Day 1: Starting my Externship and Meeting the Admin Team

Today was Day 1 of my externship with KCI Technologies in Sparks, MD! Driving from my home in Baltimore city up to rural northern Baltimore County (ironically where I grew up), I was filled with both nerves and excitement! Although I have friends and family in the engineering and construction industry, I have no knowledge or background in the field so this is a completely new experience for me. Naturally, I am anxious about meeting new people in an area that is unfamiliar to me, but I am also excited to learn new things and get a feel for what it is like to work in a field outside of education. I am looking forward to getting a front seat look at a variety of professions so I can share opportunities with high school students. My journey begins...

Arriving to KCI

As I drive up to KCI, I take in the beautiful green campus. When I walk in the front door, I am greeted by a friendly receptionist in a welcoming lobby. My warm and inviting KCI externship coordinator, Melissa Wilcox, embraces me with open arms and is eager to get me an ID badge. Wow, now I'm really going to feel like an employee! I get my picture taken for my ID and then we go up the elevator to the 4th floor. This is my first time in a corporate office setting so I take in how different this is from a school! I see all of the cubicles, sitting areas for clients, the abundant lunch room (multiple microwaves, an ice machine and mini food mart- amazing)! What a change from what I'm used to. Melissa shows me to a cubicle that I will have during my externship. It is actually very spacious and I hae a huge window overlooking all of the beautiful trees (this I don't have in my school office, so I am excited about this). One thing I did notice was that a lot of the cubicles are empty. Since the start of COVID, a lot of employees have chosen to work remotely, particulary on Mondays and Fridays. KCI allows employees to work from home 2 days a week, which is a change I have heard many companies have made over the past couple of years. It is very quiet in the office, a far change from the shuffling and shouting of students in the hallways at my school! I'm eager to take all of this in and ready to start the day...

 

Starting the Day with my Externship Coordinator, Melissa Wilcox, Director of Quality & Organizational Development

Bachelor's in Political Science & History from University of Rochester

MBA from University of Buffalo

5 years at KCI

I start the day meeting with Melissa, my coordinator throughout this whole experience! She goes over my schedule for the next 4 weeks. It is a packed schedule with lots of meetings with important people throughout the company, but also includes traveling to worksites and some really interesting field experiences. I'm ready for anything! Melissa is so energetic and so excited to have me on board, which makes me excited too! I feel very grateful to have Melissa as my guide adn mentor through this whole experience. 

Melissa is the Director of Quality and Organizational Development. Melissa's job is to make sure the company delivers quality service and product- "do what you say and say what you do" she says. She orchestrates partnerships between the company, employees, and clients. She helps employees with mastering skills with their current role through trainings and course work. Melissa also develops instructional design and orientation for new employees. I see Melissa as someone who helps you make sure you can be the best employee you can be. She helps provide resources to help you be successful. I'm excited to see more of what she does!

Surprise meeting with Nate Beil, the CEO of KCI!

Before my scheduled meetings started, Melissa wanted to see if I could meet CEO, Nate Beil. I thought, "Wow, I'm going to meet the CEO of the company on my first day?" We walk down the hall into a big bright office and Nate gives me a warm welcome. I thought it was going to be a quick hello and handshake but he asked me to sit down and chat with me for a few minutes. I thought that was so nice of him to take time out of his day to meet with me! Nate wanted to learn about me and what I do and I told him that I honestly don't know anything about engineering but I'm eager to learn. Nate said, "well that's simple, engineers fix things and make things!" This really stuck with me as it really broke it down in a way that I could understand and my students could understand too. Nate also talked about a handwritten drawing that he had constructed at the age of 11 or 12 of his grandfather's farm land and next to it was a handwritten drawing he had done in college. I thought it was so cool that Nate had this passion from an early age and he really brought it to fruition. 

Another story of his that stuck with me was when he talked about having the opportunity to present at a conference while in college overseas in Barcelona but he was too afraid to speak and decided not to attend. But now he is a CEO of a company and speaks at events all the time! This is a great lesson of facing your fear and going after your goals and dreams even when it's difficult. This is a powerful story that I think will resonate with my students. I will be meeting with Nate again later in my externship and I am excited to learn more about his story and his vision for the company. He seems like a really awesome person who really cares about people, which I think is such an important leadership quality.

Before I start talking about my formal meetings and experiences, I want to preface it by saying that I have decided that I will start each day with Counselor Connections, which are bulleted items of things I have learned from the day.

