From Trader Joe’s to Trades: Why It’s Never Too Late to Start Over with Brandon McKane
Electrician apprenticeship, union vs non-union electricians, and the career change to trades — a story for anyone wondering if it’s too late to start over.
Host Andrew Brown sits down with Brandon McKane, a former Trader Joe’s manager who walked away from corporate life at 36 to begin an electrician apprenticeship and rebuild his life in the skilled trades industry.
With over 80,000 electricians needed every year through 2030, Brandon’s journey offers a real-world look at why so many people are leaving their desks behind for hands-on work — and how a career change to trades can bring purpose, stability, and pride.
They talk about the emotional and financial leap of starting over, the reality of apprentice pay, what it’s like to explain the shift to your family, and how the right mentors can change everything. Brandon also shares the unfiltered truth about the union vs non-union electrician experience, and what it takes to go from shop helper to journeyman.
IN THIS EPISODE:
- 00:00 – The electrician shortage: why 80,000 are needed every year
- 02:35 – Meet Brandon McKane: from Trader Joe’s to trades
- 07:10 – The pay cut, the leap, and family conversations
- 12:42 – Apprenticeship reality: pay, training, and safety
- 19:18 – Union vs non-union: pros, cons, and real numbers
- 25:36 – Mentorship and learning from journeymen
- 32:10 – Social media’s impact on the new generation of tradespeople
- 38:20 – Why it’s never too late to start over
- 44:55 – The future of electrification and opportunity
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Why America needs 80,000 electricians a year — and where that demand is coming from
- How Brandon left a 15-year corporate career to start over at 36
- The truth about apprentice pay vs. long-term earnings
- Union vs non-union electricians: what he learned on both sides
- How tradespeople often earn more than many white-collar careers
- The mindset shift: finding purpose, progress, and pride in hands-on work
- Why mentorship and the right foreman can change your life
- How the trades can become more welcoming to everyone
- Why it’s never too late for a career change to trades
ABOUT THE GUEST:
Brandon McKane is a non-union apprentice electrician at Sunlight & Power (Berkeley, CA). After 15+ years in retail management, he made a career change to trades, attends night classes, and works on prevailing-wage solar projects. He’s passionate about safety, mentorship, craftsmanship, and helping others navigate how to become an electrician through the electrician apprenticeship route—union or non-union.
KEYWORDS:
electrician apprenticeship, skilled trades careers, electrician shortage 2030, union vs non-union electricians, career change to trades, Skilled Trades, Trades Industry, Andrew Brown, Brandon McKane, Toolfetch, Carpentry, HVAC, Electricians, Plumbers, Millwrights, Construction, Craftsmanship, Problem-solving, Creativity, Tradespeople, Advocacy, Trades Careers, Industry Experts, Contractors, Education, Skilled Trades Advisory Council
RESOURCE LINKS:
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonjmckane/overlay/photo/
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Transcript
So I'm gonna hit you with a statistic.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So we need 80,000 electricians every single year up to 2030, and
Speaker:that's just replaced electricians that are leaving the industry.
Speaker:For every five that are leaving, only two are coming in,
Speaker:everything is being electrified.
Speaker:You have EVs, charging stations, appliances, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker:Sitting here with Brandon McKane, who is an up and coming electrician
Speaker:who wants to be an electrician.
Speaker:You know what's really interesting?
Speaker:Brandon is that I speak to many different people in the trades, all different types
Speaker:of people, kids who are young, who are thinking about getting into the trades.
Speaker:Uh, even people in older generation.
Speaker:I've had people, uh, reach out to me who are 50 and above
Speaker:who want to be in the trades.
Speaker:And it's interesting to hear people's journey into the trades.
Speaker:But you started in.
Speaker:Corporate America and now moving into the trades, tell me a little
Speaker:bit about that journey for you.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, it's been an interesting journey.
Speaker:Um, so I came from working in retail management.
Speaker:I worked for, uh, trader Joe's for about 15 years.
Speaker:Um, and in that journey I worked my way up from, you know, the bagger
Speaker:to running, helping run the store.
Speaker:Um, and over those 15 years, you, you.
Speaker:At a certain point, you've, you've maxed out how much you're go
Speaker:ever going to earn in that role.
