Genesee: Made for the Trade, Volume 1

New Genny campaign highlights variety and quality of jobs available at the state's oldest brewery

Note: This content is a sponsored partnership between the Genesee Brewery and the Cleveland Prost.

The Genesee Brewery is more than just brewers. The state’s oldest brewery offers a wide range of rewarding careers. Through its new Genesee Made for the Trade campaign, Genny wants to highlight the unsung heroes at the brewery and show the public what kind of jobs offered there.

Genny employs more than 600 people and the brewing department, which numbers about 50 people, isn’t even the largest department at the expansive 28-acre St. Paul Street campus.

The digital campaign highlights current Genny employees who have built careers in packaging, operations, maintenance, carpentry, electrical, plumbing, security, and so much more. It is designed to recruit people to many of these union and trade positions.

More details about jobs can be found here: https://www.fifcousa.com/careers/.

Here’s just one of the careers available at Genny.

Bruce Hill has seen every nook and cranny of the sprawling property over the last 29 years. Hill, a Rochester native, is a painter at Genny.

“I paint all over the brewery and make it look as presentable as possible,” said Hill, who has painted everything from the brewery’s main office to the exteriors of the towering warehouses.

This is why Hill loves his job and why he is encouraging others to explore employment opportunities at Genny:

• Why do you love working at Genny?

  It has been great. There is a lot of history here. From the benefit package to the people, it’s local Rochester history. You tell people you work at Genesee and they’re like, ‘Wow, really, you work up there?’ They get excited with you.

• How did you train for your position? Did you go to college? Are you part of a union? On-the-job training?

  I did some painting before here and I wasn’t sure where I was headed when I was in my 20s. A buddy of mine worked here. They had their own print shop here. He was the only pressman. He did all of their in-house printing here. He said there was a whole painting crew here and a couple of them were getting ready to retire. They weren’t looking for anyone right now, but there’s an opening in the sanitation department, the cleaning department. I thought about it and knew I had always heard good things about working here. He always had good things to say about it. I put my application in and 29 years later, here I am. I had just under two years cleaning and then a couple of the old-timers retired. Everyone knew me and my work habits. The rest is history. Here I am painting still.

• What are some of the more interesting or cool places you’ve painted during your time at Genny?

  I painted the restaurant (the Genesee Brew House). When you go in there with relatives, I painted all of this, a couple of times. All the greens and the reds that people can see driving by the brewery. We slowly changed the exterior color of the brewery from its old, I guess you would call it, old beer color we were trying to mimic. I went up to Norm Snyder (the former brewery CEO) more than 10 years ago and said, ‘Hey, I have an idea to dress this place up a little bit.’ I said, ‘Why don’t we use some color matches from the Dundee line, the porter, the IPA, and change some of these buildings up? We’re having the Rock the Cans concerts here and a lot of these old buildings needed to be spruced up. All of these reds and greens that people see as they walk around or drive past, I can think, ‘You know, that was my idea.’

• What are your favorite parts of working at Genesee?

  Being outside, especially this time of year, is awesome. I get to go up high, low. I’ve been in crane baskets, 130-foot boom lifts. I’ve been on swing scaffolds, bosun’s chairs. It’s not typical. It’s not like painting living rooms and bedrooms. It’s not that type of painting. It’s always something different. I get to work with the masons sometimes on bigger jobs.

• What’s your favorite Genesee beer?

  I usually choose Cream Ale. I think it has a little more sweetness, a little more flavor. But I like them all, especially the ones Dean Jones makes over at the Brew House. Those craft beers are some of the best you can get.

• What makes you most proud about working at Genny?

  I am here to do a job. I am pretty independent. It has been here since 1878. It’s Rochester history. If you tell people you work up at Genesee, they get excited. And the group that I work with, they’re outstanding, around the brewery and specifically in Building 21 in maintenance.  

• What advice would you give to someone wanting to work at Genesee?

  It’s treated me good for 29 years. Great people. We do good things for the community with the volunteer time off we do. They make it fun to work here. They treat us good. It’s been a good place. You put your time in and you get a lot of vacation. I would encourage it if they’re hiring.

More about this partnership

Genny wants to hire you! So by highlighting the wide variety of positions available at the brewery, the hope is that folks will see a college degree isn’t a necessity for a great career. Many of these union and trade positions come equipped with opportunity for learning and advancement.

Over the next three months, we’ll highlight some of the people behind the iconic beers in this space.

“We want to continue to attract people to union and skilled trades. There is a shortage of skilled workers, and the industry needs to attract more women and minorities. There are viable career opportunities for virtually anyone who wants to work in beer,” said Mary Beth Popp, vice president of communications, FIFCO USA. 

To learn more about working at the Genesee Brewery, go to: https://www.fifcousa.com/careers/