The CWB Association Welding Podcast
The CWB Association Welding Podcast
Episode 221 with Bella Hicks and Max Ceron
The CWB Association had the privilege to attend the Skills Canada New Brunswick Provincial Competition in Saint John, NB. Join us as we bring you special episodes recorded in person to advocate for careers in skilled trades and technology across the country.
What does it take for a woman to thrive as a welding inspector at one of North America's largest oil refineries? Bella Hicks brings us behind the scenes of her remarkable journey from making a strategic decision to pursue the specialized Welding Engineering Technology program at NBCC Moncton. Unlike standard welding programs, this intensive two-year curriculum delves into the metallurgical science behind the craft. "I wanted to know the why," Bella explains, highlighting how understanding the underlying principles makes troubleshooting welds infinitely more effective than simply "turning knobs." Being young and female in a predominantly male industry brings unique challenges, but Bella's approach is refreshingly straightforward. Rather than dwelling on barriers, she focuses on building trust through competence and communication. Her story isn't just about breaking stereotypes—it's about crafting a fulfilling life through skilled trades.
Ready to see where your welding journey might lead? Subscribe now to hear more inspiring stories from across the industry.
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All right, I can check. Check, I'm good. So I'm Max Duran. Max Duran, cwb Association Welding Podcast, pod pod podcast. Today we have a really cool guest welding podcast. The show is about to begin. Attention welders in Canada looking for top quality welding supplies, look no further than canada welding supply. With a vast selection of premium equipment, safety gear and consumables. Cws has got you covered. They offer fast and reliable shipping across the country. And here's the best part all podcast listeners listeners get 10% off any pair of welding gloves. Can you believe that? Use code CWB10 at checkout when placing your next order. Visit canadaweldingsupplyca now. Canada Welding Supply, your trusted welding supplier. Happy welding. Hello and welcome to another edition of the CWB Association podcast Today. I am in beautiful New Brunswick and St John. Here for today's skills competition no-transcript. So first of all, I love your name, Bella.
Speaker 2:Thank you. I'm sure you hear that all the time I do. I also get that's my dog's name a lot. Well, I do have friends who's also but my name's Max.
Speaker 1:so I get that a lot too. Yeah, probably Bella means beautiful in Italian, right it does Bella yeah. Yeah, see there my Italian co-editor, podcast manager here. All right, so let's start with what you're doing out here at NBCC today. What brought you out here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm out here with a company that I'm working for right now, cam. I'm located at the St John Refinery. Right now I'm doing welding inspections. So they wanted someone from industry to come out kind of represent what they're doing. So I'm just I set up a booth for a tri-trade for some younger high school kids to come out and try it out. So we have some uh little specimens set up.
Speaker 2:they can come try looking at, well, measuring stuff kind of what we do on a daily basis, and I got a little questionnaire set up for them. Yeah, trying to recruit the next uh generation of of inspectors yeah, yeah, trying to get people to stay here and get some jobs in New Brunswick, you know.
Speaker 1:Well, that's what we've been talking about. You know it came up as a topic a few times. Is the work in New Brunswick right? The rest of Canada kind of has this idea that there isn't work out in the Maritimes.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, because we typically see all the people in the Maritimes. The tradespeople come out during shutdown season out west yeah all the people in the Maritimes, the tradespeople come out during shutdown season. Out west it's a very common theme that we get people from Nova Scotia, new Brunswick, newfoundland, pei showing up in Alberta and Saskatchewan around May for shutdown season, which makes us all think, well, they must not have any work out there.
Speaker 2:But that's not true, is it? No, it's not. And I know when I was going through school the entire idea was oh, I'm gonna go out west and make money. Oh, I'm gonna go to Ontario and make money. I didn't know there was so much job opportunity here. You just kind of gotta get your foot in the door and look for it, and once you make a good name for yourself, it's pretty easy to find some work yeah, everyone's that I've talked to has basically said that they've never had problems finding work.
Speaker 2:Actually, no, no, no. Yeah, you can bounce around here. We got the refinery here for industrial work you can start doing. I worked at a couple of fabrication shops. You can bounce around at the mills and stuff, like once you get going you can kind of you can find some good work.
Speaker 1:Now the program you took with the welding engineering tech program, the WET program. That's something that's not offered everywhere in Canada. No, it's not so it's out here in the Maritimes and not all of the provinces in a couple or maybe even just in New Brunswick.
Speaker 2:I think it's just in New Brunswick. Well, they have one program in Newfoundland and they have one program at the NBCC in Moncton, In Moncton, right.
