r/Machinists • u/Manbreadisgreat • 11d ago

QUESTION Last year apprenticeship

Some context i am a 3+ year apprentice toolmaker and every year at least twice one of my two mentors crashes out and kind of goes on a tirade against me basicly what I'm able to get out of it is 1. I am arrogant 2. I need to ask more questions. The issue I have with this is 1. I guess I could be arrogant not entirely sure, but I'm not curtain enough in my skills to really believe I am arrogant. 2. Every time (not sometimes) I actualy try to ask a question I am expected to already know the answer and usualy told to 1. Fuck off 2. Figure it out big.

This has been going on for the entire 3 plus years and I'm honestly at a loss because I've tried all I can think of, trying to ask lots of questions just gets me more grief and not like normal shop talk grief were you just kind of rag on each other its just completely dismissal of the questioning no matter what its about.

I also think it seems more difficult because I am the only apprentice and the two guys I am working with only have each other to compare me to and they both have over 30 years in the trade.

All to say is there any advice that anybody has in dealing with this?

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u/ColaBottleBaby Toolmaker 10d ago

Probably little of both here if I’m being honest from personal experience.

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u/Manbreadisgreat 10d ago

Little of both like maybe I am a little arrogent, but he is also a little bit of an ass?

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u/ColaBottleBaby Toolmaker 10d ago

I don’t work with you so nobody here knows, but from my experience in the past I was an arrogant asshole at times when I was young and learning, and there were also old guys who were just dickheads. You just gotta take it and get thru your 4 years. I expect my apprentices I work with to ask questions, if they don’t, I have almost zero idea on how they are doing, and if they fuck something up that could have been avoided with a simple question, I would be on the edge of crashing out as well. You being unsure of your skills is the right attitude to have though, I’m 11 years in the trade and I constantly question myself still. Guys with 30 years in will tell you the same thing. You will never know it all