Young Professionals of Honeywell Aerospace

On this episode of Aerospace Unplugged, we'll talk to some of our young professionals here at Honeywell. These folks are all either former interns who have been hired on full time, or current interns still making their way through the program. They represent a wide array of experience from marketing to mechanical engineering and beyond. The first of our young professionals is Ana Perez. She's an intern in our customer marketing department, but you'll also be hearing today from Noah Kurus. He's a systems engineer in the engines and power systems group. Third up is going to be Amanda Jensen. She's a senior specialist in our internal communications group. Finally, today we'll talk to Jordan Bernstein who's a mechanical design engineer in our fans and compressors group.

Transcript

Adam Kress:

Welcome to Aerospace Unplugged, I'm Adam Kress. Hello, and thank you for joining me for the Aerospace Unplugged podcast, brought to you by Honeywell Aerospace. I'm your host, Adam Kress, and this is your behind the scenes look into all things aerospace. On this episode of Aerospace Unplugged, we'll talk to some of our young professionals here at Honeywell. These folks are all either former interns who have been hired on full time, or current interns still making their way through the program. They represent a wide array of experience from marketing, to mechanical engineering, and beyond let's dive in and see what these future shapers have to say. So the first of our young professionals is Ana Perez. She's an intern in our customer marketing department. You'll also be hearing today from Noah Kurus, he's a systems engineer in the engines and power systems group. Third up is going to be Amanda Jensen, she's a senior specialist in our internal communications group. And finally, today we'll talk to Jordan Bernstein, Who's a mechanical design engineer, in our fans and compressors group, but we're going to start with Ana today. Welcome, I appreciate you joining us.

Ana Perez:

Thank you, Adam, thanks for having me.

Adam Kress:

Yeah, definitely, so let's start out just by general question. What got you interested in Honeywell in the first place and how did you find us?

Ana Perez:

I found them from my school. It's a big company, here in my town, and when I read the job prescription, I found it really interesting. Not a lot of marketing jobs as students involve a lot of marketing planning and handling on all of the holistic side of marketing. It's usually more of a community manager side, so I like this very much and I have been enjoying it.

Adam Kress:

In your education then, have you been studying marketing? Is that what you're interested in?

Ana Perez:

Yeah, that's my major.

Adam Kress:

Okay, what got you interested in it in the first place?

Ana Perez:

It's a funny story, when I was little, I used to love movie trailers and I got really interested in that. My dad told me that, "that's what marketing does," they take the best parts of the movie and show you the best for you to get interested in, even if it's a really bad movie, so I like that.

Adam Kress:

Excellent, so I'm sure you've had a wider range of experiences here. What would you say you've enjoyed the most during your internship at Honeywell?

Ana Perez:

I think working with the team, everyone has been so open with me. I have learned a lot. I have had the opportunity to talk with a lot of people from other sides of the company, not just marketing. Everyone has been pretty helpful, even if it's the first time I've met them, or it has nothing to do with my work. It's been great.

Adam Kress:

Yeah, I know the marketing team in Honeywell, and in aerospace, has people with a lot of different experiences and a lot of different responsibilities. Was there anything that you didn't expect, or that you learned that you weren't expecting to, from these people with a wide array of experience?

Ana Perez:

I think I was expecting technical learning. I've learned a lot from the Romanian team about SCO and SCM, but I think I didn't expect to learn a lot from myself here. Talking with people and just working here in an international environment, I think I've learned a lot of what I want to do, for the rest of my life, and also a lot of career advice from everyone.

Adam Kress:

Okay, I know Honeywell is a very international company. You yourself are based in Mexico. A lot of the aerospace marketing folks are based in Phoenix, but then there's also people in Europe and in Asia. So how has it been for you to work on an international team? Even though I know for this internship, you've been physically away from most of the rest of the team.

Ana Perez:

It doesn't feel like it. It feels like, if we were all in the same building. I can just send an IM to anyone and they will just instantly reply and we have a lot of meetings. I think it just feels, the difference on the time zones. Sometimes I have to get up at 6:00, 7:00 AM to join meetings with people from Europe or Asia. I think that's what makes this feel the most... weird about this, but because we're in the pandemic and everyone's working from home, it feels as if we were in the same city.

