The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1910-09-30

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and, after all, generally, it is the con-
tractor that is financially interested in
the details. The boy finds out before
long that these things can be and have
been learned, and Is promoted again,
this time as an assistant to the
superintendent on the Job, at, say, If
teen dollars a week. -.
The latter Is the man who directly
overlooks all the work, carrying. out
the installation, according to the plans
and supplying the men and material;
AS his assistant the boy Is thrown
right into all details Of the business.
He will find himself learning the cost
OF the different materials, where they
can be got the cheapest, and soon
will be making estimates on trifling
phases of the work. OF course, this
is leading pretty definitely ahead, both
In the technical side and in handling
payrolls, overseeing employees. etc.,
and within three years of the time
when he began as apprentice, If he Is
good. bright boy, he will be an cleo
trical estimator and earning eighteen
dollars a week.
The electrical engineer is merely an
outgrowth of an estimator, and by the
time he can consider himself one,
which will be in two or three years
more, your boy will be getting twenty
five to forty dollars a week, and will
be pretty well qualified to attend to
any phase Of ordinary contracting
work.
The man that succeeds as an esti-
mator Is the one on whose basis bids
are submitted for practically all work,
and If he. through his superior knowl-
edge and skill, can show how to save
here and there. It will enable his firm
to make the offer that gets the con-
tract. He is the most important man
in the company, for he has the knowl-
edge and skill. can show how to save
and In many instances those at the
head of this department of firm Of
electrical engineers get as high as az.
teen thousand dollars a year.
But not simply in estimating should
your boy strive to equip himself as an
expert. From the time he begins as
an apprentice until he becomes one of
the big men OF the firm, he will be
brought more and more into relations
with architects. Now. architects are
the first, outside Of the actual owners.
to know that building is to be erect
ed. Consequently, they are in a po-
sition to extend this knowledge to
contracting firms they favor; and It
is distinctly up to young man who
wants to get to the top to do all he
can when brought In contact with
architects to cause them to favor his
| firm.
Especially will the cultivation Of
this executive faculty prove valuable
when our now trained electrician
your boy-decides to have q firm, q
business, of his OVID. This he will be
able to do, with all the financial back
ing he needs, the minute capital sees
him tower above his fellows. And capt.
tai, more than once already, has seen
g young electrical engineer tower, as it
looked out upon him from the pocket
book Of an architect or Of one of the
latter's moneyed friends.
Who has gone through this line and
reached the top? Virtually every
electrical contractor Is the country,
large and small; for Il Is a business
where practical experience counts
more than schooling, arS nearly every
one. therefore, began JUS as your boy
will If be decides to tax: up this call
ing tomorrow. In fact, almost every
man who is anything at all in any
form of electrical endeavor began at
the bottom-even Thomas A. Edison;
though he did not begin in the house
wiring end.
One Of the greatest superintendent
of electrical construction in the world
is a man who had no technical school.
ing at all. He learned the rudfments
of house wiring as here described, and
today he is known throughout his
portion of the electrical world as the
man who was superintendent of cleo
trical installation in the worlds lar9.
| CSI OAuC0 UOAAOAA6S Iu0 13OuoOA On"
minal, In New York: who held the
same position on the worlds largest
apartment house, and who has done
the electrical installation in numerous
other huge structures.
Another case In point is that Of the
head OF the electrical department Of
one Of the country's largest con-
struction companies-a company that
builds, among other things, a large
number Of skyscrapers every year.
Four years ago this young man was an
ordinary wireman. Today his salary
Is big enough to give him all the
Injuries he wants.
copyright, 1870 by the Associated Lit
erary Press.)