Speaker 1:And then, aside from that, it's Ontario and Alberta, and that's about it. I mean, I'm in Saskatchewan, we don and we don't have that program and every time I meet someone who's gone through that program from any of the provinces, it really seems like a great program. Talk to me about your program that you took here, and what was it about?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I took the program in Moncton that's where I'm originally from. So I took that program right out of high school and I clicked in it pretty much right off the bat, like I really wanted to get into welding. But I really wanted to find out, like the the why and the science behind welding as well. So that's why I took the weld, the weld tech program, because we started out doing some welding and then in the second year we really dive into the inspection, inspection parts of it and the how everything kind of works right yeah, the metallurgy, the background of it, yes exactly.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I I really enjoyed the program. I still have really great relations with all the instructors and you know, if I ever need anything they're always there for me, and great, yeah, now why welding at all I?
Speaker 3:mean you know.
Speaker 1:You know, for for someone coming up in in new brunswick there's probably lots of opportunities in different areas you're like. I mean the fisheries and the marine life out here is something in itself. You know why. What attracted you to get into the welding trade? You said you wanted to get into it right at high school.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so when I was in high school, I've always been interested in working on cars, working on older vehicles, and it was just something I was brought up around. So when I was in high school, I started taking automotive classes as soon as I could and when. I started doing that. We started doing um some auto body work, so just repairing panels or basic welding and I fell in love with it right off the bat. I wanted to do the skills, competition and everything it was it was pretty cool did you do skills for auto body.
Speaker 2:No, I didn't. I didn't end up doing it.
Speaker 1:I wasn't good enough, but you wanted to. Yeah, I wanted to.
Speaker 3:I was just starting.
Speaker 2:I didn't really understand anything about welding. It was just kind of like a cool concept to me and I really I really liked it. So when I was in my automotive class I I really kind of put my mind to starting welding after school. I wanted to take the welding program and it was actually my um, my instructor in high school that said maybe you should take like the weld tech program.
Speaker 2:Like I I know, somebody who's taken that and they're doing really well for themselves. It's a two-year program, so it's a little bit longer, but you kind of understand, like the the why things work, how things work. Um, you get to know everything. It's easier to problem solve, I guess, when, when you're welding, and you know what's going on, why you're getting these issues, you know or not getting the product that you want.
Speaker 2:So I kind of looked into that. I went to the open house for the uh, the weld tech program and, uh, yeah, I just it just kind of clicked and so I signed up and got in why weld tech and not just welding?
Speaker 3:you know if you were looking to just do the.
Speaker 1:If you fell in love with welding, was there something that you looked at both the programs and thought this one looks cooler than that one?
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, like I said, I kind of just wanted to know like the why behind it and I really liked kind of being in the lab and those kinds of things. Those interested me as well. And my entire time that I was in the welding technology program I was like I'm just going to go out and be a welder, that's, I didn't want to be an inspector.
Speaker 2:I kind of saw it as like you know you shouldn't coach a sport you don't play right. So I was like I want to be a welder, I want to do that. So every chance that I got, I was like trying to get jobs at fab shops or or working wherever you know practicing at home all the time, you know.
Speaker 2:Um, so I did that and uh yeah, but basically I took the course because I wanted to understand the science behind it. I kind of you know that show how it's made yeah, whatever, I love that as a kid. Everyone loves that yeah, so it was kind of like that, but in the course really awesome.
Speaker 1:Well, I know that you know. I taught welding for a long time and lots of the students would be like why do we need to learn metallurgy? What's the point of learning metallurgy? Right, and I was like you know you can go a long way in your career without learning metallurgy, but it's the ultimate problem solver.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1:Because you're not going to ever really figure out what's wrong with your weld or what's happening unless you know metallurgy, because otherwise you're just turning knobs right. It's just like oh, more voltage, less voltage, more this, more that, less that. And it isn't until you actually understand the metallurgy, what's happening in the weld, that you can just look at it and be like okay, it's probably this or that or this, because you can start to problem solve right.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly, and that's exactly why I wanted to take the course too, like I had went to the open house and kind of asked those questions to the instructors and they were like, yeah, we deep dive into everything that goes on in welding, like why things happen, why you're getting the results you want or don't want, and I really liked that. I thought I'd learn a lot more um that way. So that's just the route that I chose to take and you said it was a two-year course, right?
Speaker 1:yes because I know some of the wet programs in Canada are sometimes three. Now yeah right now it's it'll. Sometimes they've added I think some of them have added robotics or automation to a few of them yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's supposed to be a three-year course and they condense it into a two-year course, so we kind of do like a sped up version at the mbcc in monkton. Um, I know their their intentions behind that is to basically just make it so that you kind of you feel that pressure that you'd feel in the industry, like when I'm working at a job. It's like it's very high pace, need things now. You need to be thinking like three steps ahead.