Adam Kress:

That's great, working at an international company, I think is a really unique thing, and you get exposed to people and cultures that you wouldn't have been exposed to if you weren't working at that sort of company. But like you said, very accurately, the time zones will get you every now and then.

Ana Perez:

Yeah, sometimes it's earlier, then sometimes it's later after hours, but it's been really fun. I think I like speaking with everyone. I am very interested in different cultures and I've talked with people from Romania, like Jillian, and just in the United States, I felt like, because I am near the border, it was going to be very similar. But I've learned a lot of cultural differences that I never thought about. It's been a great experience.

Adam Kress:

Excellent, can you take me through maybe your favorite project that you worked on during your time here?

Ana Perez:

I really liked a project I worked on, it was the Oshkosh event. I helped Lisa plan a lot of the things they were going to do at the event to promote before and after. We did an Instagram filter to help promote during the event and create a little bit of excitement before. It was the first time we did a Instagram filter here at Honeywell, and it was very fun getting to know how to do that. It was my first Instagram filter too, so there's a lot of learning too. I got to work with a lot of teams, that I hadn't worked before. There was also the Michael Eisner campaign, that's now live. I don't know if you've seen it, I think you do. I got to work with teams from outside of aerospace, from the HCE Honeywell, and I got to know what it was like to work with an influencer or in this case, a celebrity, Michael Eisner. It was very eye opening, and I think that's one of the best things of working at such a big company like Honeywell.

Adam Kress:

What was one thing you learned from working on that campaign that maybe you wouldn't have expected?

Ana Perez:

I think I didn't expect, the such short amount of time. I think it was planned very quickly and I thought that it involved a lot more planning. I didn't have direct contact with Michael Eisner, but I saw the interviews and the raw footage and he was very direct. It was fun to see how that personality develops and well, how he is and how we... how we created a whole story from that.

Adam Kress:

Yeah, you got to get the creative juice is flowing. I know when it comes to content creation, sometimes you got to take a little and make it into a lot.

Ana Perez:

Yeah, and also that the team was awesome. We were only four people and I thought it would involve a lot more, and it's been great.

Adam Kress:

Well thank you again, Ana, so much for joining us. Just one last question, that we'll ask everybody today, with the holidays right around the corner, do you have any big fun plans with family or anyone else?

Ana Perez:

No, thank you for having me Adam. Yeah, I think I'm just going to be with my family and I'll try to dress up my dog as a reindeer. See how that turns out, but yeah, just the usual family gathering.

Adam Kress:

All right, well that's great. I appreciate it again, thank you very much, Ana, for joining us.

Ana Perez:

Thank you for having me, Adam, bye.

Adam Kress:

All Right, thank you, Ana. Next up, we are going to have Noah, and I'll start with the same question. How did you find Honeywell initially and what got you interested in coming to work for us?

Noah Kurus:

Yeah, hi, first thanks for having me really happy to be here. So I'm a local guy, actually I went to university at Arizona State University.

Adam Kress:

Excellent.

Noah Kurus:

So Honeywell's a really big name around here, and even before that, my dad works for one of the main airlines. Do a lot of business with Honeywell, so that's kind of a name that I've always associated with being one of the top aerospace companies. They've been on my radar since, even before going to university.

Adam Kress:

Okay, excellent, so did you grow up loving aviation?

Noah Kurus:

Yeah, certainly, a little funny story, I initially wanted to be a pilot, but you can't tell on the podcast, but I'm 6'5" so I kind of took that out of the equation. I figured if I can't fly planes, then I could at least have a happy career designing them and working on them.

Adam Kress:

All right excellent. What were some of those influences, when you were a kid? If you don't mind, just giving a little more detail about what your dad did, and kind of when you were a kid, the kind of things you did to kind of start geeking out over aviation?

Noah Kurus:

Oh yeah, certainly. My dad's an inspector/mechanic, but even his dad, my grandpa, he owned his own hanger up in-

Adam Kress:

Wow, cool.

Noah Kurus:

Yeah, I think it's Falcon Field up north in Phoenix, so I've just always kind of been exposed to them from a young age. I was always really excited to drive by the airport, watch the plane land, things of that nature, so probably typical AV geek stuff.

Adam Kress:

Yeah, definitely. Well, that's a big part of our audience here, so that's great. I love asking people who get into to aviation, how they fell in love with it and there's, often times there's parallels, but everyone's story is a bit different. It does seem like if someone's parents grew up with it whether, mom, dad, whoever, that it's almost impossible not for it to kind of get in your blood.

