Photo courtesy of Boeing Co.

John Perdoch works on the Camaro that got him interested in becoming a Boeing engineer at his home near Mukilteo.

It all started with a Camaro.

It’s parked in a garage near Mukilteo now, but even John Perdoch smiles over how the 24-year-old car helped put him where he is today: Working as a Boeing engineer.

``If you ask my parents, they’ll say it played a major part,’’ said Perdoch, recalling how he bought the Camaro 10 days after he turned 16, back in Pennsylvania.

Now he’s 25, doing complicated work reviewing engineering quality on the 787 Dreamliner, but it was the Camaro that got him started.

The car belonged to a distant relative, Perdoch said.

``I turned 16, and asked him if he ever thought of selling it,’’ he said, remembering how it had 53,260 miles on the odometer.

Perdoch and his dad began working on the car, and he made a discovery.

``I liked putting things together,’’ he said. ``The more I played with it, the more I liked doing it.’’

That means the 1987 metallic-red Z28, still in its original paint, looks largely stock from the outside, but is far different inside.

Popping the hood, Perdoch shows how the 5.7-liter V-8, which put out 225 horsepower when it was new, now generates 300 horsepower in dynamometer testing. The original automatic transmission is long gone, replaced by a six-speed manual shifter.

It’s not the changes in the car, however, that are really important. Rather, it’s the changes in Perdoch’s life. He notes that some of the lessons he’s learned could have big implications for other kids who might like messing around with cars, but haven’t thought much further.

``Cars are cool,’’ he said, ``but not as cool as airplanes.’’

Perdoch grew up in Allentown, Pa., and the Camaro still has a decal on the back showing how it was sold new by a dealer in Kutztown, Pa.

He’s the first engineer in his family. And he's among a net increase of about 9,000 new employees at Boeing that’s taken place since January 2011, according to Boeing figures.

Strong demand for commercial jets is driving hiring, with hiring targeted mostly in Washington and South Carolina to support commercial-aircraft manufacturing-rate increases on 737, 747, 767, 777 and 787 jetliners, reported the company.

Perdoch knew when he started applying to colleges that he wanted to pursue a career in aerospace; he chose to study mechanical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh to get a broad base of knowledge.

During his sophomore year, he began participating in a Boeing cooperative education program – a kind of internship – that let him work in engineering while earning his degree, sometimes working for a semester and then going to school for a semester.

``It’s hard to get bored doing that,’’ he said.

Because of a developing interest in aerospace, he chose to work with Boeing in St. Louis, with Boeing paying his tuition through a Learning Together Program.

“When I first started applying for co-ops, I had a bigger interest in commercial aviation, but the offer I got was in St. Louis doing defense work, and I really enjoyed that,” Perdoch said. “I learned that work that supports the military is work that supports the country, and it was pretty fulfilling for me to work with active military personnel.’’

Over the next few years, he took part in programs as diverse as the Space Shuttle, the Harpoon Block III missile, EA-18G Airborne Electronic Attack aircraft and Future Combat Systems.

He also learned about the benefits of job rotation. “In the St. Louis co-op program, they highly encourage you to do a different job in a different group every time,” he said. “That let me see different areas of the company and helped me figure out what I wanted to do.”

At one time, he adds, he thought of going into the auto industry, partly because of his experience with the Camaro, but found aviation far more intriguing.

``Boeing is by far the most interesting company,’’ he said.

In August 2008, Perdoch got his Bachelor of Science degree and that September he went to work on the 787 program with the Camaro moved to Everett on a trailer.

“I came to Commercial Airplanes because I was interested in seeing the country, and Seattle was a new area for me,” he said. “I was also curious to see the difference between commercial and defense and space programs.

“It’s cool to work on the Dreamliner. It’s something that everyone is talking about, not just people at Boeing,’’ he said.

Before beginning work, Perdoch was given a week of training on two types of design platforms. His formal job title is as a structural analysis engineer. He often works with computer-aided design software, discovering problems, then investigating to find solutions.

In addition to receiving on-the-job training and taking classes at lunchtime, Perdoch is also going after a master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics at the University of Washington, again with assistance from Boeing’s Learning Together Program.

Perdoch has wasted no time taking advantage of development opportunities.

“Boeing has a lot of rotation, development and training programs, locally and around the country,” he said. “Even if you don’t have plans to change jobs, it makes you a better employee because you have a wider knowledge.”

As busy as Perdoch is with work and graduate school, he hasn’t forgotten about the car that started it all. “The Camaro is a toy,” he admits. “I spend more time goofing around with it than driving it.’’

When he first arrived in the Everett area, he made sure he got an apartment with a garage, and for the past couple of years, he’s been renting a house with a two-car garage.

Perhaps most remarkably, Perdoch notes the Camaro only has about 70,000 miles on it now, so he’s driven it less than 2,000 miles a year, getting the most fun out of working on it.

``I always like trying to figure out why it broke,’’ he said.