The Company - Superior International Industries

For the first 12 years of my working life I worked at Superior International Industries, later rebranded as Superior Recreational Products (SRP). The parent company Superior International Industries had numerous companies it was made up of. I won't go into the in depth details, but the department I worked for split its time between two companies, International Play Components (IPC) and SII, the main subsidiary.

The Job/Role

I held numerous roles over those 12 years, with the longest held role being my first. I started while I was still in high school, I had actually just turned 16 three months prior. I worked as a plastics assembler. The main product during this time for the building I was in was roto-molded plastic pieces for playgrounds. My job was to assembly slides, crawl tunnels, etc. for indoor and outdoor playgrounds. Although I moved into a "lead" role, the work never really changed. I did this for four years, through the end of high school and into college. While in high school I would only work for about 4 hours a day, but after graduation I would work 8-17 hours a day. Although it was manual labor work that didn't pay very well, I enjoyed using my hands to put things together and getting to work very close with a tight-knit team. Knowing how to assemble these components is a niche, and I became pretty good at it, although a lot of the specific skills I haven't used in over a decade now.

What I learned

Looking back I learned more than what I would have originally thought. Coming into the job I had used tools before, but not to the extent that I started to on a daily basis. Some skills stopped at just knowing plastics and how to handle them, but the other skills expand far beyond the tangible skills, like leading a team. I learned how to deal with conflict in the workplace. I tend to be fairly levelheaded, and I use that to deescalate situations between co-workers. I learned how to read blueprints, you can't build a spiral slide without knowing how to read the drawing and cut the plastic at the right degrees and mount at the correct rotation. I also developed the work ethic that has stayed with me, being reliable was important for completing projects timely. Being the lead for years gave me practice on being a subject manner expert that was able to help guide and instruct others, I really enjoy getting to share knowledge I'd gained through trial error and experience.