Episode 229 with Nick Cotto and Max Ceron

The CWB Association brings you a weekly podcast that connects to welding professionals around the world to share their passion and give you the right tips to stay on top of what’s happening in the welding industry.

Today's guest is Nick Cotto, a Welding Professional whose journey from a struggling student to a respected Quality Control Inspector challenges conventional wisdom about career paths and learning. What makes Nick's story compelling is his transformation from someone who "wasn't good in high school" and "didn't have that attention span" to a professional who now devours code books and technical manuals with enthusiasm. The catalyst? Finding something he genuinely enjoyed and respected. Where classroom learning once felt impossible, Nick found that the practical, hands-on nature of welding education perfectly matched his learning style.

Follow Nick:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-cotto-909280183/?originalSubdomain=ca

Thank you to our Podcast Advertisers:
Canada Welding Supply: https://canadaweldingsupply.ca/
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There is no better time to be a member! The CWB Association membership is new, improved and focused on you. We offer a FREE membership with a full suite of benefits to build your career, stay informed, and support the Canadian welding industry.  https://www.cwbgroup.org/association/become-a-member 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
All right, I can check.
Check, I'm good.
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Happy welding.
Hello and welcome to anotheredition of the CWB Association
podcast.
My name is Max Suran and, asalways, I'm trying to find the

(01:09):
best stories I can find acrossthis beautiful nation of ours.
Today I am sitting just a blockaway from headquarters here in
Milton, ontario, from CWB.
But I am talking to Nick herewho's calling in from Ontario.
I think you're in Ontario aswell here, yeah, you are.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yes, I am.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
And welcome to the show.
Nick Nick Cotto, how are youdoing?

Speaker 2 (01:28):
I'm good man.
How are?

Speaker 1 (01:29):
you.
I'm good.
I've been on the road for abouta week now, so I'm looking
forward to getting home, butthat's the way life is right.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
That's right, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
So where are you calling us from right now?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Nick, so I'm calling you from Athens, Ontario.
We're a little small farm towncommunity, about 1,500 people,
but 3,000 in the whole township.
But in the village itself about1,500 people.
We're like a single main street, one flash, a night
agricultural community, lots offarming going on out here and,
yeah, it's been my home now for25 years or better, 25 years.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Wow.
So Athens, you said like as inAthens, greece.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Exactly yes.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Athens, greece.
Now how?

Speaker 2 (02:12):
far are you away from like the GTA?
So from Toronto proper I'mprobably about three hours.
We're about an hour south ofOttawa, so kind of right near
the St Lawrence Seaway.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Oh yeah, cool, Cool, and like I was reading up on
your bio there, that you wereinitially born in the United
States.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Yes, I was, so I was.
So my dad was actually in theUS Army and he was stationed at
Fort Drum in Watertown and then,obviously being 19, they used
to cross the border here todrink.
That's where he met my mom, andthen he got replaced into Fort
Stewart, georgia, and thenthat's where I came along.
So we lived there until about98.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
and then we came home and what, what?
Convinced your family to moveup to Canada instead of your mom
relocating to the U?

Speaker 2 (02:52):
S well, my, my mom always had a close connection
with her family and my dad'sfamily wasn't as close and
connected, so it just made moresense for them to come up here
for the support system.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
So yeah, and is your mom's family from Athens?

Speaker 2 (03:06):
yes, yeah, my grandma lives right across town.
My grandfather's unfortunatelypassed now, but yeah, he was
across town and yeah, and agreat aunt and uncle here in
town too.
So we're a small, tight family,but we've all, we've always
been here, so well that's nice.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
You know the small town communities.
I'm in Saskatchewan.
There's a a lot of small town,rural kind of attitude.
There's pluses and minuses toit.
Obviously Sometimes you loveyour community but there's not a
lot of opportunities.
Sometimes you have to get spaceout.
Let's see if let's talk alittle bit about that family

(03:40):
connection.
You come back up to Canada.
You're just a little kid,you're probably like two years
old three years old yep, you'rethree years old and you get into
athens.
What are the things that youliked doing growing up like?
What were the things in athensthat were your favorite?

Speaker 2 (03:57):
well, I was huge into sports.
Um, we always had a goodsupport system here for sports,
whether it was just, you know,recreational or competitive
always played hockey, soccer,baseball.
It was just the closecamaraderie of the town was
definitely something thatappealed, I think, to my family.
That's kind of why they stuckaround here.
And then, uh, yeah, you know,schooled right down the road, um

(04:18):
, yeah, I always say, likethere's not much in Athens, but
if you're from Athens it's's goteverything you need.
So that's kind of, I think, whythey they stuck around here.
And yeah, I grew up playingsports hockey.
Like I said, we had a localteam here in town that did some
traveling.
And then, same with soccer.
We had a soccer team here intown and then eventually I ended
up playing some rep soccer.

(04:39):
So I did some traveling forthat too.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
And yeah, it's just just, it's always given me what
I needed for sure.
Now, what about the industryout there?
What's the big industry?
You mentioned agriculture.
Um, like, what are the bigdraws for work around you?

Speaker 2 (04:54):
so along the St Lawrence Seaway there's quite a
few chemical plants.
So uh, in Vista, which used tobe DuPont, uh, evonik, uhion and
Cardinal, there's quite a fewplants like that, so a lot of
the older generation I find theyall did plant work.
So we have multiple 3M plantsjust in Brockville, which is,
you know, 20 minutes down theroad.
Quite a bit of industry.

(05:15):
I wouldn't say there's a lot ofcommercial stuff, like there's
enough commercial stuff, butit's quite a bit of industry
around here Now, while it'staken a dive a little bit, there
was a booming period for awhile where pretty well,
everybody's grandparent you knewworked in a plant somewhere and
was that the same with yourfamily, like your mom and dad?
exactly yeah, my grandfatherspent 42 plus years at dupont

(05:37):
and maitland, so okay, yeah, somy mom's actually my mom's a
nurse and then my dad.
He was doing construction for abit and now he's doing more
custodial work.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
Okay, so as a kid growing up, you know it sounds
like you had a lot of greatthings around you, lots of great
, you know, opportunities.
But what drew you towards thetrades?
You know, because not everyonefalls into the trades, like you
know.
First try.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
No, no, that's right's right, right.
So what happened?
So my grandfather was alwayskind of hands-on.
He had a little shop behind hishouse, always did some
woodworking and I'd spend, youknow, some time out there with
them.
But truthfully, I was never biginto the trade, especially as a
kid.
Growing up I was never a superhands-on, working kind of kid.
I always imagined myselfbecoming a cop and that's
actually what I went to schoolfor.
To start, I did a half a yearpolice foundations and while I

(06:31):
always say I was not responsible, I always struggled with the
learning aspect, especially inschool.
So when I found myself gettingthat freedom to go down because
I went to Stony Creek campus forwelding but originally I went
to the Hamilton campus, mohawkCollege, for police foundations
and I found myself, you know,struggling in class.

