serious physical health issues in the future will be rather limited and you will also be able to enjoy your workday in a rather relaxed manner.

Electricians can work indoors

You will also enjoy the privilege of working indoors as an electrician.

While many other people have to work outdoors in the cold or during periods of extreme heat, you will be the one who can work in a rather cozy atmosphere.

In turn, your workdays also tend to be much nicer compared to people who have to work under those extreme conditions outdoors.

You don’t need a college degree for becoming an electrician

You will also not need a college degree for becoming an electrician in many regions of our planet.

Most of the time, you will need to do an apprenticeship in this field where you can still earn some money and you will therefore be able to become independent of your parents at a rather young age.

Moreover, you will also not have to spend lots of money on college education and can also avoid the student loan debt trap.

As you can see, there are many advantages to becoming an electrician.

Yet, you should still not expect that it is all upside.

Quite often, you will also experience serious issues in this regard that I want to talk about in the following chapter so that you get a more realistic perspective of a career in this field.

Disadvantages of Working as an Electrician

1. Teleworking is not possible for electricians
2. You will not get rich as an electrician
3. You may be liable for mistakes
4. Working as an electrician can be risky
5. You will not learn many digital skills
6. Hard to get out of this field
7. You will always have to help people out
8. Electricians have a rather low social standing
9. You always have to improve your skills
10. Working as an electrician may become boring
11. Promotion opportunities are rather limited
12. May cause problems once you get older

Teleworking is not possible for electricians

One problem with being an electrician is that you will not be able to work from home.

Instead, you have to be present at your clients’ buildings in person and often have to commute for quite a long time.

In turn, you will have to waste plenty of time that other people who are able to work remotely can use for doing their household.

Consequently, you as an electrician will not be able to use your time as efficiently as digital marketers and many other people who can work from home.

You will not get rich as an electrician

While you can make decent money from what you are doing, you will still not become rich as an electrician.

Instead, you will make a rather average salary.

While this can be enough to make a decent living if you live in rather cheap regions where rents are low, you may struggle to pay your bills in regions where rents are quite high.

Consequently, you should take a look at your monthly expenses and also your future expectations in this regard before you decide whether a career as an electrician will make you enough money to afford the lifestyle that you aspire to.

You may be liable for mistakes

If you work as a self-employed electrician, you will often also be liable for mistakes.

Some of these mistakes can be quite costly and you will often have to spend plenty of time to fix those issues.

Moreover, you may also cause serious financial damages to homeowners and I therefore recommend you get proper insurance so that you are covered in case of emergency.

Working as an electrician can be risky

Working with electricity is always risky. If you make mistakes, you can lose your life in the worst case.

And trust me: Everyone makes mistakes sooner or later.

Hence, you will have a higher risk of serious accidents at work compared to the average person and you should be willing to take this higher risk before you decide for a career as an electrician.

You will not learn many digital skills

Another disadvantage of working as an electrician is that you will also not learn that many digital skills.

Quite often, you will do your work in a rather manual manner and while you will become an expert in how to fix electrical devices, you will still not learn many digital skills that are of high value in the job market right now.

Hard to get out of this field

Since you will not learn those important digital skills as an electrician, you may also have a hard time getting out of this field.

Sure, this doesn’t really matter if you want to work as an electrician for your whole life.

However, if you get tired of what you are doing in the long run, it will be pretty hard for you to get into a different field since you will often lack those important skills and you should therefore make sure that working as an electrician is really your passion before actually going for it.

You will always have to help people out

Since you will be the electricity expert in your circle of friends, you will always have someone who needs your help.

While it can be nice to help others, it can also become really annoying if you have to spend all your leisure solving those issues.

Hence, the better you are as an electrician, the worse this issue will get since not only your friends will request your support, but also the friends of your friends and so on.

Electricians have a rather low social standing

Another downside to becoming an electrician is that you will also have a rather low social standing.

Sure, many people will appreciate your work.

Yet, many people will also belittle what you are doing and even some of your friends may not understand why you want to go for an electrician career instead of going to college and get a fancy degree.

Therefore, also make sure that you have a stable mental mindset to ignore those people who will often try to bring you down in this regard.

You always have to improve your skills

You should also not expect that your work as an electrician will never change.

In fact, due to our rapid technological development, you will have to refresh your knowledge at a rather quick pace since what has been the gold standard for many years may be outdated just a few years from now.

Consequently, you should also have the drive to keep up with latest technologies and best practices before you decide for becoming an electrician since you will become obsolete otherwise rather soon.

Working as an electrician may become boring

You should also make sure that working as an electrician is really your passion.

Otherwise, you may get bored with what you are doing pretty soon and will therefore not become happy with your job in the long run.

Promotion opportunities are rather limited

You should also not expect fancy promotion options as an electrician.

Quite often, you will do the same job for decades without ever getting into a higher position.

Consequently, also your salary will not increase that much and it can be really frustrating to put in the hard work without seeing any progress in this regard.

May cause problems once you get older

Some electricians also experience serious problems once they get older.

For instance, if your vision gets worse, you may have problems with working as an electrician since you will simply no longer be able to carry out your work in a decent manner.

Moreover, accidents can also end your career sooner than expected and you should therefore make sure to get proper insurance so that you are covered in case you will no longer be able to work before retirement age.

Top 10 Being an Electrician Pros & Cons – Summary List

Should You Become An Electrician?

As you can see, there are many advantages and disadvantages of being an electrician.

You should definitely evaluate all the pros and cons carefully so that you can make the right decision regarding this important topic.

If you are still interested in an electrician career, you should also get detailed information on the salary, career prospects, future outlook, working hours, work-life balance, job security, educational requirements and job satisfaction of electricians.

Also make sure to check out the following articles:

Advantages and disadvantages of becoming an architect

Advantages and disadvantages of becoming a plumber

Advantages and disadvantages of becoming a facility manager

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrician

https://www.statista.com/statistics/318824/numbers-of-electrical-and-electronic-trades-professionals-in-the-uk/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/603957/leading-us-firms-in-electrical-based-on-revenue/

About the author

My name is Andreas and my mission is to educate people about the different career paths that are possible in our current state of the world. In my opinion, people often make the mistake to choose their profession solely based on how much money they can earn from it instead of doing what makes them really happy.

This is quite sad and I just want to give people a more objective picture of how a fulfilling career could look like. I did the same when I started working in consulting after finishing my Master’s degree in Economics. However, I’ve quit pretty soon after that since I haven’t found true meaning in my job.

Now I can do what I really love to do and I want to enable as many other people as well to go this exciting path towards happiness instead of money.

I conducted various interviews with employees to give you a good impression of what working in different fields will look like and that you can make the best possible decision regarding your future career choice.

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