Are there any lineman out there?

[mod440ex]

i am wanting to get on at a local electric company, but i am not real sure what i need to do has far has getting my foot in the door. i have always been fascinated by electricity and electrical components. the company i have been trying to get on at is aquila, but i just dont really seem to have any of the qualifacations they are looking for, has far has experience and a cdl. the cdl part would be easy to get, but im just in a position at work where i cant really get into maintenance to learn more about it. i only work 3 days so i thought about going down to the company and seeing if i could just sweep floors or clean up around their shop just so i could start learning the trade. any info you guys could throw my way would really help me out.

thanks,
andy

[Regular_Joe]

My dad is a lineman. The key is getting your foot in the door. He started as a janitor and moved up from there. Basically jobs get offered to employees first. If no one inside the company wants the position first, then they go outside the company. He was a janitor, meter reader, etc. and it took about 3 yrs to get to the basic lineman position.

Obviously for driving the trucks you need a CDL. As far as a degree, it used to be an Electrical Associates degree. Now they require a Electrical Engineering Bachelors degree.

They have started trimming staff immensly here in NY. They just have the bare bones crews and do a lot of contracting out for the work. Any new work is sent to a contractor. Any tree maintenance work is also sent to a contractor. Basically the regular guys just put out the fires. My dad has been there for 25 yrs now. They have gone from a 21 man garage down to a 5 man garage. Basically they are not filling the retirees positions back in.