lineman questions

[cummins diesel power]

Whats the best way of going about becoming a lineman. I do work
for a company that does t&d line work. we do overhead and underground
work. I was hired on a ecu crew. But dont want to do that the rest of my life. its easy most the time & we get more than enough hrs. But I am more
interested in linework than ecu. Would I be best off getting into line work with my company or try a co-op or power distributor. Theres a company we are contracted through called oncor, its txu more or less (i think), that is a real good company to work for. But I think its hard to get on with them.

[cummins diesel power]

clean up pcb contaminated oil. pump xfmrs into drums, sometimes go
to sub stations & pump out equipment.And then also backhaul xfmrs

[rcdallas]

The oil spill clean up guys...y'all only been doing it for the last 2 months that I know of.

Why not try and get on a crew with your company? Oncor recently had some postings in Sulphur Springs for a helper.

Pay your union dues if you hire on.

[cummins diesel power]

the company started working the xfmr spills 3 yrs ago. But yea im one
of the oil spill guys. Do you work for Oncor rcdallas?

[cummins diesel power]

yea i know i'd have to hire on a grunt. has anyone hear gone through the lineman school. theres quite a few of them seems like.

[rcdallas]

As far as lineman school, your talking to a graduate of SLTC. From what I see being hired off the street anymore with no experience is pretty much over with. Now that there is people spending their own money learning how to climb and learn the basics of linework, employers have their handpick.

Think about it, you got a guy that spends over $10k to learn about linework vs someone who thinks they want to do linework. That's my take on it.

We had an opening, well over a year ago for one spot, and if I heard correctly there was over 300 people that applied for that one position.

You need an edge...at least for a big utility. There is always outside construction. I talked with one of your co-workers, he had told me he is a member of Local 220 as a grunt...work's just slow so he's doing the oil spill gig in the meantime.

You can always check the postings, hire on as a meter reader while they still have them, but keep your eyes opened for more then just one area, otherwise you'll be sitting for a long time.

[cummins diesel power]

As far as lineman school, your talking to a graduate of SLTC. From what I see being hired off the street anymore with no experience is pretty much over with. Now that there is people spending their own money learning how to climb and learn the basics of linework, employers have their handpick.

Think about it, you got a guy that spends over $10k to learn about linework vs someone who thinks they want to do linework. That's my take on it.

We had an opening, well over a year ago for one spot, and if I heard correctly there was over 300 people that applied for that one position.

You need an edge...at least for a big utility. There is always outside construction. I talked with one of your co-workers, he had told me he is a member of Local 220 as a grunt...work's just slow so he's doing the oil spill gig in the meantime.

You can always check the postings, hire on as a meter reader while they still have them, but keep your eyes opened for more then just one area, otherwise you'll be sitting for a long time.

I really appreciate the detailed info. I'd ask one of our guys but we very seldom see the lineman for our company. we see oncor or P.s.s out of austin
more than our own lineman. I had no idea that lineman jobs was so competitive. I may just keep a eye out in our local paper. seen ads for
groundmen from time to time. I have a class a cdl, so that would probably help a little i guess

[Pootnaigle]

Yep listen to what Batts and CL are telling you.Swamprat isnt even considered to be a lineman by those on this site, Only in his mind, which aint real big.There is no substitute for training and the earlier in your career you start gettin it the better.That said,its a never ending job( the learning part)Much has changed since I was an apprentice and it will continue to change as you progress. Getting on with some non union contractor is not the best way to get your foot in the door.

[cummins diesel power]

alot of good advice on this site. I know i said it before but i really do appreciate that. This site is pretty cool.

[clumsum69]

alot of good advice on this site. I know i said it before but i really do appreciate that. This site is pretty cool.

just so you know there are 9 outside powerlineman apprentiships in the usa they all have websites they are all union and contacting them will help you get into a good apprentiship. good luck

[T-Man]

The way it worked at the Utility where I trained these guys is the company put out a posting within the company first for anyone interested in being a linemechanic. If you were in another job but in the union you could come down for what we called a pre-flight and try climbing out. We would give you some classroom time and hook you up in hooks and belt and a harness, then clip you to a retractable fall restraint and let you climb low at first then maybe higher up to 10 feet or so. If you presisted we had to give you a spot in class even if we knew good and well you could never do this work. Then the company would hire the rest of the class from outside, Maybe 10-12 more and they started with criteria like previous linework, Line school, spotless drivers record, no drug or alcohol problems. Then we would start the class. We would give them all the training they would need to be effective Linemechanics at our company and the only ones that usually dropped out were the ones that had another job in the union and thought they wanted to be Linemechanics. We used to say the bottom line in the union pay scale for Linemechanic looked great on the ground, but the higher they got it didn't look so big anymore. When the first one dropped it opened the door for the other ones that were trying to find an out and we'd loose two or three classmates in a day sometimes leaving three spots open in class where a person who paid for school or had previous expieriance could have had a job. It was a Union thing. . . .
I have to give those who tried and quit credit atlast they gave it a whirl, but this work is not for everybody. It's not the difficulty of the work we do that stops them it's the remote location we do it at.

[Pootnaigle]

Back in the day when I started you were hired in at the bottom seniority level Grunt. As an opening occurred for a Lineman( retirement, promotion, quit, transfer, etc etc, a new grunt was hired and the senoir grunt( Bull grunt) became a first step apprentice. Many times these guys knew well in advance they had no asperations to climb poles.The average wait was 2 yrs to get to the apprenticeship.But the closer you got to Bull grunt the faster you might climb the seniority list. Example....... guy gets promoted Bull grunt has a job offer somewhere else and takes it next guy sees he is a short timer and also leaves and possibly the next guy, wow you just jumped 3 steps from 4th to bull grunt. All ya gotta do now is hang in there for the next opening. In todays world that dont happen. You are hired in as an apprentice, Knowing next to nothing, If you show up everyday on time and do what you are told you progress reguardless of your ability or knowledge. There are journeymen linemen that make the bux yet work at 3rd and 4th step apprentice levels.Great for them but really sux for those working with and for them. The companies dont know any better and assume they have top level hands. Aint so in many cases. Its my opinion that this is a leading cause in the accidents across America.If you ever get to the apprentice level Learn all you can about everything you can,and use that knowledge to keep yourself safe.Chances are you will live to retire, and spout dribble like many of us on this board and evernow n then help a newbie to understand some foreign concept.

[cummins diesel power]

i haven't really decided how im going to go about getting hired on as a lineman. Im kind of thinking on it before i make a move.I don't normally jump right into something without finding out about it first. as most ppl do. I did find out tstc offer's lineman certification. Think it runs about 8k, but if it kind of looks better on me when i start putting in applications im sure it would be worth it. But thats where im at right now.