A Mountain of Paperwork
June 3, 2014 2:25 pm Leave your thoughts
I would like to start my blog by expressing my gratitude to AV Nackawic for their willingness to be involved with such an incredible program, and to the Forest Products Association of Canada for organizing these opportunities. These student positions give us the opportunity to experience an industry setting before we graduate from our respective universities. If it wasn’t for these opportunities, many of us would graduate with our degrees without any idea of what our career would actually entail. So, many thanks go to those two organizations.
Now, a bit about myself. My name is Robert Silliker and I grew up in the Fredericton New Brunswick area. I am currently enrolled in my 3rd year of chemical engineering. I entered into the ChE program at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) shortly after completing my bachelor’s in business administration degree (BBA), also at UNB.
During my first degree, I worked in retail sales at an electronics retailer. Although it was an interesting job, there was no such thing as evenings or weekends off. That leads to another huge benefit about working in the position I have at AV Nackawic, consistently structured schedules (Mon-Fri, 8-5). Being able to plan ahead of time for things I want to on the weekend, or a few weekends away, is a welcome bonus I never planned on.
Orientation
The first day and a half at the mill was focused on training and orientation. Apart from the massive amount of standard operating procedures (SOP’s) that had to be read, there was also WHMIS and general mill safety training. The most impressive aspect of the orientation was the level of attention given to safety concerns/training. The fear that I had, and I assume many other people do as well, was fearing that the mill employees would be reluctant to accept the level of apprehension I might have towards frightening machinery/areas of the mill. The truth is actually the opposite. Every employee that I’ve spoken with has reinforced the understanding that if somebody is not comfortable working with a piece of equipment or in a particular area, it is always better to be safe and ask somebody for help.
I’ve been here for almost 4 weeks and I’ve been learning more each day. In my follow up blog entries, I will talk about how AV Nackawic is giving me the opportunity to be involved with production trials and the day-to-day life as an employee here.
Thanks for reading,
Robert Silliker