by

“Young people avoid manufacturing careers like the plague,” states Stanley Modic, the editor of Tooling & Production magazine. Given the choice, some might prefer the plague.

Many youngsters view manufacturing work as a dead end, a career path marked with low pay, monotony and dingy working conditions. This perception is not good for industrial companies, their facilities, or for the U.S. economy.

Take the tool and die industry, for example. According to Matt Coffey, the president of the National Tooling & Manufacturing Association, a shortage of skilled workers has forced a sizable percentage of independent shops to lose revenues or go out of business. Coffey says roughly half of all tool and die work is currently subcontracted out of the country.

To turn the tide, and change manufacturing misconceptions, maybe we need a poster child for the new millennium. If so, she lives in Minnesota.

Robyn Conner is the “girl next door,” a soft-spoken 19-year-old who finished high school with a 3.8 grade-point average.

She is incredibly bright and goal-oriented. And she is a welder at Buzz Tool and Die in St. Louis Park, a Twin Cities suburb.

“She’s a darn good welder, better than I am,” says Fay Buss, the company’s owner. “Everybody fits a trade in this world, and she fits this. She absorbs knowledge, and she gets a lot of pride and enjoyment out of it. I don’t have to tell her anything twice. She gets the job done.”

Conner and several friends took part-time jobs at Buzz Tool and Die in 1996. Conner is the only one that stuck around.

“All my friends haven’t lasted because it’s too hot,” she says. “And that’s true, it gets super hot. But it’s just like when you drive a car — you control what happens.”

In terms of her work and her career, that has proved true.

Conner, who as a 15-year-old did mostly spot work, now is a whiz at MIG, TIG and oxyacetylene welding. Buss gives her free reign on projects. She reads blueprints, makes her own fixtures and is her own inspector.

“I push myself and work extra hard. I feel I do have to prove myself because I am a woman and I am 19 years old,” she says. “All the work I do here is perfect. I make sure of it.”

Such work experience and attitude, plus welding training she received at a local technical school (she graduated in June), has made her a hot commodity on the job market.

While Buss dreads it, he knows the time will come when Conner will leave the small company for a high-paying job elsewhere.

“She has shown what a young person can do with a little work,” says Buss.

Sure beats the plague.

This article appeared in the August/September 1999 issue of MRO Today magazine.  Copyright, 1999.

Back to top

Back to Editorials archives