(06:54):
I wasn't able to do thehomework well and it was kind of
a fluke accident with it.
I went and spoke to the studentadvisor.
It was right around Christmastime and I was super upset, you
know, I didn't feel like I wasdoing well in it and she said
well, we don't have many optionsfor you to transfer, but we do
have a fabrications techniqueprogram that has carpentry,
plumbing and welding, and youcould pick one of those three

(07:17):
majors in it.
So, honestly, I had done alittle bit of woodwork with my
grandfather and I hadn't donemuch plumbing.
I didn't really want to touch,you know, toilets and stuff all
that much.
So I thought, you know whatlet's, let's try welding.
And it just kind of caught meoff guard of what it was and
ended up running with it.
So it wasn't actually myoriginal plan to become a
tradesman, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
So what?
What was it about the policestudies that you didn't like?
You know, what was it thatdidn't jive with you?
Because, I mean, were you goodin school and high school?
Did you like school?

Speaker 2 (07:52):
You know what, I wasn't that good in high school.
I just I didn't have thatattention span.
I always wanted to be thatfunny kid in class.
And I found myself, you knowwhat, let's go out and we'll run
the streets with lights andsirens and we'll catch bad guys
and you know that'll be fun,right.
And then I found myself when Igot into the program.
Actually I had a provincialfences officer teaching a
victimology class and they madeit very clear early on that you

(08:15):
know, a young white man, you'regonna have a tough time getting
a job in the street.
So I was like, oh, you know,that's kind of daunting.
And then, on top of all thepaperwork that I was being, you
know, kind of brought to myattention that I'd be doing, I
was like, ah, you know what,maybe this isn't for me.
So that's what kind of you knowsteered me away from that idea.
That and the fact that you knowI was kind of struggling in
school, yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
So it's interesting that you bring that up because
you know the the concept of whatpeople think is going to be
easy often is not right.
So you know, even people thatget into welding that think like
, well, I'll go into weldingbecause I hate school, are often
shocked at how much schoolingthere is in welding, right when

(08:54):
they're like they see thetextbooks on day one and they're
like wait a second, I thoughtthis was a welding class.
Why is there all the textbooks?
That's right.
How did that foundations classturn out?
Like you know, you got to tryout a few things.
Yeah, did you feel like thatwas a step in the right
direction?

Speaker 2 (09:11):
I did, you know, and, like you said, when I got to
the class I was kind of shockedby the amount of like book work
that actually is involved in itand how much you need to apply
yourself to become, you know, adecent tradesman.
But I really fell in love withthe hands-on portion.
This course that I had takenactually allowed you to have
four plus hours in class in ahands-on environment doing

(09:32):
welding.
We were just doing stickwelding, but just in a booth,
but still it was great and Ifound myself falling in love
with it at that point, eventhough I was struggling still
struggling with the concept oflearning to work with my hands.
I still had, you know, I hadgood dexterity and hand-eye
coordination from all the sportsI'd played growing up.
But I found myself, you know,struggling for sure with, you

(09:52):
know, laying nice welds andlearning that that portion of it
.
I showed up the first day ofclass and thought it was just,
you know, fire that came out theend of a torch.
Like you were always brazing, Ihad no idea it was electrical,
uh circuits involved.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
So, yeah, I was very, very eye-opening to me now that
early experience, you knowyou're, you're getting into it.
Were you kind of looking at itin a positive light?
Were you thinking like, okay,I'm trying, this is my second go
at college.
Now my first go was kind ofbunk.
I didn't dig it.
Is it make it or break it now?

(10:26):
Or were you like I'm just goingto try this and see if I find
something better?

Speaker 2 (10:30):
you know, it was kind of a combination of the two.
Um, I was very pushed andluckily so, by my parents and my
grandmother at the time, to,you know, pursue school and take
something.
So at that point, when I, youknow, kind of dropped out of
police foundations and got intothe trades, I was like darn like
I need to do this.
You know, not just for me, butfor them too, right, who were
kind of, you know, looking downon me and saying, hey, like

(10:52):
let's get an education here.
So for me personally, I Ipushed myself further, maybe
beyond.
Then then I would have if I wasjust doing something else, um,
and I actually found myself, youknow, from day one I, like I
said I was falling in love withit.
But I, it was a big learningcurve for sure, because, like I
said, I wasn't super.
I wouldn't say I'm notresponsible because I had a job

(11:14):
while I was in school.
I was working at east sidemarios, and I would always show
up every single day on time,ready to work and I'd work hard.
But I also found myself duringthe lectures and stuff, I wasn't
able to focus, I wasn't maybemature enough, I guess, to say
to be away from school and or beaway at school and trying to
learn.
So it is kind of a weirdbalance between the two.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
Youth is an interesting thing.
I've read studies about howwell people do in school when
they're older and we may befocusing school at the wrong
time in our lives.
You know that perhaps we shouldnot expect people to make
career choices at 16.
That might be kind of a stupidthing, because at 16 perhaps you

(12:01):
should just be playing and youknow developing social skills
and learning to organize,learning to clean, learning to
cook.
You know like these basic lifeskills, Because I run into a lot
of 20 year olds that are incollege that look lost.
You know they look lost andthey don't know how to do their

(12:21):
taxes.
They don't know how to cook,they don't know how to do
laundry and they're failingschool that to cook.
They don't know how to dolaundry and they're failing
school.
That's really depressing youknow like that doesn't feel good
right?

Speaker 2 (12:30):
No, it doesn't, and I agree with that too.
Like I definitely think it'stoo early on, because as you get
later on in life you get thosemore pressures on you and it's
harder to go back and you haveto choose.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
You know what you want to do for the rest of your
life.
Well, and it's always a race.
I'm always telling young peoplelike guys, just relax, you got
time.
You know, like I've.
I've rebuilt my career from theashes like three times now, and
every time I thought it was theend of the world, and every
time it turned out okay, yeah,and I'm doing all right.
I'm doing all right.

(13:11):
So that's right, it's likeyou're not in that much of a
hurry.
But I think what happens is youstart to compare yourself and
they always say, like compare it.
Comparison is the?
Is the death of originality,right, like you don't.
Comparison is the?
Is the death of originality,right, like you don't want to
compare yourself to a buddywho's got the $500,000 house at
23 years old and has a doctoratealready, cause you don't know.

(13:33):
You don't know he might be indebt up to his ears.
You don't know how, what'sgoing on and behind the curtains
and you know what.
Even if it is all good good forhim, that doesn't mean you
should be there.
You know good for him.
That doesn't mean you should bethere.
You know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
Everyone's got their own path that they got to figure
out.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
Right, that's right, absolutely now, for once, you
got into welding.
You know, you started fallingin love with that little blue
light or green light, if you hada lincoln helmet and and you're
and you're looking at thislight every day and you're
starting to fall in love with it.
You're starting to get theschooling, because that's one of
the things I love about thetrades is that the schooling
that you learn, you get to seeit in action.

(14:10):
Right, it's not like universitywhere the schooling is about
all this hypothetical that youmay or may not ever use, but
when the trade school that thingthey taught about you on the
chalkboard and in the textbook,literally the next day you're
doing it right, absolutely yeah,how did you like that form of
education, especially comparingit to your police studies?

