Employee Stories

Shannon M.

I started in the communications field back in 1999 and for 20 years worked first as an installer and then as a foreman. I’ve always been mechanically inclined and thanks to a friend who initially got me into this line of work it has always …

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Darin A.
Darin A.

More than 20 years ago, I decided to give electrical work a try. I was given some good opportunities to learn the trade – first in residential construction with my dad and then with small shops also doing the commercial and industrial sides of the …

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Kylee L.

You never know where a degree in sports management may take you. For me, it led to a love of facilities management and a curiosity to explore how my varied interests could combine and lead to a really fulfilling career. My interest in the trades …

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Jason B.

I originally went to school to be an accountant. But I wasn’t quite ready to be in an office setting back then and found working with my hands and being outside was what I loved. I took a job at Windemuller because I was looking …

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Drew S.

My story with Windemuller began in 2014. I have always been interested in computers and technology. I remember building my first gaming PC with my childhood friend and his dad and having LAN parties at their house playing Battlefield 1942 and Medal of Honor. Initially, …

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Joe F.

I was given a unique opportunity and I took a chance. I was a brand new, green apprentice when I started at Windemuller in 2019. I had graduated from high school a year earlier, during which I had participated in a co-op program in HVAC. …

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Devon K.

I’ve always been interested in computers, starting from childhood playing video games. That turned into figuring out how to solve problems, which turned into modding games and upgrading computers. It snowballed from there. During high school in Leland, I attended the TBA Career Tech Center …

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Jacob Jesselaitis
Jacob J.

When I was in high school, I started working with a friend of my dad’s who was a residential builder. I liked it enough that after graduation I got a job working for a guy doing small house remodels with a business he operated out …

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Makenzi O.
Makenzi O.

What do you do when the traditional college path isn’t the right path for you? That was a question I had to answer for myself as I stood on the cusp of my high school graduation. At the time, I had a mailbox full of …

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Christian M.

26 years ago, I took a job at Windemuller. At the time, I was trying to find a new path for myself. While I’d been exposed to the trades in high school – through an innovative building trades class where we literally built houses from …

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Scot DeYoung

I always enjoyed doing work that I could see, so my journey into the construction industry followed an unusual path. I went off to college with the goal of becoming an electrical engineer. While obtaining that electrical engineering degree, I felt more compelled than ever …

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Homer C.

When I came to Windemuller in 2014, I was a seasoned IT professional though I took a different path to get there. I’d graduated from college with a degree in design, and spent years designing everything from fuel systems for heavy trucks to machinery for …

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Tyler Rewitzer
Tyler R.

Windemuller changed my life. Before I came here, I wasn’t even working in the skilled trades. Instead, I was a manager at a small farm store called Family Farm & Home. One day, one of my stockers – and someone who I’d come to be …

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Andy B.

I still remember going to college in the 1990s and whiling away my time on general education classes, not really sure what kind of career I wanted to aim for. More exciting to me than the classroom were the multiple jobs I had on the …

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Ken Vanderlaan

I’m 67 years old now, and I’ve been working at Windemuller for 33 years, which means I’ve spent just about half my life here. Funnily enough, it was stability I was looking for when I came here in the late ‘80s. I’d started my career …

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Devin Hill

In the construction trades, almost everyone has a “close call” or two: times where they could have been seriously hurt, if not even killed. Too often in this industry, those types of events are viewed as inevitabilities, as things that everyone has to deal with. …

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Dave Beemer

For me, it all began with a guidance counselor meeting. I knew in high school that I wanted to be an electrician. One day, meeting with my guidance counselor, I mentioned that interest. The counselor happened to know the electrician who handled the electrical work …

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Pat M.

From being a factory worker, to landing a job as a communications installer, to becoming someone who knows just about everything there is to know about traffic lights, my career has taken some interesting and unexpected turns over the years. I spent the first decade …

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Matt W.

I grew up in a house where the skilled trades were a way of life, so it’s no surprise that’s where I ended up. My dad owned his own construction company, and I was always interested in following in his footsteps in some fashion. When …

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Kelly B.

Even growing up, I knew I loved electrical work. As a teenager, I used to build my own control panels next to my bed, so I could control everything in the room without even having to get up. Still, despite my dabbling, I never seriously …

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Steve Alles

I was a teenager in the summer of 1994 when I started my first job for Windemuller. At that time, my grandpa, uncles, and dad were all involved in the business in various roles. I worked out in the warehouse of the company’s Grandville office, …

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Stephanie L.

“When I graduated from high school, I wasn’t sure what path to take. I was college-bound, headed to Grand Valley State University; I knew that much. What I didn’t know was what kind of career I wanted to aim for, or even what I wanted …

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Jeff N.

“From a very young age, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that I would end up working in the electrical trades. My dad was a radio engineer, and I learned all about electrical from working alongside him as a kid. In college, I worked …

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Ryan S.

“I came to Windemuller 15 years ago because I realized I needed a career instead of just a job. I’d been working in a warehouse, and even at just 22 years old, I was maxed out in terms of pay and career advancement. I knew …

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Nathanael M.

“My story in the electrical trades started back in high school, when I enrolled as a student in the CNET program (CNET stands for “Computers, Networking, and Electronics Technology”) at the Career Technical Center in Cadillac, Michigan. My initial thought, at the time, was that …

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Nicholas T.

“When people ask me how I ended up at Windemuller, the best answer I can think of is ‘sheer dumb luck.’ Like so many teenagers, a job in the electrical trades wasn’t the first career that sprung to mind when the time came for me …

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Fritz K.

“Even when I was a kid, it seemed I was destined to end up in the skilled trades (never felt comfortable in a tie). My dad was an electrician with his own company, which meant I often ended up being a default helper whenever he …

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Tim V.

“Not many decisions you make in high school stand the test of time, but for me, one did: deciding I wanted to be an electrician. I can’t for the life of me remember exactly what inspired that choice, but I do remember that when I …

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Vicki S.

“When I graduated in 2012 from Ferris State University at Northwestern Michigan College’s (NMC) University Center in Traverse City, I wasn’t sure where I wanted to start my career. I held a bachelor’s degree in information security and digital forensics and ultimately ended up taking …

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Jim G.

“I found my way into the skilled trades almost by accident. One day, years ago, a high school friend of mine asked if I wanted to come work with him. Without thinking too much about it, I said yes. But what began as an off-the-cuff …

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