COLLEGE, JOB OFFERS, AND FIRST THREE YEARS AT CAT

After two years at Hutchinson junior College – we lived across the street – and five semesters at Kansas State University, living at the SAE house, I graduated in January, 1953, with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering (top 10% of class).

There was a demand for engineers. I interviewed with twelve companies and received twelve job offers. The Phillips Petroleum Co. offered after a fifteen minute interview on campus. The other offers came after visits to their main offices. Southwest Bell required two visits and made the lowest offer. Boeing, Cessna, Conoco Oil, Cities Service Oil, Black & Veatch Engineers, Saginaw Steering Gear of G.M., and others. At Saginaw I traveled with a classmate, and our interviews were about the same time. We both overslept when the hotel failed to make the wake-up call. I called the interviewer and suggested that he might not now want to see us since we had demonstrated that we were unreliable. He said come on out, then later offered us each a job.

The Navy Research Lab at China Lake, California, (as did all Federal science jobs) required passing their test. There were over 200 that took the four hour test at KSU and I heard that only two or three of us got jobs offers – mine at China Lake. It would have been interesting. At the time they were conducting tests on human ability to withstand acceleration and deceleration on rocket sleds prior to sending the first astronauts into space. I wondered if I could live so far away isolated on the desert, which I had never seen and wasn’t sure I would like.

Caterpillar was the only company that gave me written tests for IQ, aptitude, grammar and vocabulary during their plant visit. (Several years later I was told that I had received one of the highest scores ever on these tests.) In addition there were several interviews in two departments - sales and planning. Although their offer wasn’t the highest I felt they showed by the tests that they were more selective, and the sales work possibilities sounded interesting. Their proposed training sounded thorough. So I chose Cat, and after 33 years, took an “early” retirement offer at 57 though I could have stayed another ten years.

The first year at Cat was college graduate training with about 30 others. We worked four weeks in each of the major departments, Engineering, Research, Proving Ground, and on each of the major assembly lines, Engines, Graders, Small Tractors, Large Tractors. We spent one-half day at each assembly station learning that job. The regular worker would then let us do the job if we could, while he loafed or wandered off. Most jobs required more skill or short cuts or speed than we could manage alone. Some days, if the worker who had trained us was ill, we would go back to that station and try to do the job; but mostly got behind the line speed and needed some help. We also had lectures one-half day each week by officers and various trainers (experts) of the company. At the end of each assembly line I believed I could be in a room with all several thousand parts and put them together. During two weeks at the Proving Ground, demonstration, training area I learned to operate each machine. I must have developed some skill as I was requested to return several times to help train other employees visiting for some stick time.

The second year was in Sales training where we learned detailed product features and conducted sales meetings in Peoria. Once I, along with three others, was sent via car for a six-week trip to California conducting two or three one-day meetings each week for dealer salesmen. The third year was in Sales Development where we wrote specification sheets and wrote sales needs of future products.

I then was offered a field assignment in San Francisco.