Our story
I didn't take the usual path into the trade. After a university degree and some time in an office job, I knew it wasn't for me. I travelled for a while, came home and started my electrical apprenticeship in 2015.
My apprenticeship put me on big commercial projects for months at a time, including the Auckland Council building refurbishment, the Farmers distribution centre and Westgate shopping centre. I finished it as a maintenance electrician at O-I Glass (now Visy), keeping glass bottle-making machinery running.
Once qualified, I worked on industrial installations and maintenance, then as a shift electrician at James Hardie. Often I was the only electrician on shift, day or night, responsible for getting things going again when they broke down. With a team standing around at 3am waiting on you and no back-up, you learn to find faults fast and fix them properly. Between big commercial builds and industrial breakdowns, I saw a wide range of the electrical industry before I ever started my own business.
I'd always wanted my own business, and my old boss encouraged me to go for it. I set a start date six months out: 1 April 2020. Then COVID hit and New Zealand went into lockdown. I pushed ahead anyway, and did my first job as Applied Electrical the day we came out of the first Level 4 lockdown. Since then, Applied Electrical has grown into a team of four, looking after homes and businesses across South and Central Auckland.
Patrick Miller, Owner