Moving from entertainment and theatre to domestic Electrician

[Groggzz]

Hi Everyone,

As the tittle suggests my background is in installing, designing and maintaining lighting rigs for the entertainment industry, mainly theatre shows in and around London although I have toured extensively nationally and internationally.

Having worked in the industry for 8 years I have gained experience in wiring up lighting practicals, fixing and maintenance of stage lighting equipment. While I know these skills are not that closely related to domestic installation skills, I do feel like some of the skills are transferable. Also I have a fair amount of hands on skills working with tools.

My idea is to do a quick course to gain the recognized qualifications then become an Electricians Mate for 6 - 12 months then move to being self employed. This is the course that I am looking at-
Domestic Electrician Course | Train to become a Domestic Installer - https://www.electriciancourses4u.co.uk/domestic-electrician-course/

Any Advice Welcome

 

[Marvo]

What official qualifications do you already have?

 

[MDJ]

Hi Everyone,

As the tittle suggests my background is in installing, designing and maintaining lighting rigs for the entertainment industry, mainly theatre shows in and around London although I have toured extensively nationally and internationally.

Having worked in the industry for 8 years I have gained experience in wiring up lighting practicals, fixing and maintenance of stage lighting equipment. While I know these skills are not that closely related to domestic installation skills, I do feel like some of the skills are transferable. Also I have a fair amount of hands on skills working with tools.

My idea is to do a quick course to gain the recognized qualifications then become an Electricians Mate for 6 - 12 months then move to being self employed. This is the course that I am looking at-
Domestic Electrician Course | Train to become a Domestic Installer - https://www.electriciancourses4u.co.uk/domestic-electrician-course/

Any Advice Welcome

Firstly welcome aboard, I think to be honest 6-12 months will not be long enough for you, 2-3 years as a mate is the way forward.

 

[Groggzz]

What official qualifications do you already have?

I don't have any other than a undergraduate degree in lighting design

 

[SJD]

Out of curiosity, why do you want to change?

I've had some 6 years running my own business, mostly domestic electrics. Secretly I'd rather be an LD instead, but the closest I get is assisting the LD with rigging, and LX op once it is all plotted! But then I don't have any qualifications in stage lighting.

 

[Marvo]

So you've got a bachelors degree in lighting design and 8 years experience in the lighting industry.....and you want to become a self employed domestic sparky. No insult meant to domestic sparkies (or yourself for that matter) but I'm sure you could set your sights a bit higher....surely? Is this a mid-life crisis type of thing?

 

[Groggzz]

So you've got a bachelors degree in lighting design and 8 years experience in the lighting industry.....and you want to become a self employed domestic sparky. No insult meant to domestic sparkies (or yourself for that matter) but I'm sure you could set your sights a bit higher....surely? Is this a mid-life crisis type of thing?

Ha ha mid life crisis / career change (you decide) to be honest I absolutely will be aiming higher, you do have to start somewhere.

Another reason for the change in direction is the antisocial hours. I quite fancy the idea of having evenings and weekends not spent in a dark theatre.

My question would be is it worth doing the course in the original post. Or just applying for electricans mate jobs and organising my own qualifications

 

[Marvo]

To be honest the short courses like the one you linked get a very bad reception here because they're a shortcut into the industry that's mis-sold under the guise of 'getting part p qualified' and has resulted in a lot of limited scope domestic sparkies who have little or no experience. That said if you've already got a solid electrical background and good hands on experience maybe it is a realistic option for you. I'm not in the UK and these new limited scope qualifications confuse the hell out of me so I'm not really qualified to comment too much.

 

[Groggzz]

Out of curiosity, why do you want to change?

I've had some 6 years running my own business, mostly domestic electrics. Secretly I'd rather be an LD instead, but the closest I get is assisting the LD with rigging, and LX op once it is all plotted! But then I don't have any qualifications in stage lighting.

