Anyone who follows Kaser Blasting & Coatings on social media knows that I’ve had two mantras on repeat this year: 1. The Kaser powder shop is ALWAYS hiring; and 2. No experience required.
So what can a new powder shop employee expect if they have no previous industry experience?
You’ll start by hanging and packaging parts.
Klein is Kaser’s Powder Coating Floor Supervisor, and Chauncey is Kaser’s Powder Coating Shop Manager. One or both of them will show you the ropes. You’ll likely be stationed near the packaging supplies, and shown how to wrap parts with foam, stack them safely, and secure them with steel banding or shrink wrap.
These tasks may not seem particularly difficult or glamorous, but they are extremely important. Proper packaging is the only thing standing between fresh powder coating and every bump, scrape, and pothole on the road home.
At this stage in an employee’s career, I’m looking for attention to detail, reliable attendance, and ability to follow directions. You’ll also need stamina. Everyone who works in the powder shop is on their feet all day long, and steel parts are heavy. You’ll engage in some repetitive motion, but we handle a broad variety of jobs, so each day will be a little different than the one before.
Safety training will be ongoing.
Kaser’s weekly safety meetings happen on Wednesday mornings. We tackle a new topic every time. This is a good opportunity for you to learn and implement good safety habits, and to get to know your coworkers. We’re a small, close-knit team, and everyone is highly motivated and collaborative. It’s one of the best parts of working at Kaser.
You’ll have three reviews.
Full time employees will meet with me three times in their first year: at two months, six months, and one year. We’ll talk about what’s going well, and how to improve. If you’ve shown reliability and attention to detail, we’ll talk about what tasks you want to tackle next.
My goal as a manager is to play to my employees’ strengths. I want nothing more than to launch you in the direction you want to go. Whether that’s pretreatment, powder coating, blasting, you name it – if you’ve shown me you’re up to the task, I will do everything I can to help you get where you’re going.