Speaker 2 (14:30):
you know what I actually really enjoyed it.
Like I said, the hands-on stuffI fell in love with.
I fell in love with walkingaround the shop and, you know,
talking with the guys and seewhat they were doing, and I was
pretty fortunate at that time.
I'm not sure how it works now,but mohawk college had a program
in place where anytime youneeded a rod, anytime you need a
chip and hammer anything, theygave it to you.
There was no like here's yourrod, bring me back the burnt one

(14:52):
.
Like they had a very openpolicy as much rod as you wanted
to burn, you could burn it.
So I really started to fall inlove with it at that point.
And I was also fortunate enoughto when uh, when I think it was
like second month into theschooling Walter's group I'm not
sure if you know them, they'rea large structural steel firm
they came in and did a co-ophiring out of our class.
We had about 30 kids and fiveof us actually got the job to go

(15:15):
there and learn under ajourneyman fitter and I was
fortunately one of them.
So that's kind of when itreally sparked like hey, maybe
you know I've got something,maybe I've got interview skills.
But they also seen what I coulddo in the shop.
So that was kind of maybe aspark in my brain like, hey,
maybe this is something we canreally make happen someday.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
Well, getting chosen always feels good, right it does
.
You never want to be last onthe soccer team, but that's
right, yeah.
Yeah, but you know, as as afabricator, that's a whole other
journey.
So you know you're goingthrough this program of welding.
You pick up a co-op in a fabshop.
Did you kind of understand thedifference between fabrication

(15:57):
and welding as a career at thatpoint, or was it all just this
is all just the world of welding.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
It was all just the world of metalworking and
welding and that was kind of thetime in Ontario.
It might've happened a littlebit before, but to me I was kind
of seeing the split between thetwo.
So the guy kept telling us youknow, I'm a journeyman fitter,
I'm not a welder, you know heonly does a little short tacks.
And in my brain, you know, soyoung at the time and trying to
absorb as much as I could, itall just kind of blended

(16:23):
together.
But my time there, my timethere, was, you know, amazing.
I got to learn how to do some,you know coping on beams.
I got to learn how to run airarc, carbon gouging, do some
torch cutting, that kind ofstuff.
It was a very large shop soagain it was very daunting
walking in there and being likeholy cow like this is.
This is the real deal, this isthe real deal, so it really.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
You know shops like Walters.
They're great places to learnbecause they bring in raw
material right.
They build their own beams,they cut their own flanges, they
form their own stuff and that'sa really great place to learn,
even just to see all theequipment being used right?

Speaker 2 (17:03):
Yeah, it is, and they had a little section for all
the co-op kids.
They called it the co-opdungeon.
It was actually up on amezzanine oddly enough it's
called a dungeon and it kind oflooked over top of the floor.
So I often found myself on ourlittle short lunch breaks.
I would just lean over the railand just look at what the guys
were doing on the floor.
I found it very.
You know, they had some at thattime.
They were actually working onthe Rogers Center where the

(17:24):
Edmonton Oilers play, and theyhad some I-beams in there, I
remember, stacked on their sidewhere an eight-foot ladder
looked small compared to them,and I was like you know what
that's pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
Well, it's good.
I'll think about you next timeI'm at an Edmonton game, because
I love the Rogers Center.
It's a beautiful city.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
Yeah, I've never been , but I've heard it's very nice.
Yeah, I know it's cool.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
Hopefully the Oilers can win tonight, but that's a
whole other story, yeah.
Now, at this point, you knowyou're going through the co-op.
Are you all in?
Are you like this is my career,I found it.
Or are you still like, hmm,let's see where that goes, I
still don't have a full-time job.
Hmm, let's see where that goes.
I still don't have a full-timejob because there's a lot of

(18:05):
hurdles to still jump through,like there's still tickets and
certifications andapprenticeships and all this
other stuff.
You know, like, how did youfeel about where you were?

Speaker 2 (18:13):
I felt pretty comfortable, I knew this was
what I was going to do.
But again, you know, leavingthat shop I didn't know what my
career was going to look likeand I was fortunate enough to be
hired on, you could say, at thevery end of the co-op.
But I felt a lot ofhomesickness Again.
Coming from that small townwith a close community, I didn't
feel home in Hamiltonwhatsoever.
So I ended up opting to nottake the job, which I've often

(18:37):
had regrets about growing up inmy career.
But now I've turned out okay.
But I came back home and I didsome searching around here and
it took a long time to find thejob.
You know I must have spent aweek driving all up and down st
lawrence, you know, looking forwork and I randomly applied at
this small little metal shopcalled dowling metal.
I mean before I even made ithome, actually, the, the lady

(18:59):
leon, had called me and she saidhey, like if you want a job, we
got a job for you and I took it.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
So right away, I love hearing those stories because
every now and then I get some,you know, I guess, disheartened
young welder you know that isstruggling to find work and I
struggle with that because I'venever struggled finding work and
the vast majority of welders Iknow haven't.

(19:26):
But I get that some people dojust, whether it's bad interview
skills or just shyness or or,you know, it could be a number
of reasons.
But the idea of being able toget in your car with your
toolbox in the back and yourboots in the passenger seat and
just drive up and down shops andapply, I still think it's one
of the best ways to do itAbsolutely.

(19:48):
And I understand there's Indeedand LinkedIn and all these
great things.
That's neat, but I think that'smore for us old people that are
getting into like the desk jobsand the management jobs I feel
like, at the end of the day, thewelders themselves.
You just got to roll up, youknow, just roll up and

(20:08):
repeatedly, like if there's ashop that you like to roll up,
you know just roll up and andand repeatedly like if you, if
there's a shop that you like to,that you want to work at, like
it's in your sight, yeah, beannoying, like yeah, that's
right.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
So I I found myself, like I said, I was traveling
everywhere, I was going to allthese different shops and it
wasn't until about halfwaythrough that process I realized,
hey, like I'm not even wearingwork boots and safety glasses
and I'm walking into these shops, so I'm like I need to get some
PPE on for them to take meseriously.
So I went to a bunch of localshops here around me and
actually one of them I ended upworking at later on in my career

(20:39):
, but you know this was 2015.
So I wasn't really big.
I don't know if Indeed wasaround then, but I think it was
very boots on the ground lookingfor work.
Workopolis maybe yeah, yeah,exactly my mom was very adamant
about you know, get out therewith your resume and go apply,
and you know, sure shoot, itworked.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
So how was that first job you know out of school?

Speaker 2 (21:02):
It was again.
It was different.
It was a much smaller shop thanwhat I was used to from Walters
I was an apprentice on the floorand than what I was used to
from Walters I was an apprenticeon the floor and I had some
very good journeymen to workunder, found myself, you know,
on the bandsaw, cutting ticketsfor rails and doing small little
fabrication stuff.
I'll always remember my firstday I showed up.
I was working with a journeymannamed Richard and the first
thing he says to me you know,some days I'll be in a bad mood.

(21:23):
It just is what it is and thefirst thing I thought was oh boy
, what did I get myself into?
And then I was up on a laddergrinding a bunch of his welds
and in a in i-beams that he wasputting in for uh, for landings
and stuff in this uh building,and I was like, oh man, like I
don't know if this is for me,maybe, but I stuck with it and I

(21:44):
definitely fell more in lovethere with the shop side of
things than the the site side ofthings.
I was a pretty good shop guy.
So, yeah, I just I kept runningwith it.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
I was just talking to a girl.
She's in Saskatchewan right nowwelding and she's from Ontario
and how much she loves site workand we had the same
conversation.
I'm not a big site guy.
I did it for a while.
I learned lots.
I wouldn't mind maintenancegigs at like mines and stuff
that that's not really site workthe same.
But I'm a shop guy too, like I.

