Page 19 - MY STORY

I did not avail myself of any of the help that might be

available at IIT’s placement office. I did not even know if
they had a placement office.

There was no interest in looking outside the Chicago area
– I could not begin to fathom, or consider, the challenge
of moving away from home. I examined the want ads in

the Tribune to see if any companies were looking for
metallurgical help and finally responded to an ad from
Western Electric. I was called in for an interview, froze

up completely during the process, and failed miserably to
answer some technical questions on the heat treatment of

alloy steel that I should have easily answered.

My interest in powder metallurgy finally led me to
request an interview at Fansteel in Waukegan, Illinois.

Fansteel was a major manufacturer of powder metallurgy
products, including the sintered Tungsten Carbides, the

subject of my junior thesis. They did not like my
relatively low GPA which scotched that potential job. I’m
not even sure how this happened, but I believe that for

some reason I was driving by the H.M. Harper Co., in
Morton Grove, Illinois and noticed a help wanted sign
outside the fenced perimeter.