Seth Huber, an engineer with National Fuel, returned to Floyd C. Fretz Middle School on Wednesday to speak with seventh graders during a Lunch and Learn session by Tina Slaven, career mentor for Bradford Area School District.

Slaven introduced Huber to students and said of the Lunch and Learn program, “We bring in guest speakers to share their career paths. Last time it was virtual with Stephanie Scrivo and today we have a live presentation with an engineer from National Fuel Gas who will be sharing his career journey.”

Huber, a Bradford Area High School graduate, held the attention of the 20 students in the room for the entire presentation. He told them all about being their age and not knowing what he wanted to do later in life, that he didn’t excel in English language arts, but that he enjoyed science and math all throughout his school years. After graduating from Penn State University, with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, Huber took a position with National Fuel in Kane.

“It wasn’t in my career field,” Huber said. “I was running an excavator and laying pipes.” However, Huber added, it got him in the door, and now he is a field facilities engineer with a master’s degree in project management.

Huber explained to the students that being 22 years old and fresh out of college has both opportunities and challenges, and that there are lessons to learn along the way — some of which they could start learning now.

“Solving problems and doing new things every day are the most rewarding parts of the job,” Huber noted. But at his young age, the toughest part is delegating work to others as a supervisor. “I learned to be humble and realize that many of the people I work with have much more experience than I do, even if I am the supervisor,” he said.

He also advised students to be prepared to take responsibility for the successes of a job as well as the mistakes.

“Deal with adversity, problem-solve and make a decision. Don’t rely on others and don’t blame others.”

The most difficult part of Huber’s job, he said, was not really part of engineering at all.

“Technical skills can be taught; personality traits cannot. Having the skills of dependability, good communication, flexibility and organization are musts.”

He added, “It’s easy to get lost in the day-to-day shuffle being distracted and unproductive leading to forgetting the common goal of why you are getting paid to do your profession. The tool I use to stay productive is stress relief outside of work. Hobbies and experiences outside of professional life refresh the mind, which allows the time allocated for work to be focused on tasks at hand.”

His outside activity, he told the students, was riding his dirt bike.

“It’s something I have done all my life. And, it’s good to have something outside of work, but when you’re at work it’s time to do the task at hand.”

The students were engaged while Huber talked about the process of taking the gas out of the ground, filtering and dehydrating it, and getting to homes. He showed them the math equation used daily in his work.

“I only see my boss once or twice a month and I cover all of Pennsylvania as my territory; I have to have ambition and a willingness to learn and crosstrain,” he said. These are the biggest assets to his profession. Huber expressed the need to keep relevant as one way to stay in the game. He attends training and vendor workshops and network conferences, and is a member of the Natural Gas Political Action Committee.

Students asked what his favorite job has been. He said he enjoys the smaller projects the most because he gets to design them and see them all the way through to the end. Another student asked what was the longest project he has worked on, to which Huber responded, “There is a project that has been going on for as long as I have been here, about five years now. That’s one that takes a lot of attention because it has been going for so long.”

They asked about any danger on the job. Huber explained that he works with an explosive material that is dangerous, but also assured them that he has not had any injuries while on the job.