(22:17):
I fell in love with shop andit's probably why I got my
fitter ticket after becausefitters live in shops, right,
yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
So I, yeah, like I said, I definitely fell in love
with the fitting side of things,but I didn't find my skills
take off there because I didn'ttouch the welder much.
I was doing a lot of, you know,the grunt work.
I guess you could say, andthat's what you do when you're
an apprentice, right, yeah?
So I found myself, you know,doing a lot of that side of the
work.
You know, I'm doing somepainting, I'm doing some
painting.

(22:47):
The guy was not a good painter,still not a good painter, still
not a good painter.
No, that's one of thoseunnecessary evils in the welding
trade.
For sure I was a better primerthan painter.
But yeah, just, the guy that Iworked with made it a fun job.
I still keep in contact withsome of them, same with my old
journeymen keep in contact withthem.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
Have they apprenticed you?
They logged your hours andapprenticed you.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
They did, yes, although I never actually
continued with theapprenticeship program because
the next job I went to afterthey were big on not sending you
.
They were more focused on thefab work you did there.
So, unfortunately, after mylevel one I got my level one in
school and then did my level onehours.
I just I.
That's where it all kind ofended in terms of my
apprenticeship program.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
Okay.
So, yeah, and so where did yougo from there?
You know how long were you atthat shop for, and then where'd
you?

Speaker 2 (23:36):
go.
So I was there for about twoyears and actually a funny story
the company foreclosed.
You know the business owner'smodel kind of didn't blend with
the small it was in Kingston, soyou know it's still a smaller
community and they kind of hadthe idea, hey, like we'll bid
cheap and then we'll nail themall in the extras and that's how
we'll make her money, and thatkind of bit them in the butt a
little bit.
So company foreclosed and Ifound myself back in, you know,

(24:00):
square one.
I got to go around and find ajob with a resume and luckily
just down the road you knowbetween us and Brockville
Luckily just down the roadbetween us and Brockville, about
10 minutes away a companycalled James Ross was hiring.
I went in and I got aninterview.
Luckily I had no idea at thetime the production manager was

(24:21):
my old babysitter's husband.
I think that got me somebrownie points.
Small town life there, that'sright.
I ended up getting a job thereat James Ross Limited.
We were doing paper mill andpulp mill machinery.
It was pretty well allstainless, always in a shop
fabricating.
We were doing heavy flux core,045 flux core.
We're doing some TIG weldingand that's kind of where I found
my trajectory and my career andmy welding skills really take
off.

(24:42):
It was working for them.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
Well, as soon as you get into a shop that does any
stainless work or exotic metals,the caliber of welding is going
to be higher, the caliber ofthe machines is going to be
better.
You know, like, absolutely,things like that, you start to
notice, um, I guess more of thefinesse stuff.

Speaker 2 (25:01):
Right, absolutely, and not everyone's down for that
, but if you are, you'll go along way with it yeah, and I
definitely struggled at firstthere, because you know they had
a large machine shop on sitetoo.
So a lot of the stuff I wouldmake you know long products all
stainless.
Obviously Everybody knowsstainless warps a lot.
And then I had to hit a machineafter, so I had to go ahead and
preheat all my stuff backstraight.

(25:22):
And still, young kid learninghow to run torches, learning how
to, you know, ensurestraightness on things.
It was a struggle for a bit,yeah, and I think that's, like I
said, what really pushed mefurther.
I also got the opportunity torun some you know laser tables
and I did some press breakingfor a little bit with the press
break guy Nice.
So I got to kind of learn someof the other sides of the trade
that maybe not all welders getto work with.

(25:44):
So it was kind of interesting.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
So it was kind of interesting.
I actually got a request to dofor a YouTube video, a heat
straightening video, because alot of people struggle with heat
straightening.
And I did some Googling aroundand, man, there's a lot of bad
information on heatstraightening online, like there
is.
I watch these videos.
I'm like that's terrible.
Don't ever do that, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:07):
We had a well, he just retired recently retired
recently, I heard.
But we had a foreman there.
His name is joe, he's a bigpolish man, and I said he was
the straightening genius likewhen he said he'd come over and
he would point exactly where toput my heat marks on this thing.
And I would do it and sureshoot, it would come right back
straight.
We'd have string lines downeverything with little keys,
checking the, checking thetolerances, and had to be within

(26:29):
remember, like some things, 30feet long, had to be within a 16
.
Because they had to machine thetops of these paper mill boxes
for ceramics to go on.
So everything had to be very,very neat.
And yeah, he was just, he was anincredible man.
He taught me so much.
He was one of those guys thathe'd tell you once and he had to
tell you twice.
You better just go look it upor ask someone else, cause he

(26:53):
was going to be upset.
But uh, I ended up, you know,kind of breaking that accent
barrier and learning from him.
And yeah, I, I always cherishthe moments that he was spending
with me and definitely helpingme.

Speaker 1 (27:00):
That's funny.
I remember my heatstraightening mentor, larry,
same thing.
We were doing these giantpotash buckets and they get a
pile of weld but the the bladeedge is ar 400 and it would just
warp.
There's no way to get around it.
You can brace it all you want,but it's got an inch and a half
weld fill.
It's all around.
It's gonna warp that.
And he would just we'd put itup on blocks and he'd be the

(27:22):
same thing.
He'd run the string.
He'd be like here, here, here,here, and yep, do here.
And yeah, do it.
You walk away, let it cool,come back in the morning, bang.
It's like how do you see that?

Speaker 2 (27:34):
Yeah, exactly, it's definitely a science, that's for
sure.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
Yeah, yeah.
So how long were you there atthat shop for?

Speaker 2 (27:40):
I was at James Ross for four years, literally like
on the day, Like I started thereon the 13th of September and I
think it was 2017 and I left13th of September in 2021.
So it was and I always cherishthe time I spent there Like I
got to learn quite a bit.
I had a quality control guythere and never really
understood what he did otherthan come over and pick me apart

(28:02):
, and so we'll get into thatlater, but my transition into
that role, but yeah, but yeah.
He definitely taught me a lottoo, for sure it was a good
place to work.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
Why did you leave?

Speaker 2 (28:12):
What happened.
So I got actually tired ofstaring at the same four walls
every day.
As simple as it was.
I had a buddy, a really closebuddy, who worked there at the
same time and he had just got aspecial constable job in
Brockville at that time.
So he was leaving and I waslike, oh man, like I'm going to

(28:35):
be stuck here staring at thesefour walls by myself for the
rest of my career.
And the place I went to aftercalled Fedorki's Performance
Limited.
I actually knew the owner from agym here in Athens because he's
an Athens guy and he had triedto recruit me, you know, a while
back, and at that time I wasn'tready to leave James Ross.
When the time came I had.
I texted him and said, hey,like do you still have a job
opening?
And he said come on over for aninterview.
So I popped over and you know,ironically this is directly next

(28:57):
door to James Ross.
So I went.
I remember it was it's kind ofa funny story I had an interview
after work, so I left and Iwent, parked down the road a
little bit, waited a few minutesand then drove the back way in
and snuck into the buildingbecause they didn't want my
current boss at that time to seeme going for the interview, but
I went in and Terry and I hitit off and yeah that's where I

(29:17):
started my journey with Fedorkisand what they did there, what
was their gimmick?
So they were an industrialmechanical contractors.
So, like I, we, we have a lotof industrial places, especially
chemical plants, along the StLawrence Seaway, here, and they
were in every single plant, Ithink, in this area and uh, so I
spent a lot of time, you know,going into different sites doing

(29:40):
site work.
But again, I had a lot offabrication skills from where I
came from.
So I kind of slipped myselfinto a mostly shop role, which
was really nice Because again, Idefinitely enjoyed the shop
side of things more than thesite side of things.
That was good in the shop.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
But you still got to go out and travel and look
around a bit at least that'sright.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
Yeah, like I said, I got to fit my own pipe, I got to
weld my own pipe and then Iwent to site and got to install
my own pipe.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
So that in in itself is very, very beneficial to my
experience, for sure now, atthis point in your career,
you're like six, seven yearsinto your welding career.
You had abandonedapprenticeship, so you
definitely have the hours for ajourney person, but you didn't.
You didn't pursue it.
That's like you must have beenpicking up credentials along the
way.