I also wanted to ask each person the same 2 questions:

1) How would you describe your job to a high school student?

2) What advice do you have for high school students?

These bulleted items and questions will help create consistency and uniformity as well as allow me to best bring my experiences back to my high school setting. I also think this provides some good "Cliff Notes" for my blog so you can skip ahead and read the colored/ bold/italic portions if you would like to see those sections. Keep in mind that I try to quote what I know each person said verbatim but some comments I had to paraphrase to the best of my ability. I think you will find the answers to be really unique, interesting, and insightful! I hope you enjoy my experiences and insights!

Counselor Connections

• There are jobs out there for people who want to provide trainings for employees- including general new hire trainings to licensure-specific trainings. 
• Every company needs employees in the Information Technology/Computer Science field who can help with cybersecurity, threats of cyberattacks, and overall, ensure that technology is working and up-to-date so people can do their jobs! It's a huge, important industry!
• Having a background in Business and getting your MBA is important if you want to climb the ladder and work in a leadership capacity. Many engineers who have risen to leadership levels, have earned MBAs.
• It's important to have good communication skills and build good relationships if you want to work in a leadership role. You have to be able to work well with people if you want to be a leader!
• Marketing and Mass Communication is another career that a lot of companies, such as KCI provide. This is how they advertise their business and get their name out there. If you like social media, graphic design, writing articles, advertising, and being creative, you will like this job!
• Of the 2,000 positions at KCI, only about 1/2 of them are 4-year degree positions! So there are lots of options for entry-level work at KCI, including surveyors, utility workers in the power industry, inspectors, quality assurance, stormwater collection, computer programming and designing. Furthermore, many of the current job openings are for entry level, non-4 year degree positions. There is a lot of work available out there that only requires a high school diploma!

Meeting with Michaela Cumor, Training and Organizational Specialist

My first scheduled meeting is with Michaela Cumor, Training and Organizational Specialist, who works closely with Melissa. Michaela is a nice, young woman who has worked with the company since college. Her Dad works with the company too and I will be meeting with him later in my externship. Michaela's role involves managing the Internal Training System, which provides all employees with trainings, including Ethics and Sexual Harrassment, and also trainings in their specific fields in order to maintain licensure. Michaela states that some engineers need 12 to 24 hours of continuing education a year depending on the state they are licensed in. KCI pays for all of the trainings. I was curious how many employees she communicates with regarding trainings amd she said approximately 500 engineers, landscape engineers, and any other disciples with licenses throughout the company! That's a lot of people! Michaela also said she assists with instructional and creative design for course work which I think is a neat aspect of her job. 

How would you describe your job to a high school student?

"I manage an internal Learning Management System. Part of my job is to assist P.E.s and other licensed professionals with maintaining their continuing education credits. I am also the internal ‘help desk’ for the Learning Management System, I work on the backend of the system to keep it up to date, troubleshoot issues and design coursework. The system maintenance can get repetitive at times, but I’m also able to be creative and have fun designing new courses."

What advice do you have for high school students?

A good career doesn’t always require a college degree, pick a career in a field that you are truly passionate about. Enjoying your job makes your quality of life infinitely better. Also – remember that a job is just a job, take time for mental health, home life, family, friends. Remember to care for yourself first, always!"

Meeting with Jim Lofft, Chief Information Operations (CIO)

27 years at KCI

Next I meet with Jim Lofft, who is the CIO (Chief Information Operations). There are a lot of Chief Officer titles that I have to ask to have spelled out for me because we don't have these in education. It's very interesting! Jim greets me with a fist bump and I can tell he's going to be a cool guy to talk with. Jim says he has worked for KCI for 27 years and has seen it grow 4 times in size! It started as a few hundred people and is now at over 2,000! 

Jim gives me a good breakdown of the history and organization of the company. He also tells me about the employee stock ownership (ESOP), which I find to be a very unique and incentivizing part of working for KCI. He explains that 100% of employees get 6% of their salary put into stock and it grows in value the longer you work. He says that the pay off can be very high and that many employees from field staff workers to executives retire as millionaires! Amazing! Furthermore, Jim said employee-owned companies tend to treat their employees better since employees have a stake in the company, which totally makes sense. Jim says that KCI is the "largest small company you will ever work for." He said there is always a sense of camaraderie and it feels like a family. There are 100 different practices at KCI and those are broken down into pods of 10-20 people each. I think I will be exploring what each of these practices really mean as I work through my externship. 

