The best qualification for pursuing a career of Electrician is without doubt Apprenticeships for the entry level people.The more famous and acknowledged the employer,the more bright your future chances for getting a good job gets.

 Washington state Labor and industries shows sharing statesIn the state of Washington there are many specialty electricians and a master electrician. As a residential specialty electrician I was required to work in the field, supervised by a licensed residential electrician. The hours I worked were documented by an administrator. At 4000 logged hours I became eligible to test. The test ran 2 hours and consisted of content from the National electrical code Article 70, The Washington state administrative code. To open my own contracting company, I had to take a 6 hour test but there was no pre-work requirement. I was tested on the same two books and had to do 4 load calculations(mathematics) Missing 2 questions was a fail.

To be a commercial electrician you must log 8000 hours and half of them must come from another scope(like residential or industrial)
Here in Washington your apprenticeship can be done through the union or a non-union shop with a starting wage of 9-10 bucks an hour

with good work ethics you get a buck an hour every 3 months until you reach about 16-18.

Then you test and move to 20-22 immediately
Commercial electricians do really well where city jobs run around $38 an hour
I hope this helps
Also remember all states do not acknowledge other states training/certification process
For instance, Washington does not acknowledge California's program I met several Californians move to Washington with more knowledge than Washington Journeymen, and be stuck with apprentice wages , because they did not have the on the job hours properly recorded. Therefor they had to work as apprentices, cut in pay and taking orders from less experienced co workers.