I've been working with a private C-10 contractor in SoCal for a little over two months. He mainly does residential with a hint of commercial work mixed in. I have my electrical trainee certificate through California and I'm taking trainee classes at WECA (Western Electrical Contractors Association) just the trainee classes since I'm working with my boss right now, not the full apprenticeship track.
I want to be upfront that I genuinely love my boss. He's a great mentor and I've learned a ton from him already. This isn't a "bad boss" post it's more about whether the math works in the long term.
I'm 19 and pretty early in the trade, but I want to set myself up for success because I'm looking to get married soon and move out of my parents' house. I live in a relatively expensive part of SoCal where you basically need six figures to live a normal life.
Current Pay Structure
$18/hr starting
$20/hr after 6 months
$22/hr after 1 year
This would be solid money with consistent 40-hour weeks plus some overtime but residential work is really on and off and keep in mind I get NO benefits that you would in a big company or the Union. We've gone days at a time without jobs. My boss is confident he'll grow the business to the point where we have full time work year round, but I don't know if I'll just be wasting a couple of years finding out.
The Options I'm Weighing
- Stick it out and pursue my own C-10 license. The problem is it requires 8,000 hours roughly 4 years of consistent 40-hour weeks. If work stays this inconsistent, I won't hit that in 4 years which is already a long time as I will be around 24.
- Join the union. A couple of peers have recommended it, but I've heard really mixed things some say it's amazing, others say it's a grind that isn't worth it.
- Or another path that I don't know about...
Am I missing any paths here? Anyone who's gone union vs. non-union in SoCal, or earned their C-10 the slow way what would you do in my shoes? Any honest perspective from people in the trade would mean a lot.