field service technician

equipment mechanic

mechanic

pipefitter

operator

Eastman Kodak

On my first day at Kodak in 1996, I was walking up to the building I was to work in which was one of hundreds in Kodak Park. My building was over a quarter mile long and three stories high. I was thinking, "It would be very easy to be overlooked in a company this size."
Kodak did offer a lot of opportunity to move into other areas. But everyday one worked, one felt the threat of lay-off. Kodak had little to no competition throughout most of its history until the end of the last century when Fuji built plants in the U.S. and digital technology started to decrease the demand for film. As a result of these two factors and possibly a few others, Kodak found itself heavy in redundancy and had to cut jobs and merge some divisions' responsibilities.
I managed to stay 15 years with Kodak.I enjoyed a lot of opportunities and received some valuable training and experience, perhaps foremost of which was the training delivered by the Kaleel Jamison Group in Diversity & Inclusion Advocacy, helping to create a more accessible workplace for employees from all facets of society.It was very meaningful, enlightening training and work that changed me profoundly. I carry much of that learning with me today and it informs all facets of my life.

If I had the chance, would I take a position with Kodak today? 
In a heartbeat! In spite of the damage Eastman Kodak Company has suffered to its public image through recent trials and tribulations, it remains one of America's truly great companies. I was able to find outlets for my personal talents there. I met some wonderful people and gained a lot of experience and personal growth there.
Today, most of Kodak's job offerings are in engineering and management- skilled labor mostly requiring a degree. I would say that if you get a chance to be a Kodaker, take it! Take it, and hang on for dear life. 

And tell 'em all I said, "Hi."

A typical day at work began with checking emails,text and Lotus Notes from corporate laptop. Prioritizing off site calls with the corporate needs and travel time. Repairing equipment(ie. replacing HHD,motherboards,PBAs FRUs),and or ordering replacement parts,and installing parts either next day or 2 day delievry. If corporate dictated,bought parts with American Express Corpoate account to expediate customers productivity. Close calls (or put them on hold until parts have arrived via UPS,FedEx etc.) with corporated Black Berry App or corporate laptop.Check with District Manager and or other Field Engineers that required help. If problem persisted longer than perscribed time informed District Corporate Managers and Customer Managers.Attempted to close 5 calls a day between a distance between Warren,MI and Perrysburg,OH. When needed performed duties as perscribed through District Manager and Corporate. Maintained coroporate automobile(GE Fleet or PHH Fleet), corporated gas card(accounted for travel with reciepts) and corporate AMEX card(Gelco). The hardest part of the job was recieving defective parts from corporate(ie. $25,000.00 Laser or AOM drivers shipped from California DOA) and explaining to a angry customer that I was on top of getting there equipment up and running.Also, I had an incident where I set up a network with 6 kiosk computers. The customer IT department kept saying the issues the could not ping the site. Ten hours later they discovered the were on they plug into the wrong site. My main pleasure is when my customers thankd me for making there jobs and lives easier.

Over the span of nearly 20 years at Kodak I was able to grow as a marketing communications professional with sequentially expanding roles and leadership opportunities.  I started here when the company was much larger, so was able to work across many of the businesses and product portfolios, learning my trade and maturing into an executive with broad, diverse, global experience. Today, I manage a team of 20 employees within Kodak's largest business unit - Print Systems Division.  I also sit on the CMO leadership team, helping to drive strategy for the overall company.  Over the last 3+  years, I've learned a lot about managing people and bringing a matrixed, WW  organization together to achieve much improved results.  This required a lot of planning work, team building and change management to turn a tactical and silo-ed team into a cohesive, highly-functioning marketing organization.  I have personally been fortunate to work for a tremendous boss alongside a great team of peers for the last 10 years - doing meaningful work and helping my management to find its voice, even in the most difficult times.  The hardest part of my job is working across the business units to achieve 'one face' to the customer.  The most enjoyable part of my job is setting people on my team up for success and seeing them thrive when given new responsibilities and expectations.

In 4 years of working with Kodak I had 9 bosses.  The company changed leadership too much for anyone to be very effective.  As of the time of this writing Kodak has been in Chapter 11 for 19 months and they kept promising employees that they would emerge.  Recently they sold off 2 of its larger divisions and have laid off several thousand people. 
I was on call 24/7/365 due to being the Data Center Manger.  I worked all times during the day and night but was compensated with time off if there weren't any emergencies.  I was not allowed to take vacations and if I went away I was expected to be reachable at all times via cellphone and blackberry.
The best part of my job was that I was able to telecommute and could see my kids a lot more than I would if I worked in the office.
I enjoyed the ability to troubleshoot and fix problems that clients were having to make their experience with our product more enjoyable.
The hardest part of being with Kodak was getting a yearly raise and dealing with the Human Resources Department.  They never gave out all of the information needed to cut through the red tape while many of my coworkers and I never received yearly salary raises nor bonuses that were promised.
I learned a lot about global communications and data center management while being with Kodak and will be useful in my skill set   for my next job.

