Jake Wilson, originally from Crawfordsville, Indiana, graduated high school before attending Hanover College where he completed his first two years as a Spanish major. While taking a semester off after his sophomore year, Jake began working for Heritage Environmental Services (HES), sweeping floors as part of an onsite project at Nucor Steel. Jake eventually returned to college at IUPUI, earning a degree in Spanish and becoming the first college graduate in his family.
As a field service manager, Jake oversees all the crews that go to HES customer facilities to perform industrial maintenance. These jobs include water blasting, tank cleaning, demoing, and other manual work at other plants.
One thing Jake loves about HES is the process in which things are made. He has flexibility to attend to different customer facilities and watch the production processes. He addresses one of Heritage’s core values, and how HES exemplifies safety in everyday work:
“The fact that Heritage mandates safety to be of the utmost importance is one thing I love about this company. Whether you have been here for 20 years, or it is your first job, you have the right and responsibility to stop working. If you do not feel comfortable doing something, or you do not fully understand the objective, you can ask questions. Working in field services is not a glory job. There’s pride in it, but you are working in all elements and conditions. Safety is one of the core values at Heritage, and I think any employee, no matter how long they have worked here, would tell you that.”
A piece of advice he has for future employees and interns is “do not be afraid to get your hands dirty. The best way to learn is to lean in and go elbow to elbow with the lowest person. It will give you incredible experiences and earn you respect from your peers. Take advantage of every opportunity, and always go beyond and above.”
Jake encourages everyone to take the time to learn a foreign language and experience another culture. He has personally benefitted from his Spanish degree and believes that having a unique perspective on other cultures and learning values that don’t align with yours can have incredible workplace benefits.
“Heritage is a family; they are my family. They have come around me and my family and supported us in every single way I can imagine and have given me so many incredible opportunities,” Jake noted as he reflected on his tenure with Heritage.
Outside of work, Jake likes to spend as much time outdoors as possible. He is a huge fisherman, an avid camper and loves spending time with his family supporting the Chicago Cubs.