Noah Kurus:

Yeah, definitely, definitely.

Adam Kress:

Cool, so let's talk about the work you've done at Honeywell. What would you say has been the most challenging and then the most rewarding part of the work you've done here?

Noah Kurus:

I think the most challenging thing, not even necessarily work related, it's just the environment shift, especially for someone coming from a university environment or an academic setting. The environment here is really high performing, very fast paced, and that sets us apart from our competition, but it certainly can be a bit of an adjustment, for folks that aren't used to that, that would definitely be the most challenging. As far as the most rewarding, I really get a good feeling about seeing the work that I do implemented in the real world. I've done a lot of work on our T55 line of engines, which probably the most common application is on the CH-47 Chinook helicopter, which has just been a workforce for so long. It's involved in humanitarian, rescue, wildlife, disaster relief. So just knowing that my work goes into helping make these missions possible, it's really rewarding.

Adam Kress:

So as an engineer, take me one level deeper into the work you've actually done. What are some of the specifics?

Noah Kurus:

Yeah, so I work in the engine and power systems group, but more specifically than that, I work in the engine controls group. I guess in layman's terms, that's just the computer that controls the whole engine. When the pilot requests full power, the engine doesn't know necessarily what to do, there has to be a kind of a translator between the two. I've done a lot of engine test work, a lot of what we call verification work. So that's, once you have these requirements, that've already set in stone for the engine, you have to go do tests and, crunch the numbers to see if we're actually meeting, or exceeding, those performance standards.

Adam Kress:

Yeah, so I know testing and with engine development and new variants of the T55 that we've been creating, testing is critically important. Has that been an area that you've kind of focused on, or what are things that you've learned in that area that you maybe didn't expect?

Noah Kurus:

Yeah, I would say I've definitely focused on it, probably selflessly, because that's a very interesting aspect of the field for me. I'm kind of a very hands on guy, I call myself a tinkerer. So getting to go in there and then touch the engine and feel the engine and all those different things, really resonates with me. I guess, I didn't really have any expectations coming into it because I didn't have any previous experience in that. I learn something new every time I get to go out to one of the test cells, even onto a remote test site, which is kind of out in the middle of the desert.

Adam Kress:

Yeah, you're talking about the San Tan site.

Noah Kurus:

San Tan site, that's where we do a lot of, what we call, destructive testing out there, blade out, bird ingestion, things of that nature. It's a really cool environment to be in.

Adam Kress:

Yeah, it's definitely, particularly with the San Tan site, it's hands on. You can't halfway test engines you need to go out right, you need to fully test them and then test them again.

Noah Kurus:

Yeah it's a very visceral experience too, to be out there and to feel the vibration of the building when the engine's running and to smell the burning jet fuel. It's a really unique experience.

Adam Kress:

Yeah, very cool. So how do you think that you've been able to grow as a professional in your time with Honeywell here?

Noah Kurus:

Yeah, I think that's probably been one of my favorite parts about working for this company, the year or so I've been here. The company's, at least in my experience, has been very proactive in investing in its employees. Specifically for me, what that's meant is, I've gotten to participate in several company sponsored trainings, that I've kind of expressed interest in growing my own skillset, and so that I can put that knowledge back into the company, as far as in the programs I'm working on. I feel like there's been a lot of investment made in me as an individual, which I've certainly appreciated. Something else too, that I really find to be a great thing about working at Honeywell is, I really feel like there's a home for everyone here. We work on so many different products and solutions in so many different groups that, there's so many places for you to grow as an individual and just to find your right fit. Even if that's changing, you can switch around. All of my coworkers and managers and leadership have been very supportive of that.

Adam Kress:

Yeah, that's excellent, and I know there, especially in the engineering professions within Honeywell and aerospace, there's a lot of folks who have been around and at the company a long time with a huge wealth of knowledge that, when younger folks come in and start their careers, design to transfer that knowledge down and get you prepared for a long career as well. What advice would you give to interns or recent graduates in the engineering field that are, not necessarily moving into aerospace, but just moving out into the real world and starting at their first company?

