Four Weeks. Four Manufacturers. Four Stories.
Happy National Manufacturing Month! To celebrate and advocate for all the wonderful career opportunities the manufacturing industry has to offer, we’re highlighting a few here at Westminster Tool.
Starting Oct. 1, we’re launching a four-part video series throughout the entire month showcasing Westminster Tool employees and how they joined the team. Each individual comes from different skill backgrounds, different educational backgrounds, and all with unique professional interests.
Read on below and check back here each week to learn more.
PART ONE: Victoria
Age: 22
Years at Westminster Tool: 5
Position: EDM Specialist and CNC Team Leader
Education: Windham Technical High School and QVCC Advanced Manufacturing Program
At the age of 17, Victoria Rooke had no idea what to expect when she walked through the doors of Westminster Tool for a day of job shadowing, as recommended by one of her teachers at Windham Tech. What she found was an environment that completely changed her views on manufacturing. “As soon as I walked in, one thing I noticed is there were all these young women on the floor, working on the machines,” she says.
From there sparked an interest in Victoria for manufacturing that lead her to rise in the company specializing in EDM, electrical discharge machines, that use electrical currents to slowly and intricately erode small amounts of metal. “The amount of technology and how far it’s come, and how you can just take pieces of steel and turn them into these full functioning molds, I mean it’s amazing,” she says.
Check out the video below to hear more about Victoria’s story.
PART TWO: Seth
Age: 27
Years at Westminster Tool: 4
Position: Design Engineer
Education: Bachelor’s Degree, Mechanical Engineering – UMASS Lowell Class of 2016
Meet Seth Hale, a 27-year-old design engineer who pursued a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and later found himself enthralled with the world of plastics. “Everything I picked up I found it was made of plastic and that’s how I got interested in the materials side,” he says.
Today at Westminster Tool, he applies his innate abilities to analyze details when solving complex customer challenges. “At school, everything is more black and white, you’ll never encounter a question where an answer doesn’t already exist,” Seth says. “In the real world, you’re answering to a customer where you don’t always know the answer, and there’s potential to fail.” But that risk, he says, is what makes every day at work different than the next. His classroom studies in plastics engineering lead to projects beyond CAD renderings, forging a new perspective on how to apply engineering concepts in real-world scenarios.
Check out the video below to hear more about Seth’s story.
PART THREE: Brittany
Age: 24
Years at Westminster Tool: 1
Position: Production Team Member
Education: Griswold High School Class of 2015; Plastics Program Graduate – Three Rivers Community College Class of 2020
Meet Brittany, a 24-year-old production team member who says one of her biggest sources of motivation is being able to be a mom while developing her skills. That lead to interest in the Plastics Program at Three Rivers Community College, where she heard about Westminster Tool from a fellow graduate. Today, she is one of several employees supported by Westminster Tool to keep growing those skills with night classes at the community college. Since joining the team, Brittany is proud to be a part-time student, full-time employee, and always a full-time mom.
Check out the video below to hear more about Brittany’s story.
PART FOUR: JONATHAN
Age: 20
Years at Westminster Tool: 4
Position: Research and Design Engineering
Education: H.H. Ellis Technical School Class of 2020; Student, UCONN – M.S. Management and Engineering for Manufacturing – Class of 2023
Meet Jonathan, a 20-year-old student who has already experienced four different departments since joining Westminster Tool four year ago. In all his time here, he has always been a part-time student, part-time manufacturer. This balance between student and professional has given him unique insight into the inner workings of how our injection molds are designed, machined and assembled. Now as a part time engineering student at UCONN, he’s studying the fundamentals of production management and business strategy.
Check out the video below to hear more about Jonathan’s story.
