Hired Before Graduation: Jacob Reck, Mechanical Design

“My name is Jacob Reck and I’m from Fillmore, Wisconsin. I have a younger brother, he is planning to attend Moraine Park to study nursing. My hobbies consist of doing anything outdoors. I love to hunt, fish, and train hunting dogs. I currently have a 1-year old Chesapeake Bay Retriever that I spend a lot of time with.

I chose to enroll in the mechanical design program because I did some design work in high school and really enjoyed it. I knew I wanted to be in manufacturing but didn’t want to be out on the shop floor.

My experience at Moraine Park has been great. My instructors are wonderful and have helped guide me through college. I have met a lot of people in my classes and made many lasting friendships. I appreciated that my classes challenged me and were based on real-life scenarios.

BesTech Tool offered me a position in March of 2017, which was 14 months before I was set to graduate! I took the position of tool designer because I enjoy the challenge of designing progressive stamping dies.

On May 19 I will graduate to my associate’s degree in mechanical design. In the future, I hope to continue to learn about the metal stamping field and someday I would like to become a tooling engineer.

My advice to people considering a mechanical design career is to be prepared to be challenged. Designing isn’t just drawing something on the computer and hoping that it will work. It takes time to design a product that will work and function like you want it to. There will be challenges to overcome along the way, but when the product that you designed is finally manufactured and functioning correctly, it will make it all worth it.”

To learn more about Moraine Park, visit morainepark.edu.