As a woodcarver for over 30 years, I carved over 200 different, original, cartoon-like characters in wood. Some of them were painted brightly...and others were left natural to show the beautiful grain of the wood. Because I love to make people laugh, most of the pieces were captioned. Most of the pieces were small...ranging in size from about 6 to 10 inches tall by 2-3 inches thick.
"Life's a hobby." Joshua Lederberg
During that time, I participated in over 40 arts and crafts shows all over the state of New Mexico. (where I live) I also sold my work in shops and galleries.
To be a woodcarver, a person needs to have good concentration; good hand-to-eye coordination; a fair amount of strenth; and pay attention to detail, etc. Once a piece is shaved away...you can't get it back, so good concentration is inperative. Important for safety reasons, too. I can't count the amount of times I've cut myself wood carving...probably because I was not paying attention. A person can cut themselves pretty good, if they're not paying attention to what they're doing.
In today's tough job market and the competition from a world economy, a person needs all the help they can get, and one time, I got that help from attaching a copy of my hobby to my regular job resume. In 1981, it paid off for me, as I got a regular job at an engineering company.
During my lifetime, I have never been fired from a job, but I have had SIX job layoffs in a little over a decade, and I have been a temporary employee longer than I would like. One time, I was between assignments, and a woman called me from one of the temporary agencies I was signed up with. Because I had attached my hobby resume with my regular resume, she knew that I was a woodcarver, and there was an engineering company interested in hiring me.
I told the woman that I didn't know anything about engineering and electronics, and she told me that was alright...that this would be an 'on-the-job training, and if I was interested in the temporary postition to start, and then after 90 days, I would be hired by the company. She told me that the company was interested in somebody who was good with their hands, and able to do small microscopic work with tiny parts and had good hand-to-eye coordination to work with expensive parts, etc. I told her yes, and I took the job.
As a temporary employee for the next 90 days, this job did require somebody with good hands and able to work on small parts, without damaging them. I did well over the 90 day period, and I was hired by the company.
"It was just a hobby...I didn't expect it to turn into a business." Phil Katz
This was one of the largest engineering companies in the United States, with over 35,000 employees all over the world. If you had a big checkbook, you could do business with this company. A few of the customers included; the U.S. government; all the military services; the Hurricane Center; the Interior Department; all the big airline builders; the Lightning Center; Los Alamos and Sandia National Labratories; major universities, the Energy Department; and governments around the world. Our technicians worked on Air Force One at Kirtland AFB, on the communications and navigation systems and we built parts for a few of the Shuttle space flights at that time. One time, I saw Air Force One out on the flight line at Kirtland AFB, but it was from a distance. I didn't have access to it.
Amazingly, I work at one job there for over five years. The company won a $40 million contract for the U.S. Navy to build an antenna that was about 25 stories high; and contained over 2,500 resistors. It would simulate a nuclear explosion and it tested the communications systems of ships at sea. When finished, it was shipped to Houston, and put together on a barge, and it looked like an upside down cone. The barge was then dragged to the east and west coast to test ships. Can you imagine...working on one job for over five years.
"I have only one real hobby...my husband." Florence Harding
In another interesting job, we built rain gauges for the Interior Department to try to control flooding around the Mississippi River. There were over 100 rain gauges, and they stood about 8 feet high, and most of the part would be buried in the ground. There was a little bucket on top of the rain guage to collect rain...and when it was full, and by remote control, the little bucket would empty out and start collecting more rain samples. This date told scientists and engineers where it was raining the most...so the Army Corp of Engineers could build dams, and so as the Mississippi River valley would not get flooded. Isn't this interesting?
Many of the jobs we did, were classified and we didn't know what we were building...just another piece of the puzzle!
An example, was when we built a resistor for Sandia National Labs. Almost everyone has seen a resistor on the back of a Pc board; or a television. They are usually small, measuring about an inch across. But, this resistor, that Sandia wanted, was about 8 feet high and about a foot across. It was made of glass, and was to be filled with epoxy. We had to climb a ladder to fill it. Certain epoxies can be dangerous, because some of them can exotherm...that is...burn themselves. If you pour about a half a cup of epoxy into a paper cup, and it is too dense...and during its curing process, it will smoke and ignite itself and burn the paper cup with it.
exotherm: (definition); a compound that gives off heat during its formation and absorbs heat during its decomposition;
So, we had to be careful with this resistor, because of its size. It took over a month to pour the epoxy into the resistor, and we were guided by engineers at Sandia National Labs during the entire process. They would call us for the next pour, after the epoxy was allowed to cure and shrink, etc. Because this job was classified, we had no idea where or what this huge resistor was going to be used for. When finished, it took several of us to take this giant out of the lab!
"A hobby a day...keeps the doldrums away." Marion Bradley
In another job that was interesting, we built an extremely complex piece for the Lightning Center. This piece would have only one life...when lightning struck this piece...that was it...over! It would gather data with sensors and photography during its short life.
When I was with the company about ten years, and they wanted us to go back in time, and do a little research on our efficiency. It took a little time to get these numbers, but during the past ten years, we in the lab, got out about 2,700 devices...and only ONE came back from the customer because the problem was our fault. So, we were pretty good as a team...and double-checked each other's work, to make sure the piece didn't come back.
In 2011, and with today's tough job market, and world economy...everything you can do to get a job is important and can pay off for you...as it did for me.
After more than ten years with the company, I got laid off with 14 others, and the company doesn't exist anymore, and was bought out by another company. A very interesting time in my life, and it all started out with getting the job with my hobby resume.
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Copyright; 2011; Jerry Aragon/The Humor Doctor
Website name; humordoctormd
