EXPERIENCE
My experience is extensive due to the fact that I have been doing the same or related things since 1982. I do have a resume that I can provide, however it is busy and is not a summary. A summary is below.
I started with my NDT degree from Moraine Valley Community College. Between semesters I traveled to Houston Texas and gained experience in RT of Offshore Oil Platforms being built in Pasadena Texas. After graduating I worked in the Chicago area doing RT at refineries until I was offered a position at Wisconsin Electric (WEPCo) in Milwaukee.
At WEPCo, I performed receiving inspection on electric utility items and did NDT at Fossil and the Point Beach Nuclear Plant. This was primarily MT and PT on turbines and BOP outage equipment. I also helped develop a technique to perform UT of Reactor Pressure Vessel Studs with UT from the Access hole. I drew up a rig that had a screw drive to automate this process in theory, however back then there was no data capture or digitized storage so it remained theoretical. I trained for and received my private Pilots License during this time. I then made a life change and left the cold weather for Florida!
In Florida I worked for Pittsburg Testing Labs at the local Airports doing RT on fuel distribution piping to API and when they asked if I could do UT I said yes. I took the scope and the AWS book up on the steel and started performing UT on structural steel. Many times I did 12 and 16 hr days, working at the airport and then doing a UT job. Working for a testing lab gave great experience but tended to overwork to make up the money. I gained valuable experience and left for pay and prestige at Kennedy Space Center.
At Kennedy Space Center I was part of the Base Operations Contract for EG&G and got better pay, work life balance, and a wider variety of experiences. I worked on Flight Hardware and Ground support equipment. The flight hardware was lots of braze joint x-rays, shuttle wing and solid rocket motor x-rays as well as the occasional UT and ET of flight hardware. The ground support was a lot of MT of lifting fixtures, PT of aluminum welding, IR of halogen bottles and roofs, and LT of vacuum jacketed cryogenic lines. I transferred into QA and worked in receiving and the weld shop for several years. It was a great experience and helped me get my family started. I also got my CWI, ASNT Level 3's, and several college degrees during this period. After 12 years I moved on to local CWI projects and wanted to try moving out of the constant humidity of Florida.
The stresses of trying to leave Florida resulted in divorce and started a period of struggle for direction and purpose. I had many good experiences that gave growth as well as several reality checks about business, and quality. I am proud of successfully managing a crew of technicians at the Shell Martinez Refinery and achieved a year of accident free operations while implementing Computed Radiography replacement of film for corrosion shots. I also gained valuable API inspection and Positive Material Identification experience. After my success I left to try training other folks at Test NDT.
At Test NDT I was in the big city area of Los Angeles and met a variety of people. I also learned about working for a small company. I did not continue because at this time we had no PowerPoint materials and the instructor had to verbally talk at the students for 8 hrs per day which was very inefficient. I did like the training side of the industry however so I tried to remain at it by going to Amarillo College and Quality Testing Services.
I really liked my time at Amarillo College because I was independent and could develop and administer the training in a way that worked. However the administrative bureaucracy soon spoiled this by cutting the pay below a sustainable level so I went to Quality Testing Services. After the freedom of my college environment I felt stifled again working for a small company. The traceability I had developed from what I was teaching to what was being tested was not emphasized and there was no time to correct. I soon left and was out in the world of inspection again, which I started to notice changes.
I worked two years on the North Slope primarily to get paid well and have time off regularly. I spent time trying to reconnect with my daughters. The slope was embroiled in many political controversies and was an intense environment that hurt our inspection process. I soon left for the real world again and decided to try branching out into advanced technology and API work. I worked for QPro, which became Mistras, where we did Phased Array UT and I was the Level 3/Quality Manager. I felt good being back in a less political environment where I could focus on advanced UT and gained my API certifications. After my teaching experiences and methodology, I was amazed at how easy these certifications were and looked for the opportunity to create course work. Mistras bought QPro and wanted to transfer me but I went to FMC instead followed by a position at Thomas and Betts. These manufacturing experiences kind of soured me on Quality Assurance when I observed the effect the politics had on quality. When a position was offered at Team Industrial as an Instructor I took it.