Noah Kurus:

I think the advice I would probably give, and it's advice I try to give myself too and always be cognizant of is, just to put yourself out there and to take every opportunity you can to meet new people, meet new colleagues. Go to all the social events. Honeywell is very good about putting on a lot of events like that, so just getting out of your comfort zone, in a way. At risk of being cliche, I think if you're uncomfortable, most of the time, you're doing it right. That's how you know you're putting yourself in the right situation to grow and to build those networks.

Adam Kress:

Excellent, that's great insight. One last question, before we let you go, the holidays are right around the corner, what are you planning? You'll just be with family or traveling or anything?

Noah Kurus:

All of the above, my family has travel plans to go to Hawaii for Christmas.

Adam Kress:

Nice.

Noah Kurus:

Yeah, super excited to that, it's been a long time in the making.

Adam Kress:

Cool, what islands are you going to?

Noah Kurus:

We're going to Maui.

Adam Kress:

All right sweet, I was there a couple years ago and would love to go back, it is absolutely beautiful.

Noah Kurus:

Have any recommendations?

Adam Kress:

Maybe we'll talk offline.

Noah Kurus:

All right.

Adam Kress:

We got to keep the podcast going.

Noah Kurus:

Of course.

Adam Kress:

All right, thank you so much, Noah, I appreciate it. Okay, next up is Amanda Jensen on the podcast today. My first question to her is to ask her, how Honeywell got on her radar initially, but full disclosure, I already kind of know the story here. Amanda and I actually worked together for several years. She's moved on to a different role now, but I have insider insight into this interview subject here, because we've known each other for about four years, which is great. But how did Honeywell get on your radar?

Amanda Jensen:

Yeah, thanks Adam. Honeywell initially, I guess if we really want to talk about my journey to Honeywell, we kind of have to go all the way back to the summer of 2016. Drake had a hit album, it was a good time, and it was a good summer. I interned at Honeywell. I remember applying for jobs at Honeywell and just thinking or I guess, I remember applying for a bunch of internships at a bunch of different companies. I was on LinkedIn just like, one after another, after another, after another, because it was right after, my junior year of college was sort of coming to a close, and I wanted a summer internship before senior year. I applied to a bunch of different places locally here in Phoenix, and I ended up seeing at Honeywell that there was an opening for media relations intern.

              My only two requirements were, I want it to be local, a company that I maybe heard of, and then also I wanted to be in my field of study. I applied for it and I ended up getting the job. I spent that whole summer interning and it was a great summer. It was the best internship I've ever had. I had several internships over the course of my college years, and I would say that was probably the best one. I remember when I was interviewing for that job, the person who was interviewing me, who was the hiring manager, who ended up being my boss, he told me, "This is the best internship in the valley." I remember he had a black box just sitting on his desk and I was like, "This place is cool. I already know this is cool."

Adam Kress:

Yeah.

Amanda Jensen:

And he wasn't lying. It ended up being such a great experience, and what I loved most about my internship is, they really treated me like I was one of the team.

Adam Kress:

Yeah.

Amanda Jensen:

Not like I was just an intern who was just doing silly little tasks. I was doing real, meaningful work, which I loved.

Adam Kress:

Well tell me about, I think it was the first day of your internship.

Amanda Jensen:

Second day.

Adam Kress:

Or the second, what you got to do.

Amanda Jensen:

Yeah, so day two of my internship I was on a test aircraft, our Boeing 757 test aircraft, flying around over Phoenix, with 30 reporters from a bunch of different countries. I was obviously supporting media relations and I was an intern as part of that group, based here in Phoenix, and we had an international media day, and they had a bunch of reporters from all over. It was overstimulating in the best possible way. I had the best time, and I was fully convinced after that day, it was day two, and I was like, "All right, this is legit, this is cool."

Adam Kress:

Yeah, so then I know the internship wrapped, you still had to finish school, and then you made your way back.

Amanda Jensen:

Yes, I did. I spent a brief stint in Chicago, which I know is where you hail from yourself, but I was at a job there at a PR agency and then I ended up coming back to Honeywell. I kept in touch with the people that I had worked with when I was an intern at Honeywell. Then eventually there was a job opening and they had reached out to me and said, "Hey, we have a job would you want to apply for it?" And I did, and long story short, ended up getting the job, relocated back to Phoenix, and have been working in Phoenix ever since. Since then, I've had a couple of job title changes, a couple of, different new responsibilities. I mostly was in external communications and I have since moved into internal communications.

