Iqra Qumar
March 5, 2019
The Art of Insanity:
An Interview with David Walters, an Electrical Assembly
“Do you know the definition of insanity? It’s doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result every time. That sums up this job but not in a really bad way.” This was one of the first things David Walters told me. He works as an electrical assembly at Sunsel Systems Manufacturing Corporation in Burnside Industrial Park, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. Since he is the uncle of a very close friend of mine, he had no problem sitting down and doing this interview with me via video call. As an electrical assembly technician, his job is to assemble and test different products which means doing the same thing many times before it is perfect.
For Mr. Walters, this path of becoming like a computer engineer began when he took interest in taking things apart and fixing them back up. He liked finding out how different products worked and that fueled him into becoming the man that he is today. When asked if he had any regrets going into this field of work, he humbly stated he did not. “I love this job. Even if it does get boring, I know I will still love it.” He spoke with happiness in his voice all throughout the short interview. Unfortunately, Mr. Walters did not go to college due to personal reasons, so I was unable to ask the few questions I had prepared for his college life and his early work experience.
We shared a very interesting conversation after getting to know one another. I asked what he liked and did not like about his job and the answer was quite typical. “I get to do what I love every day and I really enjoy it.” The sentence that followed took me by surprise. He said that he disliked his job sometimes because it can get a little boring and can be repetitive, which in turn makes it a little tedious. He fixes things and if I had to describe his job in simple terms then it is basically like he is an everyday technician that works at your local computer store. That is the first impression I got from Mr. Walters when we first started talking. I learned that you need to be patient doing the work that he does. That is one of the qualities you need because everything is repetitive. The next question I asked was how he was able to overcome any hardships. He replied, “There’s always so much information you need to get. The customer usually supplies most of the information, but you do need to use specific information sheets as well.” Mr. Walters then went on to explain that when he gets hard jobs, the customer always helps to clear up what exactly he needs to do. In addition to that, his company uses information sheets to help keep things in order. You can relate this to when you go to the doctor and they make you fill out a sheet of paper of why you are visiting. The work environment was described to be stressful at times because of the deadlines. In the electronic industry, there is a lot of waiting for parts to arrive and sometimes it gets close to the deadline that they worry about not finishing the product in time. Also, by the time they get the part, the customer has already been waiting for a while and they do not want to earn a bad reputation.
Everyone thinks that engineers do not write much as they always building things. However, Mr. Walters told me that he writes every single day. In order to ensure that the procedure is done right, the employees at Sunsel Systems have a checklist and a packet of paperwork that has to be filled out for each electronic that they assemble. Again, he repeated that it was tedious work, but it was to make sure that the products were good. As a trusted electronic company, it is very necessary for them to fill out those papers because they want their customers to continue coming to them.
Working as an electrical assembly and tester, it is not uncommon to work alone. Mr. Walter then went on to say that a lot of the time, they do work in teams. “Everyone has a certain stage that they are assigned, and it will go through one person before it moves onto the next. We also check each other’s work to make sure things are in order before sending it to the next person.” I came to the conclusion that this job requires more teamwork than I was led on to believe prior to the interview. Every person involved in the process of making a product at this company has their own part to play, but it is all in order to help the other employees. We had a small discussion about meetings, and I was told that Sunsel Systems has weekly meetings on Monday. They go over what they expect to get done during the week. “It works like an open floor, where everyone gets a chance to ask questions and say what they need to say.” The employees get information and assignments that are expected to be done during that week and are also told what tasks are important, so they know which ones to do first. They also talk about safety concerns that may regard working with some machinery. Lastly, they hold emergency meetings if anything important comes up during the week so they can deal with it right then.
As the interview came to a close, I asked for advice from Mr. Walters. I am still deciding between computer science and computer engineering, so he told me, “You have to love what you do. Manufacturing electronics has exciting moments but also boring moments. If you don’t have a passion for electronic, you will bore of the job quickly. There are a lot of repetitive things and you have to be prepared for that.” I believe this advice was helpful because it put a lot of things into perspective for me. I am struggling to decide between two majors and now I have learned about what is essentially the job of a computer engineer. Hopefully I am one step closer to choosing thanks to David Walters.
