Gath Van Syckle - The Perfect Recruit

Garth Van Syckle's story is exactly what the local maritime industry has in mind when they think about who and how they want to recruit into this industry. He came up through a local high school training program that prepared him to go to work the day after graduation and that's exactly what happened.

Visit www.maritimejobsva.com to discover what career and training opportunities are right for you in the Hampton Roads maritime industry.

The Regional Maritime Training System (RMTS) was established using a $11 million (41%) Good Jobs Challenge Grant awarded by the Economic Development Administration. It is supported by $12.1 million (46%) provided through BlueForge Alliance in partnership with the U.S. Department of the Navy, $850,000 (3%) from the U.S. Department of Labor/ETA – Community Project Funding, and $3.5 million (10%) from non-federal sources.

Transcript

Garth Van Syckles story is exactly what the local maritime industry has in mind
when they think about who and how they want to recruit into this industry. He came up through a local high school training program that prepared him to go to work the day after graduation and that's exactly what happened.

We're talking today with Garth Van Syckle. He's working at Collins Machine Works,
the reason why we really wanted to talk to you is you're a very recent graduate
from Chesapeake Career Center, so you grew up here locally in the area, went to
high school, you were in the, I'm going to call it the industrial arts program
there, graduated a year and a half ago and came to work here. Is that cycle right?
Yes, sir. Tell me what you were doing this time two years ago at the part of your
senior year, what were you thinking about? - I was definitely looking at job
opportunities. I was still going to my welding class 'cause it's a two year program.
And about halfway through senior year, my welding teacher pulled me aside, told me
about this company, he thought I would be a good fit just from what he's seen me
do in the class. And it was me and another guy,
Jacob Breeland, he sent us over here and just for we did a tour to begin with and
then they offered us a during the school year you know we come in some days to
work here and then you know still finish out our welding program with the school.
So your welding instructor knew the industry well enough, knew some of the companies
in the area and recommended that you come over here and apply? Yep. and you started
kind of interning essentially. - Absolutely. - Oh, that's what a great opportunity.
- Yes, very thankful. - Do you remember what it felt like that first time that you
walked in here? - It was definitely overwhelming. There was a lot of stuff I've
never seen before. I had an idea on machining, but nothing other than a little bit
of lathe work. I had no idea what a mill was. So, I was a lot of stuff to take
in, for sure. - It is a little bit intimidating walking in here. - Yes. - I came
through here, myself, probably five years ago, working in a shipyard, but to come in
here and see the level of precision machine work going on, this isn't the hottest
one that we've done, but it's certainly the loudest interview that we've done because
this shop is working right now, and can't stop because of the volume of work you've
work you got going on in here.
So you're a high school student at that point, right? What was it like for you to
kind of walk into a shop full of people that clearly experienced what they've been
doing, they've been doing it for a long-- you know that a lot of experience and
you are at this, how'd you feel?
Intimidated, yep. Even the size of the machines, I was like, wow, I've never seen a
lot of things this big before moving parts this big and yeah it was intimidating to
say the least. How long did that intimidation last though?
Not too long once I got comfortable with everybody pretty quickly not necessarily
running the machines comfortable but I you know it went down.
What did you start out doing when you got here? Because you had some welding
experience from Chesapeake Career Center. So you know how to put metal down. - Yeah,
I did a couple small welding jobs around the shop, but I really wanted to get into
the world of machining because it would have been, it was the decision between doing
an apprenticeship through machining or welding through here. So I was kinda trying to
get introduced to make that decision. - What interest did you in machining that made
want to do that over shield down welding?
I don't know, it was more of like, I guess the precision work really interests me.
