Whilst the vast majority of children go on to choose their own profession. Parents’ choice of career can be a powerful influence on their offspring when they themselves come to enter the workplace.
A study by the family history site Ancestry.co.uk found that only 7 percent of children end up in the same job as their parents today, whereas it was nearly half of children (46 percent) in Victorian times.
In other words, our parents’ careers may make us much more likely to do the same job compared to other people, but it’s just an influence! Most people don’t directly follow in their mum’s and dad’s footsteps professionally unless your name is Mark McGinty!
We caught up with Father & Son – Mick and Mark McGinty who both work for HBC to chat about those influences. Here’s what they had to say…
When and where did you start your career in Building Control?
Mick: London Borough of Camden 1972 Mark: Hertsmere Borough Council 2004
Mark- How did your Dad influence your choice of career?
There was a day when Mum was either ill or had to work herself, so Dad had to take me to work! He took me to the office and we went out for a couple of site visits. I enjoyed the contrast between being in the office and going out on site.
After this day the job stuck with me! Whenever I thought about what job I wanted to do, this was it!
Mick- How did Mark follow in your footsteps?
Mark started doing some part-time work in the school holidays. He accompanied me or Pat Folan most days to different sites. This ‘cemented’ (excuse the pun) his choice of building control as a career!
Mark’s Early Memories
One week I was taken to Arsenal’s training ground, by Pat Folan and I saw Patrick Vieria, Denis Bergkamp and Ian Wright!
Mike Wallace also took me to the Eastenders set. Sadly I did not meet Pat Butcher! But by chance, I got to see her another time in Radlett Post Office!!
Mike- How has Building Control changed in your time?
Back ‘in the day’ you could carry out a Completion Inspection and send out the Completion Certificate the same day. Now there’s a bit more double-checking and info to collate before we can do that!
The regulations listed ‘deemed to satisfy requirements so there was basically one way to comply and we didn’t have to worry nearly as much about energy performance and thermal insulation.
If you had to play one album forever what would it be?
Mick– That’s easy – The Freewheeling by Bob Dylan!
Mark – Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits! I played it quite a bit whenever me and my Dad worked on my house together. Happy times!
We complied Father & Son Mick and Mark’s journey into this video!
To find out more about working at HBC see our careers page
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