Where to move to?

Off Topic Everything un-related to composites.
#1

I’ve been in the composite industry for the past ten yrs. I started at 17 in my parents garage making custom speaker boxes, then moved onto working for a local small company buiding aerobatic planes and goverment work. Moved around in state and started working for a material manufacture in the R-D area, building, testing, proto work and everything else under the sun. Was layed off two yrs ago and have been working in the bigger aircraft companies as a contractor. I’m located in tulsa ok and the aircraft companies are over run with people here that can do composites for them cheaply.

So after talking to my wife we have decided to start looking at other states and see what other states might be able to offer. We have a son so finding a good school district is important. So i was hoping that i could here from some of you guys that might have done this, or if you know of a good place to move and still be around the composites industry. Any info is welcomed.

#2

Wish you the best of luck on your search. I just recently started my search of a good place to move in SoCal. And let me tell you IT AINT EASY.

#3

I have no intrest in being in california at all, to far for me. No idea where there located in cali but have you looked into northrop grummen to see if there hiring?

#4

I have the opposite problem. GE was at my job fair and I asked where they did their composites work. The lady replied Oklahoma which I think is too far. However you might want to give it a shot.

#5

Honestly Georgia is very very nice. At first the south was kinda a bummer to me but more and more I’m loving it. Jacksonville Florida at nadep composite intake skin water extractions and complete metal bond composite repair. Greenville, spartanburg sc are hot with assembly jobs right now. Also timco in Macon ga is looking for a serious cOmposite tech for big body interiors. Engine cowls and composite repair… But the pay is crap.

#6

Thanks for the reply’s guys, I landed a job last week after interviewing with two company’s one small company and one large company. I went with the smaller company cause the pay was better and I will be able to do mold building there. The larger company just wanted me to do metal/ composite bonding only.

#7

Out of curiosity where are these places located? You can be insanely general I’m just curious to see what general regions companies that are hiring are at.

#8

Honestly there all located in tulsa oklhoma and one is in Bristow oklahoma which is 20 miles south of tulsa. In tulsa there is 4 big airline repair shops, Nordam, Spirit, Helicomb and American Airlines. The first three do alot of composite repairs and also make parts with composites but american does very little. Also in tulsa there is 1 composite material manufacture, Advanced Composites Group. There are alot of smaller companies that all deal with composites but it’s usually just on the testing side. There is also one company that sells consumables that close to tulsa, DeComp. Then you have the typical boat shops and the smaller in your garage type guys that do stuff on the side. I mean all in all oklahoma is not a bad place to be if your wanting to do composite work, but I just got tired of the bigger shops, it’s the same thing day after day. Dealing with people that don’t want to work while saying things like “if i was to work on parts then there would be nothing for you to do”. It just got old I was looking for a challenge and was hoping that a move might help me find what i was looking for. I think i found it in the smaller company in Bristow, Ok there small but they promote from within and there hungry for a bigger slice of the pie in the market.

#9

Nice man!!! Small shops are great but sometimes pay less. But if your lucky to find an employee owned composite shop that gives quarterly bonuses… Thats where the real money is. Most shops that do that get bought by the prime contractor and everyone gets super happy. Employee owned typically is a better place to grow in the business.

Grumman
Lockheed
Boeing
Sikorsky
Are all doing good right now… Everett Washington is booming as well as Texas. Fort worth area. Georgia is booming and so is Florida.

#10

Where in GA are you located?

#11

North atlanta

#12

Then we are not so far away.