Name of your host: Brett Pickles Relationship to you: Father
The Interview:
- What is your job title?
Contract Manager
- What is your job description?
“contracts managers oversee projects from the start through to completion, ensuring that work is completed on time and within its budget.”: https://www.careerstructure.com/careers-advice/profiles/contracts-manager
What are the duties and/or tasks you perform at your job?
Because he works for a window company, there are a ton of blueprints. This company has a lot of groups or teams, and they make blueprints for other companies. My dad is the contract manager of his group, so whatever blueprints he gets, he would make sure that all the measurements are correct and then he’d send those to someone who can make those windows.
What qualifications do you have for this job in the following areas:
- a) training?
He’s currently in training right now.
- b) education?
My dad used to work at IT and worked as a computer specialist, so before working at Starline, he was a bit of a computer geek. After that, he was a construction worker. So, he has experience with building things and fixing computers and building things with complicated blueprints.
- c) experience?
He used to work for PBEM, a building company and he used to be a construction worker. So he’s used to building and handling blueprints quite a bit.
- d) skills and attributes (personal qualities)?
He’s easy to get along with and makes things clear and understandable, if there’s a mistake in the blueprints he’ll sort it out with the rest of his team.
What are some of the things you like about the job?
The money is pretty good, so we have enough money to take care of ourselves. Plus, my dad just got a 10 thousand dollar raise, which is even better.
What are some of the things you dislike about this job?
How the shop can be loud when I go to get lunch, and when at one point I don’t have any emails, and then bam, my inbox is full of new things I need to take care of. One more thing is that the drive to get there and come back is almost 40 minutes long.
How do you anticipate this job changing in the next 5 years or so?
Hopefully to get a raise and become the leader of his team. That way the people there look up to him, and he becomes a technical leader at his work.
(Starline Windows building under construction).
Student Reflections:
Give three reasons why you would like this job (be specific):
- a)I’ve wanted an office of my own like my dad has because I work better when it is quiet and there aren’t many distractions.
- b)The people who also work there seem to be friendly, and I feel like I’d work well with them over time.
- c)The job seems to pay a decent amount of money, which would be great so I could be financially balanced, but also have a little extra money on the side.
Give three reasons why you would not like this job (be specific):
- a)I would have to show up at 8, meaning I would have to wake up a bit early in the morning because it takes me a long time to wake up.
- b)I feel like I would be all over the place because I’d always be correcting blueprints and making sure nothing is wrong with them.
- c) To get in the doors, you need to use a keycard. And I feel like I would lose mine a countless number of times.
Is this job for you? Why or why not?
Overall, I think this job would be good for me because I’d be in a good place financially, I’d get along well with the others, and I could have a workspace that I love. A small, and simple office.
Explain the value of the TYKTW experience in relation to your ideas about your post-secondary (after high school) plans (education? training? travel? work?).
TYKTWD is important because it gives someone the time to think about what kind of job they want. If someone really loves the work that their parent does, then they’d probably try to reach for that. If they don’t want a job like theirs, they would know that for sure and they could focus on what they really want to do.
