Speaker 1: This is on the Job. This season, we're speaking with
Speaker 1: folks who are finding their professional stride in a tumultuous
Speaker 1: job market and learning how to double down on their
Speaker 1: skills and their experience to overcome challenges. We'll bring you
Speaker 1: inspiring stories of people making themselves essential, an important skill
Speaker 1: set in any economy. Well, millions of jobs have been
Speaker 1: put on hold in the wake of COVID nineteen, many
Speaker 1: jobs in the energy sector ever made. All over the planet.
Speaker 1: There are people on the ground who continue to work
Speaker 1: day in and day out to make sure that the
Speaker 1: world keeps running. I spoke to one of those workers
Speaker 1: in Vermont, where wind turbans line the mountain sides and
Speaker 1: power homes all across the state. Okay, opening video from
Speaker 1: a go pro are We're in a machine room growing
Speaker 1: up the ladder. Usually when I've interviewed people about their work,
Speaker 1: I get to go onside and talk to them in
Speaker 1: their environment. But since the pandemic was in full swing,
Speaker 1: I got to see this environment through a GoPro video.
Speaker 1: H Oh wow. Okay, we are on top of the
Speaker 1: turban hooking in a harness. I will say I am
Speaker 1: pretty happy to not be recording on top of a
Speaker 1: wind turban that is literally above the clouds in this video,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, my stomach just got queasy. He's looking
Speaker 1: down the turban and the clouds are passing under beneath.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. I feel like for people who haven't
Speaker 1: like walked up to a turban, you don't realize how
Speaker 1: big they are. That's that's the first thing you get
Speaker 1: from everybody, the first thing since like, oh my yeah,
Speaker 1: they they don't look that big from the highway. It's like, well,
Speaker 1: the highway is a few miles away. This is Jim
Speaker 1: Jim Slicer, site manager for the Chefs and wind Farming
Speaker 1: and Shade from the up. In case you're unfamiliar, the
Speaker 1: wind turbans gym overseas are the tall white turbans you
Speaker 1: might have seen along a coastline or in a valley.
Speaker 1: Gym overseas sixteen turbans in the rural town of Sheffield, Vermont,
Speaker 1: not far from the Canadian border. How tall are the
Speaker 1: turbans that you work on? So the tower height is
Speaker 1: an eighty tower, so about two seventy and then when
Speaker 1: you know blade it's pointing straight up. Take for that
Speaker 1: blades about four wow. And in order to do maintenance.
Speaker 1: You're going right up to the top. Oh you can
Speaker 1: see the other turbans. Wow, they're just poking above the clouds.
Speaker 1: It's just clouds. And then there's big white turbans spinning
Speaker 1: in the distance. They're really majestic. They are. I think
Speaker 1: they're beautiful. I mean allow people to say, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's ruined the view of the monst Us landscape.
Speaker 1: And I get more people to come up here and say,
Speaker 1: I just think they're beautiful looking up at them, I
Speaker 1: think they're great. That is absolutely crazy. You know, here
Speaker 1: we have sixteen Germans. We make forty megawatts, which is
Speaker 1: enough for fourteen to sixteen thousand homes, pretty much generating
Speaker 1: enough power of the entire Northeast Kingdom of you know
Speaker 1: some basically just a few wakers of land that have
Speaker 1: been used. The way a wind turban works is pretty simple.
Speaker 1: The wind blows, the three rotor blades spin and that
Speaker 1: gets converted into electricity. Oh yeah, and like at ten
Speaker 1: mile on our wind and these things will make a
Speaker 1: power and my winds they're max Producing clean renewable energy
Speaker 1: has definitely been politicized over the years. There are plenty
Speaker 1: of people who say that moving towards green energy like
Speaker 1: wind and solar is taking away jobs from work in
Speaker 1: fossil fuels. But in reality, it's just opening up a
Speaker 1: whole new workforce. It's one of the fastest growing careers
Speaker 1: out there, and a great thing for it is it's
Speaker 1: it's it's a blue collar job. Person doesn't have to
Speaker 1: have a college degree. You have mechanical electrical knowledge or
Speaker 1: kron raining like that, you can get your foot in
Speaker 1: the door and perform this job. I asked him what
Speaker 1: a standard work day looks for him, but he says
Speaker 1: that that's not really a thing for this job. And
Speaker 1: that's one of the things I like about this job.
Speaker 1: It's never the same job every day. You're not going
Speaker 1: in bunched the car and doing the exact same thing.
