I prefer teamwork

George van Straten has won September round of our photo contest. You can read now an interview with him and find out, how he has become a paint inspector and what difficulties does he meet during his job.

• With your picture you won Paint-Inspector´s Field Guide from TQC. Could you describe a bit what the situation was about? 

It was a platform supply vessel that was being coated during a dry-docking. This particular coat is the tie-coat. Each dry-docking takes about two weeks. I thought that this photo was fascinating because of all the different shades of grey being created by the sunlight. I have never realized how interesting a grey coating could look. One usually does not consider grey an interesting colour. The photo was taken in the late afternoon with the sun adjacent-behind us about three weeks ago. (The picture was taken in September 2013)

• What is the background of you as a Paint Inspector – how did you encounter that kind of job?

I am a Technical Service Representative for a paint company. I work mainly in the marine industry, but am also involved in PC projects and some very unusual and interesting projects such as vehicles and telescopes. I was headhunted back in 2008.

• Your projects make you travel all around the world. Where furthest from your homeland have you been?

My job has kept me relatively close to home. The furthest I have been is 400 km north to farm where we inspected a gamma wave telescope constructed by the Max Planck Society. It was constructed and coated in Walvis Bay and then transported through the desert to the farm and then assembled.

• What do you like about your profession?

I love the interesting products we work with and the different applications they can be used for. Also, I enjoy working with all the different people from all over the world who share their knowledge and experience with us.

• Is there also something that you do not like?

It is difficult to work with the ethic, sometimes. It seems as though one has to try to outsmart the client or a competitor, or close ones eyes to satisfy a client. I refuse to bend the rules or be convinced to do this. It’s so wrong. This does not work well with my character. I prefer teamwork to find solutions to the advantage of all concerned.

• Where is your next project taking place?

We have a few projects running all the time. We are involved with Dry-dockings and PC projects in our area. There is a lot do to, here, all the time.

• What are your hobbies?

I am a musician, quite well known in the area. I wish I could play music rather than work as a TSR. I also enjoy doing home renovation.

• Please continue  in following sentence with first thing coming to your mind:

I always wanted to be a Rock Star. Sharing the joy of music has been my dream since I was a young lad. It gives me great joy to see people enjoying themselves. I know it’s not what shold be written here, but that’s who I am.

Winning picture: Photo of the tie-coat being applied to a vessel on a floating dock in Walvis Bay. The different shades of grey look quite interesting.