Our Spotlight on Super series highlights the SRC team members who help keep SRC a great a place to work and grow. For this installment, we sat down with Julie Kyles, who works in the assembly department at SRC’s Chaska, Minnesota Division, and has been with the company for just about two years.
Q: First off, where are you from? Where’s home?
JK: I’m originally from Memphis, Tennessee. I came up to Minnesota after several of my cousins got good jobs here and they kept telling me I needed to move up here, so I did. I stayed with them for a while, then I got my own place and now this is where I live. I’ve been here since 2016, and I love it here. Even though the winters are a little messy, I still like the fact that you get a nice breeze in the summer, you can enjoy being outside, all that.
Q: What’s your title at SRC?
JK: I’m a coil assembler, and I’ve been doing that since I came onto the team.
Q: How did you come to work at SRC? What’s the story there?
JK: So, I’ve got a cousin who’s been in Minnesota for a long time and every time he takes a new job, he’s always telling me it’d be a great fit for me, and he was at SRC, so I decided to interview. And I was irritated with the job I’d been doing – customer service-type work – and I just needed a change. Coming to SRC was a great transition for me because I really was burnt out from that job. I was there for five years, and I just didn’t feel appreciated. I wasn’t getting paid well either. I feel like I was doing a good job but there was no acknowledgement, appreciation, none of that.
But here, I love what I do. I’ve always known that I wanted to work in a job where I can put things together. Even as a kid, I’d tinker with things – taking our vacuum cleaner apart, fixing my mom’s watches, stuff like that. And at SRC I’m able to do the kind of work I like doing.
Q: What is something about working here that you would want to tell someone considering a career at SRC?
JK: SRC is just a place that treats its people well. My dad died about 8 months after I started working here and Tim (Schumacher) was just such a good guy during that whole process. I told him that I’m a good worker, I show up on time, stay out of other people’s business, all that, but he knew that I had to take care of some things after my dad’s passing and take my time to process it, and I really appreciated that. It just meant so much to me.
SRC is also a great place to come if you want to learn – you want to learn more about how a piece of equipment works or want to learn new skills and try things out to see what you like. This place has those opportunities and they’re happy to teach you. If you want satisfaction, this is place to come. I get so much out of working here.
Q: What about when you’re not at work? What do you like to do?
JK: Well, I’ve got an 8-year-old, so being a mom takes up a lot of my time. I’ve also got two foster daughters and they’re both teenagers now. We really like to hike and enjoy all the trails around here. I had no idea Minnesota had so many hiking trails! I really just love enjoying all the nature around us. We also love roller skating – I do in-line and roller skates, and my kids like the roller skates. It’s something we used to all the time back home and so it’s a lot of fun to do with the kids.
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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