Career Center Blog

It looks bigger in person

It’s almost comical to compare the size of the toy excavator I brought home last week to the size of the real ones I saw being built. But considering the limited space available on my desk, it was the perfect sized souvenir to bring home from Caterpillar’s Aurora plant. I had the opportunity to travel to the Chicago-area facility with a group of students and a colleague on one of our Immersion Excursions last Thursday, and learned a lot about Caterpillar Inc. and their Technical Marketing Development Program. A big thank you goes out to our hosts: Angela, Dean, Trevor, Brad, Kiara, and Hanni!

The day started out with something that’s taken very seriously at Caterpillar: safety. Dean ran through the facility’s safety procedures, and we were introduced to the steel-toe caps everyone must wear over their shoes, OSHA Toes. Knowledge (and safety goggles) in hand, we were able to move on to the fun stuff.

There was ample opportunity throughout the day to hear about career paths of a variety of CAT employees, including current interns and recent graduates. One theme that kept coming up was the wealth of opportunities available, as long as you’re willing to “raise your hand,” as our hosts kept telling us. Some were able to fill in skill gaps in technical or marketing areas in order to advance within the company. Others worked on special projects with company vice presidents. Our primary recruiting contact, Angela, was able to take on her role (one she holds in addition to her day-to-day responsibilities) simply by showing an interest and asking for exposure to college recruiting. It’s clear that opportunities for growth and advancement at CAT are there for the taking, as long as you show a little initiative.

Six Sigma guru Trevor ran us through a ‘rental simulation’ that offered a great opportunity to see first-hand how CAT solves problems and eliminates waste, rework, and idle time. All the participants were assigned roles to represent many aspects of CAT’s business and its customers. We ran through the simulation the first time, and it was much more difficult than it seemed — lots of missed equipment deliveries and communication issues across the board! After a debrief and application of some problem solving frameworks taught to us by Trevor, we ran the simulation a second time and fared much better. Our experience with the simulation made it clear that solid communication skills, an ability to work well as part of a team, and strong leadership skills are valued for potential Caterpillar employees.

Posing with some brand-new machinery

After a nice lunch, we had the opportunity to tour the massive Aurora facility. We traveled over 2 miles, and that’s not even the whole place! Considering the sheer size of some of the equipment being made, it’s no wonder there was such a focus on safety at the start, and throughout the day. We witnessed metal being cut by laser and plasma (like a focused lightning bolt, our guide told us), 10 foot tall tires, and a machine that had to be shipped over to Japan in pieces, because there isn’t a crane big enough to pick it up off the boat fully assembled! It was also an opportunity to view some of the frameworks from the simulation being put into practice, and see that the organizational culture we heard about in the presentations was truly present throughout the facility.

In all, it was an enjoyable and informative day in Aurora, and we look forward to Caterpillar visiting campus this fall. They’ll be on-campus September 28th at the SWE/TBP Engineering Career Fair on North Campus, and September 29th at the Fall Career Expo at the Michigan Union (hosted by The Career Center). They’ll be recruiting for both full-time and internship positions. You can learn more about CAT and the Technical Marketing Development Program here: http://www.cat.com/cda/layout?m=190569&x=7 or connect with CAT on Facebook and @catcareers on Twitter.

You can read more about our immersion excursion programs, and check out this first-hand account of a previous immersion focused on marketing and advertising. Be sure to keep an eye out on this blog for the announcement of more immersions throughout the year!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 11th, 2010 at 9:41 am and is filed under General Advising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.