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 to start thinking about my future. In fact, when I enrolled at the Career-Tech Center in Traverse City, it wasn’t to study electrical work at all, but culinary arts—and a big part of my reasoning there was that my girlfriend at the time was in the program and I wanted to be with her.
There was just one problem: at the time, the culinary program was prioritizing female students. So, instead of heading to the Career-Tech Center to learn how to be a chef, I enrolled in my second-choice program, which just happened to be electrical trades. ‘This is kind of lame,’ I remember thinking at the time. But I had a trial period, so I figured I’d give electrical a shot and see what happened.
That was the beginning of my junior year of high school. Within a few months, I was sold. I loved what I was learning, and the job potential I saw in my future. I was even more sold that summer, when I landed a job at an electric company and started getting hands-on experience…and a few bucks, to boot. By my second year in the program, I was at the top of my class. And at the end of senior year, when a company called Windemuller came to the school and started interviewing students, I worked hard to put my best foot forward.
Before I even graduated high school, I had a job offer with Windemuller.
That was 2013. Eight years later, I’m still here and still loving it every day. It’s been a whirlwind: I came onboard as an electrical apprentice, traveled around to a bunch of job sites assisting on projects, joined the Windemuller service department, and earned my journeyman’s license. At one point, I worked a project that involved a lot of automation control work. My colleagues on that job were impressed by my work and by how quickly I picked up the automation stuff. I switched over from the service department and have been working as an automation technician ever since.
There’s so much to love about Windemuller. My colleagues aren’t just my coworkers, but some of my best friends. My bosses are as supportive as I could ever hope for workplace supervisors at work to be, always helping me grow and push outside of my comfort zone. And the work is fun, challenging, and dynamic, with each day and each project offering its own unique journey. Working here was an amazing first job for a recent high school graduate, and it’s grown into an amazing career.“