Speaker:And you, to a certain extent, you've, you've run into every scenario
Speaker:that you could possibly see, and you have, have learned as much as
Speaker:you're gonna learn in that role.
Speaker:Um, so as I thought about going into, um, uh, my next stage of life.
Speaker:Am I going to stay in this career or, and, and just keep doing what
Speaker:I'm doing and just do this until I retire, or what do I want to do next?
Speaker:And when I thought about similar fields, um, and careers that I could
Speaker:go into, the trades really, um, popped up as the number one thing, right?
Speaker:It is, um, it's on your feet.
Speaker:It's working with your hands, which I love doing, uh, and was what I
Speaker:was doing in the grocery industry.
Speaker:Um, you're still, you're working with small groups of people,
Speaker:um, to accomplish a goal, um, which is just like in the trades.
Speaker:And when I thought about, you know, the types of trades that I could go
Speaker:into, you know, plumber, carpenter, electrician, electrician seemed like the
Speaker:coolest thing that you can do, right?
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:Electricity is, um, uh, interesting and it's always changing and it's,
Speaker:um, you know, it's a, it's a skill.
Speaker:Just like plumbing, but I don't know.
Speaker:It held a, it held a held a little appeal to me.
Speaker:Um, and so when I decided to make a career move, um, you
Speaker:know, I, I really applied myself.
Speaker:I, I, I went to, went to night school for it, um, and, and started at a
Speaker:community college and applied to.
Speaker:Uh, some unions, and then I applied to some non-union shops and I,
Speaker:and I'm working with Sunlight and Power in Berkeley, California.
Speaker:And, uh, I'm, uh, a union, excuse me, a non-union apprentice, uh, electrician.
Speaker:So, uh, we've been, I've been doing that for about a year and a half now.
Speaker:And, uh, it's about a four to five year process to become a certified
Speaker:electrician, which is my real goal.
Speaker:Well, you basically are starting or over all, all over.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Again, right.
Speaker:So you started, so you're 36.
Speaker:36, right.
Speaker:Have a family.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And this is one of the things that, especially when I speak to people
Speaker:in the trades, is that in the beginning stages you're an apprentice.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So you're not making as much.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:There's a difference how far you've come in the corporate world.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Now it's kind of starting over again.
Speaker:How was, be honest.
Speaker:Like how was that conversation with your wife saying, I wanna do this
Speaker:thing, I wanna work with my hands.
Speaker:I feel like this is my calling.
Speaker:How do you have that?
Speaker:That must have been a, you know, yeah.
Speaker:Difficult thing to.
Speaker:Talk about, well, you, you definitely know that you're taking a step back
Speaker:and especially in terms of pay, right?
Speaker:So, so I didn't even start out as an apprentice.
Speaker:I started out as, you know, a shop guy.
Speaker:You know, I was just working around the shop, you know, oh, we need, you
Speaker:know, two dozen, two dozen of these screws, or you know, I need a hundred.
Speaker:Foot of this wire and my job was to compile all this stuff together.
Speaker:So that's a, that's a big pay cut to be able to step back from what I was making
Speaker:as a manager at a grocery store to then be making about, you know, a quarter as much,
Speaker:you know, if we're talking numbers, right?
Speaker:If I'm making $40 an hour as a, a grocery store manager and then all of a sudden you
Speaker:step back and you're making only something like 26, 20 $7 an hour as a Shop boy, um.
Speaker:But you make your way back up and so you make that conscious decision.
Speaker:You have that conversation with your family and you say, well, you know,
Speaker:it's gonna be a hit, and, and you know, it's gonna be tough for the
Speaker:year, but by the time you're coming out of that apprenticeship program,
Speaker:I mean, even now, already a year and a half into my apprenticeship
Speaker:program, I'm making more take home money than I ever was As, as, um.
Speaker:As a grocery store manager with 15 years of experience, um, you know, just with
Speaker:a year and a half of experience working out on these sites on prevailing wage
Speaker:sites as a first year apprentice, um, you're making anywhere, depending on
Speaker:what county you're working in, you're making anywhere from 33 to $50 an hour.
Speaker:And so when you're in the apprenticeship program, you
Speaker:know, year one apprentice makes.
Speaker:X amount of money in this county, the same county the same, or then the next
Speaker:year as the next year apprentice, you're making more money on and on and on
Speaker:until you're a certified electrician and then you're making the journeyman rate.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:So, yeah, I think we knew that it would be a step backwards, but now here I am a year
Speaker:and a half later already making more so.
