Instrument tech on top of an evolving trade
EDMONTON— Travis Budjak’s work has taken him to breweries, gold mines, hotels and plenty of oil and gas sites.
The instrument technician works around Alberta and occasionally outside the province, including at a gold mine in Yellowknife, N.W.T.
“It’s such an interesting trade because there’s so many different things you can work on,” Budjak said.
“I’ve been all over, including B.C., Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and up North. You get to see a lot of land, do a lot of kilometres, and get a lot of experience.”
Instrument technicians install, maintain and repair the measuring and control instruments used in industrial and commercial processing.
“We work on anything that measures or controls levels, temperatures, flow, pressure, that’s the gist of it. It’s a hard trade to explain because it’s not a commonly known trade. We do lots of well sites and plant con- trols. It’s a really interesting trade because it’s always different and evolving and there’s more and more new stuff coming out. There’s lots of computer work some days, but other days it’s very hands-on,” Budjak said.
Budjak chose the trade while still in high school, encouraged by both his father and brother.
“My brother had done the Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) and was way ahead when he got out of school, so I thought if I could find a trade I wanted to do, I could manage to do that too,” he said.
Budjak’s father suggested he look at the instrumentation trade.
“I started looking at it closer and I talked to an instrumentation guy who explained what he did, and it sounded pretty interesting. Then I did an open house at NAIT (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology) for the day where they show you what a day would be like, and I really enjoyed it.”
With his trade chosen, the then Grade 10 student rearranged his courses at high school to accommodate his trades training and began working for Shell Scotford’s heavy oil upgrader.
With so many hours accumulated after working throughout high school, Budjak was able to complete some of his technical training at NAIT in back-toback sessions.
At the age of 21, he had completed his four-year apprenticeship and achieved journeyman certification as an instrument technician.
“Everyone else was out of high school doing this or that, still figuring out where to go, and I was already a journeyman. I was making good money, I was young, it was awesome. It’s still a great place to be,” Budjak said.
Budjak, 23, now works for Spartan Controls as a measurement instrumentation field service technician.
It’s an independent job that has him driving to various sites and completing whatever work needs to be done.
“I’m young to be running my own truck but I have lots of experience because I started so young,” Budjak said.