(30:26):
There's no way to do this stuffwithout it, you know yes were
you picking up pipe tickets?
Were you doing uh pressure likeb31s?
Were you doing cwb structural?
You know?

Speaker 2 (30:38):
yep.
So I had quite a slew of cwbtickets at the time when I came
to fedorkis and then I acquiredmore.
There, you know, I got my allposition tig, stainless, carbon
steel.
Um, you know, I did flux corestainless there.
I kind of brought that intotheir shop when they were
because they hadn't reallytouched it all that much on
product and obviously I had alot of experience from james
ross.
So I kind of brought that inand got them going on that.

(30:59):
And then they did a lot ofpiping stuff.
You know asked me b31 one, b31three.
So I got my 6g tssa ticket fortwo inch up and then I ended up
having a one inch and up ticketfor both stainless and carbon
steel.
And yeah, so I ended upacquiring quite a few tickets.
When I was there I kind ofbecame the welding guy.
Everybody seemed to come to mefor stuff and being so young at

(31:23):
the time, it was both cool and,like I said before, daunting,
because you know I'm still young, my old journeymen they were
all in their 40s and 50s andit's like ooh.
But I think that was kind ofthe product of being a welder in
an industrial mechanical shop.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
You probably heard it in other podcasts, but I
started off in a maintenancemachine shop as a welder right.
So that experience that you getin those type of shops is huge,
because you kind of pick upeverything, you become the
welder that has to kind of learnhow to fix everything and weld
everything.

Speaker 2 (31:55):
Yeah, yeah.
So we were doing, you know wedo motor removals and put them
back in, and I didn't do toomany like shaft stuff with guys
because again we had somelicensed millwrights on site but
I would go and assist them alot and I would do plumbing and
I did lots of brazing and it wasit really opened up my skills

(32:15):
and I would say, you know, jamesRoss definitely started the
trajectory of my welding careerand you're becoming skilled at
it, but Fedorki's definitelytopped it off.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
It's definitely what brought me to the next level and
made me really fall in lovewith the trade itself, whole
metal trade, not just weldingyeah, and were you worried at
any point in your career at thispoint, that all these
certificates, all these greatyou know tickets that you're
picking up all the work that youwere doing because you're

(32:42):
non-union and you'renon-apprenticed, Were you
worried about your career kindof long-term?

Speaker 2 (32:48):
You know what?
I thought about it a few times,but the more I got into it, the
more I was talking around.
No, it actually didn't deter mefrom anything.
In fact I knew I'd be that guyno matter where I went.
I would outwork anybody if Icould.
I would definitely try myhardest.
I had lots of skill, so I knewthat that would carry me where I
needed to go.

(33:09):
And I've often thought aboutyou know, it's time to go back
and challenge the Red Seal.
But now that I'm kind of into awhole different role entirely,
I don't know if I would, butit's definitely still across my
mind and I always recommend tomy apprentices you know, do it.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
You know, take the apprenticeship get the red seal,
like don't take the route.
I did, for sure, yeah, and Iwent back and challenged my red
seal too, like I did it waylater.
Same idea, um, but I didn'tthink about it until it was like
I wanted to get into management, like I realized like I needed
to start having some documentsthat are just not specific to

(33:43):
welding procedures.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
You know what I?

Speaker 1 (33:45):
mean.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
Yeah, exactly, yeah, I get you, and I kind of felt
the same way.
That's why I, while I was atFedora Fees, I actually went and
did my welding supervisor andthen I became the welding
supervisor for the shop and thenI ended up taking my welding
inspector and then yeah, sothat's kind of again where I
fell more in love with theeducation side of things,
because I learned, hey, if Ilearn on my own pace and I'm

(34:08):
studying something I reallyenjoy, which at the time I did
enjoy welding, I could doanything with education yeah,
well, let's take a break now andwhen we get back, let's talk
about what's going on with youryou know, your current roles and
what you're doing in the worldof welding, and also a little
bit more about, like, theprograms with the inspector
course and the supervisorcourses, because a lot of people

(34:29):
always have questions aboutthose courses and we could
probably go over that for them.

Speaker 1 (34:32):
So we'll be right back here on the CWB Association
podcast with Nick Cotto.
Don't go anywhere on the CWBAssociation podcast with Nick
Cotto.
Don't go anywhere.
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And we are back here on the cwbassociation podcast.
My name is max seron and I'mhere with nick cotto coming to
us from Athens, Ontario, Allright.
So before the break we kind ofgot up to you know welder,

(36:25):
fitter, you know kind of jack ofall trades, pressure, welder,
everything.
And then you start getting into, like the supervisor inspector
courses.
So that's right.
That's usually kind of a bigchange in the type of work
you're doing, right?
So usually a lot of peoplestart with the supervisor course
.
What, what brought you intothat supervisor program?

(36:49):
Why you know um and and whatdid you?

Speaker 2 (36:53):
think of it.
So the reason why I got intothat was because at the time, uh
, the person who was the weldingshop supervisor see, fedorki's
had two different shops.
They had a structural shop andthen they had their main
fabrication shop and the personwho was running the structural
shop actually had just left orwas on her way of leaving.
So Terry approached me and said, hey, like would you be
interested in, you know,becoming the welding shop

(37:14):
supervisor over there?
And I didn't really know it wasa course at the time.
I kind of he alluded to it alittle bit, but I didn't really
know it was a course at the time.
I kind of he alluded to it alittle bit, but I wasn't really
sure what it was.
So we kind of sat down and wentover it and yeah, so he ended
up promoting me and said hey,this is part of the thing you
know, you're gonna get yoursteel supervisor and you're
gonna kind of move into more ofthe structural side of things,

(37:34):
which in itself was completelydifferent than I had done.
I hadn't done a ton ofstructural steel, except for the
little bit I did at my veryfirst job yeah so it was.
It was definitely different.
You know I'd be on a mig weldermore than the tig welder or
even doing flux core.
So yep and uh, yeah, so I wentdown, I took one of the courses
that sean perinich was uh,running.
It was out of oshawa at theoshawa college and it was a

(37:57):
week-long course and it was just, you know, stick your nose in a
code book and read code aftercode after code, and I really
fell in love with the rulesbehind welding at that point
because you know the basic stuffof you know like what weld
defects are, what welddiscontinuities are, and I
really at that point it kind ofopened my eyes and hey, like

(38:17):
there's a set standard here thatwe have to follow by and
there's a reason why we have todo that.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
So you know it's so interesting.
Well, number one, sean's anawesome dude.
He's still with the company, soI'm around, um.
But you know if, if I resetthis interview to the first five
minutes and you're telling meabout how you didn't like school
?
You didn't like high school,you didn't like textbooks, you
didn't like policing studiesbecause it was too much textbook

(38:43):
, and here you are, you know,eight years later, and you're
loving the books.
What happened?
Loving?