Speaker 1:You're the one holding up the job Exactly.
Speaker 2:And they want to simulate that in the course, right? So everything is like that, like you're staying up really late to finish projects that are due the next morning, and then you're repeat doing that all again. Right, so it was very stressful but I appreciated the stress, the it was very stressful, but I appreciated the stress, the simulation of that, because that's what I do every day in my job. Now, right, so, you can't make it in the course. Probably you know wouldn't do as good in the industry.
Speaker 1:Now you said you tried to avoid becoming an inspector, but then it happened.
Speaker 2:Yes, it did. Yeah, yeah, my entire intentions behind the course. I was like like I'm gonna, I, immediately when we finish the course, we have the opportunity to take the cw1, a cwb level one exam, the welding exam. Um, so we, I took that right out right off the bat. Um past that and then I immediately went back for my work term. I worked at a small fabrication shop in monkcton called McSheffries, so I worked there. They ended up offering me a job. I took that for the summer and I got a call from a shop in St John saying that they were looking for inspectors and they wanted to hire me. And it was. It was a little bit more money and I honestly was like you know what, maybe I should just dive into this. Yeah, and I can always fall back on welding. Maybe I should just dive into this right, yeah, and.
Speaker 2:I can always fall back on welding if I wanted to. But, um, I wanted to try something else. I kind of I was born and raised in Moncton kind of wanted to move out of my hometown too, so it was kind of an opportunity to to do it, so I just jumped on it, I guess yeah, and how?
Speaker 1:how's the transition been? Have you enjoyed it?
Speaker 2:actually, yeah, I enjoyed it a lot. So I started out, um, when I first got to the company that I was working for in st john's cfm, I was doing just nde, so we did like small shutdowns at the mills or I was traveling back and forth to uh different companies.
Speaker 2:We went to cavendish farms and uh pei, just doing small inspections like uh ut inspections, mag, particle inspections, stuff like that, and I did a little bit of radiography, liquid penetrant, all all those kinds of welding or inspections yeah yeah, so, um, I did that and then, uh, it came around the slower season for us, so it's winter, so I took a little bit of time off to do some courses and then they basically told me that I had an opportunity to go to the refinery to do some quality control inspections. So I jumped onto that and then I've been there ever since and that's what I do now QC, quality control inspections. So, and I love that, I love going to work.
Speaker 1:Actually it's pretty, pretty cool, well you know, when I came in yesterday on the flight, it was like one in the morning. I was flying into St John and the taxi driver taking me to the hotel, and I saw you on the flight. It was like one in the morning. I was flying into St John and the taxi driver taking me to the hotel and I saw the refinery. I could see the glow of the refinery from the airport and I'm from Regina. We have a refinery too, and it's big work right.
Speaker 1:And anywhere there's a refinery, there's a lot of work attached to it, especially for the welding community. We just actually had a blowout in Regina at our refinery last month. Oh, really it's pretty scary, but no one got killed, which was nice. But it just goes to show like refineries are a constant state of repair.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Like constant. People don't realize the wear and tear high-pressure piping has on it, especially when you go from summers to winters and winters back to summers. Everything's outside, everything's. You know, there's thousands and thousands of kilometers of piping in these refineries and I learned today that it's one of the largest refineries in Canada.
Speaker 2:In Canada? Yeah, I think in North America too. I might be wrong, but yeah it is. It's a big place and it's a lot to maintain. We have 24-7 coverage. No-transcript. Oh, is that? Is that uptown? Is that the city? And she said, no, that's the refinery it's like I was so blown away.
Speaker 1:It was huge, right, yeah, yeah now. Do you know what kind of fuels they make at the refinery here, what kind of stuff they do?
Speaker 2:um, I don't uh deep dive into that stuff too much, but just curious yeah just yeah. Um, honestly, I would probably be misquoting if I told you.
Speaker 1:So now, what kind of work do you do there? Like what's the typical day?
Speaker 2:look like for you at the refinery yeah, so when I come in, I'll come in in the morning. Um, we kind of have like a meeting in the morning to see what jobs are going to be on the go, what repairs. So I do maintenance right now. Um, I do turn around sometimes in the fall or in the spring, whatever's going on, but day to day I just do this, the general maintenance repairs. So we go in, we have a meeting about what's going to go on, what jobs we're working on today, and then we get a work packet. Basically it's just the entire job is planned out and you just kind of make sure that everybody's following the steps. Your quality surveillance, quality control make sure the jobs are running smooth, everything's up to code.
Speaker 1:And yeah, how much or how big of a part of your NDE job is safety related.
Speaker 2:Um, I just stumped you because that's kind of a tricky question, because so much of inspection is related to safety. Yes.
Speaker 1:But not directly.
