On November 2nd, I went to work with my aunt. She works as a manager for the HR department at Teledyne, which is a company that makes high-tech cameras. Their cameras have been into space (on a rover on its way to Mars), in hospitals, on movie sets, and much more. They took me and some other kids on a tour of the factory, the office, talked to us about the role each of the managers play, demonstrated some of the cameras…

What did you hear, see, smell, and feel in the work environment?

When we were touring the factory where they make the cameras, I saw how machines put components into the camera. The machines were really loud, and there was a room which was soundproof and that stopped any signals from going in or out. For example, we had no Wi-Fi. Outside of that room I could see a lot of wires, bolts, and stuff everywhere. In one room, there was a soldering machine that we got to try. That room smelled a little like smoke after we used it, but someone brought in a fan to get rid of that. There were a lot of rooms made of glass, so I could see people having meetings – and I could hear people if they weren’t inside those rooms. All the way at the top, there was a cafeteria. People could get coffee, soup, basically any drink, a sandwich, salads, and probably a bunch of other things that I couldn’t see. There were mini versions of the cameras the company designs.

What about the environment would motivate you to wake up every day to attend work?  

I loved that most of the people were really nice. I think the factory had a lot of stuff to do and looked really cool. I’d love to work down there. There was also breakfast and lunch provided, which proves that the company cares about the employees – that’s something I think is important. There seems to be something new happening every day – there’s always a camera being made or designed, so it seems like it would never get boring.