Self-employment
Son works his way up to managing his dad's company25 and running the showAnthony Di Chiazza is all of 25 but he's already the guy in charge at DMI Precision in Mississauga, although he has to stop for a second to think about his title. DAVID CHILTON -- Special to the Toronto Sun |
|
|
To find out, take this test by eCareerFit, the career assessment experts.
After skills training at Seneca College and business training at Humber College, Anthony Di Chiazza is up to the task of running DMI Precision.
He's officially plant manager, which means, he says, "I'm essentially running the place." It also means, he wryly notes, that he's now working 10-hour days instead of the eight-hour shifts he used to do working in production.
SENECA COLLEGE
Di Chiazza started working at DMI in 2004 after graduating from both the Mechanical Techniques and Tool and Die Maker programs at Seneca College. DMI is a firm his father Lorenzo, who's also qualified in those same skilled trades, started in 2003. DMI specializes in roll forming (bending sheet metal for such things as bicycle rims and car bumpers) and making components for the aerospace and injection molding industries.
Di Chiazza says he always knew he would follow in his father's footsteps, and it was with this in mind that he headed off to Seneca's Jane Campus/Centre for New Technologies. "It's a great specialized campus," Di Chiazza says. "It's where Seneca is focused on these trades."
He started at Seneca in 2002, beginning in Mechanical Techniques - Controlled Numerical Control Precision Machining with its attendant CAD-CAM software before moving on to tool and die making. Di Chiazza graduated in 2004.
Of course he went to work for his father, and started in Controlled Numerical Control running production. But, after two years working on that and on the tool and die side of the business -- tool and die makers are highly skilled and make jigs, dies, molds, milling cutters and other tools used in manufacturing -- Di Chiazza's father decided he was experienced enough to take on a further challenge and run the administrative side of the company.
To acquire the training necessary for such a step Di Chiazza went back to Humber College and studied business for a year. Now, he says, running DMI gives him the most satisfaction. That's because it's where he can create the most impact for the company and its staff of 16, he says.
PITCHING IN
Still, Di Chiazza sounds just a little wistful when talking about tool and die making -- an occupation he thoroughly enjoyed -- and says he could go back to production without a second thought. In fact, in busy periods he does just that. "To be part of the business I have to do both (production and administration)," he says.
Since its beginning in 2003, DMI hasn't stopped expanding, Di Chiazza says, "and business is good."
In fact, company growth has been good not just for Di Chiazza and his father; it's also been good for his former classmates. Over the past two years Di Chiazza says he's hired six of them, although the buddy-buddy relationship they had while at Seneca has changed.
He allows it was a bit awkward at first but they soon came to realize that their onetime classmate was now the boss.
Really the boss. These days his father Lorenzo is busy running another manufacturing company he started.
davidchilton@rogers.com
Do you have you a bad boss?