Speaker 2 (38:50):
it.
Like I said, it's just when Ifound something that I actually
enjoyed and something that Irespected.
I think it was a no brainer.
It was easy for me to learn.
I would sit there for hours onend and read the textbooks.
I still read textbooks.
It drives my fiance nuts.
I'll sit here and just read andagain, it's something that I

(39:11):
wish I had while I was in highschool, because I'm sure I would
be in a completely differentposition.
Not that I would want to be,because I love where I am now,
but it's definitely somethingthat I I really come to love and
enjoy and respect.
I respect education and youknow the time you put into
something's what you're probablygoing to get out of it well, I
know that the like.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
I haven't looked at the supervisor course for a long
time now.
Um, but some of the basicconcepts within the modules
within it like, uh, basicmetallurgy.
So a lot of people don't reallyget into metallurgy until
they'd have to take theinspector or the supervisor
course and I think a lot ofwelders kind of dismiss
metallurgy as like why do I needto know that?

(39:52):
But then as soon as you startgoing down that rabbit hole, you
like how did I ever existwithout knowing this?

Speaker 2 (40:00):
it's unbelievable.
And even in in weldingsupervisor course we didn't
touch a lot on metallurgy, itwas just kind of you know the
little codes that are detailedabout it.
We did a little bit of the youknow the course book stuff, but
I at that point had stillalready began my you know
studies on my own about gettinginto metallurgy and I was doing
a lot of stainless so I wastrying to learn about austinetic
stainless steels and how thingswork.

(40:22):
And and then it was you knowthe inspector course where we
really deep dove into it.
Holy cow, like this isinteresting, so I don't know how
I survived.
Um, I thought they were reallygood and if you've, if you got
to be willing to sit in a spotfor a one whole week and read

(40:42):
code after code after code, ifyou're going to do the
supervisor course but Idefinitely recommend it, even as
anybody in the welding trade, Irecommend going and taking that
course, even if you're notbecoming a welding supervisor,
learning why you're doing whatyou do and how to do it
correctly.
Because everybody, you know,once they get into the trade,

(41:03):
they know how to lay a littlebead, they know how to do you
know certain things, butlearning why you do that and
what are the rules around itreally opened my eyes to a whole
different side of the weldinggame I didn't know before yeah,
and you know that's.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
that's something that I I preach and I think it's
very valuable.
But learning more like thebackend of your trade is like
owning a car and knowing morethan just putting in the gas.
That's right.
Like you can get by justpulling a MIG trigger and that's
fine.
Honestly, if that's your careerand you're happy with that,

(41:34):
kudos to you.
But picking up a module or acode book and, even if it
doesn't make sense off the topof working your way through it
or or getting gutsy and taking aclass, is huge.
I remember when I took my levelone inspector course, I never
had a desire to be an inspector.
I still don't ever have adesire to be an inspector and a

(41:54):
lot of people think that becauseI've been in the trade so long
that everyone becomes aninspector, it's like no, that's
not true.
Yeah, but I loved taking mylevel one inspection course.
I learned so much.
It was great.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
Yeah, and that was the same for me.
So I recently took it it was inJanuary and it was Derek Scobie
who taught the course and thatwas at Milton Headquarters,
where you are, and I, yeah,milton headquarters, where you
are, and I, yeah again, it wassuch a great course.
I'd learned about things that Ididn't even know existed.
Like I came from shops where wedid pressure piping but we
never touched really as mesection eight all that much.

(42:28):
So I learned on this course howto do ITPs and actually use the
welding gauges and stuff, andto me it was a really
eye-opening course.
And I actually took the coursewith the floor supervisor at the
time who still is for JamesRoss, so we kind of coordinated
this course together.
So I know someone down thereand, yeah, we went down and we
did this course and I fell inlove with it.

(42:51):
I wish I could have done moreat my previous employer for that
kind of role, because once Itook that course I wanted to be
a welding inspector.

Speaker 3 (43:01):
I did.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
So so now you know what's on track.
You know you finished thatcourse in January.
Are you still working for thesame company?
Has your role broadened orchanged?

Speaker 2 (43:12):
No, so I actually work for a different company now
.
I left them and I actually tookon a full quality control
inspector role as a weldinginspector and I'm also the cwb
welding supervisor for a companycalled the fromboys group.
Okay, they're a big, big unioncompany out of long sioux.
Um, we do all as me sectioneight tanks.
We do api 650 tanks, we do uhtubular exchange manufacturer

(43:35):
association tanks.
We do all like condensers andstuff.
We do all sorts of pressureitems, lots of as me, lots as me
, uh process piping and pressurepiping and yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
So I kind of moved into roll out your old tanks and
everything or, like you guys,do it right from raw
everything's from raw.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
we're an epc company, so engineering, procurement and
construction we're turnkeysolution for you for not just
around this area.
But they actually have a sitein Florida.
They send tanks all over NorthAmerica.
They've sent tanks up to BaffinIsland.
They've sent them down to Texas, louisiana, they've sent them
all over.
It is fun.
I'm eight weeks into this rolenow and I'm really starting to

(44:17):
like it.
I liked it at the start.
I am fresh.
I am very fresh.
It was different going frombeing on tools to now sitting at
a computer more than half of myday inputting things, doing
weld mapping, making turnoverpackages.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
But I still get to get on the floor and move pipe
around, do inspection stuff andI really enjoy it, enjoy it well
, in my experience, and I thinkmost people that listen to the
podcast agree, the bestinspectors are former welders
and not to diss people that getinto inspection from a purely
academic role, you know kudos ifyou can do it, but the

(44:56):
communication with the weldersis so much easier if you've
welded right, it is and you'renot.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
You're not just saying, oh, this is wrong, you
can actually help with how tocorrect it, you know that's
right and I I think that'swhat's actually allowed me to
gain the respect of so manywelders, because, first of all,
they're union and I've neverbeen in a union shop before, so
that coming into it was a littleoff-putting.
I'm like Ooh, like I don't knowwhat they're going to think of
me.
But I was very upfront.
You know, I'm not a guy whojust read books his whole life I

(45:26):
I've been on the tools.
I understand what you're doingand already eight weeks in, they
come to me and they have issues, looking for advice.
And I'm very upfront, I don'tknow everything, but I will find
the answer for you, whether wehave to look it up online or
look in a book, but the stuff Ido know.
I'm very open with them aboutit and try to teach them.
And yeah, it's been a heck of aride so far, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (45:47):
And how far is this job from your home now?

Speaker 2 (45:49):
This is an hour flat.

