What contractors check before they hire a journeyman

Before a shop hires a journeyman, it checks five things: the class and status of your license on the state lookup, whether you can bend pipe, whether you terminate clean and torque to the label, whether you can run work off a print, and whether a foreman will vouch for you. More shops test now because they've been burned. Walk in ready for all five and the journeyman electrician interview is short.

One national electrical contractor told us what they want in plain words: a licensed journeyman, "preferably five to seven years of experience," who can "do raceways, terminate, pull wire." The test they described was simple: "We should be able to give the prints to a journeyman and say, this goes from point A to point B. Knock it out."

That's the bar. Below is how each piece gets checked and how to clear it.

01Why shops test journeymen now

Shops test because too many "journeymen" can't do journeyman work, and a card alone doesn't tell them who can.

The same contractor said they kept getting "so-called journeymen that can't bend conduit," and that some of them "would have apprentice licenses and just weren't able to do the normal duties as a journeyman." Their word for those hands was "laborers." They went through four staffing agencies on one job.

A shop that got burned last month will test you this month. Don't take it personally. A real hand clears a bench test fast, and it puts him ahead of the guy who talked a good game.

You see the same thing in ads. A journeyman ad posted Oct 19, 2026 on RoadDogJobs for a job in Albuquerque asks for 7+ years of commercial or industrial work, a completed apprenticeship, "conduit bending tools," and reading "blueprints, one-line diagrams, risers, and electrical schematics," plus a drug screen and background check (RoadDogJobs ad). A data center ad from Oct 8, 2026 wants 4 years in and a passing "cut score" on an NCCER skill assessment (RoadDogJobs ad).

02Check 1: your license on the board lookup

The first thing a careful shop does is type your name or number into the state board's lookup and read the class, the status and the expiration date.

They aren't checking that you have a card. They're checking which card. An apprentice registration, a trainee card, a residential-only class or a limited specialty license all look like "a license" in a phone photo. On the lookup they don't.

Look yourself up before they do. A few state lookups:

• Washington: L&I verify a contractor or tradesperson
• Minnesota: DLI license and registration lookup
• Colorado: DORA license lookup
• Virginia: DPOR license lookup

Check three things. The name matches your ID exactly. The status says active, not "expired" or "pending renewal." The class says what you tell people it says. If any of that is off, fix it with the board before the interview. "I'm renewing it" is the first thing a burned contractor stops believing.

If your state licenses at the city or county level, bring the local card and know who issued it. If you're licensed in another state, know whether the job's state takes your card by reciprocity or endorsement. Which states have electrician license reciprocity covers that, and how to get your journeyman electrician license covers the hours and the exam if you're still working toward it.

03Check 2: the bending test

Bending is the fastest way a shop tells a journeyman from a helper, so expect pipe and a hand bender.

The usual asks are an offset to clear an obstacle, a 90 to a stub-up mark, and sometimes a kick or a 3-point saddle. Expect 1/2-inch EMT and a hand bender. Industrial shops may walk you to a machine and ask what's the biggest pipe you've run on it.

Know the numbers cold. Reaching for a phone app on a 30 is a red flag to a foreman. The multiplier is 1 divided by the sine of the angle. Shrink is shown the way the trade carries it:

Worked example: a 6-inch offset at 30 degrees puts your marks 12 inches apart (6 × 2), and the pipe shrinks 1-1/2 inches (6 × 1/4). For a 90, take the stub height and subtract the take-up stamped on the bender. Say it's 5 inches on a 12-inch stub: mark at 7 and line the mark up with the arrow.

What they're watching:

1. You measure and mark before the first bend.
2. Both offset bends match, and the pipe lies flat with no dog-leg.
3. The 90 checks plumb with a level.
4. No kinks, no flattened pipe.

One owner on the Mike Holt forum laid out his plan for journeyman interviews: "a conduit bending test, a short written test," a "What would you do in this situation?" question, and an interview (Mike Holt Forum). Expect something close to that.

04Check 3: terminations and torque

Expect to strip and land a few conductors on a breaker or a lug, and expect someone to watch whether you look for the torque value.

Strip length matches the lug. No nicked strands. No insulation under the screw. Then you find the torque on the label and hit it with a torque tool, not "good and tight" by feel. Recent NEC editions call for a calibrated torque tool when the equipment lists a torque value (section 110.14(D) in the 2023 NEC). Confirm the edition your area enforces. If you've been landing gear by feel, start carrying a torque screwdriver now.

If the shop does industrial work, you may get asked about motor leads: how a 9-lead motor hooks up for high and low voltage, or what an across-the-line starter with overloads looks like on paper. Know it, or say plainly that it's not your lane yet.

05Check 4: reading prints, point A to point B

Prints are where a shop finds out whether you can run work or only follow a man who can.

You'll get one sheet. A floor plan with a panel schedule, or a one-line. The questions are simple on purpose:

• How many circuits are on this panel, and how many are spares?
• Where does this homerun land?
• What feeds this panel, and from where?
• What's this symbol? (Read the legend first. They're watching for that.)
• Is anything on this sheet missing or in conflict?

A good answer starts with "let me look at the notes" and ends with a question back. "This says 3/4 but the fill doesn't work with that many conductors. Do you want me to upsize or split it?" That's a journeyman talking.

06Check 5: the trial day, if there is one

Some shops skip the bench and put you on a job for a day, and if that day is real production work, it's work.

Federal wage law counts work an employer "suffered or permitted" as hours worked that must be paid (DOL Fact Sheet #22). A 30-minute bend on scrap pipe is a test. Eight hours pulling wire on their job is a shift. If a shop wants a free trial day, that tells you something about how it'll treat your check later. More of those signs are in red flags at an electrical company.

07The questions they'll ask, and what they're listening for

Most interview questions are aimed at one thing: did you run the work, or were you near it?

That last one matters more than most hands think. The contractor we talked to had a job that "doesn't pay enough to hold these guys down" to the end, and their best agency hands "keep getting called to other jobs for more money." Tell them the truth about how long you'll stay and what would move you.

Flip it around before you say yes. Ask how long the job runs, what phase it's in, how per diem is paid and who your foreman is. Questions to ask an electrical contractor before you take the job has the full list.

08What to bring

Bring paper that answers their questions before they ask.

Which safety cards actually matter for which jobs is in OSHA 10, OSHA 30, NFPA 70E: which cards matter.

On your first day, bring your Form I-9 documents. The employer has three business days from your start to finish its part, and you choose which acceptable documents to show (USCIS, Handbook for Employers M-274).

09What gets you to the top of their band

Shops pay the top of their range for no hand-holding, and they say so.

A project manager at the same shop put it this way: "If I'm paying somebody 58, that person better be very experienced and I should just be able to point and say, hey, go do it, get it done." That's one shop's number, not the market. But the rule holds everywhere. The hand who shows he can take a print and a pallet of material and come back with it done gets the top of the band.

Know what that band is before you sit down. Run your Pay Check to see what electricians with your license make near you. Takes about a minute and your boss never hears about it. Then weigh the offer the whole way through, rate, hours, per diem and how long it runs, with how to compare two electrician job offers.

If you're coming from houses into commercial, expect the bending and print checks to be harder than you're used to. Going from residential to commercial electrical work covers what to learn first.

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