Genesee: Made for the Trade, Volume 15

Campaign highlights variety and quality of jobs available at the state's oldest brewery

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

Salvatore Viavattene marvels at the people he works with at the Genesee Brewery.

Because the brewery dates back to 1878, it can be quite a mishmash of the old and the new, he said. Sometimes machines break and it’s not like you can just order a replacement part for a lot of these machines.

Viavattene said some of the skilled tradespeople at Genny are like magicians in their ability to troubleshoot.

“At other places if they need a part, they go get it,” Viavattene said. “Our people at Genny know how to make things work and mold stuff out of nothing. It’s amazing.”

Salvatore Viavattene, packing maintenance manager at the Genesee Brewery, is the latest Genny employee to be featured in the brewery’s Made for the Trade campaign.

The campaign shows the wide range of rewarding careers at the brewery. 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 showcases careers in packaging, operations, maintenance, carpentry, electrical, plumbing, security, and so much more. It aims to show the range of careers available without a college degree, those that can be obtained through union and trade training.

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

Here’s a bit more about Salvatore:

Q: How long have you been at the brewery and what is your current role?

A: Almost 16 years. I am the packing maintenance manager.

Q: What do you do in your role? What tradespeople do you oversee?

A: I oversee the electricians and I also oversee the bottle house mechanics group.

Q: What was your first job at Genny and how did you work your way up to this management role?

A: I actually started at Genesee as an electrician. After about a year, I was promoted to electrical group lead. And then I was a group lead for 12 years. In the last two years, I was promoted to maintenance manager.

Q: How did you prepare for your career at Genny? Did you go to college or receive on-the-job training?

A: Prior to coming to Genesee, I did go to a vocational school. I was also attending night classes at RIT for electrical engineering. I went from residential electrical to commercial to building machines and then segued into maintenance. I hopped around to a couple of different companies and here I am now at Genesee for the last 16 years. I've told everybody who would listen when they ask me, working here is like hitting the job lottery. It’s the best place I’ve ever worked. People value your opinion. And if you ever have questions or need help, people come out of the woodwork to help you. All you have to do is ask.

Q: What makes you proudest about working at Genesee?

A: It’s the people, it really is. The people that I work with are awesome. Having a job or a career is one thing. It pays the bills. But if all it is is about paying the bills and you can’t get along with the people you’re working with, what good is it? We spend a lot of time working here. Everybody is so supportive. It truly is like having another family.

Q: What makes Genesee different? As a maintenance supervisor, what are some of the things you and your team are tasked with?

A: There’s not a lot of area businesses that I’m aware of that have the skilled tradesmen to the extent that we have here at Genesee. A lot of companies outsource stuff. It’s a huge throwback, but it’s also a huge win for the company. The electricians here are tasked with a lot. If it has a wire, it’s theirs. They are not just tied to the production equipment. They’re tied to the infrastructure. They’re tied to brewing. They’re tied to the warehouse, as well as supporting a lot of the capital investments here. You name it, their fingerprint is on it. It’s far-reaching. Our packaging mechanics are truly specialized mechanics. It takes a lot of training, most of it on-the-job training, to learn these machines. From the filler, as soon as that liquid hits that container, right to the very end when it’s loaded onto the truck, they’re responsible for every single piece of equipment. We own it. We maintain it. Sometimes it is more challenging than others. It’s an old place. We’ve come a long way in the 16 years that I’ve been here. We have a lot of highly skilled individuals here.

Q: What’s your favorite Genny beer?

A: My favorite is definitely Genny Light. I’ve been drinking it for quite a while.

Q: What advice would you give someone hoping to work at Genesee?

A: The big thing is coming every day and trying. Just trying. Do you work, bury yourself in it, and put 100 percent effort in. If you put in that effort, you’ll get rewarded.

More about this partnership

Genny wants to hire you! 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 opportunities for learning and advancement.

“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/

Note: I want to sincerely thank readers for following this series for the past few months. And I want to sincerely thank Genny for partnering with me. It really has been an honor to share some of these stories. (And I hope this partnership, potentially in a different format, continues in the future.)