My Journey Through Advanced Manufacturing Training
My family has been attending the LOSS (Loving Outreach to Survivors of Suicide) fundraiser brunch through Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago every year since 2000, the year after we lost my brother. This event has become a significant part of our healing journey, connecting us with a community that understands our grief and offers support. At this year’s event in late April, friends of the family, who also attend yearly, learned about my layoff from a VP position in October 2023. During our conversation, they asked if I had ever heard of BuildSubmarines.com. I hadn’t.
They recommended that I check out the site, explaining that the US Navy collaborates with numerous businesses to build and rebuild submarines for the nation’s defense. Intrigued, I created an account that evening at BuildSubmarines.com and requested information on becoming part of this historic program. The website highlighted a unique opportunity to do purposeful work and mentioned they sought people with various skill sets, including human resources, project management, quality assurance, organizational development, and other areas aligning with my background.
Soon after, the Technology and Manufacturing Association of Illinois (TMA) contacted me and offered me training in their Advanced Manufacturing Bootcamp. After taking and passing the entrance exam with a score exceeding 90%, I embarked on this new journey. Strangely, I discovered that my grandfather, Cosmo Cruz, at the age of 48, left his job of several decades to become a machinist. I guess it runs in the family.
I became part of the third cohort for TMA. Over the course of four weeks, eight of us engaged in 96 hours of training, learning the tools and techniques to set up and operate a CNC lathe and a CNC mill. The course also covered metrology, inspection, tolerances, mathematics, and the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) needed to work for a CNC manufacturing company participating in the Build Submarines program according to the US Navy’s specifications.
This training provided a transformative experience. As the oldest participant at 48 years old, surrounded by some peers fresh out of high school and others with some experience, I embraced the opportunity to learn these new KSAs. These newfound skills with my background—27 years of management experience, an MS in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Purdue, an MBA, a certification in Organizational Development and Change Leadership from the Drucker School of Management, a SHRM-CP, and a certification in talent optimization from The Predictive Index, plus training in Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and project management—provides a strong foundation to help manufacturing companies in Illinois meet or exceed production requirements for our nation’s submarine fleet.
I am grateful for the chance to learn and grow from seasoned CNC machining veterans among these young students and to become an alumnus of TMA. This journey has reignited my passion for purposeful work and has shown me that it’s never too late to embrace new challenges and make a meaningful impact.
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