So, you are thinking of taking a career as an electrician and is thinking of choosing to work on vehicles instead of places like the residential, commercial, and industrial sector. But while you are still on your way towards this route, it is worth knowing what an automotive electrician is and what are its pros and cons.
What is an Automotive Electrician?
As its name implies, an automotive electrician is a branch in the electrician’s field of work which delves in handling electrical work in vehicles like car, truck, motorcycle, or bus.
To be an automotive electrician, you must also meet the same requirement it takes to become a journeyman electrician. Meaning, you must at least have gone through traditional schooling or apprenticeship that lasts between 4 to 5 years. Some even lasts 6 years nowadays. This level of education is important as it will give you the knowledge and practical skills to dabble with electrical stuff, including electronics.
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Why Choose Automotive Electrician as a Career?
Like many other professions, to choose to become an automotive electrician is a matter of interest. If you like the idea of tinkering with a vehicle’s electrical system or at least has the relative interest towards such, to be an automotive electrician is likely a calling for you.
But while passion is an ever-important aspect why people choose to become an automotive electrician, it is worth noting that it, too, is a career path that has its upsides and downsides. It is not every day that a life of an automotive electrician is happy—there are unfavorable conditions that beset the job that could affect you emotionally as well.
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Here are the pros and cons:
Pros of Being an Auto Electrician
• Paid Apprenticeship
Unless you are already a full-fledged journey or at least one who has taken the step to become an apprentice, you might think that the educational aspect of becoming a journeyman electrician (which leads to a career in automotive electrician) is nothing less academic akin to other profession which puts students in debt. While this may be true in the traditional schooling sense, it is not when you consider apprenticeship as a route to becoming an automotive electrician.
One major benefit of going through an apprenticeship is that you get paid as you do actual work as part of learning. Literally, when students from other fields of study are burying themselves in accruing debt, aspiring electricians who go through apprenticeship are earning as they learn. This also implies that you are already accruing some income while you work your way towards the real thing in the future.
• In-demand
The need to develop vehicles which people uses has always been staple which makes the automotive industry a lucrative business. As any vehicle is not complete with the electrical parts, this makes an automotive electrician an essential component of the vehicle-making enterprise.
In fact, one recent statistic claims that the demand for an automotive electrician has increased by a significant 9% percent. Meaning, there are still available positions waiting to be filled by individuals who are qualified in the field.
Another major implication of the increase in demand among automotive electricians is the idea that they are valuable in the industry which might insinuates a stable career in the future.
• Good Pay
In general, all electricians—regardless of the branch—are considered as some of the most well-paid in the business. This notion is also true among those who chose the automotive route.
In the United States alone, an average automotive electrician’s annual salary is at $40,495, according to ZipRecruiter. Of course, this number is only generalizing it. Depending on your expertise and qualifications, this yearly pay could significantly increase.
Yet, while this amount may be considered less when you factor in the salaries of electricians in other fields and their association with the union; still, for a job that is essentially solo flight, that amount is substantially higher than the average American worker.
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Cons of Being an Auto Electrician
• Risk
When you work with electricity, there is always a risk of danger which you are likely predisposed to. Although the risk of electrocuting oneself to death is relatively lower as an automotive electrician than one who works on large poles in the field, the danger is still there.
Full-fledged journeyman electricians know this full well. But even when equipped with the right knowledge, a simple mistake can be costly of one’s life. It is perhaps for this reason why electricians in general are well-paid—the job is simply inherently risky.
• Unfavorable Working Conditions
When the nature of the job has you getting calls and had to respond to the work regardless of the environmental conditions and time, do not be surprised when, at times, you will be forced to work in situations that is not happy for anyone. This means that you could be getting a call at night time and fix an electrical problem in a car or even when it rains.
In other cases, you would also get calls even when you are sick. Although to respond to a work with a disease is completely optional and up to your prerogative, the idea of getting your service needed while you are incapable makes for a slightly bad experience.
• Lower Pay Than Other Electricians in Different Branches
Previously, I had mentioned as to how an annual wage of an automotive electrician differs than his peers from other branches. For the most part, this is true because union members, which an automotive electrician might not be, are generally known to get higher pay because they function as a group—after all, with number comes some bargaining power.
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Also, when not a member of a union group, an individual automotive electrician’s salary is always competitive to what the industry may dictate which is typically lower than a union member. Of course, like mentioned, you also have the power to bargain the salary you think you deserve. But this level of privilege may require more than just your ability to see your worth, you must also bear the right credentials to back the claim.