Quote:
Originally posted by lordjeebus
Fascinating stuff!
How did you discover this line of work?
|
its funny, really. i was working at a pizza shop after high school, and one of my co-workers was talking about it. he just sold the program so damn well, that i wanted to try it.
of course, it didnt hurt that i had a $500 scholarship to del tech from winning 3rd place in the high school CAD competition. so i went for the two introductory classes, and was just hooked. i dont know why, but i just love what i do so much. its technical, but involves a lot of finesse and somewhat of an artistic eye. sometimes you have to place the sprinkler heads so they all line up. in complex rooms it takes a little time. but its also as close to engineering as you can get without being a PE. we normally do everything on a system from scratch. calcs, layout, coordination, and sometimes even hazard classification.
plus, its a real niche industry. there arent too many schools that offer the program, and most people who graduate from it end up working for the state, or an insurance company of some sort. very few of my fellow graduates went on to sprinkler design.
its also a very tight knit group. after just my short time in the industry, i allready know most people involved in fire protection in the state of delaware. its also very family oriented. there have been a lot of relatives at the companies ive worked for.