Not many girls grow up dreaming of donning a leather utility belt and wielding a circuit tester. Beth Maegerle was no exception. When she decided to pursue a career in the electrical trade though, she found a satisfying vocation. It is a decision she has never regretted.
"I didn't know anything about tools or circuitry before I started this whole venture," Maegerle says. "I was a water-skiing instructor and wanted to be a pro skier." She was also a single mother barely making ends meet. Maegerle needed a career change. Some of her students were impressed with her physical ability in an aggressive sport like water skiing and said she would make a great construction electrician. "I never considered going into construction in my life," Maegerle says, laughing.
But after researching the idea, she decided it was a good one. It was the start of a career that allows her to earn a good living doing interesting and varied work.
Electricians earn between $10 and $30 per hour, depending on training and experience. Maegerle now is a journeyman electrician. This means she completed an apprenticeship program and passed a state licensing exam. Currently, she is a residential service electrician in St. Charles, Ill, working in clients' homes. Maegerle installs circuitry, fixtures and outlets and troubleshoots problems in electrical systems.
Variety in the industry Service electricians also perform similar work for commercial clients. They install and maintain electrical systems and perform preventive and repair work. About two-thirds of all electricians work in construction, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In a growing sector of the construction industry, electricians are in demand to install and maintain wiring for computers and telecommunications equipment, robotics and automated manufacturing systems. Others are responsible for installing basic electrical systems in all types of new buildings. This is often very demanding work done under difficult environmental conditions.
These challenges didn’t dim Maegerle's enthusiasm for her job while she worked in construction, though. "If you're adventurous and like the outdoors, it's a blast," she says. "You can really have a good time if you like to work with your hands." But the job is not without hazards. One time, a storm moved in before the work crew had finished a job. As Maegerle put her tools away, she saw a flash of light. Startled, she grabbed the handle of her truck. A bolt of lightening shot through her hand and out her foot. For months afterward, she experienced muscle contractions, vision problems and memory loss.
To prepare for a career as an electrician, Maegerle recommends taking algebra in high school. Shop and electronics classes also are helpful. After high school, you will be required to participate in four to five years of on-the-job training prior to taking a state licensing exam.
Maegerle went further and enrolled in a 16-week basic-training course at her community college before approaching the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, one of the unions to which electricians belong. "I didn't want the union to think of me as a token because I'm a minority," Maegerle says. "I wanted some schooling to show that I was serious about my career."
Even so, her application was not accepted the first time. But Maegerle was determined. "I joined a non-union shop, apprenticed with that company for a year, then applied to the union again." That time, she was accepted and began a three-year training program.
Not just a man’s world Although Maegerle strongly encourages young people to go into the trades, she admits it is not always easy for women to work in a field predominantly occupied by males. Only three out of 2,000 local union members were women when Maegerle started in the late 1980s. She worked in 10 different shops before finding one where her gender wasn't an issue.
Maegerle experienced a great deal of resistance from coworkers in some of the previous places she worked. "A friend of mine asked me to work for him [in the shop he owned]," she says. He ended up sending me for lunch and for coffee. I'd been a journeyman for 10 years when this happened. I had apprentices I was trying to gain respect from, yet I was being used as a waitress."
Maegerle quit her job with that company. Her own thinking has changed over the years, too. Maegerle said in the beginning she tried to fit in by competing with her coworkers, trying to do everything they were doing. "Now it's different," she says. "It took me a long time to realize I'm not one of the guys. You just do the best you can do, and they will adjust."
