Life Is But A Dream

40 Hours: A Shock to the System

So after a rough 40 hour work week, I find myself needing this weekend more than ever. After a week on the job, I've got some good impressions about what I've done and what I'll be doing. Invista - La Porte is a chemical facility that produces two chemicals - THF and PTMEG. Both chemicals are sold to make polymers used in Stainmaster carpet, Lycra, nylon, and a variety of other applications. The site I'm working on, while being one of Invista's smallest facilities, is the industry leader of both aforementioned chemicals.

The plant has about 100 employees. The operators work around the clock monitoring the process while the engineers and management works M-F 8-5ish ensuring things are running correctly. Everyone I've met is approachable and eager and willing to help. That's a bonus when you're going in to a field you know nothing about. Invista is one of the fastest growing companies in the nation. Check out all the job openings.

My official title is an "Electrical and Instrumentation Reliability Engineer." Sound confusing? That makes two of us. I get the impression the engineering staff is broken down in to two group - one working to keep the plant up and running and another developing new methods to save money and increase productivity. I get the impression I'll be the former. Eventually I'll be responsible for monitoring and maintaining the electrical systems in the plant. As of now, the only other E&I engineering is my boss. He's in his mid-fiftys and is a nice guy. He's working as a contractor now and appears to be near the end of his career. Outside of he and I working as E&I engineers, there is an E&I maintenance staff that works around the clock monitoring, repairing, and working on preventive maintenance. I'll be working closely with the E&I maintenance staff to conduct preventive maintenance, install new systems, and repair systems that fail.

Allready I've spent a good amount of time outside working hands-on learning about the different systems and facilities. It's good for me because it break up the monotony of sitting behind a desk. I've quickly figured out that everything I've learned in school is junk. I've got an entire new curriculum to learn to figure out how things work, the new theory with the devices I'll be working with, and the chemical process. It's a great deal of information, all fairly interesting. For every hill I make it over, I reveal a mountain behind it. I get the feeling it will be many moons before I fully understand what's going on.

Life in the working world is a shock. I've been getting up around 6:45AM and working until about 4:45 or 5. With the job comes a new computer, (Dell Latitude D620 with Duo Core Processors and 1GB of RAM) my own office, (door and all) and all the safety equipment one could ever wish for. I justify every day with how much I make while I'm there and when things lull, I count on that to get me through the day. Money is a motivator.

I'll work on smuggling a camera in to see if I can get some pictures of the plant, my office, and the area. La Porte is a chemical area home to companies like Shell, Exxon, Goodyear, and a plethora of other major industrial players. Driving from downtown Houston 20 minutes east in to the most concentrated industrial site I've ever seen is shocking. Every morning I drive east in to the sun but about the time I get to La Porte, the exhaust from the plants block the sun and I can take off my sunglasses.

It's a different, new world but I'm enjoying it so far. I'm looking forward to my first paycheck. I've got a bit of debt to dig myself out of. Come and visit sometime and I'll work that debt like you can't imagine.

posted by brent @ 6:42 PM