By: Shelby Jones

Flora High School hosted an Industrial Job Fair on Tuesday, April 21. The school presented the students with companies from the Flora Industrial Park such as HELLA, NAL, Sherwin Williams, Silgan, GSI, Southwire, as well as Unique Personnel and Soft Skills for the workplace.

Each presenter talked about their work experience while working with the company, the average starting wage, and the history of the company, among other things.

While presenting their companies to the juniors and seniors, the industrial speakers had the students participate by answering questions and winning prizes.

Jeff Hertenstein, who has worked for HELLA for 20 years talked about their 70 locations worldwide. HELLA was started back in the 1978; they have many positions requiring a high school diploma along with higher ranking jobs requiring a Bachelor’s degree.

Jonita Mitchel, the Human Resource director, and JC Noll from NAL spoke about the three states in which they are present and their start up in June of 1983. NAL produces automotive lighting for many dealerships. Positions such as Operators and Technicians require a high school diploma and a Production Engineer requires a Bachelor’s Degree.

Former Flora Superintendent Linda Spicer spoke of the soft skills required to have a perfect interview and how to leave a good impression. She advised the students to dress appropriately, speak clearly and to proofread all your resumes and applications, along with speaking highly of work experience. She spoke about how social media can be your friend and your enemy depending on the things posted by you or by others.

Angie Freeman from the Flora facility and Mary Jane Munoz from the Houston facility talked about how Silgan was formed in 1975. They have many facilities including the 25 plastics facilities. They spoke of how employee attendance is important because one job affects all jobs.

Mandy Hargis from Unique Personnel talked about their 33 clients, 18 open offices and how they help people apply and find jobs that fit their abilities. She talked about their environment is an associate friendly environment.

Dion McCraw from Southwire has worked for this company for twenty-six years and informed the students that this company has been around since 1937 started by Roy Richards. They have many different divisions which include Energy, Electric, OEM, Industrial, Tools & Assembled, Engineered Products and International. Their home location is in Carrollton, Georgia. Flora is a Energy division, which produces the wires for power lines, this plant was opened in 1974.

GSI has been open for 42 years. In 2002 a plant was opened in Flora. Raley Ochs spoke about their summer jobs for students from May to August. She also talked about how they produce grain bends. They produce products like Mod dryers, Portable dryers and Tower dryers. The starting wage for a temp is $10 and a full time employee goes up depending on rank.

Janine Krokey came to speak about Sherwin Williams, which next year will be celebrating their 150th anniversary. She talked about how they employ about 36,000 employees and how Flora produces products like stains and waxes. Their major sales are contract works. Sherwin Williams is the official paint for NASCAR. Their temp wages are $12.50. Full time employees go up to $16-17 per hour, they have a three to six retirement per year. She also talked about how many employers have gone to online applications and how their website shows open positions.

According to Guidance Administrator Kellie Massie the industrial speakers emailed her that our students were very willing to participate and willing to learn about the companies and what they have to offer. They also complimented the students on their assertiveness and behavior.

The Guidance Administrator Kellie Massie reported that the students responded positively on surveys at the end of the day, and were happy to have their views of the industries broadened.