Speaker 2:Right and it's kind of a weird overlap, right yeah. So right now, with me doing the quality control, I just organized the NDE, so I'll get, like, the NDE technicians to come in and do some work for me, I guess, and then they submit a report basically saying it if it accepts or if it fails, right so. But with high pressure piping, like we have a lot of, there's a lot of responsibility on you, right, like, like you said, in that those accidents in regina- like there's stuff that happens like that all the time at refineries.
Speaker 2:Luckily, at the refinery here we we've been like safety is our top priority right so we haven't had very many issues, but, um for sure, like I take safety as like a big, a big thing, especially with nde, it's always like that thing you fall back on right like you can weld something, you can look at it and it can look all great, but as soon as you do radiography on it, you might not be able to see something that's internally wrong with it.
Speaker 2:Right, so it really can save your butt, I mean, you know now.
Speaker 1:You got into the program young like I have here written down that you. You took the program at 19 years old right, so like yeah, so I graduated yeah right. So like you're out in the world at 19, fresh ticket and you're, and you're out there to prove yourself. First of all, that's young for anybody period, but how was that for you as a young woman to try? To get out there and be like hey, listen to me, I have a cert.
Speaker 1:I'm going to tell you, your weld failed. How do you feel about that? Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2:No, no for sure, because I mean I have a later birthday in the year. So when I graduated high school, I was 17. And then I later birthday in the year. So when I graduated high school, I was 17, and then we, uh, I did the two-year program. I graduated 19 and then pretty much started working right off the bat, right.
Speaker 2:So, um, being a young woman, it was definitely a little bit intimidating. But once you kind of get into it and develop a relationship with uh, with the welders or the fitters or the trades people that you're working with, um, you kind of develop like a trust or a bond. You know they know that you're there to make sure that they're they're doing their job right and to kind of be a second set of eyes as well. And you know you, you learn to trust them and learn their tips and tricks and techniques that they use, right. So, um, I've definitely run into a couple issues sometimes, but I mean, in the general gist of it, people are a little bit questioning at first because, like you said, I'm, I'm young, I'm a woman, you know so, but um, in general I've had pretty great experiences.
Speaker 1:Once you develop that trust and relationship with the trades people do you have other female inspectors in the company with you that you work at?
Speaker 2:um, currently, right now, there's none, there's just me. But when I first started at the refinery, there was two other girls that I was working with and, yeah, we pretty much we had only three inspectors at one point and we were all three girls, so I called it the hen house.
Speaker 1:Where'd they go off to?
Speaker 2:One of them is on maternity leave right now. And the other one. She just ended up going out west to work for a little bit and now she's working directly for Irving at the refinery as well. She's just doing a different inspection position.
Speaker 1:Right right Now in your work, is it very seasonal, is there a lot of up and downs or is it pretty steady?
Speaker 2:For the maintenance work. It's steady all year round. We do have slower seasons, given in the winter and stuff After a shutdown ends in the fall, we usually have slower seasons, um, given in the winter and stuff after shutdown ends in the fall. We usually have a slower season in the winter, but it picks right back up in the fall.
Speaker 2:So people some people do get laid off in the slower season, um, but you'll, you'll be picked right back up after a couple, couple weeks or a couple months depends what's going on too, how many projects are on the go at the refinery and stuff, but it's a typically it's like year-round work now you said you have people report to you and bring your report, so I would assume that means you're level two yes, I am so when did you go back to do your level two and how was that?
Speaker 2:that was, uh, my level two. It was good. I went back um, I think it's almost two years ago, a year and a half ago now. Um, I went back as soon as I could. You have to develop a certain amount of hours being a level one, right, and you have to get someone to sign off on you, um, so as soon as I had those hours, I took it. Yeah, um, just to just to see, and I passed, luckily on the first time.
Speaker 1:It's tough. It is a lot harder than the first one.
Speaker 2:I agree it was a very challenging exam, but, um, it was a good refresher to kind of be studying for it and uh, you know, you go take your level one exam, go out into the industry and then you kind of forget a couple textbook things right. So it was a great refresher, but it was definitely a challenging exam.
Speaker 1:I find that one of the things that's nice about the inspection exams now, as opposed to a million years ago when I took them, is that now it's all on PDFs on computers.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:So you can actually just use the search function on pdfs to help you narrow it down. I don't know if you did that or not? Yes, I did, yeah, but it makes it a lot easier to find something, whereas before you'd literally have to like remember where it is in the book, which sucked yes, when I went to go take my exam, actually there was a couple older guys there and they had a giant binder and they were flipping through.
Speaker 2:They just had the printed textbook because they didn't know how to use it on the computer and I was like wow, like that's kind of impressive to just remember where everything is yeah, I could never do that.
