(WACO, Texas) – Employees from Alvarado-based Magna Mechanical visited Texas State Technical College’s Welding Technology program Thursday, April 6, to talk to students.
Magna Mechanical provides industrial and commercial services to industries including beverage and food, oil and gas, manufacturing, paints and polymers, and semiconductor in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The company has divisions for industrial maintenance, fabrication, mechanical and plumbing.
The company has employees who handle engineering, computer-aided design, and project management. There also are computer numerical control (CNC) operators, fitters, painters and welders.
“You are going to do and see a lot,” said Dakota Miller, who oversees special projects at the company and is a graduate of TSTC’s Welding Technology program. “It is up to you how far you go with it.”
Tanner Child, Magna Mechanical’s director of manufacturing, said applicants for employment at the company need to know how to read blueprints. TSTC’s Welding Technology program requires students to take Introduction to Blueprint Reading for Welders during the first semester.
Applicants who test with the company may start out as helpers so they can improve their welding skills to progress to higher-level jobs. Some of the welding that the company does includes flux-cored arc welding and shielded metal arc welding. TSTC’s Welding Technology program teaches students to perform these and other kinds of welds.
“They (some prospective employees) may have a good attitude or work ethic, but they are not ready to weld for us yet,” Child said. “(They) can become a helper.”
Child said some of the company’s top welders began as helpers and put in the effort and stayed late after work to get better.
“You can get good at fitting and fabrication and welding, and that is going to be the most valuable payoff,” Child said.
Some of the questions that students had included those about benefits, fuel stipends and paid time off.
Antwaun Smoots, of Dallas, is pursuing a certificate of completion in the Welding Technology program. He is scheduled to graduate in May but plans to continue with his welding studies.
Smoots said he liked hearing about the company’s job security for employees.
“It is just a really great opportunity, and it is nice of them to come out here,” he said.
The company has visited TSTC in the past.
“We try to come back where we know we will get good people,” Miller said.
For more information on Magna Mechanical, go to magnamechanical.net.
For more information on TSTC, go to tstc.edu.
