A summary by a novice but highly competent technician from a general-purpose container manufacturing plant – The Flying Dutchman [Mechanics 062]

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The last edit to this post was made by 2887848 on 2015-1-4 at 13:43. I forgot where I signed up; I only remember that it was in the afternoon, and the reason for signing up was to start working as soon as the manager left； Who would have thought it would drag on for over half a month. Today is the last day of 2014; if I don’t write now, it will really have to wait until next year. I graduated from an ordinary second-tier college in June this year. The World Cup in Brazil took place just before my graduation, and those days were like working night shifts; it was only on the day I left campus that I realized I still hadn’t found a job yet. My major in school was Mechanical Design, Manufacturing, and Automation (with a focus on automation), and there was still a significant gap between what I knew and the knowledge required for working with static equipment in chemical engineering machinery. Six days after graduating and becoming unemployed, a pressure vessel manufacturing factory came to our college to recruit staff. Since I had nothing to do at home, I decided to give it a try, and unexpectedly, that became my first job. Our company used to be part of a large state-owned enterprise, but it is facing restructuring due to operational issues. The main problem is the attempt to maintain the previous lax work attitude while meeting high-efficiency requirements; this leads to various conflicts (the managers are extremely frustrated, while the workers remain relaxed). I was assigned to the technical department. Perhaps in large companies, this small office in the technical department can be considered a multi-functional unit – handling tasks such as design and drafting, material planning, material verification, quality inspection, and maintenance of technical records… Things are different in a factory compared to school; in order to get us started working as quickly as possible, our supervisors gave us three books on the first day: 150, 151, and the rules regarding solids and liquids… For the first half month, when I got tired of reading those books in the office, I would go to the workshop ； I was exposed to so much new knowledge all at once, and I worked really hard for this first job. Starting from around 7 a.m., by the end of a day’s work my head would be dizzy; I’d return to the dormitory and it wouldn’t be until after 9 p.m. Over those two weeks, I gradually developed a vague understanding of this industry. During that time, my supervisor asked me to verify the material of the pipes, specifying that they should be 304 grade, but I ended up conducting tests on pipes made of 20# steel instead. . . It’s so embarrassing when I think about it now. Fortunately, the experienced workers around us were very kind to us newcomers who had just started working at the factory; whenever we had questions, they would provide detailed answers. Once, when it came to quality inspection, I asked the quality control technician whether the xx equipment needed to undergo radiographic testing. He not only showed me around the entire testing room but also taught me how to take the necessary photographs. And that’s how I gradually started to contribute to the factory. In the following months, the management wanted to start working on the welding procedure documents, so I began with the weld diagrams, then moved on to NB/T47014 and the PQR documents we had used before; finally, last month, the welding documents for one heat exchanger were completed. Last month, XX unit wanted us to manufacture a small heat exchanger (there were paper-based assembly drawings; it was for replacing an old device). My supervisor asked me to enlarge the cylinder based on those drawings and then create the drawings for the various components. So I worked on numbers 151, 20592, 47023, 47010, 4730, 150, 13296, TSG……. I finished it after ten days; it was probably the first complete set of drawings I had created since starting work here. I was so excited at that time – it felt like I was a designer too. Two days later, the supervisor started criticizing my design: too few baffles were used, the outer pipe walls were too thin, the pressure rating of the container flanges was chosen incorrectly, and the pipe flanges weren’t selected in accordance with the standards specified in the original drawings… He kept criticizing me, giving me reprimands whenever he remembered to. . Those days I was extremely inexperienced; I was still a complete novice. Let’s talk about mindset; maybe I was too anxious when looking for a job ； When I first started working at the factory, I was full of enthusiasm; but after witnessing the leaders’ inability to manage what were supposed to be state-owned enterprise employees, I began to lose confidence in the factory ； Plus, I’m naturally quite introverted; at work I spend all day in front of a computer, and I interact with machines even less. Sometimes I don’t even know how to communicate with other people ； These past few days, I’ve been thinking about whether I should change jobs Like sales or something? This year brought both joys and sorrows, but overall I was quite lucky – I met many people who were willing to help me. In addition to the experienced workers at the factory, there was also my roommate, an older brother who would help me out with problems related to life and work...... I am grateful to those who helped me, as well as to those who criticized or hurt me; thanks to you all, I have really grown a lot this year. I was still a bit lost after 15 years, but whatever it is, may it come strongly… Finally, I’d like to thank all my readers; I hope you were able to follow my writing skills, which can be compared to those of five knives. 0.0 Flying Dutchman, December 31, 2014 ========================【Mechanical Zone】Sponsored Ad==================================== We sincerely invite you to the Mechanical Zone to share your 2014 summary. 【Mechanical Zone】“2014: My Work Summary” – many tangible prizes available. The Mechanical Zone is seeking candidates for various positions; applications and referrals are welcome. It is the cradle of HaiChuan’s senior management! 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