Speaker 1: Jim has a team of three people, and besides maintenance
Speaker 1: on anything the sixteen individual turbans need, their tasks change
Speaker 1: fundamentally based on Vermont's intent seasons. All this to say
Speaker 1: that when you're working a job that depends on the weather,
Speaker 1: it really keeps you on your toes. Standard isn't really
Speaker 1: a word. Jim grew up in Crastbury, Vermont. He was
Speaker 1: an outdoorsy kid had a very similar upbringing to my
Speaker 1: own in Vermont, fishing, riding bikes all summer with friends.
Speaker 1: He played a lot of sports. He later ended up
Speaker 1: joining the military and went into the Air Force, doing
Speaker 1: flight testing, developing and testing our nation's bombers and their weapons. Ah,
Speaker 1: that's why I'll do you have a favorite plane? I
Speaker 1: guess I still to say my my love is to
Speaker 1: be one bomber. I spent a lot of time that one,
Speaker 1: and it's quite a magnificent least. After the military, he
Speaker 1: worked for different contractors. He did radar operation and testing
Speaker 1: for special ops aircraft, and then he did a stint
Speaker 1: at boeling in California. He was living in Hatchby where
Speaker 1: there are thousands of wind turbans, and it really piqued
Speaker 1: his interest. Definitely. I'm a hundred percent of leaver of
Speaker 1: renewable energy. You know, we need to get away from
Speaker 1: fossil fuels, not just you know, wind turbans, but solar, hydro,
Speaker 1: all those things. I think it's it's a it's a
Speaker 1: really neat thing. And then you know, to work three
Speaker 1: ft off the ground and generate this power that just
Speaker 1: from the wind. Still he kept working on planes. He
Speaker 1: and his wife eventually moved back to Vermont, where he
Speaker 1: was working at the Burlington Airport as a technician. But
Speaker 1: three years in he saw that a wind farm was
Speaker 1: being built in nearby Sheffield and was looking for a
Speaker 1: good text. So after twenty five years of working in aviation,
Speaker 1: he decided to wear his options. It was pretty comparable
Speaker 1: and help from that scarre to hide and hadn't been before.
Speaker 1: So I guess I'll find out when I started doing this.
Speaker 1: So I mean the Jim and forty two years of
Speaker 1: age more in Jim Story after the Break. A strong
Speaker 1: work ethic takes pride in a job well done, sweats
Speaker 1: over the details. This is the kind of person you need.
Speaker 1: Express Employment professionals can help. Finding the best people requires
Speaker 1: more than sorting through applications. You need to conduct a
Speaker 1: thorough surge. Express understands what it takes to hire the
Speaker 1: right person. It takes real people, real interviews, discovering the
Speaker 1: talents you need. We find good people matching their skills
Speaker 1: with the right jobs. At Express, we find people for
Speaker 1: jobs and companies of all sizes and industries, from the
Speaker 1: production floor to the front office. Sometimes finding the best
Speaker 1: new employee really is about who you know. Express Nose Jobs.
Speaker 1: Get to know Express go to Express pros dot com
Speaker 1: to find a location near you. Jim became site manager
Speaker 1: for the Sheffield Wind Farm in two thousand fourteen. He
Speaker 1: loves showing off the site, giving tours to schools and tourists.
Speaker 1: He especially likes explaining everything the farm offers to people
Speaker 1: critical of green energy, or people who might think that
Speaker 1: the turbans detract from the landscape. The majority of the
Speaker 1: people that you take up there are usually fifty fifty
Speaker 1: on the fence. They're not really sure do I like
Speaker 1: these or do I not like these? You know, probably
Speaker 1: the pile like best is when you see that white
Speaker 1: bulb founding click on. They're like, uh, I get it. Yes,
Speaker 1: these make a lot of sense. I really like these.
Speaker 1: In rural communities like this, all over the country, wind
Speaker 1: energy has been insanely beneficial over the last few decades.
Speaker 1: Jim and I both grew in communities like Sheffield, where
Speaker 1: a lot of multi generational farms are doing everything they
Speaker 1: can to hold on in a rapidly developing world. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of hesitation to give up and sell land
Speaker 1: to developers in places like this because a lot of times,
Speaker 1: that means giving up cultural values and making way for
Speaker 1: newcomers who don't really care about the area. Wind turbans
Speaker 1: haven't popping up all over these rural communities and allowing
Speaker 1: for economical development without all the unwanted change that usually
Speaker 1: comes with it. Farmers who have ample land can invest
Speaker 1: in a wind turban that won't interfere with their crops
Speaker 1: and will be a consistent source of income that they
Speaker 1: can use or sell. Some farmers can even make up
Speaker 1: to fifteen thousand to twenty dollars a year off of
Speaker 1: one turban, precious capital that they wouldn't otherwise have. Schools
Speaker 1: have huge tax incentives to host wind turbans, allowing them
Speaker 1: to upgrade facilities and get kids the resources that they need.
