project engineer

crane operator

slitter operator

reliability engineer

packer

North American Stainless

The pay is great. Within a few months on the job I was making more than I had ever made before at around 2000/paycheck every other week. Even then, it was not anywhere near worth it to me. If you are someone who is only concerned about making money, then maybe you could do this job, but if you're someone like me and enjoy a life outside of work, I don't recommend this job. They can schedule OT on your requested days off. If the schedule says you're off a particular weekend, you can't plan on being off until you've run it by management to make sure they don't need you to work OT so it makes planning trips and family time very difficult. If they do happen to schedule OT during your planned vacation, and you decide to tell them you won't be coming to work since you have a cabin rented,  you get a penalty of 30, and once those penalty points reach a value of 50, you are no longer eligible for pay or position advancement for the rest of the year. Don't work here unless you're only driven by one thing, money... or if you desire any sort of mental stimulation from your job. Standing in one 20 by 20 area for 12 hours with one, ONE, 30 minute break gets old fast. 

As an operator of a 330 U.S. Ton capacity overhead crane, the job was impressive at first. But after awhile I realized I didn't want it for a lifetime. In a melt shop, danger goes without saying. The pay was great, for a non college-degree position. The company slacked on replacement parts for the cranes. Especially hoist motors. Had to run the hoist on one motor for weeks while the second motor was rebuilt; and this happened multiple times. No excuse- there should always have been a rebuilt/new one on standby. Running on one motor for that length of time was unacceptable in my eyes. Too easy to prevent. Someone should have been held accountable. The company hired a lot of youth.  There were a moderate number of unfriendly people. I met a few people I liked. Make no mistake, hourly wage was not that impressive; you are highly dependent on monthly incentive which may be minimal at times of transformer explosions, perforated furnace and/or AOD vessel, and other catastrophic failures that go along with molten steel. But the incentive is usually good. Catastrophic failures are are few and far between. If you can tolerate it as a career, and plan for retirement, you will achieve it, so long as you live to that age.

I would review quality physically as well as written form from shift inspections. I would use my experience to best send the correct type of material to customers that would best benefit from said quality. I worked hand in hand with upper management from different department to meet customers on time delivery. I worked well with my co-workers offering my knowledge when required to help them
meet their objective. The hardest part of my job was not being able to fix all the problems. This actually was  impossible being I worked as a fully integrated stainless steel mill, but my goal was always to give 100% to try and achieve my personal goal. The most enjoyable part of my job was working with all departments and put our minds together to correct or fix any issues that would slow down our goal of 100% customer satisfactory.

If you ask around you may be able to find the information needed to help make this company better. The trouble is that when you ask around, you also find out that someone else tried to make this place better x years ago and got told "no," and probably, that there is not money for that improvement. High rate of turnover for engineers. Operators and group leads have more and more responsibilities being added to their roles with little to no improvement in compensation. From an engineering perspective, it is hard to improve a process when the human and other resources are already constrained trying to sustain regular maintenance, when optimal equipment function is not really a goal, and when priorities change every week or more frequently. In general, people are not supported well here. If you like living near a city, get ready for a long drive.

Most of the workers out there are top shelf and easy to get along with.  Most of the time the work is not too terrible although extreme heat is a common thing in many parts of the the plant.  The working conditions are not what detracts from the work experience at NAS, it is the attitude of the upper management. The president of NAS is notorious for cussing out and demeaning employees often in front of a room full of other employees, completely unprofessional behavior.  As far as they are concerned the workers are nothing but dumb livestock.  They don't care about your ideas and what you have to think about an issue and you have no good ideas till it's their idea.  This is why their competition is taking their best talent away from them. Its not just the money. The competition listens to their employees.  Money and benefits can't buy your employees respect or  LOYALTY.

They didn't know how to handle the COVID-19 issue when it happened. They hired a relative in front of me when they had a  hirable position available even though I had a full year of time working for them before the relative became a temp. After being skipped over for a hirable position I had to wait 4 more years for a hirable position to be available. That made it 7 years total working for NAS until I was finally offered a hirable position!!! So obviously I have my issues with them. I heard it through the grapevine that management has changed since I left in June of 2020, so I'm not sure what the managers are like now. The work environment is pretty good there and most of the people are as well. Decent benefits and pay for what you have to do with in most of the hirable positions but the temporary positions are less inviting.

I absolutely loved working here. Everyone (management, team leads, co workers) were very easy to get along with and work with and always eager to lend a hand when needed. They use a 12 hour swing shift which I also adored because then I was able to get the best of both worlds. Due to the temp agencies struggling to keep their employees in the building there is loads of overtime offered, including some mandatory overtime if no one volunteers or NAS is shorthanded. Most of the time the job is fast paced, challenging and stressful but if you have a high tolerance for patience you will actually find this environment is a better fit for you than other employers. Because of the long hours being very abundant you won't have much of a personal life or social life but I can promise you will never be broke.

You know when one person is filling the roles of HR Manager AND Safety Manager, the company is not one you want to work for. Upper management no longer cares about the employees. Even though the parent company, Acerinox, made record profits last year, none of this makes its way into the hands of the workers. Benefits continue to be trimmed and so does the workforce. They hardly ever refill a position once it is vacated so the people that are left working are expected to increase their productivity to keep things running smoothly. They cannot even offer a competitive wage compared to the other industries located nearby. People are abandoning ship here. I cannot wait to sail on.

While I worked here, the company did not seem to advance at all in any capacity with many micromanaging supervisors and managers directly watching you work, implementing ideas without consideration of those involved, continually cutting budgets, not allowing training to employees, no career advancement, average starting wage with no real pay raises (only cost of living), low morale all around due to better companies in the area offering significantly better opportunities, safety comes after production, and no accountability for upper management. A coupe good things are healthcare is decent and job security.

Good pay & benefits,  but the 12 hour swing shifts are hard! You work Monday and Tuesday day shift(12 HR. shifts), off Wednesday & Thursday,  work Friday, Saturday & Sunday nights then off Monday and Tuesday, work Wednesday & Thursday days, off Friday, Saturday & Sunday & so on. I like working there, but it has it's ups & downs like all jobs. They provide all PPE & buy your metatarsal work boots as needed, great benefits, great 401k & good pay with monthly & quarterly production incentives. I recommend NAS, if you don't mind the swing shifts. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Project engineer 3 salaries reported	$73,900 per year
Crane operator 1 salary reported	$13.00 per hour
Slitter operator 1 salary reported	$18.00 per hour
Reliability engineer 1 salary reported	$100,029 per year
Packer 1 salary reported	$40,000 per year

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