Alumni Success Story: Local Employers Anticipating MCC Graduates
From left, Matthew Flores, Sean Lamb and
Chris D’Amore are recent MCC grads who were
recruited by and accepted offers from
QuEST Global Services in East Hartford.
This is the time of year when recent Manchester Community College graduates’ job searches are in full swing, and their advanced job-readiness skills are making local employers take notice.
“We find that a lot of the students that come out of MCC are able to transition easily into the type of work that we do,” noted Marjorie Bausmith who, as senior recruiter at East Hartford-based QuEST Global Services – a major player in the aeronautics engineering field – is just one example of employers who have had good fortune in hiring MCC graduates.
Bausmith oversees college recruiting and within the last year was instrumental in recruiting three MCC alumni — Sean Lamb, of Amston, Conn.; Matthew Flores, of Manchester; and Chris D’Amore, of East Hartford. All three are 2013 products of MCC’s engineering program and are thriving there. Lamb, Flores and D’Amore have skills that fit QuEST’s criteria and integrated into the company immediately.
QuEST’s largest North America customer is Hartford-based United Technologies Corp., and it also serves other major engineering companies, too, including Rolls Royce, General Electric and the Danaher Corporation.
Lamb felt the school prepared him well for his position there. He works with suppliers on parts that don’t meet the quality standards and figures out the best solution – whether to scrap or repair the part. “There is definitely a lot to learn but coming out of MCC, you get a real good background on technical stuff,” he said.
Bausmith added: “We do anything from engineering design changes, configuration management hardware tracking, database building. So we look for the mechanical engineering, electrical, computer engineering – the CIS program has matched up really well and the general engineering program really works too. There is a variety for people that are either just finishing up with school, who are trying to get a sense of what they want to focus on. It’s a great opportunity for the students to really get a better understanding of different mechanical types of positions.”
Meanwhile, Flores cites classes taught by Professor Mehrdad Faezi, “even if engineering isn’t for you, he can lead you in the right direction,” and Professor Steven Moore, who was influential on the programing side. Like his former classmates, Flores found QuEST at the MCC Job Fair last year, which Bausmith considers one of her best resources to connect with students.
“Every time we have done that we have walked away with several people getting hired,” Bausmith said. “As far as mechanical programs are concerned, MCC matches the best also the proximity is good.”
The MCC Job Fair is considered the best attended job fair in the area.
“We get a really high return rate from the employers that come back year after year because they recognize that it’s a great recruitment event,” according to Carl Ochnio, director of MCC career services. “It’s the region’s longest running job fair and a very cost effective way for employer’s to meet qualified candidates. We have a great facility and the college has a great reputation for hosting an exceptional event.”
D’Amore was a journeyman sprinkler fitter for ten years and had taken core classes at Dutchess Community College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. before enrolling in the engineering program at MCC.
“I saw that there was a niche for aerospace engineering in Connecticut with so many different contractors around,” he said. “Even as they are cutting back, they still need a lot of skilled engineers and I focused on that.”
D’Amore balances his fulltime job at QuEST with raising six children. He is saving to go back to school for a bachelor’s degree. The coursework at MCC reassured D’Amore that he was capable of working in the field, particularly classes taught by Professor Peter Poulos, who “encouraged (students) to learn on our own and figure out our path,” D’Amore said. “He wasn’t as hands-on in telling us exactly how to do things, but more hands off and giving us the principle of what to follow and having us learn by trial and error, figure things out on our and work as a team.”
The word team comes up often at QuEST Global and Lamb, Flores and D’Amore are all very much part of theirs. “We find that the type of work we do is of interest to the MCC students,” Bausmith said. “It relates to a lot of the classes and all three have done well. They all came in at the bottom level and have all been shifted around to a couple of different teams because they have proven themselves. It’s really great to see that success.”
