The outside meter tester should be familiar with wiring practice, understand the connections necessary in installing meters and how to test them. A meter tester frequently has a helper who can start at this work with very little electrical knowledge or experience. This is primarily outdoor work, and is suitable for a returned soldier whose disabilities require that he have considerable open-air exercise. The hours are eight or nine a day. The wages of a helper vary from $50 to $76 and of a tester from $70 to $125 per month.
In the meter-repair shop the returned meters are dismantled, cleaned, repaired, readjusted, and retested. This work is in reality a branch of electrical instrument repairing and manufacturing. It requires dexterous workmanship and accurate handling. Men in the meter-repair department are usually those who have been outside meter testers. They understand, in addition to installation and testing, something of meter construction and manufacture. Wages for an inside meter tester range from $80 to $150. The position of meter department foreman or superintendent, for which a competent meter man may after a number of years of experience qualify, pays from $125 to $180 monthly. In meter departments of large companies there is some bench work which can be done by a man who has the use of his hands and eyes, even though he be otherwise materially disabled. Soldiers who have had previous electrical experience or who like to manipulate fine instruments and tools should be able to handle effectively some of this work.
PLAN No. 1207. SALES DEPARTMENT
As its name implies, this department obtains customers who consume electrical energy. Such light and small appliance business as does not come unsolicited is secured by solicitors. Each solicitor is ordinarily assigned a certain district. To be a success at selling, a man must first of all be competent to meet tactfully people of all types. Furthermore, he should be familiar with electric lighting requirements and rates, so that he can discuss these with prospective customers and advise them authoritatively. Experience, however, has shown that men with no previous electrical training can, provided they have the “selling instinct,” be trained in a few weeks so that they can strike out for themselves and procure lighting contracts. Probably selling pays better, considering the relatively small amount of technical training that it requires, than does any other branch of public-utility work. Solicitors are frequently paid on a salary and commission basis. Their incomes may range from $60 to $150 or more a month. The field is an attractive one for men whose disabilities will permit of their entering it. Such technical training for solicitors as is absolutely necessary is usually furnished by the company which proposes to employ them, but all of the electrical education that a man can acquire will be of material value. By all means take a theoretical electrical course if you can.
The job of the power-sales engineer is to solicit contracts for power loads for the central station. Considerable engineering training is necessary for effective work. The man should be familiar with steam and gasoline power-plant installations. He should know how to apply effectively electric motors in the different branches of industry. Furthermore, he must meet people easily and be able to express his ideas accurately. In other words, he also should have the selling temperament. A man who has had considerable electrical experience and possesses the other qualifications can easily prepare for this vocation. The company which engages him will, usually, train him for it. Ordinarily, a salary and commission are paid. The income may range from $80 to $250 per month or more.
While solicitors and salesmen are supposed to work about 8 hours a day their time is, in one sense, their own. Little attention is given to the number of hours the man puts in, provided he obtains a reasonable amount of business. Some of the visits to prospective customers must be made in the evening, or possibly on Sundays. On the other hand, it occurs not infrequently that a salesman may go to a ball game on a Tuesday afternoon, his salary continuing meanwhile.
PLAN No. 1208. ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
This department of an electric company is responsible for the design and construction of the system as a whole. A chief engineer is the executive head. To assist him there are assistant engineers, inspectors, and draftsmen. The chief engineer and his principal assistants are, ordinarily, men of mature years and much experience. Hence, there is little possibility of a returned soldier qualifying for one of these positions unless he has previously done similar work. But there are opportunities to start in the engineering department as inspectors or draftsmen. The inspectors are “outside” men. Much of their work is in the open. They compile information and reports on engineering projects, on work which is under way, or which has been completed. These notes are utilized in the office in the preparation of drawings and specifications which show the construction departments what to do and how to do it. The draftsmen make the drawings from which the blueprints for construction jobs are reproduced. Any man who has had previous electrical construction experience and who can get around outside and see, hear, and write, should be able to qualify for an engineering inspector’s position. The future offers him the possibility of becoming an assistant engineer.
Engineering drafting offers inviting opportunities for disabled men because much of the work can be done by a person who can sit at a drawing table and use his hands and eyes. Lack of speech and hearing are not insurmountable handicaps because directions can be given and questions asked in writing. There are some one-handed draftsmen. Frequently a draftsman has a job assigned to him and is then left to himself to work it out. He may not speak to or be spoken to by any one for half a day at a time.
Another feature of drafting work which in this connection is important, is that it is possible to utilize men of all grades of ability, provided they have some knowledge of mechanical drawing. If a man can make a fairly good tracing, even if he knows nothing whatever of design, he can be very useful. He can gradually acquire that knowledge of the principles which is necessary to develop him into a draftsman-designer or an engineer. It is, however, essential that, at the start, the candidate know a little about mechanical drawing. Concerns do not usually care to break in a man who has no knowledge whatever of this subject.