cover of episode Ep. 17: Operations mgr Erin Cuellar moved between five states in 13 years for manufacturing career

Ep. 17: Operations mgr Erin Cuellar moved between five states in 13 years for manufacturing career

2021/10/1
logo of podcast Chinatown 2.0

Chinatown 2.0
AI Deep Dive AI Chapters Transcript
People
E
Erin Cuellar
R
Richard Yan
Topics
Erin Cuellar讲述了她13年间辗转五个州从事制造业工作的经历，以及她在职业发展中面临的挑战和机遇。她强调了制造业和熟练技工职业的稳定性和重要性，并分享了她如何平衡工作与家庭，以及她对子女职业规划的看法。她认为，即使面临工厂倒闭、搬迁等不确定性，制造业工作仍然可以提供稳定的收入和职业发展机会。她鼓励年轻人考虑从事制造业或熟练技工工作，并认为这些职业可以为他们提供扎实的职业基础，即使未来职业规划发生变化，也能保证生活稳定。她还分享了她作为女性在制造业工作中遇到的性别歧视，以及她如何克服这些挑战。她认为，制造业和熟练技工行业需要更多女性参与，并呼吁创造更支持女性发展的环境。 Richard Yan作为访谈主持人，引导Erin Cuellar分享了她从业经历，并就制造业的现状、职业发展、性别歧视、子女教育等话题与她进行了深入探讨。他表达了对制造业和熟练技工职业的关注，并就美国制造业面临的挑战和机遇提出了自己的看法。他与Erin Cuellar就职业稳定性、子女职业规划等问题进行了深入交流，并对Erin Cuellar在职业发展中展现出的韧性和适应能力表示赞赏。

Deep Dive

Chapters
The host discusses the advantages of a manufacturing career, particularly for young people who are uncertain about their future career paths. He highlights the stability and financial security it offers, suggesting that formal education can be pursued later.
  • Manufacturing provides a solid career foundation.
  • It offers financial security and the ability to support a family.
  • Formal education can be pursued after gaining experience in the field.

Shownotes Transcript

Erin Cuellar is Director of Operations at STERIS, a manufacturer of medical devices. At the time of the interview, she was senior operations manager at the same company, and her role was essentially that of a plant manager.

Her responsibilities included supervising teams, managing KPIs, and maintaining quality controls.

Erin comes from a very different world than I do. She dropped out of college, worked at a local manufacturing site, joined an apprenticeship program, got her journeyman’s card which is sort of like a full license to practice in the trades, and moved from state to state for employment in manufacturing.

In the course of 13 years, she moved between five different states. At least one of the moves was the result of a plant shutdown thanks to outsourcing.

But Erin and her family, which includes a husband and three children were fully resilient in transitioning to new homes, new jobs, and new schools.

In fact, about a year after our interview, Erin moved to Pennsylvania to become Director of Operations at her company. I became interested in the trades in recent years after noticing and following the works of Mike Rowe and Andrew Yang, who both highlight a change in the mix of American jobs available as well as people willing to undertake those jobs.

In the US, there just seem to be fewer opportunities in the trades sector, and even fewer young people looking to enter those fields.

Mike Rowe looks to encourage the youths to get into these areas, whereas Andrew Yang sees the loss of these opportunities as the force that hollowed out middle America, which disenfranchised large swaths of the population, leading to rising support for the wings of the political spectrum.

In today’s conversation, Erin and I talked about what it's like to work in a manufacturing plant, her experience of working in the trades as a rare species of a woman, her moves around the country in pursuit of various manufacturing jobs, how does she think about raising her kids, and why she thinks it's a good idea for young people to consider a career in the trades.