Brenden Hunt

Brenden, what were you up to before coming here?

Before I came to Ready Arc, I was at St. Macs (St. Malachy’s High School). I took the welding course there in both Grade 11 and 12. I went to the Skills Canada Competition in Winnipeg too. Last summer, I was accepted to Ready Arc for September. So I just went to Fernhill Cemetery, worked there, cut the grass, saved up some money and then came straight here.

Why welding?

Actually, it’s funny. In Grade 10 we were doing course selection, and I was still working at Fernhill for my summer job. One of my co-workers there said he took a welding course, and he said it was pretty cool. I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I just signed up to go in and learn how to strike an arc. I took the course, and my first weld was really bad. But I had a really good teacher, Mr. Nichol. He showed me how to weld and from then on, I was in there at lunchtime every day Practicing, honing my skills.

What made you choose Ready Arc?

Mr. Nichol, my welding teacher. He said it would be the best choice for me. Also Steve (from here at Ready Arc). He goes around to the high schools and he was at St. Mac’s talking to us. I just thought it was cool and decided I wanted to go. Six months of welding, 4 hours a day in the shop, sounded perfect. I took the CWB testing here in high school too, Grade 11 and 12, so I was already familiar.

So, how were your six months with us? 

It was awesome. The first month, I didn’t really know anybody. I was just kind of doing my own thing, keeping to myself. I slowly started to meet people, talk to them and get comfortable just fooling around, pranking each other and having fun. I managed to finish within the first 2 or 3 months and ended up experimenting with different techniques and then we just did our own thing from there as a class and we did really well as a group. Couldn’t have asked for a better group of classmates.

You made it to graduation day.

What’s next? I’m probably going to join one of the unions. Something to do with TIG welding. I’ll take any work they give me just to get some experience and get my name out there and raise my reputation. I’m definitely hoping to be working shutdowns in the future, that’s what I want to do. I want to do a lot of specialty welding too, like stainless and other alloys. Hopefully make a name for myself.