Every morning, Micah Lobdell gets up to fight fires. He’s not a firefighter or first responder though, he's actually a quality engineer. He started out in a small town in northwest Ohio, went through college and several jobs, and is now an engineer for a major international company.
Lobdell, a 2006 graduate, discovered he had a knack for mathematics with the help of his math teacher, Ms. Hickey: “She understood that I had a talent for mathematics. My problem is that I struggled to focus my efforts in the correct way.” With her help, he managed to take two years of college calculus classes before leaving high school.
Lobdell left Van Buren, Ohio after graduating high school. “I have never been a person that wanted to leave Van Buren, but I was always open to the idea. I will say that it was the best thing that I ever did.” He started going to college at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), majoring in compressor engineering. After his freshman year, he switched to the University of Toledo to save on money. As he had already taken the right classes for it at ERAU, he changed his major to mechanical engineering. “First of all, don’t let anyone tell you that it is an easy degree. That being said, it is worth it. I started my career with General Electric as a design engineer, and I used my degree much more than I ever imagined I would. After a few changes in jobs, I don’t use it in the same way that I originally thought I would.”
After changing jobs 3 times, he is currently working in quality management. The primary certification for quality management is known as Six Sigma (6σ). Lobdell currently has the third highest certification in 6σ, which is a Greenbelt. The highest is the Master Blackbelt, followed by the Blackbelt. “Greenbelts are the boots on the ground that ‘make the magic happen.’ Blackbelts tend to oversee the projects that Greenbelts are conducting.” People who work in 6σ look at a process and try to improve it to maximize revenue, production time, and, of course, quality.
Most of what he does, though, isn’t improving quality. Most of his time is spent solving whatever problems come up in the workplace. “The term that comes to mind is ‘firefighting.’ In other words, on any given day, there are figurative fires burning all over the place. Some of these fires are big and some of them are small.” His day is packed with solving problems.
His original plan after school wasn’t to fight fires , though. “When I graduated college, I was looking for three jobs. I loved aerospace/aeronautical design, automotive engineering, or the military for careers.” Things don’t always go according to plan. His original plan didn’t involve quality engineering, and that’s not where he plans to stop. “Although I am in quality now, this is not where I will finish my career.”
Everyone’s life has been affected by the recent pandemic, and Lobdell is no exception. His workplace, Bonnell Aluminum, has furloughed a large portion of their workers. Everyone else either works from home or practices enough isolation and social distancing at work that they don’t see anyone. More than that, the market for aluminum has slowed down. “About 3/5ths of our customers have idled production. This makes my life very nice since most of the customers that have closed were the ones that complained the most.” He is still fortunate enough to have a job he enjoys. “I wanted to have an influence on what I did for a living. I didn’t want to go into work, do a job, and then go home. I wanted to be one of the movers and shakers.”
Lobdell enjoys what he does and remembers the life lessons he learned along the way. He said that the most important thing he wanted to share was: “Listen more than you talk. More importantly, listen for the sake of understanding rather than to respond. If you find that you do not understand something, ask a question. I have found that throughout my career that I ask more and more questions. Sometimes, I am sure I look like a fool, but I would rather look like a fool asking a question than when I make a mistake because I did not fully understand something.”