Speaker:But you're, you're happier, right?
Speaker:Because if you were stuck in, you could have stayed mm-hmm.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And worked your way up at, at Trader Joe's and, you know, maybe have
Speaker:slowly climbed that, that ladder, um, but you weren't happy, right?
Speaker:There was something missing when it was, I guess the question is
Speaker:like, everybody's got an aha moment.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Do you remember an aha moment like.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I need to make a leap here.
Speaker:It's, it's time.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Is that there was no spec specific moment.
Speaker:I think that I knew that the amount of money that I was ever gonna make
Speaker:was gonna be basically the same.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And over the years you have the, you, you go through the, the season
Speaker:journey of the grocery industry.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And so you know what to expect from Thanksgiving or you know
Speaker:what to expect from Christmas or you know what to expect when.
Speaker:Kids come back to school and it sort of gets old, you know?
Speaker:And, and you see, you know, and I had been through, I had done everything
Speaker:in the store that I could possibly do.
Speaker:I had done the scheduling, I had, you know, hired people.
Speaker:I had, had difficult conversations, leading teams.
Speaker:I had, you know, um, taking care of everything that I could possibly do.
Speaker:And it had become sort of stayed and old and, and, um, joining the trades.
Speaker:You're, you just, you have to learn so much.
Speaker:And if you love learning, that's definitely the way to go.
Speaker:And yeah, it's a, definitely a tough decision to make.
Speaker:But, um, it was cool.
Speaker:I'm so glad I did it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I'm gonna hit you with a statistic.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So we need 80,000 electricians every single year up to 2030.
Speaker:And that's just replaced electricians that are leaving the industry.
Speaker:For every five that are leaving, only two are coming in,
Speaker:everything is being electrified.
Speaker:You have EVs.
Speaker:Charging stations, appliances, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker:Um, how are we gonna fix that shortage?
Speaker:The thing is, and I get this a lot on social media, that kids are just not
Speaker:interested in working with their hands.
Speaker:They, they rather, they look at the, the wages and they say, okay, I can make
Speaker:this as an apprentice, but I can make x working at, you know, I don't know.
Speaker:Fast food restaurants.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And they say, I don't want this.
Speaker:I don't want to, uh, put myself in harm's way.
Speaker:I don't wanna be in the elements.
Speaker:And you also need a thick skin.
Speaker:There's also a lot of kids who say, you know, as apprentice, you get teased.
Speaker:You, you know?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:You get that like everyone, and it's funny you smile because there's a lot
Speaker:of people who say, I quit because they were rousing me on the, on the jobs.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:I, I couldn't handle it.
Speaker:Do you think it's really for everybody to be in, be in the trades or is it's like.
Speaker:It's not for everybody.
Speaker:I mean, even though that you wanna work with your hands if you're
Speaker:interested in that, but maybe it's just not right for that right person.
Speaker:I don't think it is necessarily for everybody because not everybody's
Speaker:interested in the, the problem solving that it takes to do that, right?
Speaker:Different people are interested in different things, but, um, I think that.
Speaker:Culturally, um, where I'm working in California.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There is that like razzing and, and like, and the, the fun sort of, um,
Speaker:it's not hazing or anything like that, but I They give you shit.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:They give you a shit.
Speaker:It's not as, it's not as bad as I would imagine it being in, working in someplace
Speaker:like New York or something like that.
Speaker:Um, definitely when I worked in New York.
Speaker:You know, there's just a big cultural difference wherever you're going in
Speaker:California or in the United States.
Speaker:Um, but I, I don't think it's for everybody, but it is a ton of fun.
Speaker:Um, you work with interesting people.
Speaker:Um, I don't know, there's a lot of challenges that, that you have
Speaker:to overcome, but, uh, yeah, it's, it is just interesting work.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And each and every person in the trades that I speak to, whether it's
Speaker:a lineman, whether it's electrician, whether it's a welder, whether it's a
Speaker:carpenter, whether it's a plumber, they seem to all be more or less happy, and
Speaker:they feel that sense of accomplishment because they fixed someone's boiler.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Because it was broken in, in freezing temperature.
Speaker:The power went out.
Speaker:They went on.