Speaker 1 (45:51):
This is definitely the farthest commute I've had to
and from work, but you knowwhat that's really lucky for a
guy in a small town to find somuch work within an hour.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
It's crazy, yeah so, and you know what that hour
drive goes by pretty quick,whether you're listening to some
music or you throw on thispodcast, or I listen to some
hockey podcast too, the timegoes by pretty quick.
I enjoy it in the morning, getto sip my coffee.
Sometimes on the way home I'mlike, oh boy, I wish I was just
home by now.
But we also have the benefitthat we work four tens, and my

(46:23):
whole career I've always workedfridays.
Now I get quite a few fridaysoff, which just makes it even
better.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
So man, I was just talking about that last weekend
with a buddy of mine.
Four tens is is pretty good,like I like 410s, but if you
ever get on a 312s shift withthe premium, that's amazing that
would be great.
I love that.
You just go and do 12s.
You get your big premium, youget 36 hours plus, you know, the

(46:52):
extra four to top you up, andthen you get four days off.

Speaker 2 (46:56):
Chef's kiss Best ever yeah absolutely, that would be
a nice shift.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
Yeah, but not too many places offer that anymore.
That's right.
Yeah, absolutely so.
What's next on your list?
You know like you've beenmoving up quick, but according
to my mathematics here you'reprobably only like what?
28th?
Are you even 30?
Yet I turned 30 this year, okay, so my math was pretty good
there, so you've got a lot underyour belt.

(47:22):
What do you plan next?

Speaker 2 (47:26):
So this fall I'm going to be taking my API 653.
I'm going to become a storagetank inspector and then I'm
hoping in the next spring, if Ido enough studying, I'll be able
to take my go down to NBIC andtake my authorized commissioner
inspector for pressure vesselsand kind of you know steer that
on the side of the shop they'relooking at getting me into you

(47:47):
know quality management for theshop too, just for the tank shop
itself.
So that's kind of you knowsteering me to take this kind of
course too.
And then they're willing to payfor it and they want to send me
and so far my boss likes me.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
So that's pretty big it's good you should look into
the cwb products for that stufftoo, because we we do a lot of
quality management training and,with us moving into the us so
aggressively, most of the stuffthat we do is it uh, it jives
with all the other associations,right.

Speaker 2 (48:17):
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, I definitely will.
I'd like to take my at leastwrite the code endorsements for
B31-1 and B31-3, for sure.

Speaker 1 (48:25):
Yeah, now what about welding?
What's going to happen withyour welding skills?
Are they going to sail off intothe sunset, or what are you
looking at?
The blue light.

Speaker 2 (48:37):
No, I would like to start doing some stuff on the
side for myself.
Keep my skills up, for sure.
I definitely I don't likelosing skills, so I think
that'll be the best route.
Like, for example, where I wasat fedorki's.
We purchased all of our owntools, so I've got thousands and
thousands of dollars in tools.
So there's there's no sense inme not trying this, since I've
already got the tools.
I just need to get a little bitbetter of a welder.

(48:58):
I've currently only got alittle 140 MIG welder run a
little gasless flux core on it,but I would like to get
something and, yeah, start doingmy own thing, especially if I
have three-day weekends now andthe company I'm at, they don't
care one bit if you do your ownthing.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
It's kind of an option.
You can get really gooddiscount welders from the cwb
membership, so that's right luckthere.
But yeah now.
Would you want to get yourlevel two inspector as well?
Like is that anywhere on thehorizon?

Speaker 2 (49:29):
yep, so I, my two years, will be up in january
2027 and I am definitely themoment I can go take it.
I will be going to take it.
That's not a big jump.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
That's a big jump like level one.
You know it's a two-week course.
It's pretty good.
Lots of people challenge it.
Yeah, um, as long as you haveyour weld symbols and your and
your and you know how to readthe code book quickly or search,
that's right, the pdf quickly,you're okay.
But level two, you gotta that's.
It starts to get tough and nota lot of people go for level

(49:58):
three.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
So yeah, so I'm currently working under a level
three and he tells me about howhard the course was all the time
.
So, yeah, I'm definitely veryappreciative.
I'm learning from a guy who hasso much experience, like my
boss is.
Just, he's got so much codeinformation in his head and he's
so smart with welding stuff.
So I just I'm very appreciativeand it makes me want to go
further, like taking my leveltwo and taking my api 653 and

(50:22):
doing all these extra things.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
It really pushes me to want to do that now the side
of you that wanted to be apolice officer you know way back
in the beginning, is there.
Is there still any of that inyou today?
Is there?
Like it looks like that's avolunteer firefighter's shirt,
but I'm not sure it is yeah itis yes so like I mean, yeah, how

(50:45):
do you still, I guess, fillthat need in you to serve the
public along with this careerthat you have in welding?

Speaker 2 (50:56):
so I I quickly found out it wasn't chasing the bad
guys I wanted to do.
I wanted to sit in a bigvehicle and have lights and
sirens going.
Five, seven, seven years ago Ijoined the athens fire
department, my hometown, and uh,I've been going strong with
that and it kind of actuallygoes hand in hand with what I
was doing with welding, becauseI've fallen in love with the
education side of things.

(51:16):
So I'm currently on a courseright now.
I've taken eight differentcourses in the past.
I'm an instructor for them.
So for me giving back to thecommunity, especially being in
such a small community, has beenso important.
Like I'm not just even avolunteer firefighter, I'm on
multiple different things.
I go on in Athens, I run afishing derby, I'm on the Athens
Corn Fest committee, I run afishing derby, I'm on the Athens

(51:38):
Corn Fest committee.
So for me it's always been bigto give back.
And my grandfather, like I said, he's passed away but he spent
42 years on the same firedepartment.
So I immediately, when I wasyoung, like I got to be on the
Athens fire department somedayif I'm living in Athens, and
luckily I was able to accomplishthat.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
What year do you think we'll have to make the
Cody for mayor shirts for Athens?

Speaker 2 (52:02):
I thought about the last round going for council,
but unfortunately they kept itso quiet on their page about the
application that I didn't knowabout it in time.
But I definitely thought aboutdoing council too.

Speaker 1 (52:13):
I have too.
That's why I joked, cause I seea lot of myself in you and I
remember being young and beinglike, by 35, I'm going to get
into politics because I want tomake a change.
You know, yeah, I was so busywith my career and kids and
stuff that I that 35 just kindof sailed by and I forgot about
it and then I was like, okay, 45, I'm going to get into politics
.
That was a couple of years agonow.

(52:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah I feellike working at cwb for the
not-for-profit kind of fillsthat void for me, because I'm
able to give back to communitiesand work with communities and
kids.
That's right, rules, right, um.
So it kind of fills that needfor me and that's one of the
things that I think is so greatabout the welding careers and

(52:55):
why I picked up on yourfirefighter shirt right away,
because welders, you know as, oryou know the steel industry in
general we are in a veryprivileged positions.
You know we, we have great jobsthat are fun and exciting, um,
they keep us motivated.
They also pay us well.
So we we generally the best ofus have a pretty good sense of

(53:19):
community.
You know of wanting to kind ofgive back and and knowing that
we're in a good position and youkind of want everyone to be in
a good position.

Speaker 2 (53:27):
You know what I mean yeah, I'd agree with that and
luckily you know firefightingand welding actually goes so
hand in hand.
You know I'm trying to get intoa steel structure of some sort.
I got some good tips on how tobreak that steel apart, so it's
been really transit between thetwo.
You know operating tools andyou know heavy equipment and
everything.
It's been really really nice tobe able to kind of transition

(53:50):
some skills from my day job tomy nighttime hobby.

