Technical Sales Representative

Midwest
US Army, O-3

Orion immediately opened up a large number of options me for future employment. There is no way I would have found my current job without Orion. Todd Phillips was my recruiter, and he was very easy to get a hold of. He helped me understand everything that was going on.

I was an Army Captain in the Field Artillery. And I think my Army career of over seven years prepared me for my civilian job in that I was constantly learning new jobs every 18-24 months in the Army. The well-rounded career of an officer gave me confidence that I can learn any job given the opportunity and good support. My new job provides both of those.

I am in sales at a small custom machine shop called Metalex. We produce custom-engineered parts for all sorts of applications - rocket engines, large turbos and impellers for heavy machinery, aircraft parts, one-off pieces for experiments at national labs, and even parts for machines that produce diapers. All of these parts must hold extremely tight tolerances, and in some cases have to be accurate to less than .001 inch.

As an artillery officer, I had to understand the importance of accurately computing complex data in order to achieve accurate predicted fire. In a custom machine shop, the scale is tiny, but the accuracy is just as important. It's easy to understand that mistakes are very costly, whether it's artillery or a machine shop.

My hiring process was surprisingly smooth, and I am extremely pleased with my new job. I honestly think I'll work here until retirement. I really didn't think I would say that in my first job out of the Army.