A typical day at work was a mixture of smooth running machines and machines performing start-ups, product changes or cutting back for any number of defect problems found in the product. At Kodak I learned to monitor the machines for quality and mechanical issues and catch them before they became non- passable product issues and how to correct problems when they did occur. No issues with immediate management in my building but the company leaders let us down. I got along well with co-workers and most were dedicated team players. The hardest part of my job was when the machine that I was on had mechanical or quality problems that extended for long periods and nothing was made except waste. Making wide roll polyester base  requires a very large and complicated machine and occasionally problems can be extended as a result and it was never a good feeling to leave work on those days. The most enjoyable part of my job was learning all the skills that were necessary to maintain good product and putting them to work. Also very timely, successful major start-ups, product changes, experiments and other of the more challenging aspects of the job .

What is the best part of working at the company?
They give no raises; after 25 yrs of service, they started bringing individuals in and paying them the same amount that I was making. They don't care that much about their people. You only get 7 sick days a year; that was really hard to manage now that viruses are rampant. Parts were always late to build components that aggravated customers and then oftentimes failed in the field and after reworks would fail again. Favoritism was out of control, along with many tight clicks. Workers only cared about quantity and not quality in order to please management, which caused field failures. There were a lot of watchful eyes instead of minding your own business, which caused me a lot of stress. I'm glad to be out of there, honestly.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Parts constantly fail due to cheap parts in order to save the company. Raises never happened, and health insurance would, so you basically worked for healthcare. There are too many chiefs versus Indians. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment is very stressful due to favoritism, gossiping, and poor work habits. Dust and chemicals floating in the air. Bad parts.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
It is very loud due to machinery air conditioning, constantly failing along with parts shortages.

Start from home to first customer, repair unit and complete preventative maintenance. Proceed to next job work order. Assist other servicemen with difficult repairs and or customers. 
  All members of a team must be forgiving and tolerant if they are to be successful. Customers must come first and their satisfaction will be accomplished if you put your best effort forward at each and every job. 
  Management allowed each field representative autonomous freedom to manage territories.  Only getting involved an employee failed  to accomplish their responsibilities.
  My co-workers were very talented, only occasionally requiring my physical input, usually telephone conferencing  would set them on correct path for success. A pleasure to have been a member of this team.
  The most difficult part of the job was to keep up with customer turnover so as to make sure they were properly trained.  The most enjoyable part of the job was the ability to form a working relationship with customer base, so they would smile when I entered knowing their issues would be resolved regardless of the complexity.

I have worked at Kodak for 28 years before leaving the company due to a outsourcing of my job to Germany in 2012. I was asked to come back 4 years later and was happy to do so. It was a great company to work for in the 80's when I started and it is still a great company today although it is much smaller. My only complaint with the company is that there are no raises for anyone other than management. There are people that I work with who have not had a raise in over 10 years. I was recently given a excellent job performance appraisal and was also given a pay bracket change. In the past, a bracket change meant a pay raise. This time the bracket change came with no raise. I was told that the company is not making money right now but if in the future we do start to make money I will be in line for a raise. It was hard for me to wrap my head around that. I have never been offered a raise with no money before. I believe this was done as a way to let me know how much they appreciated my work but are still are not going to give you anything for it. I always try to give more than expected in any job I do and that will not change because of this. It is just difficult sometimes to know that the managers get raises for achieving the high scores on the department matrix, but the people on the shop floor get nothing when we are the reason for the high matrix scores.

During 25 years as a Kodak staff photographer I enjoyed meeting and working with many fine individuals both in and out of the company. I had the use of the finest camera and studio equipment with which I used to complete a very wide variety of assignments both in the studio and on location, the latter both in the US and abroad. My co-workers were, for the most part, very friendly and helpful, although some of the veteran staff members harbored some resentment over the first several years after I joined the photo department as their youngest member. Overall I earned the friendship and respect of most the people I had contact with, both in and out of the company.

Sadly, Kodak had a strong tendency to promote to manager individuals who were excellent workers but who lacked any real management skill when it came to the people working under them. Leaders? Not many.Throughout the company there was an undercurrent of self-protection among mangement which many times tended to supress creativity and individual initiative. All in all I look back at those years with pleasure despite the occasional and unfortunate glitch my work there was exciting, rewarding, and most pleasantly memorable.

I can say that Eastman Kodak allowed me to give my family a good life. The company was a manufacturing ICON, in it's day. it truly saddens me to watch the company struggle through these changing times and I feel it is time for me to move on. 
The work is strenuous, you work in extreme heat (air sections in access of 280 degrees). The machines are huge and multiple stories so a lot of walking is required.
You have to be alert at all times when working in these machines, they run at speeds of up to 300 F/M.
My co-workers are a part of my life. I suppose it would be that way anywhere when you spend over half your life at any company. They are a special breed. I saw many come and go as the work is physical and some people cannot tolerate it.
I learned that I can make a difference. I was lucky to develop a few ideas and be a part of some very significant efforts that changed the way we do business. Unfortunatley technology caught up.
I made excellent money for someone without a degree and doubt that I could have made that type of money had I not come to Kodak

I also learned that Kodak is much more than a group of buildings that manufacture durable goods.. Much more

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Field service technician 22 salaries reported	$31.57 per hour
Equipment mechanic 33 salaries reported	$35.62 per hour
Mechanic 31 salaries reported	$34.23 per hour
Pipefitter 17 salaries reported	$33.00 per hour
Operator 12 salaries reported	$20.15 per hour

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