I really like, you know, making sure I get things right and, you know, learning
processes and that really interests me. Welding can be a little lonely when you're
kind of shield down, putting metal down. Yeah, a little lonely and hot. Yeah. How
about machining? What's different there. A lot more math to go behind it. Is it a
little more collaborative? Is it just one person on a machine or are you working
kind of with a team of people on a project? You're definitely working with your
programmer when you're doing in -shop work. It's different for on -site work. It's a
lot more group work because the machines are usually so large different people need
to be at different ends and Yeah, a lot of teamwork a lot of a lot of
collaborative work. Yeah, so you mentioned a programmer Yes, so some of the machines
you were are you working CNC machines? Yes, sir, so CNC stands for Couldn't tell
you computer numerical controlled. I think yeah. Yeah, so Computers driving machines
like the ones behind us except these are analog machines, right? These are These are
they're great probably decades old and there's some things that these machines can do
that a CNC machine Can't as well. Yeah, but are you primarily running the the
electronic machines? I started out on the manual ones. I have been running the CNC
machines longer than the manual ones, but they like for you to get comfortable with
kind of the nature of the manual machines because there's a lot to learn from that
going on to CNC machines. So when you started working here what what did you what
did you do first? You just kind of cleaning up the shop? Yeah I I swept floors
for a little while yep watching other people learning other people. I did my first
my first job that I was on was a just a facing operation we did.
- Facing operation, tell me what a facing operation is. - It's when you take a mill
and you're skimming the top flat. - So it's like when you're mating two big metal
surfaces, you gotta make sure that surface is completely flat and level,
so those things bolt together. You don't want any vibration, you don't want any
movement. So that's, I mean, you're talking a couple of human hairs thick.
- A little less than half, yeah. - Less than for human hair it's got to be that
surface has to be perfect yeah and so it was really an on -site job we were doing
in the shop so we were using on -site equipment and that was a definitely a cool
experience for my first one for sure wasn't wasn't too you know strenuous as on
-site jobs usually are so that was good introduction I imagine probably the youngest
person in that group of people working working on whatever that project was. - I was
always the youngest on my team for sure, yeah. There was a couple in the shipyard
that were around my age, but you can't get much younger, 'cause I was just over
18, so. - And I bet they were all interested in your background,
wanted to talk about what you were doing. - Yeah, yeah, I definitely got a lot of
questions on why I chose to come here, instead get in the degree or yeah you're a
you're kind of the holy grail
but you're you're what the industry is like I mean it's literally the reason we're
here today talking to you right because the industry recognizes that we need new
blood coming into this business at all levels and everybody's desperate to attract
people like you right out of high school that have got the interest and can pick
up the aptitude to learn how to do this. And everybody wants to know what the
secret is, but I don't know if there is a secret. What got you interested in doing
this kind of stuff? - Well, I was always interested in, you know, hands -on work,
even as a kid. And I have to say what turned me to a machining was my welding
teacher, you know, introducing it to
If you really recommended it, you thought it would be a good fit, so I kind of
went with it. What kind of things did you do growing up before you started in that
program that you think fed that interest to work with your hands like this?
Definitely like small engine work, you know, go -karts, mini -bikes, you know, stuff
like that. People kind of kid growing up, right? Yeah.
Always like, you know, getting old things that weren't run, that were sitting for a
while, you know, up and running again. That's really my passion, still is. - We had
talked previously, what did your parents think when you said, I think I want to go
this direction? - They definitely were not on board at first, but once they
experienced it, you know, my mom did a walk around the shop, talked with Mr.
Twine, and she definitely got on board later on. - And Robert Twine is the owner of
College Machine Works, so the owner of the company of this facility, one of several
facilities, took the time to talk to you, but even took the time to talk to your
parents and walk them around the shop to introduce them to where you might work one
day.
What do you think it was that convinced her? Definitely the apprenticeship, being
that I'll still be getting a degree and a journeyman's and that really I'll always
have work to do, I'll always be busy, always have some place to go. There's no
shortage of work here. Always need a machinist. Always need a machinist and anybody
that's willing to do the work is pretty much guaranteed to have a job in this
industry. Certainly right now and several of the other people we've talked to said
pretty much we can look out 40 years or more for work between the submarines that
need to get built, the aircraft carriers, and then once all those are in service,
they need to be maintained, and what you do here at Collins is on both sides of
that, right? You build the new equipment, but then you overhaul existing equipment as
well. Exactly. We do a lot of both.
