For TOKTW 2017 I went to work with my dad.
Name of your host:
Darren Darwin
Relationship to you:
Father.
1. What is your job title?
Electrical Contractor.
2. What is your job description?
Electrician.
3. What are the duties and/or tasks you perform at your job?
Installing lighting, wiring, control panels and system installation and management, etc.
4. What qualifications do you have for this job in the following areas:
a) training?
“I participated in a four year apprenticeship program.”
b) education?
“I received my education at BCIT in a four year program.”
c) experience?
“I have been working as an electrician for the past 20 years and have had my own company since 2007.”
d) skills and attributes (personal qualities)?
My dad is very good at math which is important in his line of work.
5. What are some of the things you like about the job?
“That I am doing different things everyday, and working in different places everyday.”
6. What are some of the things you dislike about this job?
“I don’t particularly enjoy crawling into small spaces such as peoples attics and crawl spaces.” My dad is 6’2. “My job is also rough on my body and has taken it’s toll.”
Student Reflections:
1. Give three reasons why you would like this job (be specific):
a) Because you are able to work in different locations.
b) Once you are finished, being able to see the finished product. So for example, my dad works on job sites where the houses are actually being built, not renovated, so once the house is finished being able to turn on the lights and see what you have done. I feel like that would be very satisfying.
c)Being able to work with your hands, how the job is hands on.
On the left is a picture of me tying the wire together that had to be thread through a staircase. That was one of the jobs my dad gave me.
On the right is a picture of one of the holes that the wire had to be pulled through. It was through a concrete staircase leading up to the house we were working at.
2. Give three reasons why you would not like this job (be specific):
a) However it would be nice to have a hands on job, my dads job can often times be dirty and it is really hard on your body. My dad always comes home with cuts and scrapes on his hands from having to reach in walls and such. Not only that way though, it is hard on your back and the rest of your body as well.
b) Crawling in peoples attics and crawl spaces I would not enjoy, same as my dad does not enjoy it. I am afraid of bugs and there are spiders and other insects in those places, and I would also be claustrophobic.
c) My dad owns his own company, which means he has to work long and hard hours because he has to do it all himself. He leaves really early in the mornings and sometimes gets home late, so he doesn’t always see us that much. I would not like that. Sometimes he even has to work Saturdays, I would not enjoy that either. My dad works really hard.
3. Is this job for you? Why or why not?
I do not think that this job is for me because it would be really hard on my body, and I don’t like crawling in small spaces, I would be really claustrophobic, along with the fact that I am afraid of spiders.
4. Explain the value of TOKTW experience in relation to your ideas about your post secondary (after high school) plans (education?, training?, travel?, work?).
I think that TOKTW is a very beneficial experience for students to have because it gave me an idea about what working in constructions would be like, and gave me a better idea of what kind of field of job I would want to go into.