Best Path to a Job May Be the Longest

Considering the rate at which occupations are disappearing, it’s not surprising that people wonder which of today’s jobs will still exist 10 years from now and what qualifications they will demand.

Jobs that survive will be hands-on jobs, according to Fred Escobedo, department chair of counseling at L.A. Trade Technical School. “Service is the key to the future. The direction the world is going in now is more high-touch than high-tech.”

To qualify for these jobs, however, applicants will need more than just job training. “Education that promotes critical thinking is crucial,” Escobedo said. “Job training gives you the ability to fix things. Education gives you the ability to know the difference between a catastrophe and an inconvenience.”

Darrell Rohman fits the profile Escobedo describes. As one of Disneyland’s maintenance professionals, Rohman uses a full range of tools--from computer diagnostics to wrenches and screwdrivers--to maintain, repair and rebuild the animatronics on the Indiana Jones and Star Tours rides, as well as the Abraham Lincoln attraction.

There being no degree program in animatronics maintenance, Rohman has taken a circuitous route to acquire his training. He started in a small, family-owned machine-building company, then moved on to building radar equipment. He worked in the Northrop tooling department for a year and at Applied Magnetics in Santa Barbara, where he spent another year developing fine tooling for computer peripherals. Next he answered an ad for a mechanically inclined person and was hired by Sun Valley’s Sequoia Creative, which manufactured mechanical animations for theme park rides.

“That was when things really took off,” Rohman said. “I was hired to work on the Kong project for Universal Florida, and I was totally blown away the first time I saw that 6-foot gorilla head sitting in the middle of the floor.” Laid off three months later when the Universal contract fell through, Rohman answered another ad for a mechanically inclined person and was hired by Disney Imagineering, the company that designs and builds theme parks for the Walt Disney Co. company. Over the next four years, Rohman learned animatronics fabrication and became a specialist in building animated character heads from scratch. Then he was laid off again.

Although he wanted to stay with animatronics, he now had a family and needed to get another job right away. With an eye to the future, he left his resume at Disneyland and entered the Santa Fe Railroad’s conductor-training program and spent nine months working on freight trains. His reprieve from what he calls “the scariest job in the world” came when Disneyland called to offer him his current position.

Rohman’s education has followed a similarly circuitous route. A perennial student, he’s continually taking courses to broaden his hands-on skills and challenge his creativity. He’s studied technical illustration, photography, aircraft mechanics, welding, creative writing, landscape architecture and videotape editing. Today he’s enrolled in a cooking class.

Working in so many different venues and pursuing a variety of interests has given Rohman the skills and flexibility he needs to service the ultra-sophisticated Indiana Jones ride and the venerable Lincoln figure with equal effectiveness. His skills and flexibility enable him to calmly view the rapid technological advances taking place in the park. “No matter how complicated they make it,” he said, “we’ll be able to maintain it.”

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Kate Dunn is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles. She can be reached at katedunn@earthlink.net

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AT A GLANCE

* Name: Darrell Rohman

* Age: 38

* Present job: Animation technician, Disneyland

* Previous job: Freight train conductor, Santa Fe Railroad

* Education: Eclectic and ongoing