Speaker 1: And in rural communities like this, where those are specifically
Speaker 1: the problems that hit the artist, wind energy is often
Speaker 1: a perfect solution that will keep on giving as long
Speaker 1: as the wind keeps blowing. As towns like Sheffield get
Speaker 1: on board with wind energy all over the US, the
Speaker 1: growth of this industry continues to be a major job creator.
Speaker 1: Right now, over a hundred twenty thousand workers now have
Speaker 1: wind powered careers and With more turbans being built, that
Speaker 1: means more factory work to build them. All. This rapid
Speaker 1: development has made the occupation of wind turbine technician one
Speaker 1: of the two fastest growing jobs in the entire US,
Speaker 1: along with solar installer. On top of that, America's veterans
Speaker 1: play an important role in creating this highly skilled workforce.
Speaker 1: The U s Wind industry employees veterans at a rate
Speaker 1: sixty one above the national average, providing good opportunities for
Speaker 1: men and women who serve our country when they leave
Speaker 1: active duty. All this to say, wind energy has proven
Speaker 1: a stable source of prosperity in place that tend to
Speaker 1: get left behind as the world moves forward. As one
Speaker 1: farming couple and wash Shington State said about their turbans,
Speaker 1: as long as they're turning, we're earning for Jim. The
Speaker 1: wind farm in Sheffield not only accomplishes all of this,
Speaker 1: but it also creates a sort of modern ecosystem between
Speaker 1: locals and wildlife. The entire property is a protected bear habitat,
Speaker 1: so we have wildlife up here. We have bearings, we
Speaker 1: have moose, we have deer, we have everything up here.
Speaker 1: And you know, if it's like a Park. The town
Speaker 1: also gets paid a lot of money each year to
Speaker 1: host the wind farm. That money goes a long way
Speaker 1: and getting resources the town really needs, like equipment for
Speaker 1: fixing roads and power lines. These sixteen wind turbans do
Speaker 1: all this while cooperating with the natural landscape that is
Speaker 1: long defined the culture here. Now I'm proud of what
Speaker 1: we do. It's a good feeling for us. Rowington Vermont
Speaker 1: is a renewable to the city and the power we
Speaker 1: produce here, and they actually purchase power from us, so
Speaker 1: we're part of that renewable portfolio that they have to
Speaker 1: have the bragging rights to have their city renewable. Not
Speaker 1: only did Burlington Vermont reach its goal of being a
Speaker 1: renewable in two thousand fourteen, it was the first city
Speaker 1: in the entire United States to do so. Jim gets
Speaker 1: to be a part of that. And talking to Jim,
Speaker 1: that's the feeling you get that not only does he
Speaker 1: get to do a job that pays well, a job
Speaker 1: that he's great at, but it's also a job that
Speaker 1: sincerely contributes to a more sustainable future. Do you like
Speaker 1: your job? I love it, Yeah, I really do. It's
Speaker 1: different every day and now there's some days you're like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, it's four o'clock already. I guess we're
Speaker 1: going home. You know, how do you feel when you're
Speaker 1: on top of a turban at one time a year,
Speaker 1: uh January, when it's twenty below and the winds blowing.
Speaker 1: I think it's the worst damn place in the world.
Speaker 1: I don't want to be there. But now you take
Speaker 1: a nice summer that's like se degrees and a live
Speaker 1: breeze and you can go sit up on top of
Speaker 1: the cell and to have your lunch and have the
Speaker 1: most gorgeous view. It's like you're on top of the world.
Speaker 1: It really is. For On the Job, I'm Otis Gray.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to On the Job, brought to you
Speaker 1: by Express Employment Professionals. This season of On the Job
Speaker 1: is produced by Audiation and Red Seat Ventures. The episodes
Speaker 1: are written and produced by me Otis Gray. Our executive
Speaker 1: producer is Sandy Smallens. The show was mixed by Matt
Speaker 1: Noble for Audiation Studios at the Loft in Bronxville, New York.
Speaker 1: Music by Blue Dot Sessions. Find us on I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Apple Podcasts. If you liked what you heard,
Speaker 1: please consider rating and reviewing the show on Apple Podcasts
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen. We'll see you next time for
Speaker 1: more inspiring stories about making yourself essential as you discover
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