TOKTW 2017

THE INTERVIEW (Featuring Ray Lai, my step-father)

What is your job title?
I am a Supply Management Cost Specialist at Deere Hatachi Specialty Products.
What is your job description?

What are the tasks/duties you perform at your job?
Well I send drawings of machines to suppliers, order parts, make sure the parts arrive on time, analyze quotes, talk to suppliers, negotiate pricing, something similar to a project manager.
What qualifications do you have for the job in the following areas:
training? Not really, you really just need education then you’ll be taught the basics.
education? You should have at least either a degree in business, economics, or supply management. There are also apics courses you may take as well.
experience? Depends, if you are just starting in this field of work all you really need is education. If anything you can just get a junior supply management.
skills & attributes? You should have some organizational skills, you need to know how to maneuver around Microsoft programs, and you need to have people skills.  
What are some of the things you like about the job? Every day there are different challenges, you get to work with a variety of people and there’s high satisfaction when you complete a task.
What are some of the things you dislike about the job? There is actually quite a bit of pressure to get things done and doing other tasks properly and on time.
How do you anticipate this job changing in the next 5 years or so? Not too much, the work is quite repetitive but it could be more auto maintenance.

STUDENT REFLECTIONS (Featuring…well me!)

Give 3 reasons why you would like this job:

• You get to work with a lot of different people and collaborate, it seems really nice to work with other people all the time.
• You get your own assigned desk area/cubicle where you can keep everything just the way you like it. There’s quite a bit of open desk area and drawers to keep things really organized. There’s also super comfortable chairs!!
• The people you work with are all really friendly, and you can get to know people from different places from the factory floor too. My uncle works in the warehouse there so you actually would get to socialize with people you know! Watching the assembly, how they do things, what the steps are to get to a certain point is quite interesting too.

Give three reasons why you would not like this job:

• It seems a little boring and isolating at times because you are kept at a cubicle all day long. Yes there’s meeting and people on all sides of the cubicles, it just seems boring staring a wall for a whole day.
• Though the whole work place and jobs within Deere Hatachi seem interesting, the office job seems a little boring and at times can be stressful. You would have to make deals and communicate between suppliers and others, and stare at spreadsheets all day.
• Office job is doesn’t have a lot of social interaction. Yes sometimes there’s meetings and you talk to suppliers and such but, you are sitting down at a cubicle all day long facing a lot of wall.

Is this job for you? Why or why not?

No, being an office worker is not something for me! I frankly don’t like sitting around all day and just staring at a laptop and spreadsheets is quite boring. I am also more interested in a job within the medical field.

Explain the value of the TOKTW experience in relation to your ideas about your post secondary (after high school) plans (education?, training?, travel?, work?)

It does seem like TOKTW day is a great idea to expose us to what the real world is like. We get a little glimpse into what a real job is like, expectations, qualifications and all. For some people it is eye opening and it gives students an idea of what we’d like to do.