Meet Alex Flamme, Mechanical Engineer at Huffman Engineering, Inc. (huffmaneng.com)
Tell us a little about your business. – Huffman Engineering, Inc. is an engineering firm that specializes in control system integration. We work with industrial customers with just about any manufacturing process, and we work with utility customers with water and wastewater needs.
How did you get started in the business? – Our engineering manager called out, “Mechanical Engineer?”, at a career fair my senior year of college as I was walking past. I probably wasn’t going to stop, but no one had directly tried to get my attention like that. I ended up interning with Huffman the last semester of my senior year and went on full time after graduation.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced professionally? – The biggest challenge I’ve faced is getting out of my comfort zone. I know I’ve done a lot of growing at Huffman and it’s because they so skillfully allowed me to work on the hard things while having the support I needed available if I got stuck.
What is the most unique or interesting thing about you that most people probably don’t know? – I have synesthesia. This is my go-to fun fact. There are a lot of different types of synesthesia, but I visualize time. If I have a meeting tomorrow at 2pm, I see that in my mind. A week is sort of a slanted rectangle with the Saturday and Sunday to the right of the weekdays. If I think about a year I see it on a horizontal line that has a page break for the turn of the century and darkens the farther back you go. The best is the months in a year. I know I developed it from a caterpillar layout my 2nd grade teacher had on the wall. It’s an oval with January starting on the left side. If you think I’m crazy, I want you to know it was a shock to find out people don’t visualize time.
What is your favorite quote or the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? – Something I try to remind myself of a lot is the quote “The only thing in life that stands between you and everything you’ve ever wanted to do… is doing it.” I have a lot of goals that I haven’t made progress on, so I try to use this quote as a reminder to not make excuses. I’m sure a lot of people have said something like this, but I got this one from the Youtuber, Casey Neistat.
If you could choose any other profession to be successful in, what would it be? – I can see myself being successful as a teacher. My parents were intentional in letting my brother and I make our own career path decisions, but my mom did always say she thought I’d make a good Principal. And I kind of think she is right.
What local nonprofit organization(s) are you passionate about or involved with, and are there any special reasons why? – My husband and I are involved in Special Olympics. Our team, the Nebraska Aviators, competes in bowling, track and basketball. I’ve only been involved for three years, but it’s been awesome to see how the athletes have developed in that time (and how much better at basketball they are than me).
What is your favorite book or the last good book you read? – One book I read in the last year that I would recommend is Jet Girl: My Life in War, Peace, and the Cockpit of the Navy’s Most Lethal Aircraft by Caroline Johnson. I actually listened to it as an audiobook that was read by the author. It is a good read for any woman in a career historically or currently dominated by men, and it is just plain interesting to hear about the life of a pilot.
If our readers would like to contact you, how should they do so? – huffmaneng.com | linkedin.com/in/alex-flamme-67a27b127/