Speaker 1:No, I know, I'm always just like search.
Speaker 2:47 one whatever it'll come up some people have that kind of photographic memory, though, like I know a couple guys that I can call them up and they're like oh yeah, it's that this paragraph and this code, and you look exactly at this table.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I wish I was like that yeah, not all of us are that smart now in terms of you know your involvement in the community. Do you try to do anything as a, as a mentor, as a female mentor? Do you work with women? Do you ever do anything like that?
Speaker 2:um, yeah, I mean, I had. I had great mentors that were men actually for me when I was in high school and stuff. Like I said, my teacher that was teaching automotive, he was a great mentor for me. He really pushed me to just get into the industry and not be afraid to do something with the trades, to do something right, yeah, with the trades. Um, I try to be something like that for I guess younger women like getting opportunities like this to talk on the podcast or to uh go do the try trade here at skills canada, you know anything. I can kind of get my foot in the door and kind of be like a positive light for for especially younger girls, this it's.
Speaker 1:It's not something scary, you know, like you yeah you can do it right well, the trades is only four percent women, or you know?
Speaker 1:yeah steel trades and it's the worst of all and I bring it up in a lot of episodes because it's always like I love getting the perspective of what do you think we could do better in the industry, because everyone's got a different angle, everyone's got a different piece of the industry that they work in right and and for a long time I think we've we've been working really hard at recruiting um, but now it's like what can we do to help them stay you?
Speaker 2:know, what?
Speaker 1:what is it that we're missing and what can we do better?
Speaker 2:for sure. I find that um a lot of people before they go into the industry like I've had very many positive experiences being in the industry working with um just men all day or whatever right like I haven't had very.
Speaker 2:I've been fortunate to not have very many negative experiences I have heard people have but, um, I think that to get people to stay into it, it just honestly I think it might just develop over time. I think people right now are still a little bit afraid. Women might be a little bit afraid to uh go into a room and it's just all men there you're trying to tell them what to do, right, like I. I totally get that, but once you get over that stigma, I find that it's it's not too bad.
Speaker 1:So there's a job that needs to be done. The job is exactly right right, exactly.
Speaker 2:It doesn't matter who you are like, as long as you're getting your job done and doing it right so that ties into, like the atlantic, you know, skills competitions.
Speaker 1:You said you wanted to do skills when you were younger. Not good enough. I don't know if I believe you, but okay, you know. Okay. Now, how are you involved in skills since then?
Speaker 2:So my best friend Courtney she runs the Skills Canada in New Brunswick here.
Speaker 1:So any chance I get Like Courtney Donovan. Courtney Donovan, yes, yes, yes. I've known her for a long time. I was in russia with her.
Speaker 2:Oh really were you yes, yeah, I heard that was a pretty fun trip it was awesome took a picture with the game of thrones uh chair and stuff.
Speaker 1:It's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, courtney's awesome, she's one of my best friends, um, so she kind of helped me get involved when I was in college. That's where I met her. So we did, um, we did some mentorship for young girls getting into the trades in high schools and stuff. We'd go around and teach them like just basic stuff about setting up a welding machine, running a bead, like just basic stuff, just to get them involved and kind of promote them getting into the shop, getting their hands dirty, right. So I do that and then anything else Courtney kind of asked me to it's going to photo op over there.
Speaker 1:Yeah right, crazy, yeah, uh, anything else, courtney kind of asked me to um.
Speaker 2:Yeah, anything else Courtney pretty much gets me to uh, um, get into like coming out here doing the tri trade or we're doing any judging for their welding competitions and stuff. I try to be involved that way, Awesome.
Speaker 1:Well, let's take a quick break here for our, for our advertisers, and then when we get back, I want to talk more about skills, atlantic and what's going on here, because I think it's a wonderful thing to promote the trades and I want to get your view on a few things. So don't go anywhere. We'll be right back here with Bella Hicks here on the CWB Association podcast. Looking for top quality welding machines and accessories, look no further than CannaWeld. Based in Vaughan, ontario, cannaweld designs, assembles and tests premium welding machines right here in Canada. Our products are CSA certified and Ontario-made approved, reflecting our unwavering commitment to excellence. Count on us for superior service that's faster and more efficient than market competitors. Whether you're in aerospace, education or any other precision welding industry, cannaweld has the perfect welding solution for you. Visit CannaWeldcom today to discover why professionals rely on CannaWeld for their welding needs. Cannaweld where precision meets reliability in welding. Enjoy peace of mind with our four-year warranty on most machines. Conditions do apply.