Let's back up for a second. The conversation with your parents. Your mom's walking
around this shop. So obviously, knowing that you were going to start out in a good
job, but did you talk with them about what a career looks like working here?
I mean, I got to think Robert Twine had something to say about that. Yeah, yeah.
He definitely reassured her that there's always going to be a career for me later
in the future. The five -year apprenticeship program plan, he went through that with
her and, um...
classes compared to working on your tools here? Well, the classes-- one class that
I'm in right now is an AutoCAD class. So we're learning-- it's introduction to
AutoCAD. So learning the basics of design and programming.
And that'll come in later down the road. Hopefully when I can either move up to
being a programmer or something like that. I see that tying into your first day
walking in here, where you certainly learned a lot at Chesapeake Career Center,
but not enough to really start working right away on your tools here. Not in this
field. And you talked about that kind of intimidation, but now you've got academic
background through TCC, married up with your hands -on instruction here.
So the classes, the instruction you're getting here, that kind of takes that
intimidation factor out of all pretty quickly because you're, it's not just kind of
figure it out on your own, although you probably get some projects where you do
actually get to figure it out on your own. They've really got a well -thought -out
program here to make sure that you are able to progress professionally through here,
which goes back and convinces folks like your parents that hey this this isn't just
a job this is I mean for the first five years of your careers in some form of
instruction the assumption must be that there's decades after that they're gonna
invest five years up front oh yeah for sure yep and five years of programed thought
-out instruction sounds a lot like a College program. Oh,
absolutely. Yeah How much debt do you have from all this? I will be going out with
no debt all the classes are paid for So the company's paying for all of those
classes. So you're just taking your salary and Yep, putting that. I don't know.
I don't know. You don't have to tell me where you're putting it, but You're not
making payments on on on your education. Anyway, correct. Yeah,
So, how often do you run into your friends that are doing other things from high
school? I'll see them online every once in a while and glad I chose this route.
Why do you say that? I don't know. I wasn't a fan of the college life. I knew
that kind of wasn't for me early on. I liked working. In the course of these
discussions, I really try to make a point of not knocking going to college.
I mean, I went to college. My parents were both blue -collared people. My dad was
an electronics technician. My mother worked in a nursing home. But man, over 40
years ago, you know, my parents were like, we want something better for you. We
want you to go to college. Which kind of made sense then. - Right. I guess because
it worked out well for me, but it's not really what I necessarily wanted to do,
but to do the things I wanted to do, it was necessary to go to a four -year
college in order to get there. Right. That's what it makes the most sense. That's
what it makes the most sense, but you're getting a professional education. It's just,
it's a different format. Yep. And the beauty of it is, is you're not having to
incur any debt for this and you're earning as you're going, working in your field.
How many of your other friends that went through Chesapeake Career Center are still
active in the workforce right now? I would probably say most of them,
I believe. I don't keep up with most of them, but I do see that I have a few
friends that went straight into the shipyard and other things like that. Anybody
decide that they want to do something different? It's been a year and a half or so
now since you've been out of high school and in the workforce. Any of them decide
to go do something else? Other than welding, yeah. I believe some people went to
auto mechanic shops. Most of them, I think, kept hands -on work,
kept with hands -on work, and yeah. I don't think, I can't remember if any of them
went to college, or I don't know. So as far as you know, the people you keep in
touch with, the ones that are following the same sort of path are happy with the
decision that they've made, and they're doing well for themselves. Absolutely. As I
walked through the shop here, it doesn't seem like people are at the top end of
what the industry average is, which is 55 years or older. This looks like a
relatively younger shop. Yeah. What's fun about working here? It's always fun problem
solving. I like that. Do you feel like you're actually valued in part of solving
that problem or are you just the guy standing watching the other people figure it
out? I believe I'm valued. Yeah, I think they value everybody in this shot very
well. It's a very family environment. That was the answer I was hoping you would
give, right?
