Before I took a job at Intel, I pictured this place as a big corporation—a huge company, a stiff environment, somewhere I would be just a drop in the pond. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
My name is Kyle and I’m an engineer. I’ve always known I wanted to do something interesting where I got to work with my hands, but I had no clue what kind of job that would be. I studied Mechatronic Engineering in school and I’m still fascinated by how things work. On my first day at Intel, I felt quite daunted by all of the multi-million-dollar equipment and actually thought to myself, I hope they don’t think I know what to do! Thankfully, Intel doesn’t expect you to understand their process straight away—they trained me fully. They even sent me to Japan and Dallas to learn more about the equipment I would be working with! No college course can completely prepare you for the workplace, but I was never made to feel inadequate. Intel makes sure you’re equipped to do the job.
My other fear when I started here was working shifts. I heard ‘12-hour night shift’ and thought, I’ll never get used to that. Now I love the hours I work. Being a shift worker, I’m on from 7am to 7pm and I work 7 days out of every 14. It’s different to other jobs, but I find I get much more done this way. You have 12 hours to really get going—and I have so much time off. I switched to a 5-day week for a while and actually asked to go back to shift work. I’m so productive and can even get to the bank before it closes!
This is a very welcoming, homely environment to work in. You’re made to feel part of the team from day one and everyone is given opportunities to progress and be heard. At last year’s Intel Manufacturing Excellence Conference, I participated in an event called ‘Shark Tank’. I submitted an original idea for using augmented and virtual reality technology to improve maintenance repair and training methods onsite. My concept was chosen as one of the top four out of hundreds, and I was flown to California to present to a panel of Intel executives and a huge audience of Intel employees! I ended up winning and my project is now being implemented throughout Intel’s facilities. I spend a considerable amount of time working on this implementation, along with my regular duties. This is such a new concept and I’m being given the chance to work on something that’s never been done before—it’s brilliant!
Before coming to Intel, I probably played it a little too safe. This job has helped me to come out of my shell, put myself out there, and start getting involved.