Blog 21: Mentorship

Literal:
Click here for my blog.
Click here for the mentorship log.
Contact Name: Alfredo Nunez Sr.
Location: His house

Interpretive:
Honestly I have gained so much from this experience, I really enjoyed the time I got to spent learning from my mentor. However the thing I value most is the experience, I had a great time learning from my mentor and he also made it really simple to understand things. He was always patient and had a solution for each problem that came up. There was even days where some of his friends who were also electricians came over and that was to my benefit because at that point I had 2 people to refer to and ask questions. It was great because when one of them answered the other would fill in any other important parts. The knowledge that I gained throughout will be very useful later on when I go to college and when I become a homeowner. The main purpose for me was to get my feet wet and see if I'd enjoyed it, which I did, so I might major in engineering or just focus on becoming an electrician. However I really wanted to have the skill set to do my own tasks in my future home. With this experience I can now easily do it without the need to refer to basic how to websites. I'm glad that I got this opportunity and had a great mentor.

Applied:
With the experience that I had throughout the mentorship I was able to answer my EQ because I did not only get my mentor's opinion on my question but along with my research I was able to solidify each answer. My best answer however was THE first thing that I was taught. After doing all the circuits and having to play around with them to correctly and safely wire them, I was able to decide and be certain that my answers would include schematics and safety. Aside from that I had remembered of a time when I heard about permits and once I asked about it I believed it was a great answer to my EQ as well. Since my EQ is "How can an electrician best wire a house?" and houses are just circuits inside with different capacities and safety precautions it was close to the smaller scale circuits I worked with. This allowed me to answer my EQ with the mentorship experience that was backed up by my research.

In the beginning...

Well when I first started I didn't post much extra content so here goes.

One of the very first things I learned after safety once I began learning under and electrician was that in circuits when we are running more than one wire to one spot in a circuit we generally use pigtail screw.

At first this was pretty difficult for me to make because at the same time I learned how to strip wires correctly and I constantly was placing too much pressure and damaging the copper inside the wire so I would have to redo it a lot. How ever this comes in very handy as I later found out when even wiring a switch. Especially a 3-way switch.

Blog 11: Mentorship 10 hours Check

Content:

1. I am doing my mentorship with Alfredo Nunez Sr. at his house.
2. He is my contact?
3. I have done 13 hours in total.
4.  In the time of mentorship I have learned about some of the tools that electricians use which are tools such as wire strippers, testers, multi-meters, and circuit testers. My mentor has also had me wire a water pump and showed me how to connect a regular switch. It was actually way easier that I thought it'd be. We have gone over safety procedures that companies require employees to follow and I have practiced schematics to show the flow of electricity through out a home. Although it was just a quick and informal schematic, it was something to get my feet wet.

Beginning

So I have finally started my mentorship this month and its looking pretty good. My mentor seems to enjoy teaching on what he has learned and I'm happy to accept the knowledge. Currently my mentor has gone over the basics by showing me some tools and telling me how safety is key. It was cool to know that one of his jobs is safety, not just to be careful, but to make sure that the workplace is safe for the people around him. One day he had me create what he called a pighead screw which is basically when you twist wires to hold them together before placing them in conduit to go where it is needed. We also hooked up a pump motor that he had in his old pool and using wires that he had at home we connected it to a switch which we used to turn the pump off and on. I would post the video of the switch being used but my cable isn't working. I have learned new things and I am interested in learning what can be done with the knowledge of an Industrial Technician. I'll post pictures for you guys once I get my cord fix. Until next time.

The Switch

After my success in losing a potential mentor I didn't have any luck finding another potential mentor. I had known that franchisees were busy because they have tons of things they need to do to make sure that their business is striving or surviving , but I didn't realize how busy they really were. I now know that franchisees are too busy for my taste. I would rather not spend my time away from my future family and friends. Even though I met with my potential franchisee only a few times, yet I could see how she rushed to get her work done just to meet up with her family. Despite after I failed to contact her on time once, she said she would do an interview and when I called to confirm a time she had said she couldn't, simply didn't have the time. At that point I wanted to switch. I wanted to do something where a time schedule would be reasonable and finding a mentor would likely be easier and fun because more people are in the field. I have always wanted to be able to fix things around the house or learn how to fix a car so later on I can do it myself rather than pay someone else. I decided to ask an electrician/industrial technician if he would be my mentor. So now my topic is Electrician/Industrial Technician. I am very pleased with the switch, I will get to use the skills I will learn later on in life and I will get to have fun in the process of learning.

Rule Of Thumb

When looking into franchising it is a good idea to talk to other franchisees of the same company and ask them for assistance. A key thing is DO NOT EVER forget to go to a meeting or forget to call them when you are asked to do so. I forgot to make a phone call which was a very important one because my mentor had set me up to talk to a man from corporate. She got very upset saying she might not want to mentor me anymore and her supervisor was also saying she probably shouldn't. She told me she'd talk to him again and I wasn't surprised when she called and said it wasn't going to happen. This is very understandable because she is a busy person and being a franchisee isn't a career where one can waste time. So I will look for another mentor and hopefully I can find another. I know I messed up a huge opportunity. If you want help from other franchisees, don't forget to call. NEVER waste their time, you will regret it.