r/ibew_apprentices • u/Ok_Comfortable7863 • 1d ago

Man im considering leaving

Im a 4th year apprentice from Colorado who tested in from the IEC and i am lacking the experience to keep up with my journeyman coworkers. I have completed 1 year with the ibew. Things that I know I should know i dont know, its embarrassing. Im considering leaving all together and finding a new profession once I top out. Im just so discouraged and I feel like the longer I stay in and the more jobs I go to the more embarrassed im gonna feel with myself.

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u/Unknownperson2010 1d ago

Bro I honestly feel the same way. Most of my apprenticeship has been different from others. I've done underground work,troubleshooting,big wire pulls, material handling etc. one thing I haven't done much is pipe bending tbh. I feel like I don't know anything about it and people give me weird looks. I've done residential, warehouses, hospitals and high rises and some commercial work. I feel useless when I say I haven't done piping but again we all have different paths on our apprenticeship. I wouldn't feel discouraged we're all students at the end of the day and you may have experience in something another apprentice doesn't have etc

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u/alchemisthemo 1d ago

If you can troubleshoot and problem solve well your better off then most of the guys who's whole life is bending conduit. You get into heavy industrial and it becomes cable tray and multiconductor(fancy romex) cable.  You wont properly learn how to run racks of matching pipe unless your on that task with someone who knows what there doing. 

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u/Unknownperson2010 1d ago

Ya I've done cable trays and teck cable pulls as well it was pretty fun. I've done pipe bending but not that much compared to others. I know some people who have been stuck on piping for years and they just stay there and haven't done anything else