Robski Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 Hi eveyone :)I have applied for the NA award in blacksmith and metalwork as I hope to aspire to becoming a blacksmith in the future. I have an interview date for March and was wondering if anyone has any tips for me? I have been told that we will be spending a few hourse in the forge and may have to forge a poker. Is there anything specific that I should bear in mind? Glen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted T Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 Glen, (AKA ~ Robski) Welcome to I Forge Iron Over the years I have sat in on well over 100 interviews for people who have applied for employment. The interview committee I served with was not only interested in the past performance and over-all skills of the applicant, but was even more interested their general attitude. Over the years we found it was easier to train a nice person who had a good attitude to fill a position, as opposed to hiring a skilled person who had a bad attitude. Experience taught us that we could not train a person with a bad attitude to be a nice person. In the long run it took to much management time, moneys, and effort to deal with a person who had a bad attitude. Some good attributes of a first-rate employee or a student is that they are easy to get along with and have a willingness to pay attention. Also, they do what they are instructed to do in a timely manner, require very little supervision, and are self motivating. So what I am trying to emphasize is that your general attitude will most likely count a great deal in your interview! If there are basic skills you were required to know prior to the forge session you speak of, only you know if you have done your homework for that. If you are not required to have skills prior to the interview and forge session, just pay attention and follow what they require you to do. If you have specific questions, please ask us as soon as possible. One more thing I would suggest is that you make sure you understand, prepare for, and practice the necessary safety requirements for the work you will be doing. Glenn Wisely summed it up when he said: “Let me answer a couple of questions real fast”. * Blacksmithing is dangerous!! Everything you do is either hot, heavy, sharp or dangerous. * Personal Safety is a personal problem, you need to protect what you want to keep. * What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it. There is no substitute for hammer time. There is no substitute for reading to learn, and there is no substitute for the knowledge gained by working with folks more experienced that you are”. I would suggest that you read the basics of getting started as found on the “Home page”. Go the left column, third topic down, called “GS0001Getting Started”. Be safe! Old Rusty Ted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 Hi Glen, Whats an NA Award? If its supposed to be blacksmithing I would expect to make more than a poker. I would suggest going and having a one day taster day or forging experience day to see how you get on, we do them at Westpoint in Devon, but that may be a little far for you to go. Like all courses, its what you do after them that counts Good luck with the interview Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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