Advance Technology decided to go right to the source by launching an internship program during this fall semester. It developed several intern positions — sales, finance, design engineering, technician and remote engineering.
After weeding through 50 applications submitted through Internships.com, Johnson estimates that she interviewed 15 to 20 candidates and ultimately filled two of the positions. “They’re doing awesome,” she says.
Simopoulos just wishes Advance Technology took the step sooner. “We made a mistake not to build an apprenticeship and internship program within the company in earlier years,” he says. “We have been growing quickly and it would have been great to have had early career people growing within our company rather than always needing to go outside for additional talent.”
Advance Technology sees the benefits of recruiting from its internship program as going beyond simply finding young talent. “They can learn the way we do business and our unique approach,” Simopoulos says. “It’s great when you have a technician on staff that learned your company processes, installation standards and customer approach from the start of their career.”
The next step for Advance Technology is “going to job fairs in the area and pitching what we do to these young college students that are looking for a career path outside of sitting behind a desk.”
Walking around Advance Technology’s office in the outskirts of Portland, you don’t see a lot of employees sitting behind desks. They’re walking around, leaning on a collaboration station where design engineering supervisor Caleb Gaul discusses customers’ solutions with sales staff and engineers, talking mostly about customers’ projects.
It’s a fast-paced, non-traditional working environment, even though Abbott takes pride in maintaining core business values. “We’re sort of a ‘Maine company’ and an old-fashioned business,” he says. “That means take care of the customer and the customer takes care of you.”
What it means to take care of the customer has changed a lot during Advance Technology’s 20 years. Simopoulos relishes having played a role in updating the approach. “The way we’ve built our service program with remote services, doing health checks and proactive monitoring, it’s giving such a level of service to our customers that it’s outstanding,” he says. “I think we’re doing a great job.”
Meanwhile, one of those old-fashioned business values that Abbott alludes to is recognizing what customers need and evolving to deliver those solutions. “I’m excited about the future, because I think we’re onto something that not everybody is onto,” he says. “When everybody figures it out in three or four years, we’ll be miles ahead.”
