I'm going to be applying for an apprenticeship through my local JATC soon but I'm having a tough time deciding which specialty to apply for, residential or telecom.

I've got a background in IT networking already (military), so I'd have a leg up slightly on telecom, but I'd still have to log the hours to get anywhere which could mean a couple of slightly frustrating years where I'm not getting paid what I'm worth. According to the application, telecom also has a much larger travel radius for OTJ training, covering almost a third of my state, versus residential which is pretty much just my county and a couple others. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I think it speaks to availability of work quite a bit, meaning residential is more in-demand.

I also think residential would be more exciting, in general and partly because it's not something I have experience with already. I could also find work doing it pretty much anywhere I wanted to live but I feel like telecom is at least partially limited to higher population areas, at least for higher earning potential.

I might be way off on all of this and coming about it the wrong way entirely. Maybe I shouldn't be going union anyway? I don't know, really. Any help is appreciated.