How do you think your experience as an Avionics Technician prepared you to be successful as a Field Service Technician at Mitsubishi Electric?

"I feel, as a technician, 90% of your job is essentially recreating an issue, and how you recreate the issue tells you how to solve it. I forget the name of the law, but it goes something like, 'If you write down the problem, you've already solved 50% of it.' I feel like that's something I learned in the Navy.

And more textbook examples: wiring schematics, understanding of energy, Ohm's Law - a bunch of electrical theory knowledge helped out a lot when transitioning into this job, and it was more so just learning the specifics about the equipment."

So, in learning new equipment, was there anything that surprised you or was more difficult - or easier - than you expected?

"Everyone talks about military grade, right? So, what that means is that we bought from the lowest bidder probably 25 years ago and now we have to maintain that equipment that has been maintained by somebody who's paid fairly enough to maintain it to do their job. So, you follow up after them and your equipment is always failing.

When I heard that Mitsubishi Electric had openings, I was ecstatic because I was like, 'Alright, cool, we're going to work brand new equipment!' I can tell you these are some of the nicest pieces of equipment I've ever worked on. It's always clean. Its schematics are always straightforward. I can look at a schematic for this equipment and immediately know where something is."

How would you describe the Field Service Team?

"Definitely diverse haha. But knowledgeable 100%.

I like to mess around with Jason because he's one of our older techs and I'll sit there and just crack jokes about him and he'll call me the stupid little new guy because I'm the youngest one in the Canada/Plains region. I mean, you have Chang Kim, who's a very knowledgeable technician, very good at instructing. You have Lino, who's a phenomenal tech himself. He trained me on exactly how to use PQMs.

There are only good things I can say about them. The only bad thing is that they're all like 500 miles away from me! But, overall, it's a pretty great team that we have here in the Midwest."

What advice would you give to a Facility Manager?

"Take your time. Our equipment is going to be specific...our equipment operates as advertised. It's going to make adjustments. It's going to change, but it's going to do what it's supposed to, and if it doesn't, we're always going to be here in earshot, to come and fix it.

Sometimes General Contractors plan on everything going right the first time and, especially with commissioning, you can't make that assumption because when you have equipment that we don't work on - or you have several vendors working on - there's always going to be an issue somewhere. There's always going to be something that gets missed, right?

As long as we're going through the proper channels, as long as we're taking that extra step of safety, it's a good day and then we can focus on the equipment.

I find that when we plan for the best-case scenario, more things get missed and we get into this whole rush mentality. It just wastes more time trying to do things faster rather than being safe, getting a plan, having a full understanding of what we're doing prior to starting it.

But it's the position they're in, and I have to respect them because I don't want to do their job; it's a big job. Again, there is nothing wrong with how they handle it...It's more so just the general knowledge of the equipment we're meant to maintain."

What is the most rewarding aspect of your job?

"Fixing an issue. You see, I've gotten too comfortable with good equipment working all the time... But the most rewarding aspect is understanding it enough to know how to fix it. I'll give you a specific example.

Jason Swickard and I were starting up a piece of equipment. Had it on for 10 seconds and immediately hit us with an over temperature. I can tell you it was -28°F that day and the equipment inside was 65°F, so immediately our first thought was, 'Okay, it's not over temp. Something's just not correct.'

So, we start looking around, we pull out this little thermal fuse that its whole purpose is to open the circuit, and tell the equipment, 'Hey, I've over temp. Replace the fuse and inspect me.'

So, we found the fuse, we swapped it out. We were all excited, proud of ourselves. We turned it on and then we got another over temp. Me and Jason kind of just look at each other...

It turned out we just had a disconnected cable. So, learning the ability to laugh at mistakes and learning the ability to understand what you're looking at is vital to this position, but the most rewarding aspect is understanding it enough to know how to fix it."

YAY 👍 or NAY 👎 + WHY

What was your favorite TV show growing up?

"Avatar The Last Airbender, hands down. My sister and I would sit down and watch it and rewatch the same episode. It was on Netflix in the earlier days, so we sit there and just watch that because we didn't have cable."

What is the strangest food you've ever tried? And did you like it?

"Pickled pig feet. And absolutely not. It was among the worst things I've ever tried.

My dad had a running gag. He'd say, 'Oh, we're gonna have pickled pig feet for dinner.' And you know, we go, 'Ha ha.' One night, he was working with one of his Mexican coworkers, and they had pickled pig feet. He was like, 'Hey, I mean, let me take some of those home for my kids.' He tells us it tastes like chicken, and the dumb kid that I was like, 'You know, a lot of things taste like chicken. So, he's probably right.'

Tried it. Ended up spending the next three hours heaving because it was just the most disgusting thing I've ever had."

What is something you are passionate about outside of work?

"I'm a very patriotic person, and I think that I live in the greatest nation on Earth - and that's not me saying that there aren’t issues because there are many issues wrong with this country - but I think that day in and day out, I am thankful to be an American and I can hope that I can assist in making it a better place every day."

What is the best advice you have received, personally or professionally? 

"Life moves in cycles. You can focus on the good of you can focus on the bad. If you look for the darkness, it's all you'll ever see. 

Especially in the Navy, you lose a lot of communication with family. You lose a lot of friends because you’re remote. It's really a mind game…

Focusing on the good is a lot easier to say than it is to do. I'm not going to be ignorant of that fact but, at the end of the day, you have a choice.

And if you are at the point where you can't make that choice, maybe just take a step back because there's nothing that's that important that you need to sacrifice yourself or your mental state."