This week’s Industry Person of the Week is Jennifer Salas, a Mechanical Design Engineer at Sulzer Turbo Services.
Q: How did you get started working in your field?
Jennifer: My interest started during graduate school while working at the Turbomachinery Lab at Texas A&M University. You have a lot of options for career choices being a mechanical engineer, and working at the Turbo Lab helped provide clarity on the industry and kind of career I wanted to pursue. I was fortunate enough to be offered a position at Sulzer RES Houston once I finished my graduate studies, and have truly enjoyed working at Sulzer for the past 7 years.
Q: What do you love the most about your job? What are you most proud of?
Jennifer: I love working for a service and repair company because we get to work on a wide range of equipment. We also see equipment in all sorts of conditions, such as equipment coming in for routine maintenance or after an unfortunate failure. In the event of failures, I love being part of our engineering department that puts our full range of engineering services to the test to identify the root cause of the failure, implement the solution, and work with the customer to ensure it meets their needs as well.
It might sound cheesy, but …I’m most proud of the people I get to work with, be it my coworkers or customers. From the passion they put into their work to the abundance of knowledge waiting to be shared, there’s always someone to be inspired by or a person to push you to challenge yourself.
Q: What advice would you give to someone considering this line of work or new to the field?
Jennifer: Be a sponge and be curious. I tell this to our intern group at the beginning of every summer. There’s so much knowledge, experience, and lessons learned in this industry that you just have to be curious enough to ask.
Q: Can you talk about a project you recently worked on?
Jennifer: My longest running project is one I started when I transitioned to the Central Engineering department from our Gas Turbine Rotor repair department at Sulzer RES Houston. I was assigned as the Project Manager for manufacturing a new expander wheel, but I could not have anticipated the close partnership I develop with the customer or all the fun engineering and research projects that have occurred along the way.
Q: Anything Else you would like to add?
Jennifer: I think it’s important to understand that not every day will be fun and exciting. There will be days that push you to your limits or days where you’re waiting for the next challenge, but it’s up to you to make sure you’re getting the most out of your career. You have to enjoy what you do because that’s what keeps you coming back each day.
I have this fond and funny memory as a child where my mom quit her job three times in one day, and surprisingly, she went back to work the next day. Why? Because in the end, she might have had a day that pushed her beyond her limit but she enjoyed what she did. So much so, that she recently celebrated her 45th work anniversary.
Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn.
THANK YOU, JENNIFER! WE LOOK FORWARD TO KEEPING UP WITH YOU THROUGH THE #PUMPTALK COMMUNITY!
KNOW AN AMAZING PERSON WHO IS MAKING VALUABLE CONTRIBUTIONS WITHIN INDUSTRY? NOMINATE THEM TO BE AN “INDUSTRY PERSON OF THE WEEK”!
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