operator

forklift operator

material handler

shipping and receiving clerk

operator trainee

Sterigenics

Everyone Slept at nights . Caught Nuclear operator sleeping .Locked front door and he pulled down the blinds . Facility maintenance, grounds security, set alarms, external timed night lights, security camera replacement, painted walls replaced sinks, tubs,4 ballast florescent tubes and emergency pwr out exit lights with internal pwr, E-beam and X-ray conveyor elevator and lowerator systems PM (Preventive Maintenance) and repair. Air-water separator for pneumatics / refrigeration compressors, performed 25-million-dollar Inventory, Prepared and generated parts maintenance work requests, entered into Merlin database spreadsheets. Trained to identify CKRT breaker for offices, system and warehouse. Reads blueprints, PHS outputs from safety PLC and conveyor PLC inputs, Introduced mech pump oil replacement system and proper vacuum terminology. Disassembled and rebuilt reactor when arcing occurred. Recruited to rewire E-beam scan horn 200Hz magnet.
Maintained and operated forklifts,10-ton gantry crane. PM walkaround verified logbooks, inspected chiller room, power supply, and control rooms for proper working parameters, programed variable frequency motor starters, verified light indicators or equipment temp/pressure indicators. Change to secondary system rotation weekly PM. Repaired sprocket’s, gears  and assembly’s, investigated jams, diverter jams, replaced tray speed indicator, jams caused by defective totes and trays, replaced damaged bevels on elevator, replaced rail guides, stacker jam replaced switch, in elevator replaced  photo eye sensor, replaced bracket on 8000 ft/min shroud on roof, replaced UPS for PC. Turned over to operators after running conveyor and bringing up nuclear and E beam reactors by verifying vacuums, beam confinement magnets, compensation magnet, radiation level, beam current and RF power all 3 stage’s,16.5kw-100-amp beam current. Repaired 50,000 V cathode emitter. Oversaw replacement of filament transformer on 107.33 MHz 10KW driver generator and retuned. Directed and Introduced engineer to high pot the solid-state power amplifier than repaired power amp to component level. Replaced waterlines on magnets and turbo pumps. Replaced capstan material which also failed in reactor tetrode tube twice. Replaced Dc power supply for beam confinement magnet. Modified common parts for high voltage input when 7.5Kv dc feedthrough failed on 10Kw power amplifier than, (high pot) test. PM plant walk around for sub-systems maintenance, air pneumatics, replaced osmosis filters and UV light that sterilized DI water for reactor. Maintained cooling tower and configured variable frequency fan motors. Changed mechanical pump oil for 72K rpm turbo/mech backing pump, Reactor safety cell clearing/safety check, repairs Allen Bradley and Siemens 500 PLC ability. Backup standby generator PM testing. Maintained dual chiller, air compressor, cooling towers systems, swapping PM, repaired air flow switch when installed backwards, replaced sprockets, bearings, chain, belt repair, Circuit breaker and contact replacement repair, PLC inputs 120v/24v position, photo optic, switches, Repaired thermocouples, leaking O-rings. Every control input, output monitored and controlled via XP computer, replaced aux Power Supply, repaired communications router between control and power supply rooms, reboot reinitialized system. Replaced radiation sirens. EPO light indicators, indicator lights, Back door halide proximity lights, Operated conveyor programable handing system, forklift cert, radiation cert, electronics cert, performed dosimeter calibration, measurements. Lock out tag out, confined space, EHS 1-303 complete course’s, ISO 9001, 2 Halogen fire suppression and fire extinguisher training.

A typical day at work involved 12 hours shifts. These were not rotating shifts; I was hired to work overnight. When you don't have work to do, which is probably 1/4 of your shift, you're allowed to sit down and play on your cell phone. You will actually spend the majority of your shift sitting down, whether you're completing paper work or operating a forklift. Be prepared to learn a lot!

I learned a lot about sterilizing medical products and I also learned a lot about operating a forklift (even though I had been driving before). I learned that I have no preference for time of day that I work, but that I do not like 12 hour shifts. It was impossible to find balance between the job and home. If you have a family, this will be even harder for you.

Management was alright. Some people were great and some were lazy. This is usually the case in most places though.

My co-workers were a great part of the job. I only worked with two people other than myself overnight. I'm not a people-person so this worked well for me. Everyone seemed easy to get along with other than some lazy managers that I wrote about above.

The hardest part of the job is dealing with the 12 hour shifts. You will work 3 days, have 2 days off, work 4 days and then have 5 days off. This means that you will have mandatory overtime and a 5-day vacation every other week. This makes it difficult to come back to work. Who wants to return to work after 5 days off?

The most enjoyable part of the job was realizing my potential. I now understand just how much I'm able to amount to and am using that while searching for another job.

 I started here in 2021, having worked for a close competitor both a year before, and previously from 2000-2005. I spent the time inbetween employed as a Grocery Manager.  I wondered at first if my car could handle the commute, and now it's no longer a question. 

My first thoughts on the company were how helpful each and every person was. So many great mentors and individuals with a high level of patience and professionalism. 
I was free to ask questions and get beneficial help without feeling like I was a bother. Those are important things when starting a job.  There is a great deal of satisfaction that goes in with the work we do, by sterilizing ultra important devices for surgeries and other live saving measures. The transition from my previous Operator position to this job as been fairly smooth, so much to learn, but quite a bit of it aligns nicely. Learning experiences are a healthy understanding here, rather than an undermining situation which is so often created at other companies. 

This job has allowed me to apply my years of experience as an Operator previously, as well as my proficient years as a Material Handler.  From the time I started till now, a great deal of confidence has been bestowed.

