At Work With My Dad
Take Our Sons and Daughters to Work Day. Did you participate? Comment below!
On April 22 I spent the day with my dad on Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. The day is sponsored by the Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Foundation. I was able to learn what my dad does every day on his job.
My dad is a project manager for Vision Electric, an electrical construction firm in St. Louis, Missouri, His company installs commercial and industrial electrical services, fiber-optic cable, fire alarms, and voice, data and control access systems. He is involved with bidding, pre-construction, and the daily management of each job.
I visited several job sites with my dad, one of which is a job he is finishing at the St. Louis Zoo. His company, along with others, transformed the old Elephant House at the zoo into a new exhibition hall called Peabody Hall.
We also visited the expansion of Francis Howell High School, a multi-million dollar project, which is his company’s largest project to date. The new addition will consist of several state-of-the-art classrooms that will educate several hundred students. There I learned just how many people are involved in a single construction project.
For most projects, one general contractor hires several subcontractors, including electrical, plumbing, heating, and air conditioning. One of my dad’s jobs is daily coordination with the different trades as well as the electricians that work with him.
After we visited his job sites, my dad took me back to his office where I learned a little about the bidding and pre-construction process. To bid a project my dad needs a complete set of blueprints and pricing for the materials that he will use on a job.
It was fun to spend the day with my dad and to get a better understanding of what he does at work. The best part of the day was lunch at Fitz’s Root Beer in the famous Delmar Loop (called "one of the 10 great streets in America" by the American Planning Association).
PHOTO: Kid Reporter Jordan Kahrhoff on a job site with his dad for Take Our Sons and Daughters to Work Day on April 22, 2010. (Photo Courtesy Jordan Kahrhoff)
Comments