Adam Kress:

Yeah, so Honeywell as a huge company from a job development standpoint, there's oftentimes opportunities to switch within related fields and external communications, like media relations, and internal comms, separate but very related.

Amanda Jensen:

Yeah.

Adam Kress:

So take me through kind of your thought process on why you wanted to try something different.

Amanda Jensen:

I think, corporate communications, as a thing, as a discipline, is such a wide array of different things that you can do. And I think the reason of why I had spent a good amount of time in external communications, loved it, but then there was an opportunity that became available with internal. What that really entails is, when you get a message from someone like Mike Madsen, or there's leadership communications to directly to employees, those are the sort of communications and things I help with. I think the reason behind doing that sort of a shift to, instead of communicating externally to external audiences, communicating to internal audiences, was really just to kind of round out that corporate communication skillset, and to really be able to get some more additional skills in a little bit, slightly different area of corporate comms, to help me be prepared for whatever comes next down the road in my career. I'm really thankful that, Honeywell has so many different opportunities to be able to move within the organization. I think I know several people, I can't even name them all there's so many, who have been able to take on new jobs and new responsibilities within the organization and really just move around a lot, which you don't always get at smaller companies. I think that's one of the advantages to being at such a large company like Honeywell.

Adam Kress:

We talked to Ana, a little bit earlier, about kind of managing the international scope of the company and all the different kind of experiences that could create. When it comes to that international work, I know you've traveled some broad and had assignments that relate to things overseas, has that been something you've really enjoyed at Honeywell or what have you learned from that?

Amanda Jensen:

Yeah, I think I've learned a lot just from my time at Honeywell in general. I think a lot of great lessons that I've kind of learned, but with the travel piece especially it's, you got to just do it. You got to... I went to China, I remember reflecting on this once I got there, got to my hotel, I was like, "Wow, I'm 24 years old, and I'm on my first international business trip, this is wild." Never in my wildest dreams, did I think that I'd be able to do that. It's because of Honeywell that I had that opportunity, and I love being able to connect with people who live in different parts of the world, who have different experiences from my own. That's another advantage at working at a global company that you have, because you get to do that, and I have been very fortunate in my jobs here at Honeywell that I've been able to travel and to experience new places and new cultures. You just got to dive in, head first fearless, you just got to go. It's been such an adventure and it's memories to last a lifetime, for sure.

Adam Kress:

You mention the media flight on your second day, the trip to China, both obviously big highlights.

Amanda Jensen:

Yes.

Adam Kress:

Can you think of another big highlight or something that you really enjoyed during your work here?

Amanda Jensen:

Oh, now I know you want to say, having you as a boss. I know that's what you want.

Adam Kress:

Definitely the top...

Amanda Jensen:

Top tier.

Adam Kress:

Continual moment for what, two and a half years.

Amanda Jensen:

Yes many years, a few years, it was good. It's been, I think just the ability to be able to just... I think one of the advantages that I've had in the roles that I'm in, in communications, or when you're in a marketing role, or when you're in one of these jobs, that's a little bit more like, you see everything that's going on within the organization.

Adam Kress:

Yeah.

Amanda Jensen:

And you have the opportunity to be able to learn so much about so many different products. You get to meet so many different people who are just wicked smart, just some really, we've got some really, really smart people at Honeywell. To get to just have the opportunity to work with people and to come up with creative ways to tell our story externally, and then now in my new role internally, and find creative ways to do that, that's a highlight, because there's a lot to tell, there's a lot to share. I think that there's just always so much potential. Coming up with those things, working with those really smart people, all of that has been, and the opportunity to learn so much, I learn something new every day. I think that a lot of people at Honeywell would agree that "Every day I learn something new," and so all of that together has really been kind of one of the other big highlights and pieces of my job that I really enjoy.

Adam Kress:

From a professional development standpoint, and as someone who's still early in their career, but several years in now, what are some of the biggest, I guess, lessons that you've learned about just what it's like to work and operate in such a big company?

Amanda Jensen:

Well, I think one of the big ones that was a hard lesson to learn for me personally, but was very important, was about change, and how the only constant in life and in your professional life, as well, is change. That's the only thing that you can be certain is always going to be there. Things are going to change. New people will come, people will go. You'll have all sorts of changes happening within an organization at a Honeywell level and I think, learning how to see those things, not as something that's a road block or something that's going to completely derail you and send you into a tailspin, but learning how to just, take it head on and be like, "No, this isn't happening to me, this is happening for me." And seeing it instead of, like I said, instead of seeing it as a setback or as a "Oh my gosh, this is going to be so hard, how am I going to get through this?" Or "How am I going to navigate this change," seeing it as a opportunity for growth.

