Inspiring Success

When IT-Ready Apprentice Program graduate Ngina Baggett, 26, posed for a close-up this summer, she was a little bit apprehensive. “You’re going to put my photo where?” Just a few weeks later, her photo was on three billboards in Minnesota’s Twin Cities. “I love it!” said Baggett, who recently began a full-time technical support position that she credits IT-Ready’s training with helping her to land.

For Adam Henson, establishing a career in the field of information technology once seemed impossible. “With IT, it’s hard to get a job without experience, but it’s hard to get experience without a job,” he said. “It was a real Catch-22.” Then he learned about IT-Ready. Henson, working as a meter reader for an energy company at the time, was perusing job postings on the Careerbuilder website when he saw an ad for IT-Ready.

Looking at the jobs she’s held, it’s apparent that Rachel Hopkins enjoys helping people. She’s managed a dry cleaner, operated an apartment complex, and supervised staff in a call center. But somehow, each of those positions lacked a certain….something.

In an economic recession, IT employers are inundated with job applications from qualified candidates – right? Wrong. At least, that’s not been Guy Guckenberger’s experience as general manager of MTCI’s IT consulting division in Cincinnati. “People have the misconception that in a down economy, there are a lot of qualified people looking for jobs, but that simply hasn’t been the case for us,” he said.

Until recently, Kathleen Brennan’s job was helping to sell GPS electronics to large retailers around the Twin Cities, MN. She’s still helping people locate a true direction, but in a slightly different way. Now Brennan is helping them find careers in technology.

Melanie always knew she was good with technology, even if others assumed that being a woman was some sort of technology handicap. “I get really mad when I go shopping for electronics and guys talk down to me and act like I don't know what I'm talking about,” she says.