GETTING INTO LINEWORK AFTER 2000
From time to time, there will be a young man asking me "How do I get started in Linework?". The request quoted below is one example, and is fairly typical of the requests for information that I receive. If you overlook the typographical errors and concentrate on the message, you can feel the urgency of the young man's situation.
"can anybody give me some info or advice on getting into this field (lineman) i live in phx.az and i am willing to relocate if i can find an oppurtunity to to enter an aprentice program with quick advacement. i currently work w/low voltage i need to find a good company for me and my family. please help!!"
I answered this request for information as quickly as I could, by sending him a return email immediately just like I try to do for each request. I hope that all Journeyman Linemen will be quick to honestly respond to these kinds of queries. The young men need our help. We need their help. It's a win-win situation to help a guy get started. Here is my best advice for a young man wanting to get started in linework:
WHERE TO START: As a 29
year veteran of linework, let me give you some quick suggestions on how you may be
able to get started and the tools that may increase your chances. Most
Municipalities, IOUs (Investor Owned Utilities), Cooperatives, and Contractors have some
form of an apprentice program in place to take a guy right off of the street and train him
to be a lineman. But they will nearly always hire a "walk-in" (person
without any linework training) as a Groundman or Helper only, not as an apprentice
lineman. These are the guys and gals that do the non-skilled heavy labor tasks that
are plentiful at nearly every line job. These laborers are nicknamed
"Grunts", possibly derived from the sounds that are made while doing all of
this heavy work of carrying, lifting & moving heavy tools and materials to get
them where they need to be for the job. More and more companies are now hiring
"Temporary Helpers", a term used to designate an employee that is not yet a
full-time employee. "Temps" are considered part-time employees and seldom
enjoy the additional benefits such as insurance, paid leave and other company
provided items. What I'm going to tell you here will work as well for one
position as another.
KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN FOR AN
"UNSKILLED JOB": The best place to watch for a job is your local
employment agency. Nearly every company that needs unskilled help on a project will
use the employment agency to fill the positions. The second best place is to keep an
eye out for a crew working somewhere, and ask them where the "Temps" sign up for
the next project. Either way, you need to get on as a Helper, or more likely, a
Temp, to get started with most companies.
DO THE FIRST JOB WELL:
As a Temp, you will essentially have to compete with the other Temps for a shot at
a full-time position. The life span of a Temp position may last for a
summer or a project. When the summer or project is over, the Temp position is
terminated and the person filling that position is usually released. In most cases,
the employer has another project beginning immediately (or it has already begun) that
requires additional good Temps. This is how the employers "sort out" the
good candidates from the bad. The Temps that did a good job on the completed project
will sometimes be offered a chance to relocate to the next project or carry on through the
year after summer is over. The "good" Temp may not always be the
"biggest or the badest", but more often performed their assigned tasks the
closest to their Supervisor's expectations. And don't get caught up in the mistake
of spending too much time trying to learn how to do one of the technical tasks on the
project, and forgetting to get your labor job completed. This may be the biggest
downfall for us all. We're so intent on learning the tech positions to move up in
the business, that we fail to perform our existing duties and become labeled as
a non-achiever. Instead, show a genuine interest in the tech duties at every
opportunity, learn what you can when you can, but then get the hell out of there and go
get your grunt job done.
BE IN A POSITION TO ADVANCE:
When I said "compete" with the other Temps, that doesn't mean that you have to
overrun the rest of them. Linework is a "team sport" so to speak, and
showing disregard for other Temps or "hogging" the action will most
likely put you in the "bad" category. On the other
hand, don't get discouraged if you believe you worked as well as you could with
everyone on the project and still got cut. Sometimes there's just not enough work on
the next project to take all of the good workers. Most often, when a new permanent
position becomes available at the company, the "field" of potential candidates
usually includes all of the "good" Temps from previous projects, and since the
company already knows "what you're made of", your chances are better
than average that you may be successful in winning the position. But
remember, permanent position openings may not come along often, and you may have to be
patient while working in a temporary position for a long time before your opportunity
arrives.
USE THE RIGHT TOOLS:
Tools that can help you work your way into a permanent position more quickly usually don't
involve wrenches or climbing tools. In most cases, all that a Helper is required to
provide is a healthy body and good attitude. The employer will usually always
provide the hand tools required for you to do your job at their project, and frankly would
just as soon you're not wasting your time trying to keep up with the personal tools that
you brought to work with you. If an employer can afford to pay you a decent starting
wage, he can usually afford a few hand tools for you to do what he needs done. No,
the tools that you need to be concerned with, are items that you and you alone can bring
to work with you. Things like a genuine desire to do a good job, an interest in
learning new tasks, and the efficient use of your physical energy to benefit the group
effort to construct the finished product. It's that simple.