Speaker 1:Josephgassesca, your one-stop welder's superstore. Whether you run a welding shop or are just starting your welding journey, joseph Gas, the welder's superstore is the best place for everything related to welding. Come to the site or browse our top picks of welders, helmets and welding supplies specific to your industry, even filter out the items eligible for manufacturer cash rebates. Our intuitive search tool puts everything at your fingertips and checkout is always a breeze. Pay securely with your credit card at any time. If you are ready to streamline your welding supply shopping experience, visit josephgassesca that's Joseph with an F as in family. Start filling your cart with welder confidence. And we are back here on the cwb association podcast. I'm here with bella hicks at nbcc. Like I said earlier, we're out here for the atlantic skills competition and, uh, you know we're a part of the welding world, we're part of the welding trades. You yourself took a wet program and are a level two inspector at the upgrader. What is it that you hope to do this week? What's what? What work are you doing here?
Speaker 2:um. So, like I said earlier, I'm doing the tri trade for try to promote some high school kids that's with your company.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's an inspection company. Yes, exactly, yep um.
Speaker 2:So I'm doing that uh to try to promote some people to get into the inspections, get into the trade world, um, and then I'm also helping out with the judging for the um welding competitions, I believe, this afternoon and then tomorrow as well, both the post-secondary and the secondary.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, have you judged before?
Speaker 2:I did uh when I was in college. We had the uh provincial competitions at the nvcc monkton so we just had them for the uh the welding students there see who was going to be moving on to the provincial competitions. So we did an in-house inspections and stuff like that so pretty excited are you pumped?
Speaker 1:I am pretty excited to see what's out there. You know, what do you? Which one's easier for you to judge, the secondary or post-secondary?
Speaker 2:uh, probably the, the post-secondary I was talking about it with the ua guys earlier.
Speaker 1:It's like I love the secondary competitions, the high school kids. I mean they're, they're adorable, I don't know how else to say it.
Speaker 2:I love seeing the young welders come up and and working so hard like I mean they're, they're trying so hard, but uh, you could also tell they're still in high school, right yeah, I like the post-secondary too, because, working in the industry and stuff, this might be somebody that you run into in the future.
Speaker 2:Right so you get to kind of see where they're at right now and maybe you'll meet them five, ten years down the road or a year down the road and kind of see like, oh they're, they're kind of honing their skills now, right, so one of the things I've always noticed after years now of being involved with these things decades.
Speaker 1:God, I'm old is that even the ones that just show up to these competitions like you're maybe not even going to place top 10. But you're here, you're trying, you're competing. You're already steps ahead of someone who didn't. You already have an advantage in the industry, steps ahead of someone who didn't. You already have an advantage in the industry. You're probably going to get out there and get a better job and make more money because you're willing to put your neck out there.
Speaker 2:Yes, for sure, I think that goes a long way just to, like you said, put yourself out there. It definitely gives you that kind of advantage in just your attitude and your work ethic. I find Right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I tried to do the in-house competition and it didn't in just like your attitude and your work ethic.
Speaker 2:I find you know right. Yeah, I uh, I took the. I tried to do like the in-house and or the in-house um competition when I was in high school, just with the welding students.
Speaker 2:Some of the weld tech students did the welding as well yeah I'd been practicing for weeks, weeks and then when I got there, it just, it just didn't turn out the way I wanted it to, so I didn't end up moving on. But, um, anyway, I did that, but it was just looking back on it. It was just like the, the mindset, just to go and try something and, and you know, put yourself out there.
Speaker 1:So what are the things that you know you need for these types of things, because this is a competition right Is that competitive spirit, that desire to win and to compete against other people and see where you are. You know how important have you seen that be in your career. You know, when you're out in the workplace, when you're out in the field, that competitive spirit amongst welders.
Speaker 2:For sure, I think it's. There's a very big competitive competitiveness with welders for sure, because I mean you're getting into an industry and there's thousands and thousands of other people that are kind of like you know could be a lot better than you, could be a lot worse than you, whatever.
Speaker 2:So I think it's really important to kind of have that competitive edge, especially as an apprentice, like practicing at home, taking your days off and maybe going to your welding hall if you're in the union and practicing and kind of. You know, just if you have that competitive edge, you just might be a little bit better than than the next guy and you might end up keeping your job right so I think I think it kind of ultimately comes down to that and what about as an inspector?
Speaker 1:do you find that it changes much?
Speaker 2:for for the competitiveness?
Speaker 1:do you try to be a better inspector than the inspectors around you? Are you trying to out-inspect them?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I definitely do try to put myself there as having good work ethic. It's always just been like a pride thing for me, like I just don't like leaving something unfinished or doing something half I guess, yeah, better or worse, but so I don't know I I I guess there's not as much competition as like in the welding industry, I guess, for that way. But um, I'm not trying to out inspect anybody but how many inspections have you done today?
