About the Electrical Scholar

Ross Finch is an apprentice electrician with Denver-based electrical contractor Encore Electric which specializes in commercial construction.  He is currently attending Red Rocks Community College working towards his commercial and maintenance electrician degrees, with graduation scheduled for the Spring of 2011.  He is also attending school at the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Independent Electrical Contractors, as a condition of employment, studying the fourth year curriculum for the 2010-2011 school year.

He has found his vocational passion in the electrical trade and is working towards a goal of earning his Journeyman license by the end of 2011.  He is particularly interested in the following areas of the electrical trade (in no particular order):  education, electrical code, electrical installations, industrial/motor controls including PLC programming, inspection services, trouble-shooting & repair, fire protection, operational management, and project management.  His personal and formal educational goals focus on gaining knowledge in the above listed areas.  At this time, he is still undecided on which of the above areas he desires to pursue.  Hopefully he can do at least a little of everything that he enjoys.

This website is a way for Ross to share his experiences and to track his progress through his journey as an electrician.  He hopes others will find the information useful and that he will be able to connect with like-minded individuals.

If you have any questions, comments, or a career offer, please contact Ross Finch.

Vocational Me

The Kinds of Work that I Enjoy

From experiences in past employs, I know that I enjoy doing the following things for work:

  • I enjoy traveling locally and doing short-duration on-site jobs, lasting anywhere from part of a day to three months or so maximum.  The shorter, the better.
  • I highly enjoy troubleshooting, finding, and repairing problems.  It takes skill, knowledge, and understanding of systems to troubleshoot efficiently and effectively.  Problems are puzzles, some with multiple solutions, and it is just plain fun to solve them, fix them, and make the system work properly.  I found this out about myself while fixing fire alarm installation problems as well as when I repaired consumer electronics.
  • I enjoy working on more complex systems which are often multiple systems interconnected to work together.  Even though it was a very simple installation and it was easy to understand, one of my first experiences with working on multiple systems was installing the electrical side of a kitchen hood fire suppression system.   We had to interconnect the following systems using the contacts in the fire suppression system:  Kitchen hood fans, both supply and exhaust independently; gas supply solenoid valve and it’s manual reset control; fire alarm system; and, the shunt trip breaker.  As easy and simple as it was, it was very enjoyable to install the interconnection for all of those systems and see them all work properly during testing.
  • I like to use multiple tools to complete a job, such as hand tools, meters, computers, and other task-specific tools.  Working with all available tools in our day and age makes for proper and profitable installations.  I find a good mix of manual and mental labor to be quite satisfying.
  • Anything that challenges me, especially things that require me to make plans and learn new knowledge.
  • I dream about one day having to replace an older motor control cabinet which has no documentation, figuring out the relay logic, doing a system analysis where required, specifying the new parts with a PLC at the heart of the new system, writing the PLC code from the relay logic while incorporating any upgrades the customer wants or needs, writing the M.O.P. for the change-over, testing it, and executing it by removing the old system and installing the new one doing the actual electrical work.  Then I would get to troubleshooting the things that go wrong.

Vision, Mission, & Goals

  • Vision: To be a professional electrician who installs and repairs complex systems.  To be a teacher, mentor, and coach to others concerning the electrical trade.  To be a leader who serves his team and helps motivate them to find their place in a project and to complete it to the best of their ability.  To always be constantly learning.
  • Mission:
    • As an electrician: To professionally install and repair electrical systems which meet or exceed the customer’s expectations while ensuring a safe installation.
    • As a teacher, mentor, and coach:
      • As a teacher: To give others the knowledge they need and desire; to challenge their minds to help them to learn for themselves.
      • As a mentor: To help others to realize their potential, their desires, and to help them plan their future.
      • As a coach: To help others to become electrically self-sufficient and to motivate them to push themselves to do better continually as an electrician.
    • As a leader: To take care of the needs of my team by serving them and inspiring them to complete a project properly.
    • As a student: To learn what needs to be learned for any of the above areas that I may constantly become better at what I do.
  • Goals, long-term:
    • Earn my NICET Fire Alarm Systems level I certificate before August 31, 2011.
    • Earn my AAS Construction Electrician degree from RRCC by the end of the fall 2011 semester.
    • Earn my journeyman electrician license before December 31, 2011.
    • Earn my master electrician license before December 31, 2013 (as soon as I have the hours).
  • Goals, mid-term:
    • Read the book Soares Grounding & Bonding by December 31, 2010.
    • Study conduit bending by reading and doing the Electricians Guide to Conduit Bending (Cox) and the Benfield Conduit Bending Manual before January 15, 2010.
    • Complete the fall 2010 semester at RRCC & IEC with a 4.0 GPA.
    • Either test-out of DC fundamentals or receive credit for prior learning by the end of the Fall 2010 semester.
  • Goals, recently completed:
    • Complete the spring 2010 semester at RRCC & IEC with a 4.0 GPA:  succeeded completely.

Education

Grey denotes classes which I have not yet taken.  There is some class overlap between degrees.  However, classes are only listed once under one degree for clarity.  My general education is complete.  I have funded all of my own education with the exception of IEC which is a condition of employment.

