Took Rui's advice from my cash-pay thread. Lined up a new shop in Pitman before I gave notice, left on good terms, start Monday. Real payroll, they do service and boilers, five minutes off 55. Three years in, but I've never started somewhere new as anything but a kid. What do I bring day one? My own tools or wait and see? And how do I handle it if they treat me like a first-year when I'm not?
Foreman, Inside Wireman (IBEW) · 19 years · Morris County, NJ
Mentor✓ Accepted answer
Congratulations on doing it the right way. Bring your hand tools, clean and organized, and your PPE. Leave the big stuff home until you see what's on the trucks. On the first-year thing: expect it for a week or two. They need to see how you work before they hand you anything. Show them, don't tell them. Ask on day one who you report to and what they expect by the end of the first month. Stay safe.
1st-year apprentice, Plumbers · 1 year · Brooklyn, NY
same thing when I started in Local 1 after doing non-union stuff for a summer. they made me prove it for a couple weeks then it was fine. don't get offended, just be good lol