When I asked Jim to explain what his role is, he talks a lot about cybersecurity and how crucial it is to prevent a ransomware attack from happening. He talked about how important it is to act quickly and put systems in place, including multifactorial authentication, and 3rd party virtual data monitoring system. He said if a ransomware attack were to happen, it would lock up all servers and employees couldn't work. It may also compromise important data and employees wouldn't be able to get it back. This reminded me of what happened at our school last year with a ransomware attack. In addition to cybersecurity, Jim also facilitates strategic planning throughout the company to ensure the "tech" side of things can get done- from timesheets and cloud services to Microsoft Teams to engineering apps. If technology isn't working properly, employees won't be able to work and clients won't be served so his job and his team's job is very important! I thoroughly enjoyed meeting with Jim and I can see how valuable he is for this company and how much passion he has for his industry and KCI. 

How would you describe your job to a high school student?

"I still think of myself as the 12 year old computer builder" and the young intern doodling on a notepad. But formally I am a Chief Automating Specialist. I help track all of the systems and business processes. 

What advice do you have for high school students?

"Try a little bit of this and try a little bit of that." I had to work 7 years to figure out how things worked and what I wanted to do but it paid off. The more you're exposed to early on the better. Find a mentor or peer. People love to help other people. Don't be afraid to get involved in what you love to do.

Meeting with Bill Roberts, Chief Administrative Officer (CAO)

Bachelor's Degree in Business from Morgan State University

Master's Degree in Industrial Engineering from Eastern Michigan University

1.5 years at KCI

Now Bill is a very interesting guy! I immediately knew when I sat down with him that he was going to be a very inspirational person to talk with and someone with some good stories and life lessons. I could have listened to him talk for hours! Bill was the CEO of Verizon in the Mid-Atlantic region for an impressive 32 years! Through connections with the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, Bill was asked to come out of retire and join KCI as it is growing and help lead the team, which he has been doing for past 1 and 1/2 years.

Bill attended Morgan State University and planned to get a degree in Psychology but he saw how he could use his passion for helping people in the Business field and he decided to pursue a degree in Business. After graduating, he had an opportunity to work for Ford Motors in Detroit while earning his Industrial Engineering Degree at Eastern Michigan University. I loved hearing his story about working at Ford Motors and his interaction with Lee Iacocca, the creator of the Ford Mustang. He really painted a picture of what it was like to work on the assembly line and manage a group of people at a young age. One thing that stuck out to me when meeting with Bill is that he said that, as a manager, when new guys resist you, try to meet them in their place. If they love their dog, ask about their dog. If they are having problems at home, ask how they are doing. It’s not the money that will make people happy in the long term. There needs to be an environment that makes people happy. 

After Ford Motors, Bill held a variety of positions at Verizon and climbed his way up through the company. I was most fascinated by his story about being a lobbyist on the Capitol, representing Verizon. I could feel how passionate Bill was about that time in his life and I enjoyed hearing him talk about it. Eventually he worked his way up to CEO, building an impressive resume and then coming out of retirement to serve as Chief Operating Officer at KCI. He is the kind of person that makes impacts on people just by being in his presence and I feel very lucky to have gotten to sit down with Bill and get to know his story.

How would you describe your job to a high school student in a few sentences?

“I’m the boss!” Guys can build bridges and roads and highways but you need the administration to do the finances and human resources in order to enable the engineers to get their work done. A Chief Operating Officer is like the wings of an airplane. Without the wings, you wouldn’t be able to fly.

What advice do you have for a high school student?

“Be a sponge and ask lots of questions.” There are no stupid questions. Keep your head down, listen more than you talk, work hard, stay in school, and there will be lots of opportunities for you.

Meeting with Whitney Shumaker, Corporate Communications Manager

Bachelor's Degree in Mass Communications from Elizabethtown College

I was excited to meet Whitney and learn about her work because some of my closest friends work in the Marketing industry and I want to learn more about what they do. Whitney is a sweet, young woman about my age. She did her college internship at KCI and then was hired full time as the Social Media Coordinator and has worked here ever since! 