Speaker:Bucket truck and they turned on the power, uh, to, to plumbing somebody who had an
Speaker:issue with their toilet and fixed it.
Speaker:There's that sense of accomplishment and a lot of the people in the trades, they like
Speaker:to, I like to say brag, but in a good way.
Speaker:I built that bridge.
Speaker:I built that tunnel.
Speaker:There's that, that sense of you are gonna be able to fix things.
Speaker:That a lot of people can't, and I, I envy people in the trades because
Speaker:I, I wanna be able to do that.
Speaker:But, you know, you need a lot of training.
Speaker:But I think there is, uh, a misconception about the level of knowledge that
Speaker:you need, the math skills behind it, because what you're studying
Speaker:for, for these tests, it's not.
Speaker:Easy, right?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, it's definitely not easy, like when you look at sample questions for
Speaker:the California, um, electrical exam.
Speaker:Um, they're not simple and you do need the education.
Speaker:It is important to have that, that education and to have the book smarts
Speaker:to be able to do it even to pass.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:The union entrance exam to even get an interview.
Speaker:That's not simple math, you know?
Speaker:So, yeah, you need to be, you need to be smart in order to get in.
Speaker:You can't just, it's not just, you're not just, you know, hitting nails all day.
Speaker:Um, it is a skilled trade that you need to have knowledge for.
Speaker:Um, and you need to study.
Speaker:You know, I go to school at night and then I go to work during the day, and
Speaker:when I'm on my drive home, I'm listening to podcasts about electricity, you
Speaker:know, and, and I'm thinking about.
Speaker:You know, the, the formulas about voltage drop.
Speaker:When I think about, you know, the, the TV needing to get run back to the,
Speaker:it is home, run back to the panel.
Speaker:Um, but once it's in your head, that's a skill that you've learned
Speaker:and it can't be taken away from you.
Speaker:Um, and, uh, but yeah, it's, it's definitely doable.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:So I think on one hand, yes, it's very hard, but on the other hand
Speaker:you can't be intimidated by that because, you know, if it's worth
Speaker:doing, it's probably gonna be hard.
Speaker:Um, and you know, if I can do it, anyone can do it.
Speaker:People always, always have the, the question of union versus non-union.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And to get into the union, which you, you had mentioned it's, it's
Speaker:difficult 'cause there's limited seats.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So will say it's who, you know, there's some of that in in major.
Speaker:Cities.
Speaker:And then there's some people who said, yeah, I got in and it was, uh, relatively
Speaker:simple, but we don't know what or how they sort of got in, but mm-hmm.
Speaker:Especially the people in the union.
Speaker:I mean, some of these, these guys who have been in working overtime
Speaker:are making way into the six figures.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And it's inspiring to, to see these, these men and women who are, who are doing that.
Speaker:When people were saying, well, you can't make money in the trades,
Speaker:but especially over the next five or 10 years, 40% are retiring.
Speaker:So the opportunity right now to make that money, you know, I was
Speaker:speaking to a well-known plumber, uh, Roger Wakefield in Texas.
Speaker:I was on his podcast and we were talking about, we just happened to be talking
Speaker:about plumbing and we're saying that the wages will be one to $200 an hour mm-hmm.
Speaker:That you'll make.
Speaker:I mean, where else are you gonna really.
Speaker:Make that, I mean, even if you went back to Trader Joe's and worked your
Speaker:way up, you know, to get that wage and then you have the ability to maybe
Speaker:open up your own business one day.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And like you said, that skillset never leaves you, it's lifelong skills.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, yeah, I think that whether you land in a union shop or whether
Speaker:you land in a non-union shop.
Speaker:The, you're gonna be making good money.
Speaker:Um, I, I luck.
Speaker:I was lucky enough to land with a really great company that's
Speaker:employee owned Sunlight and Power in Berkeley, California.
Speaker:We do commercial solar installations and I do feel like there's a huge
Speaker:opportunity to just learn a ton of stuff and we make, we make good money.
Speaker:Um, we work on government.
Speaker:Uh, or a lot of, um, apartment buildings that are being built
Speaker:or subsidized by the government.
Speaker:So we end up working on prevailing wage sites, um, which
Speaker:are, is basically union rates.
