ClarkDietrich has long viewed military service as experience to be celebrated. We’re proud of our record as a Military Friendly® Employer, but we’re even more proud of our employees who have served our nation. For everything they’ve done for us—speaking on behalf of both our company and our country—we can’t thank them enough.
For nearly a decade, ClarkDietrich has been named a Military Friendly® Employer, demonstrating the company’s commitment to and success in creating sustainable and meaningful benefits for the military community, including active duty, veterans, and spouses.
“They’ve always been there,” said Lisa Lord, a long-time account executive at the company’s Riverside, California location. Lisa served about five years in the Navy, where she worked in intelligence and eventually met her husband, who served in the Navy 20 years himself. As a veteran and long-time military spouse, Lisa appreciates how ClarkDietrich had always been flexible when her husband came and went for deployments. “It’s nice to know that support was there when I was needed as the parent at home while he’s away.”
Lisa also values ClarkDietrich’s support on a professional level.
“I didn’t know anything about steel when I got here. Now, I get to help other people that are learning it as well,” she said. “Everyone is here to help you. They don't let people fail, and that's what the military is about. No one fails.” This team mentality was refreshing for Lisa to see when she first started working at ClarkDietrich.
“I have never been at another company where your vice presidents and top brass talk to you, know your name, know your children, and ask you for updates. There are a lot of companies out there where they don’t speak to you and don’t even know your name—you’re just a number. That’s not the way ClarkDietrich treats us,” she said. “It just makes you want to work that much harder when you have that kind of recognition.”
ClarkDietrich’s sense of teamwork is commonly valued by all its employees. Myron Randles, a team lead at ClarkDietrich’s Riverside plant, remembers being invited to a company picnic early on in his tenure at the company, where he was pleasantly surprised to see 95 of the 100 employees in attendance. “ClarkDietrich is constantly trying to move you to be more than just an employee, more than just a cog in the machine,” he said.
For Myron, working at ClarkDietrich is like having a new mission.
“The number-one aspect that I would say causes us to want to not just work here but also to thrive while being here is the fact that the organization is set up to where we can see the mission objective,” Myron said. “We have a standard, and our standard is always pushing us to be better. We’re second to none. Just like when I was in the Navy—we were second to none. Again, I’ve signed on with a winner.”
Myron credits his six years in the Navy to his organization, discipline, and ability to stay focused when things go awry—skills that have helped him succeed in his time at ClarkDietrich. “I started at the very bottom and I’ve worked in nearly every department within this facility,” Myron said. “There’s an itch for all of us to come here and be successful. They do not pigeon-hole you into one position; they allow you to use your skills. If you want an opportunity to grow with an organization, this is the place.”
Jesse Skvarek is another example of someone whose military experience has helped him excel at ClarkDietrich. Jesse had not been in the Marine Corps for even a full year when he first got placed into a leadership position. Less than six months later, he was promoted to a squad leader role.
“Being 18 years old, I was talking to people who had been in the Marine Corps for 12 to 20 years at a billet where they’re running 100-200 people, and I was running my show with them. It was pretty sweet for people to think I deserve that,” Jesse said. It only took about three months at ClarkDietrich for his supervisor to recognize his leadership skills, placing him in a maintenance lead position at the company’s Vienna, Ohio plant.
Jesse believes it was his military experience that helped him land a job at ClarkDietrich in the first place. Having joined the Marines at such a young age, Jesse never had formal job experience, which caused most other companies to look past him.
“I put in so many applications to get a job after the military, but everybody else always passed me up based on experience,” Jesse said. “But the maintenance manager at ClarkDietrich is a former military guy, and he took a shot on me.”
Military hiring is one of the factors that go into the Military Friendly® evaluation. As a company, ClarkDietrich believes that military experience is an asset, not a hinderance or a liability. In fact, ClarkDietrich shares many of the same values as the military.
“ClarkDietrich mirrors a lot of the same things I loved in the Air Force: a high degree of organization, a high emphasis on safety, and the camaraderie,” said Mike Cerni, a Regional Controller at ClarkDietrich and an Air Force veteran.
ClarkDietrich is always looking for people who share a belief in integrity, teamwork, and a commitment to innovation. To learn more about ClarkDietrich’s Military Friendly® accomplishments, culture, and current openings, visit clarkdietrich.com/careers.