              Because I will tell you that the times where I have experienced the most upheaval and change, both personally and professionally, have been the times when I grew the most and was really able to step into my own power, and my own confidence, and be able to say, "Okay, no, I'm not going to, I'm going to take this as an opportunity to grow and an opportunity to do new things and take on new responsibilities." I think that, that's one of the biggest lessons that I've learned.

Adam Kress:

Yeah, that's a really great insight, and when you consider the fact of what everyone has worked through, over the past two years or so, dealing with the pandemic and everything else and remote work and everything. There are a lot of those lessons that are a little bit tougher, but they are real lessons that you could take forward with you for a long time for the rest of your career.

Amanda Jensen:

Yeah, and I think being able to navigate change like that is a skill, it's a skill that you have to learn. It's not something that people just are born knowing how to do. I think early in your career, you're more sensitive to change like that, and it's harder for you to kind of work through that initially. Just know that, as you go through your career, that's going to keep happening and you'll get better and better at learning how to work through that.

Adam Kress:

Yeah, excellent. All right one more final question, little bit of a lighter note. What are you planning for the holidays, you get together with family or traveling?

Amanda Jensen:

Yes... I do, so you know this Adam, but I hail from Minneapolis, so shout out to Minneapolis, shout out to the bold north. I am heading back there this year for the Christmas holiday and for through New Years. I will be spending time with my family. This year is going to be a bigger celebration than last year, of course, just due to the current circumstances. I'm really excited because last year I didn't get to see a lot of my extended family. I didn't travel home for Christmas, so going to get to hang out with them and watch Christmas movies and watch Home Alone, which is the best Christmas movie, also Christmas Vacation, those are my top two.

Adam Kress:

Classics.

Amanda Jensen:

And yeah, just get to see family and eat some really good food, eat way too much, good food.

Adam Kress:

Excellent, yeah. The Midwestern winter trips are usually not light on food.

Amanda Jensen:

Oh, no, no, and it's cheese on-

Adam Kress:

There's nothing else to do.

Amanda Jensen:

Cheese on everything, just so much cheese. If you're lactose intolerant, good luck. Get the Lactaid.

Adam Kress:

Do you keep the winter coat here or do you just leave it at your parents' house?

Amanda Jensen:

I leave it at my parents' house, and then when they pick me up from the airport...

Adam Kress:

Yeah, they just-

Amanda Jensen:

They always throw it in the car, but when I come out of the Minneapolis airport, and if you've ever been to the Minneapolis airport in winter, or any airport where it's cold in the winter, when you come down that jetway, you're like, "Oh my God." It just hits you, you're like-

Adam Kress:

Coming from Phoenix.

Amanda Jensen:

Oh my God yeah. So it's brisk, but yes, they will have the coat ready in the car, so I can just throw that baby on and get to it.

Adam Kress:

Very good, warm up. All right, awesome well, thank you so much, Amanda. It was awesome to catch up, and thanks for all the insights too, really good advice.

Amanda Jensen:

Yeah, thank you for having me, appreciate it.

Adam Kress:

All right, next up last but not least, we have Jordan Bernstein, here with us today. He's an engineer here at Honeywell in the aerospace business. So what led you to Honeywell? How did you discover us in the first place?

Jordan Bernstein:

First in school I was studying mechanical engineering and I got my master's with the focus in gas turbomachinery. Honeywell is obviously one of the leaders in that industry, so they were one of my prime candidates for all the places that I was applying during college. Then I started off summer of 2019, with a internship that I got from a career showcase at my school in Florida. Did a few interviews there and then secured that internship. I had that summer internship and then finished up my masters this semester after that, and then was asked to be brought back for a full-time position starting this past January, so I've been full-time for about a year.

Adam Kress:

Excellent, well that's exactly how it's supposed to work, you get the internship, you kick butt in the internship, and then they offer you a job.

Jordan Bernstein:

Yep, I knew I wanted to stay Honeywell after the internship also.