Speaker 1 (53:54):
Yeah, yeah.
Now your family.
You know your mom and dad, thefamily in Athens.
How are they?
How are they supportive of yourcareer and how everything
turned out?

Speaker 2 (54:05):
They are the most supportive family ever they are.
They're so proud of me.
My mom, my dad, my grandmaalways tell me how proud of me
they are.
My mom's always posted about meon Facebook and what I'm doing
and she's one of those peopleand I'm so appreciative of it
and you know it's.
It's definitely made the wholeride a little easier knowing
I've got so much support behindme same with my fiancee and I've

(54:26):
got two young girls now likethey're both very supportive of
me.

Speaker 1 (54:29):
So well, you're on, you're on the parenting rip now.
Yeah, there's no turning back.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
I'm on, that's right.
I got.
Uh well, my oldest daughterjust turned two this past week
and then I have one that's eightweeks old now.
Oh boy, yeah, it's a busyhousehold, two big dogs.
There's no sleeping going onaround there Very rarely.
Last night we thought for surewe were going to have another
sleepless night, but she endedup getting asleep.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
Good, good good.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
Right.
Well, you know, in terms ofyour career, you know
everything's kind of been goingpretty good.
You know I'd say you're doingpretty good and you got a pretty
good head on your shoulders forwhere your vision is in your
community.
What could there?
What's missing in yourcommunity for the steel industry
?
You know what?
What do you think that?
Perhaps the CWB, theassociation, or chapters or

(55:17):
members, what would you like tosee us do more for communities
like Athens?

Speaker 2 (55:22):
Well, in terms of for Athens per se it's such a small
community I'm not sure whatthey could bring in, but just in
terms of the whole steelindustry in this area, let's say
, like Leeds-Granville where Iam, it would be cool if we could
get more courses down here,more like, because I know right
now you could travel to miltonand they're starting to branch
out and do courses at collegesand stuff, but just making it

(55:45):
optional for more people to take, like I know they have online
stuff now yeah but I don't knowif you'd get the same amount of
an online class as you would ifyou know derrick or sean are
sitting there telling you whatthey know, because these guys
are so invaluable.
So it would be cool if you getmore outreach, I guess per se in
running courses that's goodfeedback, because it is
something that we talk about.

Speaker 1 (56:04):
It's like the industry says we need all these
welders, the industry says weneed all these inspectors, we
need all these supervisors, andit's like, okay, well, we run
programs, but we have twoheadquarters, one in nisku, one
here in milton, and it's likehow do we do more?
We have partnerships withmohawk, with fanshaw, you know,
with conestoga, you know we haveall these partnerships, but

(56:26):
they kind of run around theschool year.
So that's one of the thingsthat we also, like here, are
trying to figure out is like howdo we get out to these
communities and how do I know Igot at least 12 people to show
up and and do this?
You know, because that that'skind of the fear.
It's like, well, no one's goingto show up and I don't.
I don't agree with that.
I feel like if I said, hey,we're going to have a thing in

(56:46):
this part of the country and youpromote it properly, I think it
fills because I think there'senough interest.

Speaker 2 (56:53):
Yeah, promotion's huge for sure, and I don't know
if that could stem from justeven the csrs starting to.
You know, let people know.
Hey, like these options are outthere and you know you could do
education, you can learn moreabout what you're doing and
promote your career faster orfurther on it's.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
It's definitely something I've thought about too
, for sure well, we might haveto bring you into the cwb fold
someday there that's right.
I've thought about it I've gotto keep checking those uh, those
uh listings on our website.
That's right, yep, absolutelywell, awesome buddy.
This has been a great, greatinterview.
What's, uh, what's a piece ofpiece of advice you'd like to

(57:29):
give someone that's, you know,young and thinking about getting
in the trades, about what to do?

Speaker 2 (57:35):
my piece of advice and it might sound kind of
cliche and I'll expand on itmore never give up.
And what I mean by that is justbecause right now you're
looking at something that mightseem daunting or it might seem
confusing to you.
There's a good chance one dayyou're going to figure it out
and you could really strive init.
You know, when I was gettinginto this trade I didn't expect
to get to where I am now.
10 years in, I'm a weldinginspector, welding supervisor,

(57:57):
working in a large shop givingadvice to guys 50, 60 years old.
I've been doing this foreverand they respect my advice.
So I would say put your headdown, run full steam and never
let go of your education andnever be afraid to do some
continuing education and seewhere it lands you.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
That's great advice and I believe it 100%.
I've been a part of that train.
There was a string there whereI did night classes for almost
10 years in a row, even though Iwas welding all day, come home,
feed the kids, do my chores andthen, after the kids go to bed
around 8, 9 o'clock, I'd bestudying until midnight and

(58:37):
everyone thought I was crazy.
But I just stuck at it, keptlearning new things, kept
learning another certificationand another endorsement, another
piece of paper, and you justkeep stacking them and every job
.
It's not just about what youlearn, but it's the people you
meet when you learn them too.
Right, every time you take aclass, you run into other people

(58:58):
that are just like you.
Then you take another class,you run into other people that
are just like you.
Then you take another class andyou run into people just like
you and you start building thisnetwork of amazing people across
the country, like even you.
You know talking about Derek,scobie and Sean.
Just, you know, you have thosenames in your head, you know who
they are and they're great,intelligent people.
Right, that's right.
That network is invaluable,right.

Speaker 2 (59:18):
Absolutely.
And, like you said before, youknow, in the welding trade we're
so lucky because I feel likewe're we're like a diamond in
the rough in the terms of likein the in the construction
industry, where we're so uniqueand we're so different and we
can all relate to each other ina way of some sort.
So, yeah, you know, when youmeet someone really cool and
interesting, they, they make animprint on you and that's why

(59:42):
I'll never forget those, thoseguys who actually live in
Alberta, you know, multipleprovinces away, and I'll never
forget them and what they, whatthey've done for me.

Speaker 1 (59:45):
So, yeah, well, I'll be seeing them in a couple of
weeks here when I'm up in RedDeer for World Industry Days, so
I'm sure we'll all go for abeer.
I'll bring you up.
Yeah, awesome, nick.
Well, thanks so much and Ireally appreciate you taking the
time today to be on the showyeah, thank you very much for
having me on all right foranybody interested in getting
into the trades.
Hey, no time like the present.

(01:00:06):
We need people across thiscountry, the.
You know the.
We got a new government inpower, new leader.
There's lots of new fundingthat's already opening up under
the, under a new government.
That's the best time to getinto the trades.
Anytime there's a shift inpolitics, the new people always
want to flood the market withmoney.
Take it, take it right.
There's lots of fundingopportunities, lots of programs

(01:00:28):
running.
Lots of welders are neededacross Canada and we need all
levels.
We need welders, fabricators,inspectors, supervisors of all
levels.
So please get into the tradesnow.
And as far as the podcast,thanks so much for following and
making us a success.
We are keep downloading,sharing and commenting and
please send us in some fan mail.

(01:00:49):
On the Buzzsprout website,we've got a fan mail option and
I have been making reels withthe questions that have been
coming in.
They're going to start gettingreleased soon, so send us the
questions any way you can.
I will answer them All right.
So thanks so much and I'llcatch you at the next episode.
We hope you enjoy the show.

Speaker 3 (01:01:19):
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