  • Red Rocks Community College – Electrical Degrees
    • AAS:  Construction Electrician Degree
      • Electrical Planning & Construction
      • Electrical Installations I & II
      • National Electrical Code I & II
      • DC Fundamentals – Testing-out / credit for prior learning
      • AC Fundamentals – Fall 2010
      • Electrical Code Calculations – Fall 2011
    • AAS:  Maintenance Electrician Degree
      • Electrical Maintenance – Fall 2010
      • Industrial/Motor Controls
      • Advanced Industrial/Motor Controls
      • Programmable Controllers
      • Advanced Programmable Controllers – Fall 2010
      • Process Instrumentation and Controls
    • AAS:  Fire Protection Technology
      • Fire Alarm Fundamentals
      • National Fire Alarm Code – Spring 2011
      • Fire Alarm Systems – Fall 2011
      • Other degree classes are from construction & electrical areas already listed on this page
  • Red Rocks Community College – Construction Degrees
    • AAS:  Construction Management
      • Construction Technology – credit for prior learning
      • Blueprint Reading
      • Construction Project Management – Spring 2011
      • Construction Materials & Methods
      • Building Electrical & Mechanical Systems
      • Oral & Written Communications
      • Planning & Scheduling
      • Surveying I
      • Electives which I have not yet chosen
  • Independent Electrical Contractors (IEC) – Rocky Mountain Chapter
    • Electrical Trade Certificate
      • 3rd Year Curriculum:  blueprints, bonding & grounding, motor controls
      • 4th Year Curriculum:  motor controls, electrical code
  • Other
    • OSHA 10 Hour
    • International Association of Electrical Inspectors
      • Soares Grounding – 2008 NEC, 1-day class:  May 2009
    • 2009 Rockwell Automation Fair classes

Work History

Current

  • Red Rocks Community College, Lakewood, CO – part-time:  Tutor for the electrical department.  January 2009 to present (on and off again)
  • Encore Electric, Englewood, CO – full-time:  Construction electrician.  January 2009 to present.
    • Parker Adventist Hospital, Parker, CO:  Expansion of hospital by the addition of the south bed wing.  Currently on the wall rough team.  June 2010 to present.
    • University of Denver, Denver, CO:  Construction of Ruffatto Hall.  Member of the fire alarm installation team, handling the more technical aspects of the installation, such as relay connections for dampers, elevator, HVAC, magnetic door holders, etc.  April 2010 – May 2010.
    • Fraiser Meadows Retirement Community, Boulder, CO:  Construction of an addition to the central building and a remodel of the central building.
      • Phase II:  A remodel of the space which was occupied by The Grille, as well as the therapy and fitness areas.  I was the sole member of the fire alarm team and maintained temporary coverage in resident-accessible areas while replacing the old system with the new system in that area.  November 2009 – March 2010.
      • Phase I:  The largest part of the job, which was the addition for the new home of the restaurant, The Grille.  Also included running new electrical so that each unit could have its own load center.  I was on the fire alarm team replacing an outdated system which was constantly in a state of repair.  Also installed notification devices in all units in the central building.  March 2009 – October 2009.
    • Prefabrication department at Encore’s shop.  Jan 2009 – February 2009.

The Past Ten Years

  • Cougar Electric, Northglenn, CO – full-time:  Residential and commercial service.  May 2008 – December 2008.
  • Finch Enterprises, Northglenn, CO – part-time, self-employed:  Diversified conglomeration of my small business interests which included:  web hosting and web services on my servers, wooden loft-bed manufacturing, small programing jobs, etc.  March 2007 – December 2009.
  • Finch Street Financial, Northglenn, CO – part-time, self-employed:  Financial counselor.  February 2004 – December 2006.
  • Integrated Systems Installers, Denver, CO – full-time:  DSL & low voltage installation technician.  August 2000 – July 2001.
  • Further history is available upon request.  It includes computer technician, software localization specialist and team leader, and consumer electronics repair technician amongst other things.

Achievement & Hobbies

Achievements

  • Scouting
    • Wood Badge advanced leadership training completion: June 2008 – Nov 2009
    • Scoutmaster:  Jan 2005 – Dec 2008
    • Eagle Scout
  • Educational
    • 4.0 GPA at Red Rocks Community College through present
    • Inducted into Phi Theta Kappa – the international honor society of two-year colleges
    • IEC year three final grade:  100%
    • IEC year three Top Student Award for my class
  • Vocational
    • Suggested a formal training for people who administer apprentice evaluations for Encore Electric.  This was created and introduced into the Encore University online curriculum.
    • Suggested changing the line on the Encore Electric required tool list which states “continuity/voltage tester” to add “CAT III 600V minimum” for a minimum safety level.  Suggestion was approved and is to be implemented.

Hobbies

Most of these hobbies have been on hold to allow time for my electrical education.  I hope to continue with them once the main bulk of my education is concluded.  Listed below are things I will be planning to do in the next two years (by the end of 2012).

  • Electrical & Electronic
    • Build a motor control cabinet with a PLC, starter, motor, controls, pneumatics, switches, etc.  for learning and teaching.
    • Teach basic electronics to my children with a kit
    • Build a small robot with my children
  • Backpacking – been over two years =(
    • Backpack part of the Colorado Trail with my family for three days.
  • Amateur Radio – currently Technician class, earned back when there were six levels of licenses when it was called a Technician Plus.
    • Get a new radio or two
    • Start to use it again with my children
    • Earn my General, then Extra class licenses.
  • Music Composition
    • Has been almost 20 years since I wrote anything.   I used to be quite prolific and I am looking to write something new.

About the Author

Ross Finch is an apprentice electrician with Denver-based electrical contractor Encore Electric, which specializes in commercial construction. He is currently attending Red Rocks Community College working towards his commercial and maintenance electrician degrees, with graduation scheduled for the Spring of 2011. He is also attending school at the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Independent Electrical Contractors, as a condition of employment, studying the fourth year curriculum for the 2010-2011 school year. See more information on the About page.