About Capitol City:
True to its name, Capitol City ComputerFixx is a computer repair company based in St. Paul. It’s a rather small operation, with only two employees working out of the West St. Paul location. One is James Vigliotti, the company’s owner. This summer Vigliotti was joined by Mahamed Mahamed, a computer repair technician intern hired through the SciTech Internship Program. For the last two years, Vigliotti has turned to SciTech to find and hire the extra help his small business needs.
“I’ve had interns before, but never the success like I’ve had with SciTech,” Vigliotti said. “It’s a formalized system and you get multiple, quality candidates.”
When Vigliotti posted the position on SciTech’s job board this spring, he was approached by 20 or so interested students. Mahamed stood out by being timely and responsive in his communication with Vigliotti and expressing his eagerness to learn, thereby successfully securing his position at Capitol City.
About Mahamed:
Mahamed is currently studying network administration at St. Paul College. This was his first internship and he came to the opportunity hoping to gain some industry experience before applying for fulltime work.
“It was overwhelming at first,” Mahamed admitted, but he learned fast and gladly took on whatever responsibility he was given. By the second day he was already working on computers and running virus scans, by the first week he had fixed three computers on his own.
“That was great,” he recalled. “By the end I essentially ran the shop myself. My favorite thing was the confidence I gained, the techniques I’ve learned and the communication skills that I developed.”
In this line of work, Mahamed learned, communication and the ability to do so calmly under pressure is key.
“A lot of people come to us really nervous,” Vigliotti explained, “because their whole life is on their computer. But we usually save the day.”
Mahamed recently graduated and is looking forward to working in his industry fulltime. The cyber security field is particularly appealing. His advice to others hoping to get their foot in the door: apply for internships as soon as you can and pursue certifications outside of your degree. The more experience you have the better equipped you’ll be.
Get involved
Make an impact on a future STEM professional’s life and strengthen your talent pipeline. Start planning your internship today at scitechmn.org. At least 200 wage matches are available on a first come, first hire basis between now and August 2021.
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