Tooling engineer credits internships and technical education for manufacturing career

Tyler Shear, a tooling engineer at Parker Lord in Erie, Pennsylvania, described how technical high school classes, a tech-school machining certification and multiple internships led him from hands-on toolmaking to a full-time engineering role on Parker Lord’s rotary-wing vibration-control team. "Companies wanna see experience," he told meeting participants, and said finding an employer willing to teach him was the hardest early hurdle in his career.

Shear said he discovered his interest in design in a high school drafting class that used SolidWorks and included project competitions. He recounted internships and work at Accutech, where he first saw Parker Lord parts, and later a senior-year vibrations course in college that aligned with Parker Lord’s Erie specialty. "This is an excellent program for that," he said, referring to training pathways that combine schooling and hands-on internships.

Shear praised Penn State Behrend instructor Dr. Mark Rubio for preparing students for industry and urged students seeking manufacturing careers to pursue internships and technical certifications. He summarized his path as a sequence of machining, programming and automation experience that culminated in design work: "I wouldn't have taken a different path," he said.

No formal actions, motions or policy decisions were referenced in the remarks; Shear’s comments were presented as a personal account and recommendation for workforce-development approaches.

Background: Parker Lord works in several sectors including defense (helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft) and industrial vibration-control products for heavy equipment, work Shear cited when explaining his interest in vibration analysis and rotary-wing systems. Specific program names, funding sources or institutional commitments were not specified in the transcript.