I was 15 and needed a Summer job that I could get to without a car. I found a small Machine shop about a 1 mile from my house, and wen to see if they had any openings for someone with no work experience. They offered me a decent hourly rate to clean up at the end of the day and help with other odd projects, but it afforded me a glimpse at how raw metal became valuable products. In this case it was landing lights for airports. The shop foremen took to showing me how the machines worked after the day was done. That’s all it took.