GET A CDL LICENSE:
Additional items that may give you a lift in becoming one of the "selected
few" of new permanent employees may include a CDL (Commercial Drivers License)
if you're 21 or over. I don't know of a company anywhere that will keep
a lineman if he is unable to maintain a CDL to legally drive the equipment
that he needs for his job. I'm sure there are exceptions, but most likely, if a
lineman has no CDL, he has no job. In many cases, the company will assist a young
man in getting his CDL by providing the commercial vehicle and a licensed CDL co-driver
for you to complete your CDL "learner's permit" and get your CDL. Get a
manual (even if you're not yet 21) and educate yourself on the laws and regulations for
commercial drivers in your state. You may not have a commercial vehicle yourself,
but you can learn about the components of them from the manual. We're talking air
brake systems, tractor trailer combinations, hazardous materials handling and other stuff
that is not part of the regular motor vehicle driving license process. Do it on your
own time. Do it now. Do it before getting your first Helper job, and
keep refreshing your memory in preparation for the opportunity to get that permit.
Let's face it, if you're on a job with 5 other Helpers and one needs to get a CDL, knowing
the manual will help your chances of being chosen considerably. And, you're going to
have to have a CDL to be a Lineman later on anyway.
BE THERE EVERY TIME:
You've probably heard the old expression "You can depend on him to not be worth a
dang, but at least that makes him "dependable". That's someone's sarcastic
approach at saying that they can't find anything good about the person, except
by negatively applying what may be one of the most important "traits"
or "habits" that an employer is looking for. Every employer wants
employees that they can depend on, for obvious reasons. To help establish
dependability, one of the easiest ways is to be to work on time and stay for the full
shift every time. Sounds simple, but it isn't. Oversleeping, contrary
vehicles, and congested traffic are the most common reasons why young workers
can't make it to work on time consistently. Here are my suggestions to help overcome
these pitfalls. First, buy an alarm clock, set it and get up when the damned thing
goes off. Again, this is not rocket science here, but a simple procedure.
Don't use the alarm clock for anything else except to notify you of the time to go.
When it goes off, your feet should hit the floor immediately. Never, and I mean
never, hit the "snooze" button. If you think you have more time to
sleep, change the setting on the alarm before you go to sleep next time. It's
either time to sleep or it's time to go, one or the other. Snooze buttons have
probably caused more young people to be late for work than any other obstacle between them
and their job. I have to wonder if the guy that invented the snooze button wasn't
just a little sadistic...
INVEST YOUR TIME: If
you're not living at your worksite (which some do), set your "get up" time far
enough before "starting time" to allow extra, seemingly wasted time to
compensate for those transportation problems that always sneak up and bite you in the
rear. The dead batteries and flat tires or late trains or slick roads or any number
of things that will eventually make your commute longer on some occasions than normal are
transportation problems. Those problems are on your time. Sometimes, it's a
long way from home to the "shop" or showup location. Whether you're
providing your own transportation or using public transportation, there are plenty of
things that can, and will, go wrong. After the first time that you commute from
home to the worksite, you will have a good idea of how long it takes to get to
work. If you leave the house a little early EVERY day, you will ALWAYS have a little
time to spare for delays. No kidding, go to work 30-45 minutes early everyday.
I do. And I'm only 2 miles from the worksite. I can nearly WALK to work
if my car (or motorcycle) quits me, and still be to work on-time. I've always tried
to allow extra time going to work. Good advice that I got when I started out.
Find a place at or near your worksite to spend that extra time when there are no delays,
but get the traveling out of the way first. Drink some coffee, read a CDL manual,
buy a newspaper and keep up on current events, whatever. Just make sure
you're at work before you're scheduled to be there, and not still on your
way. If you're late, and site the normal reasons for being late (the things just
mentioned), most employers will accept them as excuses, but wonder if you really had no
clue that the situation could and would occur eventually. It basically shows that
you're not prepared to handle the day-in and day-out problems that everyone has to deal
with, and you're just doodling along without much desire to uphold your
commitment of being to work on time. The 30 or 45 minutes extra that you
spend each day making sure that you're on-time will reap big benefits down the road.
DON'T LOOK FOR ANY HIGH-TECH SECRETS:
In summary, there is generally no "high-tech" secret to get a start at becoming
a lineman. The same old "tried & true" qualities still make the
cut. The best advice to give a young person wanting to be a lineman is
to tell you that the place to begin is to "Be There",
"Work Hard", and "Improve Yourself", in that order.
You're probably doing that already, but just need to get on a line job somewhere.
However, if you see anything here that seems too tough for you, perhaps you should
select a different occupation...
Good luck and I wish you the best in your efforts.
CD Thayer, Journeyman Lineman, Working Foreman, (and now in my 6th year as Powerline Coordinator working with GPS Mapping of a Transmission System and its Maintenance), in Anadarko, OK, USA
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