Speaker:Um, I think that, you know, whether, whichever way you are able to get into
Speaker:the trades, um, you can't, you can't really go wrong because that, that,
Speaker:uh, that wage is, is gonna be good.
Speaker:It is as long as you put the, the time and mm-hmm.
Speaker:Effort into it, and you keep upscaling, you know, upscaling and upscaling,
Speaker:but to, to make that, that leap.
Speaker:So the apprenticeship is about four years or so, and then you move into.
Speaker:Journeyman.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Once you pass the, pass the exam, um, how important is it for you to
Speaker:be with mentors, people who've sort of been in the industry 20, 30 years?
Speaker:Have you been able to find people who have been there, done that?
Speaker:Because I always say like it's, you can try to reinvent the wheel, but
Speaker:there are people who have already laid the groundwork who have done that.
Speaker:Have you been able to find anybody to sort of attach yourself with?
Speaker:Who's it?
Speaker:A Yeah.
Speaker:I work with a great crew, um, and I have a great foreman who's been.
Speaker:Uh, with the company for 15 years, and he teaches me things every day.
Speaker:And then our superintendents, um, we, I just, I learn a ton from every day, but
Speaker:yeah, more than, like if my experience in retail, a lot of it was you, you try
Speaker:something and then that doesn't work, and then the next time that situation
Speaker:comes up, you try it something different.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:But it doesn't work like that with electricity.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:You can't just.
Speaker:Do something like that because that can lead to a hazardous or
Speaker:a dangerous condition, right?
Speaker:And so being with a journey, being an apprentice with a journeyman
Speaker:is extremely important because that's how you, you learn exactly.
Speaker:You know, the thing, the right thing to do and the wrong thing to do.
Speaker:Because if you do it, if you do it wrong, you're, you're creating some hazard.
Speaker:And that's, you can't have that.
Speaker:But you're also learning like little tricks that you
Speaker:would never, ever think of.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:In, you're, if you're just trying to, you know, force something, you
Speaker:say, oh no, just do it like this.
Speaker:And then it's super simple.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so those little tricks that you just absorb all the time are super important.
Speaker:But one thing that I try to remember is just always be asking questions
Speaker:and just always be asking for more because, um, I, I feel like
Speaker:I've learned a lot more because.
Speaker:Then maybe some of the guys that I work with, because I'm always asking for so
Speaker:much, you know, like I wanna, especially coming into the trade as a second
Speaker:career, a little bit older, I wanna move.
Speaker:I need to move faster than if I were doing this as a, you know, an 18-year-old kid.
Speaker:And so I'm just trying to move and learn so much more.
Speaker:Someone was asking for so much more.
Speaker:Um, and I do think that is a benefit of coming to the trade as a second
Speaker:career is you've, you're, you've had a little bit of experience, um,
Speaker:in your first career and you know.
Speaker:Uh, maybe how to move a little bit faster and, and what questions to ask.
Speaker:I like that, that you come from a different background, right?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And you're bringing that into.
Speaker:Sort of the trades environment.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Which can help you in certain ways.
Speaker:It can help you 'cause you've been a manager.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So you've led people, you've led a team before.
Speaker:Obviously it's a little bit different because you're starting
Speaker:from scratch, but eventually mm-hmm.
Speaker:You probably will get to that place where you're maybe leading a team,
Speaker:but you already have the experience from a more corporate environment.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it's, I think that's extremely important to, that.
Speaker:You started in this path.
Speaker:But you've changed, but you're bringing over these skill sets
Speaker:that's probably gonna help you.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:On the trade side.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Definitely bringing that, that, um, that people focus and that
Speaker:team, that, that team energy, um, from the retail aspect of it, um,
Speaker:feels very helpful because you can.
Speaker:Know how to bring, you know, whether it's just a simple, good attitude
Speaker:or, um, when the foreman is away and it's just us apprentices sort of
Speaker:looking at each other, then someone has to step up and, and be the leader.
Speaker:Um, and having come from a management background, it does make it easier.
Speaker:Um, a lot of, there are some times when.
Speaker:You run into someone who has no people skills in the trades.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, and knowing how to deal with difficult people, um, which you,
Speaker:you get in the retail world, um, has been a real, has been really helpful.
Speaker:Um, just to know how to, whether it's simple deescalation or you know,
Speaker:asking a question a different way.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:You work with people from all sorts of different, different racial
Speaker:backgrounds, um, and different ages and people who are coming from looking at
Speaker:things totally differently than you.