Speaker 2:I did 24, you know it's not more so about that. It's more so just about like having tidy work, making sure that.
Speaker 1:Clean documentation, Exactly right.
Speaker 2:Like, if you're doing a package and you have everything organized, if the next guy picks it up, he should know exactly where you left off right, not leaving everything in a mess and just taking pride in your work honestly.
Speaker 1:And where do you see yourself going with your inspection game? You know you went from level one to level two. Do you see a level three in your future? Not a lot of people go that far.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, I really don't know. I'm just, I'm uh, I'd like to do a couple api tickets okay, I'm six year, 650s.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and it depends where I end up going. Um, I really like my job at the refinery right now doing like the maintenance gig and doing the turnarounds and stuff, so I stick around here. Yeah, I might look into doing my CWB Level 3. I think that could be in the near future, but I don't know. If I travel around, bounce around, I could look at doing different other avenues getting some API tickets, maybe doing a couple other code endorsements with CWB, like your ASMEs, exactly right.
Speaker 1:Or your B51s. Yeah, although I heard there's some issues. There's some pushback on the new 51 updates.
Speaker 3:Oh, really yeah.
Speaker 2:Interesting.
Speaker 1:Every time there's code updates there's always some. It trickles down over time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But I mean, there's a lot of different codes out there, you know out here.
Speaker 2:I don't know, does Lloyd's still push around here for shipbuilding? There's not as much shipbuilding around here because they shut down the shipyard here. But there definitely might be in Halifax, where they have a big shipyard there, you know yeah.
Speaker 1:I've been out to those Halifax shipyards. They're cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they are yeah, but I mean, Irving is everywhere out here right.
Speaker 1:Like even the gas station's everywhere I was like I always forget how big of a company Irving is until I'm back out here.
Speaker 2:It's almost as popular as the Tim.
Speaker 1:Hortons on every corner here. Yeah, but hopefully they're better, because I don't like Tim Hortons coffee very much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, more McDonald's coffee. I am more of a McDonald's coffee.
Speaker 1:Sorry, we're not sponsored by either of those companies. But I mean, if McDonald's wants to sponsor yo, we're here.
Speaker 2:I'll take the free coffee, yeah.
Speaker 3:I'll take the free coffee for sure.
Speaker 1:So if you're not looking to get that level three, you know, do you see yourself at the refinery a long time? You know, are you happy with the gig? You're so young. I'm sure you probably have some things that you'd like to check off the bucket list.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, there's definitely like a bucket list of things I'd like to do, but I really it's from talking to other inspectors and tradesmen who've traveled and stuff like it's really, you're really fortunate to work like 40 hours a week and come home every night.
Speaker 2:You know there's not as much traveling and stress financially like when's the next shutdown, kind of thing. So I get a lot of overtime, don't get me wrong. But if I wanted to just work the 40 hours a week and go home every night and have my weekends off like I'm, and you're making a decent living exactly right.
Speaker 1:I mean, overtime's always nice for welders because it's extra money, but it's scary when you need overtime to survive. That's not what you want. You want your normal 40 to cover life. Yep, anything above and beyond is above and beyond right. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm really fortunate to have something local that kind of I'm able to do that, so I could see myself staying there for a while. But I mean if anything happens, I'd love to travel and bounce around.
Speaker 1:Have you done any traveling? Have you gone anywhere else?
Speaker 2:Not to work. No, I mean, I've gone to smaller other Atlantic provinces. I have Nova Scotia or PEI to do the odd like NDE job or whatever, but um, no, big traveling not yet not yet you're open to it oh yeah, I'm definitely open to it what about for your hobbies?
Speaker 1:is there anything that you do? Because I mean, just this morning, you know, we interviewed someone, sarah, and she does. You know, metal art and there's so much awesome. I love Sarah Thornton. Yeah, and it's something that I've never really gotten into. But you know, I've always found it so interesting that people that are in the welding community also are often so creative. They have a creative side to them, and maybe I'm just the weird one that doesn't have that very well, but you know, are you also in that, in that bucket where you?
Speaker 2:you have a creative side, oh yeah, for sure, like I mean, I uh, I play a couple instruments. I play guitar, I play piano.
Speaker 1:Does that count, because I play instruments? Yeah, that's, that's a creative side creative outlet for sure, yeah, cool yeah, so um, yeah, but you're definitely right.
Speaker 2:I find that a lot of creative people get into welding. It's almost like like you said, sarah, doing like the metal art on the side. That's's a really big thing in our industry too, and I've noticed that a lot. I find creative people often have like steady hands too, either from playing instruments or drawing or painting, or whatever.
