Career starters TRAINER PROFILE
Julian Parker (right) has gone from being an apprentice to setting up in business and taking on his own apprentice, Jayden. Hugo the dog sometimes joins them on new build jobs, where he can be set up for the day!
KEEPING IT 100% For Julian Parker, the goal was always crystal clear: to start up in business by the time he was 30. And now this former apprentice is training an apprentice of his own. AUTHOR: KERRIE MORGAN
J
ulian Parker and his wife Shannon launched 100% Plumbing and Gas in Rotorua in 2020—just as New Zealand exited the first Covid-19 lockdown. “I knew I wanted it to happen that year but we had to decide whether to go ahead coming out of lockdown or wait until later in the year,” says Julian, who was only 28 at the time. In the end, they took the plunge and Julian says the transition into running his own business has been daunting and exciting in equal measure. He believes the skills gained during his apprenticeship have helped him succeed in reaching his goal— from the practical plumbing and gasfitting know-how to problem solving and communication skills. After completing his apprenticeship at Laser Plumbing Rotorua, Julian went on to work for four years at The Lewis Plumbing Company, a reputable Rotorua-based business, which gave him an extra boost of confidence, knowledge and experience. “I treated the business like it was my own,” he says, adding that he was given
76
nzplumber
a lot of responsibility within the company and took pride in all the work he undertook there. While at Lewis Plumbing, he also ticked off a number of achievements, including winning Plumbing World’s inaugural Young Plumber of the Year Award in 2017.
Overseas experience In 2018, he and Shannon took off for a year of overseas travel, backpacking through South America for six months before making their way to Europe. Their travels eventually led them to Austria, where Julian got a job working on the other side of the industry— for plumbing product manufacturing company KE KELIT—as a direct result of winning the Young Plumber of the Year award. Not only was this a unique work opportunity, but it gave Julian an amazing European experience and an idea of what happens behind the scenes. The couple returned to New Zealand at the end of 2019, narrowly missing the start of the pandemic and a global shutdown.