Speaker:Um, and to be able to, um, to be able to have conversations with someone who's
Speaker:different than me is super important.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, and that's, that's what it's all about, but you're, you're able
Speaker:to navigate that a little bit better.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Compared to just going into the trade and never having that first Yeah.
Speaker:Career.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So like, you're sort of like ahead of the game s mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's nice to have a different perspective on things.
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:Yeah, no, for sure.
Speaker:And for you, um, do you, you said that you, uh, work with some journeymen,
Speaker:but what about other apprentices?
Speaker:Are they, do you get together with those individuals who are kind of
Speaker:going through the same thing you are?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Is that, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So on my, the way our teams are, uh, formulated, right?
Speaker:We have our, our foreman.
Speaker:Who's typically the certified electrician?
Speaker:Uh, the journeyman, you know, certified electrician, journeyman, same thing.
Speaker:And then we have our crew lead, and then we have however many installers
Speaker:that we need and typically, and so all those installers and.
Speaker:Crew leads are the apprentices, right?
Speaker:And so the crew lead is typically, um, you know, an apprentice who's
Speaker:higher, who's higher up in the years of his apprenticeship.
Speaker:And then, um, the installers, you know, are year one or year two apprentices.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:And depending on where the project is at, whether we're doing a crane lift
Speaker:and getting all the material onto the roof, or laying out the solar
Speaker:array, how it needs to be laid out according to the specifications, right?
Speaker:Then you have a certain number of other apprentices that you're
Speaker:working with all under the crew lead.
Speaker:Um, who has more experience and, and is hopefully running the team
Speaker:efficiently so that we're getting the project done as fast as possible.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But it's also good to get around other people who want the same thing Yeah.
Speaker:As you do.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And then they're going through the same sort of, uh, situation Yeah.
Speaker:That you can relate to each other.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Good, bad.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's just fun to commiserate or.
Speaker:You know, when you're, when you're having a tough day, when it's, you
Speaker:know, 110 on the roof or when it's raining and, and well, it doesn't get,
Speaker:it's cold on the roof, but it's San Francisco cold, so it's never that cold.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But, um, you know, it's cool to be able to commiserate with your, with
Speaker:your, with your other installers and your other apprentices.
Speaker:Um, and yeah, you're all working towards that same goal.
Speaker:You all know that you want to be certified electricians and
Speaker:journeymen, um, and whether.
Speaker:You wanna be an electrician in the field, or whether you want to be an electrician
Speaker:who's working as a superintendent or as a project manager, right?
Speaker:Like you can, there's a lot of things, a lot of different routes that you
Speaker:can go, but right now we're all on that, on that same journey together.
Speaker:How important is the safety aspect?
Speaker:Because you know, in the trades some will say that it is dangerous, whether
Speaker:you're welding, you're around electrical.
Speaker:Obviously there's PPE and there's, you know, different ways of how
Speaker:they go about keeping you safe.
Speaker:Um, and the most important thing is getting the men and women in the
Speaker:trades back to their families safe.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:How important is the safety aspect, kind of going through this apprenticeship?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh, it's incredibly important.
Speaker:It's the absolute number one thing that we think about every day.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:Funny coming from a different trade or from a different experience, right?
Speaker:Like it's not something that you think about, right?
Speaker:Like you work in a safe place that's not, doesn't, that isn't full of hazards.
Speaker:But when you're working, um.
Speaker:When you're working on an active construction site, right, you have
Speaker:to be ready for everything and you have to be wearing all the
Speaker:proper, the proper equipment, right?
Speaker:You got your hard hat and your, and your high-vis vest on your gloves
Speaker:and your, your safety glasses, um, and your, and your big heavy boots.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:Then we are working on roofs.
Speaker:And so we need to be thinking about what sort of, do we need fall protection?
Speaker:Do we need fall arrest, fall prevention?
Speaker:Um, I got my OSHA 30 hour card, um, which, you know, just really
Speaker:hammers home all the safety.
Speaker:Um, but yeah, it's incredibly important 'cause one mistake could totally
Speaker:change your life, if not kill you.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:You know, whether it's something as simple as cutting yourself with a razor blade
Speaker:or hitting yourself with a hammer or, um, you know, we're using all sorts of
Speaker:different tools, um, and heavy equipment.