Whitney walked me through a PowerPoint presentation of all the things that they do, which I really appreciated. Whitney’s current job covers a wide range of tasks and skills, including photo and video content, writing articles, and branding.  Branding involves advertising and promoting through use of the KCI flag logo and their new tagline, “Rise to the Challenge.” KCI is on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram, and her department covers all of those social media platform. They are also responsible for the content on the website and also a newsletter that is printed 2 times a year and emailed 6 times a year and is distributed to employees and clients. Whitney’s team writes articles on projects KCI has worked on for these newsletters. They also create brochures and handouts for the company, which are especially useful at conferences. 

In addition to marketing outside the company, their team also markets internally through an intranet for the employees, which is a website where employees can access the corporate calendar, timesheets, paystubs, volunteer opportunities, and social media content among many other things. I enjoyed hearing Whitney talk about the Annual Awards Luncheon where employee milestones and specific projects are recognized. 

Whitney also told me about a rotational program that KCI offers for college graduates with engineering degrees. It’s a 1 year program for a group of 18 individuals who are paired with mentors and they get to try out 4 different areas of the company. This sounds like such a neat program and something I would have definitely been interested in doing right out of college! I think a lot of times you don’t know exactly what you want to do as a career and by being exposed and experiencing different areas of a field, you really get a better idea of what you are most passionate about and it might be an area you never thought you would have been interested in.

 How would you describe your job to a high school student in a few sentences?

“I handle internal and external communication for showcasing the firm to employees, future employees, and clients in the best light.” I cover all avenues, including electronic and written.

What advice do you have for a high school student?

“Definitely do an internship in college.” It helps you narrow down where you want to land and what you like. Social experience is important in high school too. It helps you learn how to maintain a balance between responsibilities and fun.

Microsoft Teams Mtg. with Chris Griffith, President/Chief Operation Officer (COO)

Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering from the Naval Academy

MBA from Boston University

Master's of Civil Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park

Master's in Ocean Engineering

24+ years at KCI

I had to meet Chris through Teams since he was out of town. I was a little nervous about how a Teams would work for this experience, but overall it worked well! Chris is a local guy who went to Parkville High School and then went to the Naval Academy and played lacrosse there. He was in the Civil Engineers Corps with the Navy for 13 years. This is another KCI employee with an impressive career and life story that I enjoyed hearing about. What I found most interesting was that through the Navy, Chris was a diver and lived in Hawaii for 3 years. 

Chris started at KCI in the late 1990’s and worked his way up through leadership and became President and Chief Operating Officer in 2017. While he was doing technical engineering work when he started, he is now 100% leadership. Interestingly, Chris says because he's the only employee with a Hawaiian Professional Engineering License, he will sometimes look at drawings for projects in Hawaii. 

What I discovered most interesting about the company from Chris is that of the 2,000 employees at KCI, about half of them are non-4 year degree positions. Some of these positions include surveyors, utility workers in the power industry, inspectors, quality assurance, stormwater collection, computer programming and design, just to name a few. Many of these positions just involve some sort of training and certification. In their entire company, there are approximately 400 employees with Engineering degrees and 200 of those with Professional Engineering Licenses. 

I really liked that Chris emphasized the work at KCI that doesn’t require college degrees. Many of the students at my high school are interested in getting right into the workforce so it is encouraging to hear that there are positions out there for them. Furthermore, these positions are in high demand right now.  There are currently 200 openings in the company, many of which don’t require a college degree. I also remember the CEO saying that they are actually having difficulty hiring inspectors right now. 

KCI has actually just started a training program in Prince George’s County for 5 different areas of construction, including inspectors and surveyors, for high school graduates. I look forward to learning more about this training program and the non-college degree positions at KCI. As we wrap up our discussion, I really appreciate how humble, hardworking, and passionate Chris is. I would feel very fortunate to work for someone like Chris.

How would you describe your job to a high school student in a few sentences?

“I’m like the coach of a team." I  provide opportunities for employees to grow as leaders. We are like one big family and I am responsible for making sure the family members succeed in what they do best.

What advice do you have for a high school student?

“Whatever it is you’re going to do, find out your passion and what you enjoy, and do the best you can at what you do.” It doesn’t have to be a 4 year degree. Just because you don’t have a 4 year degree doesn’t mean you can’t be a business owner. If you want to do work with your hands, then do work with your hands. Don’t put off doing what you want to do.

Wrapping up my First Day!

Wow, my first day was very busy and I learned so much! Trying to soak in all of the new information and I am excited to learn more from the Administrative team tomorrow!