The quickest route from place to place is a straight line. But, sometimes, taking a detour here and there is the proper way to reach your end point.
The crooked line for Zac Nelson, third year apprentice with IEC of Idaho, is proving to be the right route. 
“I always kind of knew I was going to be an electrician,” Zac admits. “My grandfather was an electrician, my uncle is an electrician, and my dad even dabbled a little bit with it so I kind of knew I was going to go that direction. But I knew it would be a long road and I’d have the responsibilities of going to school. I was never a super good student in high school, so I put it off.”
Zac says he became a cook and was quite successful at it. He was making pretty good money, he enjoyed it, and he met his wife on the job.
“After many years cooking, I topped out on the pay scale and I realized I needed something a little bit more stable and substantial,” he says. “It was time to start my electrical career.”
There still was much to consider about starting the process. He knew that for the first couple of years, he would be sacrificing the income level to which he had become accustomed. And he knew that he’d be committing to substantial work days — and the dreaded thought of more school. Zac went for it.
The Right Move
Zac works with IEC member Atkins Electric, Boise, ID. Atkins is a family-owned company with more than half a century of experience. The company installs affordable, high-quality electrical systems in commercial, industrial, and large-scale residential buildings. Zac’s uncle, Wade Nelson, is a journeyman electrician at Atkins with 35 years in the field and is often Zac’s supervisor on jobs.
“My uncle is one of my journeymen, and I feel like he’s a wizard,” Zac says. “He’s sharing some really good knowledge with me and so are all the other people at my company,” Zac says. “The teachers that I’ve had in the IEC Apprenticeship Program have been excellent and super knowledgeable. I feel like I’m on an accelerated path to my career.”
Zac enjoys his work thoroughly and has a few favorite tasks when on jobs. And some challenges that he’s happy to say he is able to work through.
“I really enjoy running pipe and making it look really nice and using the excavator to do some underground work and get my hands dirty,” Zac says. “School in itself is a challenge to stay focused week after week and do the homework with everything else going on in my life like my family and job.”
Zac admits he’s had to battle a bit with his fear of heights. Getting on super tall ladders and riding up on scissor lifts was “a fear he had to face.” He has.
“At the beginning of a job, I still get a little queasy,” he admits. “It takes a few days up there, and then I start to get my sea legs. By mid-job, I’m really enjoying being up there and doing the job, Then the job is finished and I go back to underground. The next time I have to get back in the scissor lift, I have to get used to it again.”
Like many apprentices, he found navigating the code book intimidating at first.
“Trying to navigate this ginormous book was hard,” he says. “At this point, I’ve really started to get comfortable flipping through it and finding things I need to find. And I’ve gotten quicker at it too. 
“Because I was older when I got into this journey, this apprenticeship, I’d been out of high school close to 15 years, so I had to relearn math,” Zac continues. “Now I enjoy it; it’s been pretty awesome actually.”
Zac says there is never a dull day on the job and that most days go by so fast, it’s sometimes a surprise when it’s time to go home. He works eight hours, five days a week, and values his weekend time with his family. Zac and his wife, Samantha, are blessed with their lovely toddler son, Oliver.
“My wife works evenings and a long shift on Saturday, so I pretty much have dad duty all day on Saturdays,” he says with a smile. “Sundays, we have our family day.”
Zac was excited to say there was a little electric-powered excavator under the Christmas tree for their son this year.
What’s Next?
Zac says his most important goals right now are continuing to learn, focus on school, pass his journeyman test, and contribute to his company.
“One day in the future, we plan to move somewhere smaller and I hope to start my own gig as a service electrician in a small town,” Zac says. “When my time opens up a bit more, I’d love to get back to more fly fishing on the river!”
Do It
While Zac does not regret taking some time to jump into his electrical training, his advice for others considering becoming an electrician is to do it as early as possible.
“There’s this kid in my class last year who was 17, and he’ll be a journeyman at 19. Wow,” Zac explains. “If you’re older, do it anyway. I’m 35 and I’m a third year and there’s no shame in that. This career can really take you places — you’re going to enjoy it, you work great hours, you get great pay, and you meet some cool people. You’re going to turn some lights on for people when they don’t have any and that’s pretty awesome.”