Speaker:So, you know, God forbid.
Speaker:Anything that would happen would totally change my family.
Speaker:So I need to be, uh, my goal is, like you said, to, to get
Speaker:home to the family every day.
Speaker:So, um, yeah, safety is number one.
Speaker:Um, uh, you know, I think sometimes people think of OSHA or various safety
Speaker:bodies as sort of like bureau bureaucrat, bureaucracies that need to be sort of
Speaker:like pushed aside, but really they're out there keeping us safe, so I appreciate it.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:And it's something that we talk about.
Speaker:We have daily safety meetings, um, weekly safety meetings, and then
Speaker:even monthly safety meetings that we all zoom into, um, every month.
Speaker:So, uh, our company takes it extremely seriously and, uh, I think everyone on
Speaker:the job site knows how dangerous it is.
Speaker:So everyone takes it pretty serious.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean that's, that's number one to keep your, keep your crew safe at the end
Speaker:of the day, you know, I was speaking to a, a lineman who goes up and buck a truck and
Speaker:it's just the aftermath of a storm and.
Speaker:You know, you're touching these power lines and they were going through sort of
Speaker:the safety precaution of how they, they do their, you, they check their gloves
Speaker:that before they get on the pole, like there's a, there's certain ways to mm-hmm.
Speaker:Be, to make sure that they're safe, but one wrong move, you know, or your
Speaker:glove has a hole in it, you know, and you touch a line, you do, you're
Speaker:dealing with like 14,000 mm-hmm.
Speaker:Volts.
Speaker:I mean, that's a bad day.
Speaker:If you, uh.
Speaker:If you touch that and you don't have the right safety.
Speaker:But yeah, I mean that's, that's the most important piece is
Speaker:having men and women safe.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, on the job site, are you seeing in, uh, your line of work women,
Speaker:uh, in the apprenticeship, because.
Speaker:In, uh, the world of trades, it's only about three or 4% that are really women.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Across the board.
Speaker:Are you seeing any women come through?
Speaker:We, we don't have as many women.
Speaker:I, I think we only have one woman who's actually active on
Speaker:the construction side of things, you know, not in administration.
Speaker:Um, I don't know what it is.
Speaker:I don't know how to get more women involved.
Speaker:Um, you know, I don't.
Speaker:I think we just need to make an active, um, uh, and, and a conscious effort to
Speaker:recruit women to come into the field.
Speaker:Um, and I do think that that will change, take some sort of, you know,
Speaker:structural, uh, change from the, like a cultural aspect of like how, you know.
Speaker:How clean are the porta-potties to, you know, well, it's important that even the
Speaker:little stuff like that is, yeah, just, just go, you know, silly stuff like that.
Speaker:But I don't think there's anything that, there's no sort of physical restriction
Speaker:that like is, that is keeping people out.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:But I do think that the trade could be, the trades could
Speaker:be more welcoming to women.
Speaker:It could be.
Speaker:And I, I speak to a lot of women in the trades, whether, uh, it's,
Speaker:uh, uh, an iron worker up in Canada and she's doing great things.
Speaker:Mm. Uh, Jamie McMillan in the trades and trying to get people in the trades,
Speaker:but she works hard on the tools.
Speaker:She was telling me that she, you know, years prior, they would say something
Speaker:to her and she looked the other way because she was the only woman on site.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, I've spoken to mechanics who are women and they're doing
Speaker:great things in the industry.
Speaker:I've spoken to electricians, women who are doing that work and welding.
Speaker:But what's really interesting is that where I feel that.
Speaker:Women and, and just the whole of, um, blue collar work is social media.
Speaker:'cause you have all these influencers that pop up.
Speaker:These women are doing amazing things mm-hmm.
Speaker:In all different trades that it's really shown a side of blue collar
Speaker:that years prior people thought it was like less than white collar.
Speaker:And I don't think that's true at all.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:But I think through social media and what, uh, they're doing on a daily basis,
Speaker:these people has really opened people's eyes because even the younger generation.
Speaker:Like, uh, gen Z has been coined the tool belt generation mm-hmm.
Speaker:By the Wall Street Journal.
Speaker:You hear all these things from the Wall Street Journal, that smaller companies,
Speaker:HVAC companies, plumbing companies are being bought by private equity.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And you're like, wow.
