About the company:
Jeff Borglum founded Techie Dudes to provide technical support for the small businesses and residents of White Bear Lake. He and his team were pretty busy during the pandemic, helping people set up their home offices as many transitioned to a work-from-home setting. Business for Techie Dudes was so good in fact that Borglum decided to hire an intern to help them and turned to the SciTech Internship Program to find a high-quality candidate for the position.
“I was referred through Ostra [also a SciTech company], and I asked them, ‘How do you find good technicians?’ They turned me on to interns through SciTech. It’s really tough out there right now to find good, reliable people but then I found Brad and he’s just been awesome to work with.”
Borglum knew what he was looking for in an intern, and after finding Brad Crep’s student profile on SciTech, he reached out to him about the position. Crep is a Computer Information Systems major at Century College with previous experience in geographic information systems and customer service.
“He had the ability to solve problems and he had good customer service skills. It’s not easy to find that perfect balance, but Brad was that balance,” Borglum said.
Meet the intern:
As an IT intern, Crep was partnered with a fulltime technician and often worked in the lab fixing computers. On a given day he might tackle blue and black error screens, address hard drive problems or work at the front desk helping customers. His favorite task he said was anything hands-on, especially taking computers apart so he could fix them.
“Brad is a machine,” said Borglum. “He’s in the lab working on eight to twelve computers at a time. I’ve learned a lot about his work ethic and his drive.”
In the couple of months since he started, Crep has come a long way. Now, he’s even mentoring one of Techie’s high school interns from the White Bear Lake Area High School’s Career Pathways Program.
Looking back on the experience, Crep has especially enjoyed the team at Techie. “They’re a great bunch of people to work with,” he said. “They gave me options and showed me new ways forward and that’s really appreciated.”
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 90 wage matches are available on a first come, first hire basis between now and August 2021.
Are you a returning student? The new program year is underway! Reactivate your account and start applying for internships today.