S**T storms

Date 03-26-2009 18:28

If you've chosen inspection/examination as a career field be prepared for the following (based on this inspectors personnel experience's)

Be prepared to see your face on a dartboard in production managements office

Be prepared to be run off a job when you don't buy LOF through 100 percent of the weld

Be prepared to have your tires slashed from time to time

Be prepared to have your truck burned to the rims

Be prepared to be shot at

Be prepared for multiple physical altercations

Be prepared to be the goat when production doesn't make it's artificial deadlines

Be prepared to stand aside and let higher ups take credit for the documentation package you worked day and night on to clear for use the item being inspected

Be prepared to accept other inspectors? promotion over you when that inspector is a yes man, or worse yet, replaced with said yes man

Be prepared to be the target of much hatred and malcontent

But more than anything, be prepared for the ability to look yourself in the mirror and hold your head high. Remember no matter how much others complain,
the code and law is there for a reason. Inspection is nothing more and nothing less than the long term safety of the general public.

By jrw159

Date 03-26-2009 18:32

So true! :-)

By CHGuilford (****)

Date 03-26-2009 21:48

Be prepared to be left out of the loop in the project planning, because you'll only drive the costs up. Then be prepared to be thrown under the bus when the owner sends in the backcharges on that same job, for somethng you weren't told about.

Be prepared to have your ideas ignored for a while, then see someone else take credit for it.

Be prepared to see others congratulated for a good job and QC is never mentioned, when you know you marked up hundreds of mis-fits and weld repairs.

Be prepared to submit your paperwork when you are supposed to, then hear that the whole project is held up because you didn't turn in your reports.

Be prepared to have another inspector "anihilate" your credibility because you missed something, yet right beside it is something equal or worse that they missed.

Be prepared to see the other job classifications -with lesser responsibilities get pay increases- but not QC.

There is no doubt about it, Quality Control can be a thankless position. But no one ever said life would be fair. By walking in through the gate, I am accepting what is waiting for me...until I change what is waiting, or I walk back out.

By 803056

Date 03-27-2009 02:58

I've always said that a company QC man is the corporate whipping boy. It is one of the hardest positions to occupy and still do a competent job.

Best regards - Al

By ravi theCobra (**)

Date 03-27-2009 16:18

And to think .   .   .

When I had reached the ripe old   age of 32   I was Q C Manager of a plant of 200 people that was Section III as well
as Sect I and   Sect VIII   AND I was making the BIG money   - $ 18,000   per year.

When that place closed due to a little thing @ Three Mile Island I got a job in Houston as " just an inspector " for $ 30,000 per year

So hang in there   - I'm 62 now and have almost reached retirement -

By spots

Date 03-27-2009 16:25

When I went through QC school my instructor said, "If you want a friend in this industry you'd better buy a dog."

By bmaas1

Date 03-27-2009 17:18

Whenever things go well you never hear about QC. But when things go baaad you always hear "where was QC?"

By CWI555

Date 03-27-2009 21:43

true

By jrw159

Date 03-27-2009 23:04

I was told at the start of my inspection career, "If you show me an inspector that EVERYBODY on the site likes, I will show you an inspector who is not doing their job." This was not said in the sense that an inspector should be an ass, but that if an inspector is doing their job correctly, there is going to be a few that do not like them. No matter how nice, well worded, and correct (with supporting documentation) one is, it is not popular with everybody. No matter how accepting of it they are when your face to face, as you walk away, the under the breath talk and "your number one salutes" IE the "bird" are there the majority of the time. It is not a job for people with sensitive feelings. LOL

If one is the type to lose sleep over things like this, I would not recommend inspection. :-)

jrw159

By CWI555

Date 03-27-2009 21:42

A little thing called TMI is it?

By ravi theCobra (**)

Date 03-28-2009 00:05

Not anything significant - just ended all Nuclear fabrication and construction - zap !

By kipman

Date 03-28-2009 16:33

Yeah, that plus Brown's Ferry and the subsequent regulatory reactions pretty much finished it.

By CWI555

Date 03-28-2009 21:20

I do take Browns Ferry having all three units up and running again as a good sign though.

By Stringer (***)

Date 03-29-2009 21:13

I ratted out a couple of lazy no-good-fers for abandoning fire watch (this was in 1970 something) for a smoke when I was jammed up in a pipe rack welding. They did my tires.

By CWI555

Date 03-29-2009 22:22

Most of my problems came from making unpopular calls. Truck was burned when series of those calls shut down a chemical plant, tires slashed for busting out welder quals on the radiography, etc, etc.

By trapdoor (**)

Date 03-30-2009 23:06

"Be prepared to have another inspector "anihilate" your credibility because you missed something, yet right beside it is something equal or worse that they missed."

So true.