Challenges and rewards

- May name is Josh Rogan. I'm a Ninth-Period Apprentice. I've been in the program four years and should be turning out, getting my journeyman card next Christmas, be a good Christmas present. When you're 17 or 18 you think you're going to be baseball player or basketball player and be at a big time college or something like that somewhere, doin' something cool. But things change so. I played baseball and hurt my arm. I had the Tommy John surgery, so that kind of ended that and that's when I stopped goin' to college. It was a little difficult. I was in LA at the time. I was to say, eh, if I can't play, I'm not goin' to college. I'm going to go home and see what else the world has for me. I'm 43 years old now. I'll be 43 years old, so I got into the program at about 38. So I got in really late. So I've just been jumpin' in and out a different hoops, basically my whole life. This is the best job I've had. And all you have to do is, wake up go to work, not be scared to get dirty, not be scared to use your hands, and go to work, and go to school. And school is the tough part, 'cause you come home from work and you're tired and you got to go to class, but it's worth it. As far as gettin' my journeyman card I'm pretty excited about that, because that means the end a school, but it also means that you've been through school so there's a lot expected of you once you become a journeyman. And I definitely see the light at the end a the tunnel, as far finishin' up school. It's going to be a great Christmas present next year if I get all my certs and get everything done. It's going to be really big relief to tell you the truth. But the program's helped me a lot as far as things you learn and the shop aspect of it. And so there's a bunch a good people here and a bunch people that you can ask questions to and they always have answers for you. So there's a lot of support and lot of... It's a lot of good people. It's a great career. You're going to be able to live and support yourself and if you want to have a family, it's a great career to have. And you work seven hours, so anything over seven hours is overtime. So the schedule is good. You get weekends off. And you're home usually by, if no overtime, you're home by three o'clock everyday and you can't really beat that as far as the hours are concerned. And as far as the wages are concerned it's a good living. The work environment is hectic, especially in the beginning of buildings. All the other trades are there, everybody's there, you got compressors goin', you got a lot of noise. You got tools everywhere. Everybody's stuff is in your way. There's cords runnin' all through the corridors and through the hallways and everywhere and it's hectic. But once you get ahead of people or you get up the building it starts to slow down towards the ends once they put the sheetrock on and then you kind of in a room by yourself. It gets a little bit quieter. Then you just get your work done. I like it better that way. It's pretty crazy. I mean that's a huge building. It's a 55 story building that we're on right now. You see 'em start it by digging it out of the ground and putting rebar and concrete, then all of a sudden there's a building up and it's way up. (laughs)