Graduate Connections – Meet Taison Mullins

Taison, 23, from Jacksonville, Florida, completed the  Electro-Mechanical Technologies program at Tulsa Welding School in Jacksonville in January 2024. 

Thanks for your time, Taison. What did you do before enrolling at Tulsa Welding School? 

Right out of high school I worked at Winn-Dixie for a while, and then I got a job at a Publix warehouse. I made way better money at Publix, but the working conditions were extremely rough. I was in a negative 20 degrees freezer pretty much the entire day, and I had to meet a quota every single day. I basically came in at 5 a.m. and bust my ass to meet a quota. If I didn’t meet it, I could get fired. So, every day I had the mindset to really work in truly uncomfortable conditions. You’ve got to sacrifice to make the amount of money I did in that job, and I did make pretty decent money, but in rough working conditions.

That doesn’t sound fun. So, what changed? 

At that point my whole life consisted of nothing but going to work, coming home, working out, and then repeat over and over again. I was too tired to do anything. I didn’t want to keep doing that, so I started applying for jobs. But I realized I needed years of experience or a skill under my belt for most of them. 

In 2022, I decided I wanted to join the United States Marine Corps. So, I joined as a reservist because I wanted to be able to choose when I got deployed. As a reservist, we still go home and get a job, but we’re able to request deployments. I graduated from bootcamp in August 2022, then I had to go through marine combat training, and after that I went to MOS school where I got a certificate in supply and inventory management. Basically, I’m a warehouse marine!

Thank you for your service, Marine. Did you consider joining active duty?

I came back from training and just wanted a door to open. If I couldn’t get something going in civilian life, I figured I’d convert to active-duty full time. I kept working at the warehouse, applied for jobs, and realized I still needed a skill. Then my dad got on my case; he wanted me to figure out my plans, what was I going to commit to? I thought a trade would be good. I could learn a trade while I’m still young, and if I don’t like it, I have time to figure something else out. 

So, how did you land at Tulsa Welding School?

So, the very next day after my dad said what he said, I went to Tulsa Welding School, talked to them, got the paperwork signed that day, including my FAFSA, and got registered. The day after that I put my two weeks’ notice in at my Publix job. I really couldn’t work there and go to school at the same time. The timelines were just too connected. But just before I quit that job, one of my friends told me he knew a guy with an HVAC company. He thought maybe I could work with him while I went to school. So that’s how I got my part-time job while going to school. I’d go for about four to six hours after my four hours at TWS.  

That’s awesome. Why did you choose the EMT program? 

That’s a good question. In my mind, I’m not hardwired for one thing. You know what I’m saying? I didn’t go in there and say, “Oh, I want to do HVAC!” When I went in, honestly, I wanted to do all the programs. I wanted to do HVAC, Electrical, Welding. I recently saw they now do a Lineworker program too. If I had all the time in the world, I would probably do everything. Honestly, I’m not stuck to HVAC. I did it to learn a skill and see how I like it. At some point I’m considering applying to an electrical company, maybe do some electrician work for a while. I want to experiment, figure out what I like. That’s why I chose the EMT program. I now have a little credit in HVAC, solar, and electrical. I’d be down to work whatever opportunities I find, using whatever skill that makes me the most money and allows me to have a good life.

What did you enjoy most about your time at TWS? 

I’d say I enjoyed learning stuff. I’m not going to lie, there were a lot of things I just could not grasp in that school. I’d never been a ‘handy man’ before Tulsa Welding School or doing my job right now. I’ve never fixed stuff. I knew nothing about motors, nothing mechanical. I knew nothing, not even the different sizes of tools. I’m still learning. I also learned a lot more by going to school and going to my job at the same time. 

Tell us more about those struggles on the program, and how you got past them? 

It was a lot, really overwhelming. I didn’t understand the science of refrigeration. There’s a whole scientific theory behind how refrigeration works; there were a lot of concepts I had a really hard time grasping. There were a lot of days when I didn’t feel like coming in. But instead of staying home because I was tired, I went in anyway. Maybe I’d get the right teacher or see the right line in a book, or someone would say something…and then it would spark! I’d learned something and now I understand how this works! Too many people, especially straight out of high school, run into the smallest little inconvenience and quit. They don’t realize how hard actual real life is. I’m only 23 but I worked at a job that really beat my ass into the ground every single day for 18 months. I realized I had to work hard if I wanted to make it anywhere, and it was no different at this school. Anything worth going for is never going to be easy. That’s how life works. 

Very true. So, where are you working?

I’m still at the HVAC company I was working with while at school, but I’m now full time. I’ve got a lot of experience in this job; I know a lot more now than I knew when I started. But I’m definitely not going to stay here. This job was convenient because the guy was flexible when I was going to school, and he taught me a lot. Honestly, I’m staying with him for the time being because it’s only him and me, and he just had surgery. I feel bad for him. He couldn’t run his company without me right now. I’m just staying with him until he recovers, then I’m planning on finding another job where I can make more money. I didn’t go in this trade to not make the money I want to make. But I don’t want to leave him while he’s vulnerable when he taught me so much and was flexible with me. 

I admire that loyalty. Good for you. Is it residential service work?

Yeah, it’s residential work. Since he’s just had surgery, he can’t pick up anything heavier than 10 pounds, so I do pretty much all the service calls. To be honest, even before the surgery, he was throwing me on service calls by myself to get more done. I’m not going to lie to you, going into service calls alone while I was still in school, still learning, there were a lot of days where I was stressed out! I had no idea what to do! He said, “You’re sharp, I’m going to throw you into the fire!”…and that’s what he did. Sometimes I was able to figure it out, sometimes I had to call him to run me through the motions. It was a hard, hard process, but now like 10 months later, I can genuinely go to a service call with confidence. I have a series of things that I do to figure out what the problem is. 

What’s your career plan from here, Taison?

I want know more. I just want to learn the skills. I’m nowhere close to being a master. I’m open to anything. I just want to find a company that’s a great opportunity to teach me more skills. I’m down to do residential, commercial, but I’m pretty interested in industrial for electrical and HVAC. That’s what I’m really interested in. I met people from Johnson & Johnson and that’s the job I’ve actually been trying to get. They’re just really hard to get into because once people get into it, they never leave! What they do is PLC, which is programmable logic control. That’s where you work on the conveyor belts in warehouses. You know, where it takes a bottle to point A, where it’s wrapped. Then it takes it to point B where it gets bottle cap put on top of it. You know what I’m saying? The machines that manufacture stuff, I’d love to work on the electrical wires that help those systems program themselves to do what they’re supposed to do.  

What do you enjoy most about this new trade?

I want to build a skillset that makes me a valuable human being. I want to get to a point where I have the skills and experience to make good money and be financially secure. This trade is like a means to an end for me. I don’t really care about sitting there troubleshooting all day. I do like doing it only because it gives me the opportunity to learn how to do it, so I can be okay for the future. Does that make sense?

What advice do you have for someone to be successful at Tulsa Welding School? 

Understand what this program is designed to do. Understand that you’re not going to come out a master electrician or a master HVAC technician, not even close. Even if you pay attention every day in class and do everything you’re supposed to, you’re still not going to come out having absorbed all the information you need. You’ve got to realize that the school is designed to basically give you a foundation, a certificate, and get some credibility to your name. It’s going to give you the opportunity to get a foot in the door.

If you’re a TWS graduate and would like to share your success and be an inspiration to others, please email [email protected] to be considered for a Graduate Connection interview. Please include details such as your graduation date (month/year), program, and campus name (Tulsa/Jacksonville/Houston/Dallas).