Maintenance Operator

Midwest
US Navy, E-5

I left the Navy in 1996 and have worked in steel mills and power plants since.  When my previous employer lost 90% in a Russian stock market decline, four out of their five North American operations went idle and the remaining one laid off over 1,600 people, including me. 

In the Navy, I was a Nuclear Plant Machinist Mate, E-5. Working in the power plant of an aircraft carrier allowed me to learn about pumps, valves, steam and water systems, turbines, and generators.  The knowledge and skills I learned there were a perfect fit for working in commercial power generation, and the mechanical nature of the job prepared me for the steel industry as well.

At Orion, I worked with Ernest Burson.  Ernest arrives at the conferences early, works all weekend to prepare candidates, and pays close attention to everything those candidates say or do.  He’s on top of things.  I’ve been to four Orion hiring conferences, three in Chicago and one in Houston.  All the conferences were interesting and gave me opportunities to work on my interviewing skills. One of those conferences led to my job as a Maintenance Operator for SSAB. I’ll be using the mechanical knowledge I’ve developed over the last 20 years to help keep equipment in good operating condition.

Over the last 18 months of being laid off, I’ve sent my resume to literally hundreds of potential employers.  Orion put me in front of the hiring managers—some of which came from companies I had tried to get interviews with on my own.  I presume my resume was lost in their stacks of many thousands, though, because most of my actual interviews came through Orion.

In addition to hundreds of employers, I also sent my information to about 20 or more recruiting firms.  Some of them are good, others are poor.  I did get three interviews over 18 months through three agencies aside from Orion, but got 12 different interviews at the four hiring conferences with Orion.  Overall, the Orion people brought many times the number of opportunities the others did combined.