This summer the Nebraska Department of Labor partnered with 1st Job Lincoln to provide an internship opportunity in Labor’s IT division. Sam Rilett, a senior at Lincoln East High School this fall, learned of this opportunity through The Career Academy’s Computer Networking program and was hired as an Enterprise Support Technician at Labor.  

“I have always been fascinated with computers,” Rilett said. “In my sophomore year, I joined the SCC-LPS IT Focus Program in advanced programming languages. My long term goal is to study computer science, either at UNL or UNO. Dr. Hohensee talked about the possibilities of internships at The Career Academy and I was fortunate enough to be chosen to intern with the Nebraska Department of Labor, which was my first choice.”

Working under the guidance of Dan Krueger, Rilett was responsible for setting up close to 100 computers and other hardware in the Department of Labor’s Lincoln, Omaha, Grand Island, and Hastings offices, allowing the IT department to efficiently deploy assets and focus on other ongoing projects. Rilett also diagnosed and solved computer problems for staff members.

 “Sam brought passion to work each day to do his job as well as possible and a focus to make sure that our staff were served as needed,” Krueger said.

“The most enjoyable and most challenging part of my job was troubleshooting computer problems,” Rilett said. “I dealt with such issues as faulty hardware, connectivity issues, and application issues. I love the ability to solve problems creatively with computers and I loved the people I met during my internship. They made it fun to come to work every day. This job reinforced my desire to enter this field and helped prepare me for my future career.”

As part of his internship, Rilett was given hands-on training with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, several different Microsoft operating systems, including Windows 7, 8.1 and 10, along with an opportunity for training on security and network management.

“I learned the importance of good communication in business. I had to be able to write emails to coordinate with the people I was serving in a professional manner. I did not expect communication skills to be so important, and I am glad I had a chance to develop them during my internship,” Rilett said.

IT Supervisor Kevin Waechter said he wouldn’t hesitate to participate in the program again. “The agency and IT department benefitted by getting an individual who had a great skill set and demeanor and was able to handle our extra work load and take it off the shoulders of the IT Department, providing a service to our staff that was non-intrusive and gave them the tools to perform their jobs better,” he said.