INTERVIEW: Dans the Engineer
Dan Jackson is a YouTuber electrician who has vlogged his way through the past year, discussing a wide range of topics affecting his trade.
INTERVIEW: The cjrshop
Chris Reeve’s YouTube channel – The cjrshop – has captured the imagination of his viewers, as he walks them through his days at work with humour and expertise.
He began by uploading car videos but soon found his electrical videos were gaining attention – he now has over 4,000 subscribers and almost 600,000 views on his channel.
Chris works as an electrical contractor based in Oxfordshire.
SPARKS Magazine: How did you get into the electrical industry?
Chris Reeve: When I was at school I did work experience. I did one week with a builder and one with an electrician, and that’s where it all went from. I really enjoyed the electrical side of the job so I finished my schooling at 16 and got a modern apprenticeship. I passed all of that – the exams, the college course – and got a role with an employer. I did my apprenticeship at Oxford City Council. They had a few commercial contracts, so I was able to do a lot of domestic and commercial, which gave me a wide range in my apprenticeship. Unfortunately when I did qualify, they lost a contract – a really big housing contract they were banking on getting – so there was about ten apprentices including me who got made redundant at the end of the apprenticeship.
SPARKS: What did you do after your apprenticeship?
CR: I then found a job locally with an air conditioning company which was good, it gave me a lot of experience doing air conditioning installs. That didn’t really work out, it was a lot of mileage and I just didn’t like it, it was too much driving and staying away from home. After that I found a job working for an electrical contractor on a hospital contract and stayed with them for eight years. It was a good contract: varied work, lots of install, commercial, lots of ward refurbs on hospital buildings and lots of special locations like bed head trunking, theatre blocks and stuff like that. It’s so specialist the stuff we used to do. That company contract finished and we have gone out on our own now. We are called H R Services and we do all electrical, subbing for people we know, lots of our own jobs.
SPARKS: How did the YouTube channel come about?
CR: I started doing how-to car stuff. That’s my passion, cars really, but electrical is my job. You don’t take a massive interest outside of work: work is work and private time is private time. I started to do car stuff and it took off a little bit, but not that much, it was slow going. I did a random day at work video and it was pretty good, it got a few views and quite a few comments. That’s how I started carrying on with electrical jobs, people seemed to like it and find it interesting. It’s like a vlog, it’s not too technical. I don’t want to put too much, just enough so people can understand what we are doing. Electricians watching can relate and people who aren’t electricians can relate.
SPARKS: What made you want to do videos?
CR: I used to watch YouTube videos and I thought, ‘I’ve done all this stuff people are getting views for.’ I do it to put info out there and help people out. For instance, people go to the garage to get a battery change on a car or a headlight bulb. It can cost you £100, whereas if you can search for something online it’s free. It gives people that little bit of information they can’t find elsewhere.
SPARKS: What reaction do you get to your videos?
CR: You have to take the rough with the smooth. You get a few comments, but you know what the internet is like! You get criticism, people criticise, but they criticise anybody. Even if you are perfect in your job, people find faults in what you do. A lot of people these days still don’t know how to use YouTube properly as a viewer, they want to watch and switch it off, but there’s a lot they can do to help people promote their videos and it’s still an unknown.
SPARKS: What sort of videos tend to be the most popular?
CR: I’ve got a couple of popular car ones, but the electrical ones are really taking off now. They seem to be more popular so I’ll try and continue. It’s trying to keep people updated and being real in yourself, that’s what people want – they don’t want any fake stuff.
You can follow The cjrshop here.
