Just a curiosity question to those in any sort of trade. I served my apprenticeship under a very knowledgeable guy. I guess I started there when I was 17 and worked with him until I was 21 and had my Journeysman card. I think he was about 25 or so when I started there and the guy they gave all the most precision jobs to.

He was a real bear to me. I'd ask what I thought was a simple question and I'd get belittled to death, talked down to, and generally went back to the job at hand feeling quite stupid for even asking.

I'd walk up and say something simple like "I can't get a good finish on this stainless" and he's rip into 10 things I should have done different or thought about before coming to him with such a stupid question.

Looking back on it, I think it was excellent. I didn't really mind it then, he was a decent guy, but he was just a hard person to be trained by. What it did was make me think about 5 times before I'd go to him. So any time I had the need to ask him something, it would make me stop, gather up all my data, speeds, feeds, tooling, angles, measurements, and everything else. So when he hit me with questions, I could always answer back, until we finally would hit the one I hadn't thought of, and it would solve my problem. I guess he really taught me to think on the job and not rely on others to solve all my problems.

All in all, I'm happy I was trained by him.

Anyone else got fond or not so fond memories of coming up through the ranks?