Plenty of Roles for Math and Science Students at Jeffords Steel
There has never been a better time than today’s job market to have math and science skills. Whether you’re graduating from high school, junior college, college, or graduate school, opportunities abound for career employment. Our nation’s desperate need for a rebuilt infrastructure and the current economic growth means the building trades will thrive for generations. Jeffords Steel provides a prime example of just how good the future is for those who like to apply math and science to concrete challenges. The Plattsburgh-based company is currently hiring workers with a wide range of talents, from structural engineers to fabrication shop employees.
Founder Larry Jeffords has always loved math. He combined his academic passion with business acumen to create a company that provides comprehensive building services, including design, fabrication, and installation of structural and ornamental steel for major projects throughout the Northeast. Jeffords Steel’s prosperity is due to its employees, who put their math and skills to work every day.
“We are always interested in hiring people who truly love math,” says Larry. “When you build things like we do, everything you do requires math skills, whether you are reading a tape rule or calculating geometry.”
Chief draftsman Albert Clark is a prime example of how applied onsite mathematics differs greatly from textbooks and lab experiments. The draftsman, who admits that as a young student he was terrified by math and science, discovered his love of calculations and physics once he could apply them to projects.
“I took [classes in] structural theory, structural steel and concrete design, trigonometry, et cetera,” explains Clark. “Though it was physics that really got me excited about pursuing a career toward engineering. Now I look at myself, X amount of years later and I’m doing math and science every day.”
Jeffords Steel projects are diverse and far-ranging, such as its work within the new Madill Hall Information Technology building at St. Lawrence University and the Cancer Unit at Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown, New York. From the New England Center for Circus Arts in Brattleboro, Vermont, to the Plattsburgh Airport expansion, Jeffords Steel’s design and engineering teams create steel fabrications that are unique to every project. The challenges and subsequent work are never stagnant.
But it isn’t just the design studio where Jeffords Steel employees apply the latest techniques in steel fabrication. Bruce Stallings, a machine operator, says there are multiple job opportunities for those with applied math, technology, and science skills within the company: “I can drive around town or to another state and look at buildings and say, ‘I helped build that…I was part of that project.’ There’s nothing more rewarding than that.”
Founders Larry and Judy Jeffords certainly understand the potential for someone with math and science skills at their 33-year-old company. Their enterprise began in just a 30×30 rental space. Today, the company occupies 68,000 square feet of space and employs more than 120 workers in its Plattsburgh and Potsdam locations. The company continues to expand to meet its original goal “to be the uncontested leader in the steel fabrication industry.”
“We are passionate about helping students become potential employees,” says Larry. “The country has a lot of problems with infrastructure, and math and science students will find careers for years to come, really, a great living for the rest of their lives.”
The expanding company features positions in a wide array of departments, including designing/building, drafting, fabrication, machining, and an over-the-counter service center. The design team completes all structural design components utilizing state-of-the-art software. The draftsmen also employ advanced SDS/2 software. Like all elements of design, the drafting is created in-house.
It isn’t just the software that is industry standard; the fabrication department engages contemporary technology and machinery to manufacture the highest-quality products in the industry. For example, machinists utilize critical equipment capable of being machined within one-thousandths of an inch for extreme precision. Jeffords Steel stores more than $1 million in steel inventory to ensure that its employees have every resource they need to accomplish any goal.
Jeffords Steel currently seeks talented graduates in math and the sciences to fill positions in all departments, from the design studio to the fabrication shop and from engineering to installation. Visit the company’s website to learn how “Math + Science = Success” at Jeffords Steel.