 I've learn to push myself on a consistent basis, and the results speak for itself.  I've gone from sometimes dreading working with certain products, to just biting the bullet and giving it 110%, consistently, thanks to the hard workers and support I'm surrounded by here. You find your peak performance when around others who are determined and consistently care about quality of work. 

Happy with the job and the people I'm around, day in and day out. 

Team work is truly almost non-existent.  Lots of favoritism, and some shenanigans that seem to be completely ignored by management.  
If you are not organized and cannot multi-task this job is not for you.  
Aside from what is written above, Sterigenics is a very interesting place to work.  I learned a lot and appreciated the valuable service Sterigenics provides to the medical industry.  
Majority of communications from customers are emails.  You could potentially receive close to 100 emails a day and you must do your absolute best to reply to all of them same day.
The Customer Service Representative's at Sterigenics wear many hats.  I liked many things about the company while I was employed. I enjoyed the relationships that were established with our customers. Sterigenics deals with mostly large manufactures of medical devices, and food manufactures. It is a fascinating place to work.
I loved many things about my job, but like with any company, there will always be some things you do not like.  


In the last 20 years this company never has hired a "Female Machine Operator".  They discriminate against women all the time.  They allow harassment and when its time from a female to roll over to full time they come up with an excuse to fire them and can get way with it because the state of Arkansas is a no fault state which means they can fire you for any reason except for race, gender, religion and extra.  They segregate there shift.  One shift is completely white people and another shift is completely black people.  Do not recommend working here.  The company is under a lot of lawsuit for letting ethylene oxide out into the surrounding community causing teachers and students in Willowbrooks Illinois to get cancer.  Employees of Sterigenics have filed class action lawsuits because of being exposed to the ethylene oxide and causing them to get cancer and die from the exposure.  It has also happened in Atlanta, Georgia where the community got exposed to toxic radioactive gasses in the air caused by sterigenics.  Do your research before doing this job.  I work at another job now and it makes the same kind of pay.  Ya bonus are all great and things but not worth being exposed to radiation.  Also they work you to death where you dont get your break like your supposed to.

I worked in the shipping department. It started out good, but at some point, the new management wanted more. The process at that facility is a timed one, so it has to be scheduled. It's like cooking pizza in a 2 rack oven, 2 pizzas in 20 minutes. You can't cook 6 pizzas in 10 minutes. I started there working 45 hours Mon-Fri for about 6 months. The new GM changed that to a minimum of 56 hours Mon-Sat, but I hit 60+ hours many times. You could barely move inventory because we were 14 days out on customer product and there was no room in the warehouse. It was hard to schedule truck loads for pickups on Saturdays because there weren't very many trucking companies that work Saturdays. The pay was super low for what we did. After 10 months of working 10-11 hours days, 5 days a week and 6+ on Saturday for a job that was supposed to be a 40 hour a week job that didn't work weekends the first 6 months, I was done. There was no reason to work that much, there was no gain. Product would sit until there was room in the system. 60 pallets would sit for 10 or more days. We had 10 or more of those orders on the floor at any given time. It started out good. The only good part, the ladies that ran the front office were the best. To bad the GM was horrible.

The work does vary. Depending on the product, the machines may run at fast speeds or very slow speeds leading to easier work days, and some very rough days. Management is very understanding as most of them have prior military experience, they are very "No BS" and right to the point. You will be working with a relatively small team of up to 9 people, the work is simple but complicated in it's own way with constant problem solving and paperwork management, there are a lot of very small details you MUST pay attention to or you may ruin an entire run worth of product and cost the company upwards of $50,000 in damages from one small mistake. The risk is high when it comes to mistakes, but with trust in your coworkers, mistakes are rare. 

Management does not encourage new ideas or ideas that do not come from them. Many promises made during interview that were the complete opposite in reality.  Managers not on same page so received conflicting information and instructions.  No performance evaluation given after being there over a year.  No encouragement or thank you's given for increasing production or for many hours spent working evenings and weekends.  The hardest part of the job was going in knowing that even though you are a Supervisor it is in name only...knowing that anything you recommend will be disregarded.  Also was difficult working for people who did not value my opinion even though I had over 20 years experience in that field.  Being constantly micromanaged and undermined was a very big issue.  The most unprofessional place I have ever worked!

The Good: With the rise in effective mobile options, fewer employees are tied to a desk. Smartphones and mobile platforms have empowered professionals to take their job “on the go”. Additionally, the community as a whole has embraced the mobile workforce  and workstations commonplace, and rent by the hour office space. This freedom has increased job satisfaction and made employment more pleasurable and stimulating. In fact, 70% of telecommuters said they would not move companies for an increase in pay. Only 60% of brick and mortar employees feel the same. Employees are not the only ones benefitting from remote work. Organizations have seen a dramatic decline in their attrition rates, sick leave, and expenses, while noting a strong increase in productivity.

A typical day at work was receive incoming truck loads for sterilization, checking part numbers and lot codes making sure it matches to what the customer would input. which 30% time had some type of error and needed to be revised. The systems they use are years behind and need an upgrade. Training is non existent and more of learn as you mess up, pay is average with low raises yearly. My coworkers taught me more than the actual training. The friendlyness of some of the co workers made it enjoyable, If you really need a job then go for it but expect no room for growth or financial growth. I left and have felt better ever since! :)

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Operator 4 salaries reported	$21.50 per hour
Forklift operator 93 salaries reported	$17.45 per hour
Material handler 65 salaries reported	$17.19 per hour
Shipping and receiving clerk 11 salaries reported	$19.82 per hour
Operator trainee 32 salaries reported	$17.16 per hour

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