Krystle Fligg
Sales associate, Spectra Color Inc.
Krystle Fligg is a sales associate at Spectra Color Inc., a maker of color compounds and concentrates in Corona, Calif. Fligg, 22, has been with Spectra since 2014, but began working in plastics as a teenager.
Q : What was your first plastics job and why were you interested in the industry?
Fligg: I started helping my mom at her job in the shipping department at Ferco Color [a maker of color compounds and concentrates in Chino, Calif.] when she had breast cancer. I was maybe 13 or 14. I started working there full-time when I was 18 and did a lot of cross-training by working in a lot of different departments.
Then I worked as a personal assistant for a sales rep for [resin distributor] Entec Polymers for a while before going to Spectra. I've always loved the science behind the polymers
Q: What's been your greatest achievement so far?
Fligg: Being asked to work at a company where I hadn't even applied when I was only 21 years young! A sales rep from one of the other companies recommended me to Spectra.
Q: What's your current challenge at work?
Fligg: I don't face many challenges, I just solve them. But it would be nice to have more time to spend on sales. I also work in customer service and purchasing and I'm doing my ISO training, which should be done by the end of the year.
Sales is where I want to be. It's hard sometimes because of my age. I think sometimes a customer will say they don't want to work with a 22-year-old until they see what I'm capable of.
Q: What emerging technology or market most interests you?
Fligg: Masterbatches. It's been fascinating to learn how color matching is done.
Q: What about the plastics industry surprises you?
Fligg: How small the industry is. It's like a business high school. Everybody on the sales side is aware of everyone else. A lot of people have been in the industry for 25 or 30 years. Everyone knows somebody here.
Q: What's the best advice you've ever received?
Fligg: Life is a marathon not a sprint.
Q: What advice would you give to a person considering a career in the plastics industry?
Fligg: Don't be sensitive.
Q: Who's your mentor, or someone you look up to?
Fligg: My boss, Bob Shedd, president of Spectra Color.
Q: What job do you really want to have in the future?
Fligg: CEO
Q: What do you do to relax?
Fligg: Play tennis.