Lighting design is a very competitive industry and the larger shows simply won't take risks on relatively unknown designers, You can get designs in smaller studio theatre's (even those are over subscribed) however the workload is not reflected by pay and my love for the craft has dwindled somewhat recently.

Add to that antisocial hours, erratic employment. While you do occasionally get the good worthwhile gigs and runs of steady enjoyable work. I quite fancy a change of pace and having weekends and perhaps not working quite so late into the evenings.

Short answer Disillusionment, Money and working hours.

 

[buzzlightyear]

Short answer Disillusionment, Money and working hours.

welcome to my world.

 

[Marvo]

Lighting design is a very competitive industry ............

.........I quite fancy a change of pace and having weekends and perhaps not working quite so late into the evenings.

I'm not sure where you got the idea that domestic electrical might be less competitive or that being self employed is going to give you more sociable hours or weekends off....

Every week there's a new thread on the forum complaining about the race to the bottom with the cut throat prices being quoted, especially in the domestic market. Looking on the bright side, the For Sale part of the forum has lots of great second hand tools and MFT's in it from guys looking to get out of the industry.

I hate sounding negative and I'm not saying you won't be a sucessful self employed sparky, I'm just hoping you've done your due dilligence before jumping in with both feet.

From what (little) I understand, if you sucessfully complete the package of courses you asked about then you'll be able to apply for a scheme membership with Stroma, Niceic, Elecsa or similar but you'd need to show then some appropriate installation jobs you've done.

 

[davesparks]

I’m an electrician who also works in the entertainment industry, I do LX, stage and I’m a flyman.

From what I’ve seen of touring shows and west end shows there is a world of difference to electrical installation work. There appears to be no testing of anything, just the bang test (if it doesn’t go bang when turned on it must be ok) and a general disregard for any form of electrical safety.

To do any installation work you will need a massive change of attitude from the entertainment industry and realistically will need to start again from scratch with an apprenticeship.
‘Wiring practicals’ doesn’t count for anything as it’s rarely little more than fitting a flex and a plug to a light fitting, and maintainence of lighting equipment has nothing to do with installation work.

 

[derek]

Perhaps you could try lighting design in the high end housing market in London? It is a bit more of a niche market and I have heard it can pay well.
If you are set on becoming a house basher then a job as a mate and evening college for three years is a better route than a quick course in my opinion. You may find someone who'd take you on as an apprentice, some of the larger companies pay better rates for first year apprenticeships.
I believe many people in the domestic area have to work evenings and weekends as well if they are self employed as you have to take the work when you can get it.

 

[SJD]

... however the workload is not reflected by pay.

Yes, I agree with you there. The LD that I sometimes assist is perhaps being paid only half what I would have expected.

Add to that antisocial hours, erratic employment.

Starting out self-employed, this was also somewhat the case. I did a lot of evenings and weekends back 5 or 6 years ago. Now I've enough work that I mostly don't need to, and just make odd exceptions.

I'd agree with the comment about opportunities in high-end housing lighting, I've worked on a couple of such systems, and these can pay quite well. In one case, lighting up very extensive gardens & pool a bit like you'd light a stage, all programmable with a few scenes for the customer to pick from mapped to buttons on wall panels.

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

I think you could take your stage lighting skills and move into smart home design and installs. Especially in london.
Designing smart lighting to reflect mood. Weather etc. And all the other smart.home stuff.
Could be an easier transition and quite lucrative with london prices

 

[telectrix]

what the last 2 reprobates said. this "smart home" fad is rapidly becoming a big earner for those who can specialise in it. not for me though, i'm far too old to learn the technology involved. at the very least it means using a mobile phone for things other than phone calls. i've only just got the hang of this texting rubbish.

 

[static zap]

( Successful designers - are sure not to share their ,little tricks- social?)
A broader market does sound positive ..but it's definitely race to the bottom at the moment.
A few relevant qualifications (sadly the slow route) ,may be useful if you return to design ! ...exits left