First day of work at Nissan!

I made it through my first day of work!!

It was one of the hardest things I've had to do in my entire life, I was so nervous. It was just a culmination of things: being so far from home, knowing my parents were leaving the next day, working in a factory setting for the first time, and knowing that this internship has no room for slacking off. The automotive industry is pretty cutthroat.

But, I made it through a 9-hour day that started at 7:30 AM. The current schedule is that I work Monday through Thursday 9 hours, so that on Fridays I only have a 4-hour day, to reach my 40-hour workweek. This means I am free to start my weekend by 11:30 AM on Fridays. Yay!

My day started with trying to figure out how to get through the security gates to just get to the parking lot. I managed to park the Beetle and get to the security office, where I checked in and had my employee badge made on the spot. :) The only thing is, they spelled my name incorrectly on the badge....only one 'l' in my last name, what a bummer. :(

I'll have to go back and get it fixed/get a new ID made later this week, since you never know if spelling one thing wrong leads to this avalanche of everyone thinking the wrong spelling is actually the correct spelling. Oddly enough, there were two guys that started today with me, and one of them had a name misspelling with his badge, too. Again, with the letter 'l'...only, he had too many ls, so it's too bad he couldn't spare me one.

All the dorky talk about letters set aside, I then had a 2 1/2 hour orientation about workshop safety and how to fill out all the payroll forms. I actually was mailed all of these forms back in Green Bay, and had them completed before I even moved down to Mississippi - so this proved to be a bit of a bore. :)

Then, at 10 AM, I was released from orientation for my engineering supervisor to come and get me. He is amazing. I really like this guy, very approachable. I can already tell that I will be able to stretch out and soak up automotive tricks to the point of saturation, just through working for him.

His name is Erik and he is quite young, I wouldn't put him past the age of 35. His wife is pregnant with their first child, due next month. He is currently going to school for his MBA, night classes. By day, he is the section manager for the Nissan Lab II Test Engineers, of which I am now a part of. :)

He went to "THE" Ohio State for college, and as such was quick to ask which one of the UW schools I am attending. His wife is a Mississippi native, so they relocated back here. It's interesting, I've already noticed that when he talks to me, he clips right through his sentences and talks with no accent. But then he can turn and talk to one of the lab guys standing right next to me, and he just rolls right into this southern drawl. The swap is impeccable, just as if you were flipping a light switch in order to enter a room.

Anyway, he walked me along the main drag through the Nissan plant, which is 0.94 miles long and 0.24 miles wide. This is the outline of the building only; does not include the outdoor test track, yard where they park the just-completed trucks, the railroad station, or the semi truck depot.

He introduced me to the crew that I am working with. All guys. All VERY cool and might as well all be my uncles. (Their ages and take-me-under-their-wing traits make the association of an uncle fit as the best description.) They watch out for me, hold doors open for me...and today, one of them even apologized for swearing in front of me! It is actually really sweet, I like this southern gentleman stuff.

I spent the second half of my day getting a ride on the outdoor test track and shadowing one of the engineers. (The test track = SO COOL!!!!! Too bad I can't tell you exactly what it's like, due to confidentiality agreements -- let's just say Nissan's current commercials with the Nissan Altima going on an outdoor test track out in Arizona is 100% legit and the track at Canton is a baby version of what you see on that commercial. Watch your television for it!)

Here's what I've learned so far. These are the vehicles we make here in Canton:

Nissan Altima - sedan only


Nissan Titan - all versions

Nissan Quest

Nissan Armada and its sister model, the GCC, which the US troops use in Russia.

Infiniti QX56

The Nissan Altima is by far the cash cow of Nissan. The line for this car never shuts down and as soon as the cars are made, they are put on semi trucks and delivered to dealerships across the country. We can't even keep an inventory of them if we tried. They sell like hotcakes!

On the flipside, we have enough inventory of Titans that if we stopped the production line for the Titan this very second, and just never turned it on, we'd have enough Titans parked in the yard of the factory alone, to last our sales for one full year, 365 days, if the demand for the Titan did not fluctuate (meaning, increase or continue to decrease as it already has been.). They even shut down this golf driving range that is on the premises for Nissan employees, just to park the Titans on it. The Infiniti QX56 is so rare, that only one is made per hour...this means, in one day, only 9 of these are made (since there are 9 hours in 1 day at Nissan). They are not made anywhere else in this world.

I'm also on a mission to learn one 'fun fact' of the day, every day, while I'm at this internship. I think I accidentally learned the most interesting fact right off the bat, on my first day.

The factory has these 6 apparatuses spaced randomly throughout the plant grounds (outside) that look like big Olympic torches. Take a look at this image I looked up on Google for an example of what the one at Nissan kind of looks like:


Only, they don't host flames. :) No no no, they actually create a sonic boom that gets sent out right before severe thunderstorms down here. (Which, by the way, are INSANE, we had one on Sunday and it flash-flooded everywhere.) With the heavy vibrations that the sonic boom creates, the sound waves travel up into the sky and pummel/break apart any hail. That way, no hail can come down to earth and pelt the brand new vehicles they have parked outside, waiting to be shipped out to dealerships. The vibrations are sent straight up into the air, so all of the vehicles parked below do not get their glass windows shattered. The best part? You can even hear the sonic booms from inside my apartment! It may sound like World War 3 has begun, but how awesome!


This whole week will be a trying one, but the first day has already been worth it. Let's see what tomorrow brings.