My original profession was leather craftsman, but for 7 years I worked as a shoemaker. I learned the basics of the profession at school, step by step. We experienced the joy of creation as a piece of leather becomes a bag, jewelry, a key ring or a wallet. My family expanded and my workplace was closed, so my professional life took a completely different direction. Fifteen years ago, an American company contacted me through the employment center; they were looking for labor for their newly constructed plant in Hungary. After more rounds of job interviews I was selected for a group of 18 people who got to chance to travel to England, to learn about production processes and to handle the different machines and equipment.

We got a big project after the trial period, as we had to train the new workers, which was a bit difficult taking into consideration the fact that even we were not fully aware of the entire process. We always had to be a step ahead, be more experienced and know more.

In the beginning, I worked as a quality controller, and then I became senior quality controller. Later on I was responsible for taking first samples, running quality checks on the incoming goods and the final inspection and documentation of the outgoing goods. When I returned to the quality controller position, I often had to travel to meet customers and review, sort and replace products about which complaints had been made. If there were staff absences, I also filled in as production assistant (data recording, filing), and helped out if a lot of work piled up or when there was a backlog in data management.

I then moved to the production office. My main responsibility was summarizing the production numbers, recording data and making reports on a daily basis. I was also responsible for archiving closed shop orders and recovering them if they were needed. If required by production, I drew a special foil which was used to check the size of the final products. I also assisted on the computer controlled cutting machine.

Since I am one of the oldest employees, it makes me happy that I can participate in many of the problem solving events. I possess enough knowledge and I have lots of ideas which can help to overcome the issues quicker, and also increase the work efficiency and cut down the production costs. Esteem and love of the work are very important for me. I came back to the company 10 years ago, and during this time I was never on sick leave, which makes me feel very proud.