Gary Dawson - All in a day's work - Jobs - Translink

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Gary Dawson
Depot Engineer
Ulsterbus, Enniskillen

Gary Dawson

(extract taken from Summer 2007 Expresslines)

1. Describe your job.

To sum it up, I am in charge of the maintenance and repairs on the company’s bus fleet in Enniskillen. I oversee all the day-to-day work that this involves.

2. How long have you worked for the company?

Almost 24 years - I started with Ulsterbus in 1983, my first job, working as an apprentice in Duncrue Street.

3. What did you do before this current job?

After my apprenticeship, I was a diesel fitter in Duncrue St until I moved to Armagh in 1992, and then to Eniskillen in 1993 - working as a mechanic. I also spent six months working in Omagh during 1998.

4. What qualifications or special qualities do you need for your job?

You need your City & Guilds qualifications for this job, which I achieved while working for Translink. In terms of personal skills I’d say good man management and people skills are essential. Also good leadership skills - I find it better to work in parallel with others.

5. What do you find most challenging about your job?

There’s always something different that crops up every day that needs to be dealt with there and then. There’s always a push to meet deadlines, but I like being challenged in this way.

6. What major project have you been involved with recently?

I’d say a major one was the change management programme. As one of the four depot union representatives, I was involved in discussions relating to this.

7. Who do you report to?

I report to Robert Magill, the Northern Area Engineer.

8. What departments or colleagues within the company do you have contact with through your job?

With my Rep role and the Depot Engineer job, there’s hardly a department in Translink that I don’t have contact with over the course of a year - wages, finance, human resources. Locally, I work daily with all the Enniskillen team.

9. What are your main hobbies or interests outside work?

I’m a keen coy carp enthusiast, but at this time of year my main hobby would be fishing and training my spaniel dogs that I also breed. From September to February, my hobby is shooting, where I put the dogs I’ve trained to good use. Plus there’s my youth work. I’m a trained Youth Leader and take a group in the village I live in, Beragh, every Thursday and Friday evening. I also take away groups of young people between 14-18 on Youth Development weekends of outdoor activities.

10. Where is your favourite place in the world?

It would have to be Alcudia in Majorca. I’ve been two or three times and it’s beautiful.

11. What is your favourite meal and drink?

I love roast duck - à l‘orange - with all the trimmings. I’m not much of a drinker, but before a meal out it would have to be a Southern Comfort and white in a tall glass full of ice.

12.Who would you most like to be stuck in a lift with?

Naomi Watts who starred in the King Kong movie.

13.What TV programme makes you mad?

Big Brother - I hate it with a passion.

14. What’s your most recent CD purchase?

I would download most of my music now, thanks to my twin 12-year-old daughters who keep me up-to-date. But I bought U2’s ’18:The Singles’.

15. Which celebrity would you most like to have dinner with?

That would be Naomi Watts again!

16. What car would you love to have, money no object?

It would be a jeep - the Range Rover Sport HSE.

17. If you won the lottery, where would you like to live?

It would still be Beragh!