Speaker:The, the opportunities there are are amazing.
Speaker:But going back to the social media, I think, and I see this
Speaker:all the time, I see people who are electricians, who are plumbers,
Speaker:they're showing a day in their life.
Speaker:Of themselves plus their business.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And it's, it's helped them tremendously in their career.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It is fun when you go on, um, Instagram or TikTok or whatever,
Speaker:um, to, to see all that.
Speaker:And, and you do learn a lot from, from how they, from seeing
Speaker:their, their work for the day.
Speaker:Or you learn little like, Hey, that's cool.
Speaker:I'm gonna try that.
Speaker:Um, and you know, you do take a lot of, it's fun to be able to create
Speaker:something and, and make it really neat and make it really craftsman.
Speaker:Like, and, and then take a picture of it and, and share it on social media.
Speaker:Um, that's a really cool aspect of, of that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's, that's sense of fulfillment.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And you're, you're showing what you could do.
Speaker:I mean, I know a handful of influencers who are really, they're, they're big.
Speaker:I mean, brands have come to them.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So wanting to, you know, showcase their, their products.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And it's every single trade.
Speaker:So, you know, if you're in the trades today, putting yourself on social
Speaker:media, showing what you're capable of.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:You don't realize, like, I do follow, uh, I'm thinking of one plumber and he
Speaker:literally just has the camera on the entire time during his installation.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And he's massive.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like massive.
Speaker:He has a small business, long business.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But that has helped him tremendously.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:Getting your name out there is, is huge.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:Yeah, it is something that I've thought about from time to time.
Speaker:I'm like, I should just put a camera on my helmet, on my, you know, and take off
Speaker:my flashlight and put a Ca GoPro on there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:GoPro.
Speaker:No, seriously, I mean, you would do that and just show a day
Speaker:in your life of what you do.
Speaker:People take a tremendous amount of interest at it, and it shows as well
Speaker:someone who's a little bit older.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:It's possible.
Speaker:It's possible to make a shift.
Speaker:You were in white collar corporate America, and now
Speaker:you're in blue collar and mm-hmm.
Speaker:Your evolution and your journey.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's been a really fun, uh, it's been a really fun transition, changing careers.
Speaker:Um, you know, I think it seemed really daunting to begin with, but then once you,
Speaker:you sort of get comfortable in your search and, and once you, I landed in a, in a
Speaker:really, with a really good company and, uh, I'm really excited for the future.
Speaker:So, what's next for you as far as the union?
Speaker:Are you going to reapply?
Speaker:To the union.
Speaker:Yeah, I think I would call them again and, and see if I could re-interview with them.
Speaker:Um, but once you start, uh, you know, if I'm a year and a half into my four to five
Speaker:year apprenticeship, uh, to go back and restart with the union, um, also I'd have
Speaker:to leave my company and join a union shop.
Speaker:Um, but I think it would be an interesting, an interesting journey.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:Restarting now that I'm on a year and a half in, at some point you have to decide,
Speaker:okay, well what makes the most sense?
Speaker:If my goal is to become certified and then join the union after I get
Speaker:certified, um, you know, maybe that makes more sense at this point.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:But the union with, its, with its higher wages and its retirement
Speaker:benefits, um, and its health insurance is a, is a great way to go.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Like the IBW, you know, nothing better.
Speaker:But, um, for now, uh, I'm, I'm happy where I'm at, but uh, I do think
Speaker:that I'll reapply at some point.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it's just about, you know, getting in front of them.
Speaker:Doing what you have to do mm-hmm.
Speaker:That, you know, in the future that maybe it will work out for you
Speaker:and you'll, you'll join the unit.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:If it works for you.
Speaker:Um, if people wanna find out more about Brandon, what's the best way
Speaker:on social or LinkedIn or what's the best way to find you out there?
Speaker:Oh yeah, definitely on LinkedIn.
Speaker:Um, and then just reaching out, yeah.
Speaker:Through LinkedIn and, um, that's about it.
Speaker:I'm not too active on social media.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, Brandon, it's great to have you on the show today.
Speaker:Good luck in your future.
Speaker:I know it will work out for you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Thanks for being here today.
Speaker:Yeah, it's been great talking to you.
Speaker:Thank you.
