Christopher Gray

During the covid pandemic I was unemployed. I collected unemployment. It was a coulple months that my unemployment funds were depleted and so I was on the hunt for a new job. My mother worked as a delivery driver at an auto parts shop. They helped me out and gave me a job even tho my license and social security card had been lost along with my wallet. I have been working there ever since. My responsibilities are to be there to help the customers feel at home in our shop and to give them the beat bang for their buck. I try to make sure my community knows that we will go above and beyond to make sure they get what they need to stay mobile. In a world were transportation is important. I think my explanation on this job may be more deep but that is because it is ny current job and I do want to strive to do the best I can at every job I go to. I also clean up the shop and help with inventory as does the rest of the staff its very team driven and can get very dramatic at some points but it always levels out and we supply our town with what the want and need!

I had been laid off of my pipefitter job and came back home. There was an opening in my old workspace and ao I took it up. Again inwas building and doing everything from dirt work, concrete forms, concrete pouring, and erecting buildings from bottom to the top. Everything was going well. Then the covid 19 pandemic hit.

As a helper in general I would be there for any welder or pipefitter who needed an extra set of hands. My quick to help nature would give me the upper hand and I would earn two raises in just two months. It was a job I enjoyed very much and I made a really good friend.

At the end of 2016 I attended a trade school for HVAC. I would earn my diploma with highest marks. I was universally certified to work on any type of hvac systems. I got my first job of this type working for scottco. I was a helper for a lead installer for the first 8 month's. When it was decided that I would work as a temp lead for the remainder of the time I was there. While there I attended a class for mini split systems. My job entailed installing and mapping out for vents and hvac systems. It was a very good experience. I was excited to learn about another way the world works.

In Palo Duro canyon is a park and there was where this job took place. My job entailed filling metal baskets with rocks and place them in such a manner that sand and dirt surrounding the bridges bases that we were building doesnt errode as quickly as it would if it were untreated. I would operate a range of equipment and oversee a small crew at certain days. It was a very good experience in a beautiful place.

When the metering job was finished they went out of state. At that time I didnt want to leave home and I had the opportunity to go back to metal, So I did. My responsibility was the same just building and operating equipment to construct the building we were working on. it was brief only because I wanted to secure a more permanent job.

At this job I would swap old meters out with a new digital and radio receiver type of meter designed to be more convenient and make the job for the city and water to get resolved sooner and with precision. It was performance based job where the more meters you installed the more money you would earn. It was a very hard and rewarding job.

This job would prove to be a really good learning experience. Teaching me everything from leadership to tool use and identification. I learn everything from landscape to dirtwork to concrete then erecting buldings from the bottom to top and all that it entails. We did many different types of construction. My responsibility was to do everything it takes to erect a steel or wooden building, Or fence. Some times we would do roofing jobs sometimes we would just do repairs. It was something I came to love and be proud of. However work slowed down in the year of 2015 and I had to seek an new job.

At this job I would learn many useful things. My responsibilies were to deliver and assemble furniture. Also to keep the warehouse stocked and we'll cleaned. I would learn maneuvers and secrets unique to the furniture world that would serve me later in life.

This brief stint was a job one of my friends had gotten through an older cousin of mine. I left the job at the burger place and I took my very best friend with me. This would be my first experience away from home on the road and making really good money for my age. However my older cousin had tendencies that would prove to be detrimental to our employment. From job to job he would cause disturbances that would drive us to the next job. This led us on a trip from west Oklahoma to southeast Texas and as well eastern Louisiana. I enjoyed the work, but ultimately we had to disband from my cousin. My job consisted of spotting for equipment operators. This would be acting as their eyes on the ground and preventing digging into a buried pipe. Also throwing skids down the right of way and gathering them as well. Hard work alot of it.

During my time in college one of my very close friends died in a car accident. It was devastating. He was a good kid with a bright future ahead. It put a real wedge in the atmosphere and a lot of my friends as with me dropped out in the second semester. When that happened I a had family working at this burger joint and they offered me a job. I took the job which was just flipping burgers and frying up little finger foods it was a small place so we cleaned as we went along. At that point I was pretty much over working in the food industry and when I left. I vowed that i wouldnt work in the industry again unless it was in my very own bar or restaurant. Its just not for me.

Fresh outta high school and ready to be for away from a sink. I landed me and my best friend a job with this old farmer. We started early and finished early. It was a very good experience. I learned the joys of crops and farming. This would be where id learn that i love to operate equipment. My responsibilities consisted of everything from hearing cattle to runnin the plow in the field. It was short because college was on the rise. It was a wonderful job for a good man.

This was my third job and final job as a dish washer. It was fun there good people and friends that I got to work with. I would stock potatoes and there was this giant grill that the whole staff would clean together. It was quite the spectacle.

This little auto sound shop had been rumored to be opening a skate shop inside. When I found it was fact. I went everyday after school and begged to work there. They finally agreed when I showed them I was very knowledgeable about the industry. I worked for an under the table rate of 20 bucks a week and I would work 2hours everyday after school it was my dream job at the time and I loved it.

I was only 14 years old when I started my first part time job. My father worked at the country club or Id have not been able to get a job. It was a humbling and great character building experience. The dishes were my priority but I would do several other things like stocking, cleaning, and refilling certain areas with silverware and such.