Tim V.
“Not many decisions you make in high school stand the test of time, but for me, one did: deciding I wanted to be an electrician. I can’t for the life of me remember exactly what inspired that choice, but I do remember that when I learned my girlfriend at the time had a stepdad who worked at Windemuller, I set my sights on landing a job at the company. He put in a good word for me, and about a year after I graduated, I started at Windemuller as a first-year electrical apprentice.
That was 1994.
27 years later, I’m still here. I’ve gone on quite the journey in that time, from my first five years in the electrical department, to my next half-a-decade as a systems integrator for Windemuller’s automation group, to another half-a-decade as the manager of the automation group.
In the years since, I’ve worn even more hats, from branch manager for Windemuller’s southwest Michigan operations (which included Wayland, Kalamazoo, Whitehall, and Big Rapids) to vice president of technical services for the entire company (which involved managing the automation group, the communications group, and the IT group).
I think my lengthy tenure at Windemuller says everything I need to say about the home I’ve found with this company. I’ve worked at virtually every level of the business, in all manner of different departments, and have gotten the opportunity to see so many examples of the hard work, collaboration, and people who drive this company. From day one, Windemuller has been as good to me as I could imagine an employer being: they are fair, they are flexible, and they are incredibly supportive.
That support led me to some of the top leadership positions with the company. And when I decided that managing people at such a high level was taking me further away from the work that had drawn me to the trades in the first place, Windemuller supported me as I pivoted my role once more, this time to project manager for the automation group. These days, I’m involved more in the nitty-gritty of the work that Windemuller does, from ordering materials to coordinating the logistical pieces of automation projects. It’s a fresh chapter in my nearly three-decade journey with Windemuller, and I look forward to what comes next.”