http://www.gleason.com/cms/en/182/the-gleason-works

Gleason Works

Manufacturing Engineer

June 2018 • Rochester, NY

What I liked

All of my direct coworkers are fantastic and create a really great environment. I’ve been able to learn a lot about how things are manufactured for tooling and work-holding for cylindrical and bevel gear machining. I have the opportunity to get my hands in several different types of projects. After my initial co-op with them, I continued part time during school semesters and over the summer they offered me a full time job! They worked with me to work at an equivalent hourly rate for the salary they offered me ($59,000) to continue during the current semester. I was then able to get health insurance as my parents insurance stopped covering me on my 23rd birthday (in July); military insurance. I am required to work 20 hours to keep health insurance but my course work doesn’t take up all my free time so I’m usually able to do that with no issues and am able to do homework at work.

What I wish was different

I really want to do CAD modeling but haven’t been able to with Gleason. I worked pretty much exclusively in Excel (though it was looking at drawings and collecting data therefore learning their products) and other Microsoft Office and a small amount of SAP transactions. Since accepting the new position, I’ve done a lot more SAP related things involving changing the routers based on engineering drawing changes so the part can be made as needed; this taught me a lot about machines/work centers and their abilities (good thing, of course). The current co-op has been doing some CAD modeling which was a little saddening to me since everyone knows I want to do that (it’s not likely that I never will though, just not til I’m done training at least). I do hear a lot of drama, more and more since I’ve been hired “officially”, and that the engineering manager is a bit hardass on the engineers...that some of them changed as an employee and person because of the stress it caused them. I hear about other coworkers getting mad who have never been anything but friendly and mostly helpful to me so I’d honestly be curious to see how a female design engineer would be treated (they’re all male, there one other female engineer in my department).

Advice

Overall, I can’t complain. The positives outweigh the negatives for me. Things I’ve learned more recently are a bit unnerving but I have the potential to gain a lot of experience and different understandings of manufacturing things.
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Manufacturing Intern

January - August 2018 • Rochester, NY

What I liked

It was a good company that provided an engineering opportunity in a field I am passionate about.

What I wish was different

Less snow! Winter was rough there. More design opportunities.

Advice

Come prepared to work!
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Manufacturing Engineering Intern

May 2018 • Rochester, NY

What I liked

The people are mostly really friendly and easy to talk to and my manager tries to put me on diverse projects to expose me to the industry and gain more experience! That really shows he cares not only about me, as a co-op, helping the company but about providing me, as a co-op with a good experience.

What I wish was different

I do data entry for probably 80% of my time. I was expecting to write work instructions mainly; I’ve written one official one so far after 4 months. I don’t entirely mind data entry since I can just listen to music or podcasts, but it does get boring after awhile! I’m the main person there doing that kind of work on the project (a couple others are supposed to but have other projects to prioritize) and it is a lot to do, and while I’m hoping to continue part time during Spring 2019 on that project, it’d be better to do more that would help me better understand how things work on “the floor”.

Advice

There’s plenty for me to take away from this co-op, even if it wasn’t doing anything I’ve learned in school. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to work in manufacturing after graduation and after seeing a huge plant and taking part in its functioning, I confirmed it would be a good field of interest for me.
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