By Karen Hanna
Jeff Somple isn’t too proud to admit: Today’s students are smarter and more skilled than he was at their age.
The president of Mack Molding, Somple started his career as a customer service representative in 1988. Now, he’s looking for people who could take his place — eventually. The company is celebrating the conclusion of its 11th summer offering internships that have helped launch the careers of more than 100 people.
“It’s probably our most effective method for attracting professionals into Mack. We get them exposed to who we are, which is really important, because a lot of times Mack can sell itself, if we can get someone to come in the door,” Somple said.
The internship places Mack’s employees in the role of ambassadors, both for the industry, generally, and for the company, in particular. A leading supplier of contract manufacturing services and injection molded plastic parts, Mack Molding Molding is part of the Mack Group, which employs about 2,500 people and operates 11 locations throughout Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Mexico.
As an applied mathematics and biology major, Hayden Gallo, a member of the most recent cohort of interns, is one student who has gained new perspective on manufacturing, thanks to Mack.
“My first thought about what manufacturing was, was maybe someone on the floor putting the parts together, pieces together of a product, and the engineer maybe designing it. But coming to Mack has opened my eyes to all the different careers and people that work together to build these products, the business side, customer service, finance, things like that. It showed me that there’s a lot more career opportunities in manufacturing than I thought before,” said Gallo, just days before returning to the University of Notre Dame, where he is a junior.
Mack employs more than 20 former interns; one is the head of its application development center. Its most recent intern-to-employee hires have included two manufacturing engineer recruits and an accounts payable specialist.
Gallo, who turns 21 in October, said he can see a future in manufacturing.
“Kind of the evolution from idea to production, that was the most rewarding part for me,” he said.
According to Somple and Larry Hovish, director of communications, the company strives to expose its interns to many professional and interpersonal experiences. In addition to sponsoring a series of lunch-and-learn presentations and offering mentoring, the company this summer even provided interns with a membership at a gym or golf course.
“We want the bunch of young college kids to go out, make new friends and say, ‘OK, if I worked at a place like Mack, there’s other young people like me. I won’t be going into a company full of old people, like Jeff. This would actually be fun and exciting,’ ” Somple said.
He said a lot of students made light of their clumsy first efforts on the greens in the presentations reflecting upon their internships.
“A lot of them had very funny things in their presentations this year referencing learning about golf. ‘Things that I learned: Golf balls are really hard to find,’ ” Somple said.
In addition to honing their golf games, students enjoyed opportunities to sharpen their professional skills. As part of the internship, they had seminars on prototyping, molding and lean manufacturing, as well as a session, taught by Hovish, on using LinkedIn.
Whether they wind up at Mack when they graduate, or somewhere else, the students are an important connection for Mack at a time when manufacturers are struggling to attract workers. Some might go on to become employees, while others might someday work for a customer or recommend the company to a person looking for a new job.
“What happens is, a lot of times they go back to school … they talk to their roommate or they talk to someone in their engineering class, and, through word of mouth, we get another candidate. So, it’s always a good thing, if you love your company, if you think it’s a good company, it’s always a great thing to expose as many young, impressionable, smart people to your company as you possibly can,” Somple said.
For Mack, which is currently advertising positions as varied as technicians, painters, business managers and assemblers, building up the next generation of workers is important. In its recruitment and retention efforts, the company went so far as to take all its employees to Disney World in 1995, in celebration of its 75th anniversary. Last year, it awarded $15 million in bonuses.
This year, it has been giving out $2,000 bonuses for new hires.
While he acknowledged the labor shortage is affecting manufacturers, Somple expressed optimism that the next generation is filled with great candidates, like Gallo. Their computer skills alone set them apart from where he was at the same point in his career.
“We get blown away. … We’re getting better at realizing how smart and the tools that these young people have. The first time we were doing this, someone would have a project that they would think, ‘Well, that’ll keep the kid busy for two weeks.’ And, the kid comes back on Tuesday, and the work’s been done … and perfectly,” he said.
Karen Hanna, senior staff reporter
