How I landed my first engineering job with my hobby

[Winchman]

The one thing I indulged in when I was in college in the 1960s was the photography club. The club had a well-equipped darkroom, and I spent many hours processing film, making prints, and learning how to use cameras. Fast forward to 1967 and one of my interviews while searching for my first real job. There was a lot of competition for the good jobs. I was being escorted out of the engineering department at a turbine engine plant when I saw they had a darkroom, and asked if I could look around.

The escort seemed impressed with my familiarity with all the equipment, and asked if I knew how to use it. I assured him that I did. He took me to the lobby, and asked me to hang around for a while. Soon I was taken to a manager's office where I was offered a job where I'd split my time between engineering work and photography. Turns out the fellow who had set up the darkroom had left unexpectedly, and they really needed someone who could take technical pictures and do the darkroom work in house part-time. There was no way I'd pass that up.

It turned out to be a great job, too. I got to see every part of their operations, especially anything that was new or out of the ordinary as the photographer, and I spent the rest of my time in the design, machining, welding, fabrication, inspection, and test areas.

The job only lasted four years, but I really enjoyed it. The time and effort I'd put into my college hobby sure paid off for me.

 

[Crimsonking]

Awesome!

 

[DumpyMcDoodleface]

Sounds like a dream. I got my first engineering job the traditional way, hired after interning during school... I ended up using my photography background to improve our technical documentation as well as get some cool toys like our thermal imaging and high speed video gear.

So how did you end up in trees?

 

[Winchman]

I did a bunch of tree cutting as a teenager helping my grandfather, and years later a bunch of cleanup after hurricane Hugo. The house we bought when we moved to SW Ga had a lot of trees around it that had been damaged by fusiform rust that I wanted to get rid of. I hired local tree service companies to do the ones near the house, but decided to do the others myself.

It soon became clear that being able to climb would really help. I did some research, bought what was recommended, and started out low and slow. I didn't have any problem getting comfortable dangling from a rope, and really enjoyed playing around and working in the trees.

I made a hobby of getting permission to climb trees around the neighborhood to remove dead limbs for free. That was a good way to get lots of practice while actually doing something useful. I did a few tree removals, too. I was really careful about what I offered to do, and haven't had any complaints after dozens of jobs with my hobby.

 

[DumpyMcDoodleface]

That's really cool! I've cut trees and cleaned up stuff growing up, but when we hired a "tree guy" I was like, I want to do that! Learned very quickly that most of what that guy was doing was pretty sketchy and that gave me enough reason to pause and really dig in before going much further.