“We must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it—but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.” Attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes, onetime associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the quote is Phoenix Mecano CEO Philip Brown’s favorite. It also came up in conversation with Pedro Leon, when Brown was interviewing him for the job of applications engineer, one that clearly resonated with him.
Leon: “It’s a saying that can’t help but inspire: Sometimes things are going to go your way and sometimes they’re not, but you keep on working and doing what you’re doing. You might get stuck, but you push through and keep moving forward, no matter what.”
It’s a good quote to latch onto for anyone who works at Phoenix Mecano, and not just because the CEO likes it. The company lives or dies on its ability to solve complex engineering problems in a wide range of industries, which brings us to another recent hire: Zachary Marshall, three months into his job as an automation design engineer.
Marshall: “Automation is so important right now. I wanted to be a part of this movement, this transformation of industry and society. And with Phoenix Macano’s global footprint, I knew I’d have the opportunity to do just that, to have an impact, at a very large scale.”
Leon and Marshall both work out of Phoenix Mecano’s Chino, California facility. Both have been with the company for just over three months. Leon earned his Bachelor of Arts in Social Science from the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Because he completed all of his required credits ahead of schedule, he decided to take some engineering classes, and that’s when he figured out just how much he loved the field. Leon: “I had completed my social science studies, and decided to take some engineering classes, really just out of curiosity. As it turned out, I really enjoyed those courses. Engineering was simply more interesting to me than social science. I earned my associate’s degree in engineering after leaving UCI, and I’m currently enrolled in a mechanical engineering master’s program.”
Marshall earned his engineering bona fides at the University of California, Riverside, graduating with an undergraduate and graduate degree in mechanical engineering. “For both of my degrees, my emphasis was in engineering analysis,” says Marshall. “I also got to do some interesting extracurricular activities at UC, Riverside, including work on a solar car project and biomedical microdevices. It was a great way to put theory into practice.”
Certainly, both Leon and Marshall are putting theory into practice at Phoenix Mecano. As an applications engineer, Leon’s job is making sure that customers get the support they need with any Phoenix Mecano application. “Our customers call us with very specific questions about our product line, which is extensive,” says Leon. “It’s my job to track down answers for them, which often involves reaching out to different departments within the organization. I work particularly closely with logistics and production.”
As an automation design engineer, Marshall is one of those people Leon interacts with on a regular basis, trying to track down the right answers to challenging customer questions. Marshall: “I largely deal with the RK Rose+Krieger branch of Phoenix Mecano. Typically, a customer gets in touch about one of our applications. It goes through the applications engineer first, like my friend Pedro, and if any more detailed design work is required, that’s where I come in: determining what we have in our product catalog that could help the customer or, barring that, using our CNC capabilities to produce a custom solution.”
Each in their own ways, then, Leon and Marshall are problem solvers, working for a company that specializes in problem solving. It certainly sounds like they’ve both landed in the right place. And aside from the work itself, both are happy with the company culture, something people looking for a job don’t always think about, though they should. Again, Marshall: “Everyone has been immensely friendly and very approachable. If I ever have any questions or need assistance, people are always eager to give me exactly what I need. Phoenix Mecano is also a highly collaborative culture. I really like that.”
