Company Day at the Kansas Technology Center

Today I went and spoke with some of the representatives present at the KTC Company Day. There were nearly 100 companies listed on the Participating Industries and Organizations print out, so as you can guess there were a great of companies to learn about. I began by walking through the hallways past the company booths getting a feel for their company and what they were looking for. I noticed the great variety of graphics displayed on their banners, pens, hand outs, and other memorabilia, but didn't see one QR code!! I was actually surprised by this following the conversation that Mrs. Benson just had with us about them being all over at the Chicago Company day she had attended. I didn't even see any vinal prints on the floors or walls!! Not even in the GIT hallways!

ALLEN PRESS After moving past this shock I stopped to speak with Dean Mills, Plant Operations Director of Allen Press in Lawrence, Kansas.He said that his comany has contracts with people all over the U.S. and even some clients outside of the U.S. They focus on a large variety of print services and some online visual publishing as well. After graduation I will be moving to the Orange County California area so I asked him if they had any associates who worked remotely from home, He said Yes!! They call it telecommuting he joked. Their only plant is in Lawrence so they do a few "telecommuters", but he said they would consider hiring more.

CONSOLIDATED GRAPHICS

I moved down the GIT hall and recognized two girls who had attended PSU in the recent past. They were both representing Consolidated Graphics and work at the Wichita, Kansas plant. They proceded to tell me about their company and the 3 year Leadership Development Program they have you go through to throughly understand what their company does, inside and out.One girl said, to her it's like getting your masters in print AND getting paid for it! During those 3 years you can be trained to fill a position of someone higher up who may be leaving or changing posisitons. They said their company hires people who have studied a wide variety of subjects, some have never even discuss CMYK!  This about made me have to literally pick my chin up off the floor, but also lead me to believe, this company has a way they like to do things and they will take the time to fully train their employees to complete their duties correctly. The information handouts this company seemed very intuitive and inviting. I also asked about the Orange County location in connection with this company and the girls said they have plants all over the U.S. and were able to provide me with a map displaying these locations.

KIEWIT

I stepped out of the box and went to the construction management section of the KTC and deciede to speak with one of the Kiewit representatives. He wasn't very informative about their needs in their graphic department, but he did say they do have a department such as that, but today he was here to recruit construction management interviewees. So I looked over their display and decided I would have to learn more about their career posisitons through their website.

SOUTHWIRE

This company makes electrical wire. Not the type of company I would've even thought about applying to before Mrs. Benson made a valuable point in our Digital File Prep class, that "every company has someone design their graphics and print them." I have also applied this theory with my skills in communication and advertising, "every company has to have clients and get their product out there to consumers." So I stopped and talked with Kayan Nash from Human Resources about the company and found a connnection with them through the electric wires. My Dad worked as an electrician while I was growing up, so I have been around and helping him with wiring jobs for as long as I can remember. This company said they do have plant in California, but it is about to be shut down, so for me, I don't think this company would work for time being, but one like it migh be right up my alley.

OVERVIEW 

All in all company day was a great experience to see the people behind these well known and even not so well known companies. It gave me an oppourtunity to tear down those hipathetical walls separating interviewees and interviewers and get to know the persona. I also too home a list of companies who were present at KTC Company Day and a the day before a list of companies at Career Day at the OSC on main campus. I plan on doing research about these companies and finding a few for which I will target when the Spring Career days come around.

*Images placed in this file represent companies for which I visited with at KTC Company Day. The logos belong to the companies and are used here for association purposes only.