Speaker 1:And patience for sure. Yeah, that's the thing that makes a good welder Art makes you patient, because you know, trying to learn that song on guitar man, sometimes you just want to throw that thing out the window.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've been there Definitely smashed a few guitars over songs.
Speaker 1:Over sad songs, over romantic songs, over broken hearts.
Speaker 2:Pretty angry songs.
Speaker 1:And what about cars? You know, you said you loved cars, you grew up around cars. Yes, oh my gosh, I'm a car guy.
Speaker 2:I've had over 30 vehicles my whole life, I love vehicles, I love, I can't I've been waiting to pull my cars out of storage right now, but it's still snowing in Saskatchewan, so oh, really, yeah, I just took mine out of storage. Actually, I, uh, I have three vehicles right now. I just bought a new truck Well, it's new to me, it's an older truck.
Speaker 3:It's a 75 Ford.
Speaker 2:Um, I just bring it out here, actually, but my starter just went so and uh, 75 ford, it's a f100. F100, so that's 302 or it has a 390 in it 390.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a great engine. Yeah, heavy and low, but it's. It's good, sounds pretty good. But that starter is going to have a separate bend x on it. It's all a solenoid it'll be, uh, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I mean that's, that's good. Yeah, something I'll probably get into tonight and end up working really late on.
Speaker 1:I got a 2019 Mustang Roush.
Speaker 2:Oh, do you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which is pretty fun. But I love all cars. I've had all the makes, all the brands. I'm not like a Chevy guy or nothing like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, neither am I. Because they're all fun, they all got their own little quirks to them that are cool. Yeah, totally. I got a couple gmcs too, and then I have this. This is my first ford, but I mean, I'm not, I'm not a brand person either. Yeah, yeah, like I have a chevy truck and a ford mustang, so whatever I kind of consider, like if you're into the cars too, like that's kind of like an artsy side to you like I feel like vehicles are art right yeah, I used to.
Speaker 1:I used to like customize it. When I was younger I was really big into like dropping them down, lowering them, big stereos, all that cool stuff. But I mean, it's one of the luxuries that you can have as a welder, because you can afford hobbies like that yes, exactly right, it's one of the things I always tell young people about getting into the trades, especially women, because when you look at the, the list in society of like things that make life difficult, economic security, financial security, is like number one yeah, right because if you can't afford to live, you're not dreaming, you're not thinking about the future, you're not thinking about hobbies, you're not thinking about art, you know, you're not thinking about these things, you're just thinking about surviving.
Speaker 1:And the trades give you that luxury, afford you the luxury that hard work will allow you to go buy a 1975 ford 100 and make it a project vehicle. Why?
Speaker 2:because you can yeah, right, and that's fun, that's great yeah, I definitely have been really fortunate, like getting into into the trades you do work. You work long hours. You're going to miss out on on family events and holidays and stuff like that sometimes. But, um, I've been really fortunate Like I'm only 24 right now. I just bought my first house in November and it's been kind of like a crazy time for housing and stuff like that, yeah, that's wild, right.
Speaker 1:So many 24-year-olds are struggling around the world right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. So I mean, it's kind of crazy, I guess. But yeah, yeah, I've been pretty fortunate enough to to have a job that that lets me do that and uh, the trades are definitely it if you want to have some financial security yeah, I mean, I don't know, fortunate's the word. You're hard working that is true, you build your own luck, you know.
Speaker 1:I mean, you know you say you got to be good to be lucky and lucky to be good, right, yeah, so it's. Uh. It's one of those things where we try to tell people and like you said it best yes, there's hard days, work, you might miss birthdays, you might miss whatever's, but what do you gain? Right? Like you gain so much on the back side right yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:No, I totally agree so what's next?
Speaker 1:uh, for this week, you know, you got the judging today, judging tomorrow, you got the booth, and then that's it. Back home, then back to work on Monday.
Speaker 2:Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, the dream is over, the dream is over. Yeah, yeah, I don't got much else on the go, honestly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, awesome. Well, I hope we have time to go out and see all the judging later. I know we want to take pictures and talk to the competitors too. I think we might actually have time here right away at lunchtime. But thanks so much for coming on the show. It's been lots of fun. I learned lots today. I learned about New Brunswick and I can't wait to hopefully see you guys out in Regina to come out to Skills.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, for sure I'd love to come out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it'll be a good time. Awesome. Thanks, max yeah, you bet. And for all the people that have been following along, thanks so much for being a part of the podcast. Remember to download, share and also our fan mail feature. You know we're collecting all these fan mails that we're getting, cause we're going to start doing them in reels. We've got a plan. Trust me, the ones you've been Keep sending us information. We love to hear it and we'll catch you at the next one. We hope you enjoy the show.
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