Because new people coming into this, if they don't have that background, could feel
like how long do I have to work there before my my opinion matters before I know
enough to actually contribute to it. You said you started out sweeping, but now a
year and a half later, you're part of solving a problem. Somebody's saying to you,
"Hey, Garth, come over here. We've got a problem. We've got to figure this out."
And your voice matters, your opinion, your skills matter. And that's not unusual.
So Garth, you've been working here for about a year and a half now. You had an
idea of what you wanted to do when you came into the industry now you know more
than you did before. What are your long -term plans for for working in the industry?
After I get my associate's degree I'll hopefully be moving on to my bachelor's
degree hopefully in engineering and be able to get on to the development side the
engineering side of this of this program. So we didn't we didn't even touch on that
right so that So at the end of this five year apprenticeship, you're going to have
an associate's degree? - Yep. - And then you already know that you're gonna continue
on to get your bachelor's degree. - That's the plan, yes sir. - So I started out
saying before, like you're the holy grail for the industry, but you just proved what
we have been saying is, it's not don't go to college. It's not go to work in the
trades or go to college. It can be It can be both. So when did you decide that
you want to pursue a mechanical engineering degree?
Was it when you were still in high school or was it after you started working here
and then finally understood what a mechanical engineer can do or needs to do?
It was definitely after getting introduced to the field and realizing what I need
for what I believe it's better to figure out what you want to do and what you
really need before you go straight into it. So you're you're ahead of your peers
financially because you have no debt. You're earning money right now and probably a
pretty decent I'm guessing you're over a minimum wage. Yes sir. So you're I'm not
I'm not gonna ask what it is right but you're doing and all that money's yours
right you're setting that aside to do whatever you want to do you're gonna finish
here with an associate's degree you're gonna go on to a bachelor's degree what's
what's not possible for you I don't know so we started asking you know what what
do you see ahead for you are you only looking at five years can can you see ten
years down the road you haven't I a vision of what that would be hopefully I can
stay with this company for as long as possible I really do like where I'm at and
where I'm heading and yeah I'm hoping to just move further on and possibly get an
engineering degree and you know get on the blueprint drawing and programming side of
things. What do you want to do with the engineering degree? Mainly going, I think
programming would be cool. I would like to get more experience in that, or even
just blueprint design, things like that. So you think that's going to lead you down
more of the path of fabrication of new things? Right. Yes, sir. What are you
driving for a car right now? Honda Accord. Honda Accord? Yeah. What year? 2006.
2006. The practical man you're talking to, right? Yeah. What do you think you're
driving? Well, I'm not done.
- Well, I mean, I also have my fun car, which is a-- - Oh, okay, there we go.
That's right there. Okay, see, yeah. I didn't think I knew what I was asking. Go
ahead. Tell--what fun car do you have? - I have a '96 Bronco. - You have a 1996
Bronco? - Yep.
- You didn't buy that thing in cherry condition, Did you? No, no. How much of that
work are you doing on your own? All of it, except for rebuilding the transmission.
But I do all the other stuff myself. When did you buy that? That was my second
car. I bought it going into my junior year. Into your junior year in high school?
So kind of a project? Yeah, kind of a project. I knew it would get me to school
and 'cause my school wasn't too far, but... - You could always walk if you had to,
right? - I can always walk if I needed to. - Is it finished, are you still working
on it? - No, it's not finished, I have a lot of plans for it. - Do you? - Yep.
- So is it drivable right now? - Oh yeah, yeah, it's the weekend truck, yep. - Do
you feel like because of your work here, you're able to work on that project
better? - Yes, it's definitely helped me out with some ideas for sure. - Garth,
thanks for talking to us today. This has been a great conversation, conversation, and
really excited to see where this opportunity takes you, and I don't think there's
any limits to it. - Yes, sir. - Absolutely. - Great, thank you. - Thank you.