I had my pilots license and I had purchased a lot at Wolf Airpark so I thought I was all set. However the politics soon ruined that and upset my apple cart. I will expound on these issues, not to criticize, but to explain how I arrived at my final training philosophy.
The Team experience was set up to fail from the start. I had applied for the training director position but it was given to an internal candidate. I took the instructor position. Politics. From day one it was me warning my boss of bad ideas and then being blamed when they occurred. Politics. I passed all my specific exams in one day but that did not register as me being someone with a valid view point.
First job was training mission to Bismarck ND in a hotel. I was surprised at the last minute with a box of tablets for the students to take their exam on. I warned not to complicate the process at the last minute and that I could hand grade the exams. These events happen at the end, on a Friday. There is no time for errors. I was looked at as being old fashioned and "security" dictated we use this system. I said ok, just make sure you have IT on standby at 5pm to handle issues. Puzzled looks. I did not know what was going to happen, I just know bad ideas when they are presented. Sure enough, the hotel WiFi was throttled and turned off after lack of activity. This caused the slower students to get locked out, registered as a failed attempt, and the setting (in IT) was set to one attempt. You failed! Called the boss, he deflected to IT, I said you handle it, I have angry students to deal with. I hand graded without an answer key and we got through late. Post meeting I was blamed for not being prepared and it was embarrassing to this politician. I said no problem, give me administrator access to change settings and I will handle all of it. Can't do, security and politics!
This repeated in various permutations until we settled into about a 70% pass rate. Not good enough, politics from branch managers calling and complaining about their expenses and the quality of the training. These were different courses every week so they all had issues. Friday afternoon had failures, students leaving angry, the boss asking why. He did not like the answers. Students failed the test. Give them another test. What other test? Too late now they have flights to catch. Got full access permission then. Pass rate went up some more. Not good enough. Was told to "review" the test with the students prior to them taking it. Ok, I started to notice discrepancies.
I finally carved out the time to do a detailed analysis of the materials in the PowerPoints and the test questions. It turns out that no class was perfect with every course having at least 15% of the material tested not covered in the presentations. One course was so bad that 40% of the test questions did not show up anywhere in the training materials. I had my notes and revised the PowerPoints and was feeling better. Then I was abruptly fired on a Wednesday at noon in the middle of an RT class. The boss said that he had enough; I agreed and said thank you.
After Team I lost faith in the politics and vowed to create my own future. Then I heard my sister had ALS so I went to Chicago to support family during her illness. I worked at Diamond Technical Services as a Phased Array Specialist. That was my title and I did a lot of theoretical Phased Array work but they could never understand the complexity and cost involved so I mainly did callout NDT jobs again. After my sister passed I left for the simple life of a UT tech at General Dynamics as a contractor for NIC. It was good to be back with the tools and the job did not last long enough. I saw a posting for an NDT Instructor at a College in Washington State and despite reservations, could not pass up the shiny new lab and equipment.
It turned out to be an illusion and a projection of my common sense that did not exist. I was still not able to implement my integrated system of materials, labs, activities etc. We had a contract with an online training provider that had the same issues as the other places I worked, but now they were online! I was ok with the students using it for their core so I could focus on labs and equipment, however the politics would not allow that. Several students would not accept the flaws in the online course and demanded that I go over each session with them in class, which destroyed the time to prep the labs. When I pushed back with common sense and assured them that they got the 40 hr certificate and I would consider it pass fail... they could not loose and could spend time doing Phased Array! Battle lines formed with other instructors taking sides and personal accusations were thrown around. I had to politely inform them that in the real world of NDT we don't act this way, we value time with the equipment, and we definitely don't spend 30 years at our craft to take any false personal attacks. We drag up! End of Lesson.
I was there when the Coronavirus hit so I left and went back to Chicago to get Mom set up with toilet paper. I have spent my time since refining my first course and the mix of internet tools needed to deliver it. I am glad for the time and I think now is the time to rethink in-person training for multiple reasons based on my experiences. Please see our page on details of the education and learning process and why we are different and add more value!