1. Matt Vennekotter<br />Professor Stephanie Anderson Quinn<br />English<br />13 March 2011<br />Electrical Engineering<br />For my project I chose to interview my father Carl Vennekotter and my uncle Kevin Recker. Mr. Vennekotter is an Electrician while Mr. Recker is an Electrical Engineer. My major is Electrical Engineering so both of their majors are very closely related to mine. I interviewed my father first.<br />Mr. Vennekotter first started working at General Motors in Defiance as a person that worked the assembly lines. He then was given the opportunity by the plant to get paid the same weekly salary he had to take classes in the plant to become an Electrician. He said he would never take back his decision to gain a higher education as he now gets paid more and the work is less physical. His basic job now is to sit until called upon if there is an electrical problem anywhere in the plant. The items he uses every day include a voltage meter and a lock. He also has several other tools but those two are what he mainly uses because when he does most of the repairing the volt meter can point him straight to the problem and the lock is used on the lever that’s used to turn on the machine. This way no one can accidentally turn on the machine while he’s in it and kill him. His least favorite part about work is the inconsistency of the job. Sometimes he will have a day where he might only get one call to do something and those are the easy days while some other days he is constantly working. The place where he relaxes while waiting for a call is very nice with furniture, televisions, and computers. Inside the plant though is really loud and dirty. He always has to wear a hard hat and ear plugs.<br />General Motors has been around for a very long time. Their purpose is to build long lasting, dependable, and original vehicles. These vehicles include trucks, cars SUV’s and more. During war time they even made trucks to help with the war effort. General Motors has plants all over the world that build different parts of the vehicles. The plant in defiance specializes in building the big and heavy engine blocks. Other plants like the one in Toledo build the transmissions and other plants assemble the vehicles. They serve the entire world basically. People in China actually buy more SUV’s and trucks than America now, because their economy is so much stronger. General Motors also has several dealerships across the world where a person can bring their vehicle to get repairs. General Motors used to be completely private by building themselves from the ground up until they accepted the 40 billion dollar bail-out plan through the government. Once General Motors can pay it off they will be private again.<br />I then interviewed Kevin Recker at his house. Mr. Recker gained his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Mr. Recker works in an office all day working on something new every day. His job involves a lot of work on the computer as well. Since Ford and several other vehicle manufacturers are striving to build the most efficient cars and hybrids use electricity, electrical engineers are needed to figure out how to make that work. He has to draw up a lot of sketches and go to a lot of group work in order to figure stuff out. Although a lot of his ideas are never used in the final design he still gets paid for them. It takes a lot of engineer’s ideas and talking to be done before the best design is chosen. He has his own office where he spends a lot of time drawing ideas or building stuff on a program called AutoCad Electrical Design. He doesn’t only work on hybrid cars. Electricity is used everywhere. He has to come up with ideas for electrical designs for the machines that build the vehicles. He also contributes ideas on how to run power through the plant. Regular vehicles and not just hybrid cars use electricity as well. Most people don’t realize it but in every sophisticated car made there is a computer built in it that controls everything from the locking system, radio, G.P.S., the gas gauge, and several other things. He really likes his job as it does not involve too much physical work and he says that his job doesn’t drag on and he never complains about it all as well.<br />Ford was one of the first vehicle producing companies that began in the early 1900’s by Henry Ford. His greatest invention to most people though is the assembly line where people perform the same job over and over. His biggest accomplishment was creating an affordable vehicle so that any middle class person could own one. The first plant was built in Detroit, Michigan and now it is Global with plants spread out all over the world. They are completely private. When the United States economy took a slump they did not need any government help and after they lost a lot of money they were able to get out of the slump and start making money again. They also have several dealerships across the world that help maintain the vehicles they sell. <br />There are many comparisons between the job Mr. Vennekotter and Mr. Recker perform. Both jobs are a lot less physically demanding than most other jobs. Mr. Vennekotter’s job is not as consistent as Mr. Recker’s. I think that is why Mr. Recker likes his job more because of the consistency of it. Mr. Recker’s education took more time than Mr. Vennekotter’s which helped out Mr. Recker in the long run. Their responsibilities are very different in that Mr. Vennekotter maintains the electrical systems while Mr. Recker helps design and build the electrical systems. Mr. Recker works in more of an office kind of environment while Mr. Vennekotter is never in the same part of the plant every day. Both of their employers have the same goal in building the cheapest, most efficient, and most profitable vehicle. Their companies share a lot of the same characteristics since the products and services they provide are nearly identical. Overall I would much rather prefer being an electrical engineer. I don’t want to maintain the things that other people build, because that reminds me of cleaning. I want to be the person that designs and builds something instead. <br />