Our Spotlight on Super series highlights the SRC team members who help keep SRC a great place to work and grow. For this installment, we sat down with welder Jorelle Haines, who has worked for SRC’s Chaska, Minnesota division for the last five years.
Q: First off, where are you from, Jorelle?
JH: I’m from here in Minnesota. I grew up in Minneapolis and I’m currently living in Oakdale, which is about a 50-minute drive one-way. It’s not a bad drive – highways the whole way, so it’s not too bad. And I don’t mind making a drive for a place I like working at.
Q: Have you always been someone who likes to work with your hands?
JH: I’ve pretty much always been a welder other than working in warehousing for a bit. My dad was a welder and owned a classic car shop when I was growing up and I would weld with him there and we were always a part of car clubs and things like that. So, welding was always something that I was around.
Q: What’s a day in the life like as a welding lead at SRC? What kind of stuff are you typically working on?
JH: So, I’m technically a header lead, so most of what I do is welding headers for our coils – pretty much if a header’s going on a coil, myself or someone on my team worked on it.
Q: What do you like about working at Super Radiator? What has kept you here for the last five years?
JH: Well, when I was first interviewing and thinking about joining the company, I just saw that they really had everything here – and I had never seen that in one spot. Everything in the shop is high-quality stuff and you can tell they spare no expense when it comes to equipment. Usually if you need it, you get it. And we’ve got a great team here that works together.
The A/C is a HUGE deal, too. At most shops, when you take that interview, they ask, “are you okay working in the heat?” As a welder, to be able to work in a place with A/C, that’s huge. I’ve been to other shops since I’ve been at SRC, and nothing’s held up. They’ve just got a lot to offer here. And there are welding jobs I could take that are closer to where I live, but they’re not like this.
Q: How did you first hear about SRC? What’s the story of how you came to work here?
JH: So, I have a tow truck company that I was running before I came here, and it was actually a buddy of mine that I knew from my car club – he was working here as a welder – that first got me to consider a “real” job again – that is, working for someone else. I ran tow trucks for about five years before I found this place, and it checked enough of the boxes for me to say, “okay, I’ll find someone to run my trucks for me.”
Q: So, you’ve been here since 2017. How has the company changed during your time here? What’s different nowadays?
JH: I’d say the growth has been the most notable thing. You notice things like more people coming in, new equipment coming in, more product going out. It used to be that there was downtime every now and then, and these days, that downtime has pretty much disappeared. We’ve got lots of work and that’s a great thing to have. And with the new people, too. It’s not like a turnover of people, it’s more people. Which is great to see. It feels like the company is saying, “look, we know you’re busy, but we’re going to get you help.”
Q: If you were talking to someone who was considering working for SRC, what would you want them to know about the company?
JH: It’s just a great place to work, and no matter where you are in the company, you can see a future and a path. If you put the effort to it, you can be whatever you want to be. I see it all the time with people on the shop floor moving up into supervisor positions. If you strive for it, you can get it. Another thing is, they always let you put your family first. I’ve been fortunate that I’ve never had an issue taking time off for family things when I need to, and it’s never been a question.
Q: So, that’s a little bit about you from a work standpoint. What about when you’re not at SRC? How do you like to spend your time?
JH: Well, I’ve got four kids, so being a dad takes up a lot of my time – well, one kid and three adults now. My son’s in college in Arizona, and my daughter just finished up school, too. Then I’ve got one who’s about to graduate high school and one that’s three years old. Outside of that, it’s a lot of working on cars – low riders mostly, taking them to shows, that sort of thing.
If you’d like to know more about working at SRC, be sure to stop by our Careers Homepage to learn more about who we are, what we make, and where we work. And stop by our job listings page to see our open positions. Manufacturing experience is preferred, but not required. If you’ve got a positive attitude and a good work ethic, we’d love to hear from you. Thanks for reading.
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