Adam Kress:

Awesome, did you grow up with an interest in aviation or what got you interested in your field of study?

Jordan Bernstein:

So I think I've always had the engineering, math numbers, kind of mindset ever since I was a kid. When I was a kid, I used to love taking things apart and putting them back together. I spent lot of time with my grandpa who was more of an electrical engineer at IBM back in the eighties, helped develop some of their first computers. We'd find things that were already broken, not working, we would take them apart and try, keyword, try to put them back together.

Adam Kress:

That's true.

Jordan Bernstein:

We weren't always able to put them back together, left with a few extra screws or some extra parts, but it was still fun learning about how things worked. I really like doing hands on things, so I think that's where my love for engineering really started although, I didn't know I wanted to be an engineer. When I was younger, I thought I wanted to be a paleontologist, because I don't know, that sounded pretty fun, digging up dinosaurs.

Adam Kress:

Well a lot of little kids like dinosaurs.

Jordan Bernstein:

And then I, maybe matured a little, and thought I wanted to study math. I went into college as a mathematics major, and then I realized that I didn't really want to go into all the theoretical math, I wanted to focus more on applied mathematics. Engineering is really one of the ways that you could use applied mathematics. I didn't know exactly which kind of engineering I wanted to do, so I took a course at my school where each week you go into different engineering lab, so chemical engineering, electrical, computer science, environmental, mechanical. The mechanical engineering research lab struck my eye, and I had the idea that I wanted to switch my major to mechanical engineering and I haven't looked back.

Adam Kress:

Yes, excellent. So in your day to day work at Honeywell, what's keeping you busy, what are you working on?

Jordan Bernstein:

My group, in the phantom compressors, we focus on all the design analysis testing for all of the rotating components in the compressor module of the engine. We focus on the Chinook engine, which has obviously been around for decades, but we keep rolling out upgrades for that for increased fuel efficiency, increased power, and we still keep the same size engine. We're just upgrading all the components, more pressure, higher temperatures, so that's really been improved a lot over the decade. Specifically in my group, we do the rotating components, so from conceptual design, which obviously these have been around for a while, so it's more minor changes that we're making, but we analyze those changes. We vet that a design is good and meets all the requirements that are imposed on it, and then we test it and then it goes into production

Adam Kress:

From a professional development standpoint and a career standpoint, you're about a year in now working at a big global company. What would you say, what's a lesson you've learned or something you've learned, maybe you didn't expect?

Jordan Bernstein:

I think just the amount of knowledge that's around me. I'm coming in, I had a pretty good education, but just, I'm at such a low level because these people have been doing this for decades. I think it's really important to just absorb all that information around you and learn as much as you can, because it's a lot of stuff that you can't learn in a college setting or in a classroom setting, you have to actually do it.

Adam Kress:

Yeah, absolute real world experience, for sure. You said once you found mechanical engineering, you haven't looked back and once you got to Honeywell, it's been the same thing. How do you see your career progressing here? What are some of your aspirations?

Jordan Bernstein:

There's endless opportunities at Honeywell, and right now I really like doing all the technical work on the engineering side, but I know there's also the management side, which I could also see myself going towards, but I would definitely want to stay on the technical engineering side. I could see a potential, maybe getting an MBA and moving to management, but I would definitely stay on the technical side for a while longer.

Adam Kress:

What's a piece of advice you would have for people who are, maybe just graduating, or early in their careers, maybe specifically for engineers, what would you say to those students who are coming out and getting started now?

Jordan Bernstein:

I'd say definitely take advantage of all the knowledge around you. Everyone that I work with is very smart and very driven. I'm definitely not a person that's afraid to ask questions, and I think that's really benefit me a lot. I sometimes probably ask too many questions, but I really like to understand everything I'm doing on a very deep level. I think that helps a lot, so I'd say, don't be afraid to ask questions.

Adam Kress:

Yeah, excellent advice, and I think in whatever aspect of your life you're in, if you're in a new environment for sure, how else are you going to learn?

Jordan Bernstein:

Mm-hmm (affirmative), exactly.

Adam Kress:

Ask questions, all right. Well Jordan, thank you so much for joining us today and to all of our guests, we covered a ton of ground and I think it was really great conversations. I've enjoyed getting this look into what the future shapers are up to here at Honeywell. I want to thank everyone again for listening and we'll catch you on the next episode of Aerospace Unplugged.