The information technology sector in the Lansing area has been growing since the late 1990s, becoming a bright spot in a historically heavy manufacturing-based local economy. Just ask the folks at the
Capital Area IT Council, who are working with area IT firms to keep up with the number of new jobs coming online in the IT field.
But just who are these people, these techies?
There are a plethora of pop-culture labels for the 13,500 tech-minded individuals behind this
local IT boom: geek, nerd, cyberpunk or hacktivist to name a few.
They are also often portrayed as pocket protecting, wire-rimmed spectacle wearers, with a software-coder’s pallid complexion and a fancy for comics and gaming.
Capital Gains decided to let a few representatives take on the task of dispelling this misrepresentation—and shed some light on what these folks actually do here Lansing.
Meet Chad Paalman, Frederick Schramm and Justin Welsch. Together they represent three high-tech companies that call the Capital region home.
They define what it really means to be a techie, what their interests are, and what they do when they’re not busy playing with the latest gadgets and gizmos, or figuring out new software.
NuWave Techies “We actually don’t wear propellers on our hats, like some people might think,” says 31-year-old Chad Paalman, laughing.
Paalman is a principal consultant at
NuWave Technology Partners, an
East Lansing telephone system and computer network integrator. He is also one of the five business partners heading the company.
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Michigan State University Agriculture and Natural Resources graduate and self-professed techie, Paalman enjoys the fast-paced, ever-changing nature of the IT world. “As we like to say internally, we like to be bleeding edge. And as you can imagine, bleeding edge internally isn’t always painless,” says Paalman jokingly. “I typically work part-time, you know, 80 hours a week.”
When this savvy IT professional isn’t in the office, he’s spending time outdoors, with a sport for every season.
“I guess I’ve always been kind of a thrill seeker. Now I’ve got a five-year-old daughter and six-year-old son, so I’m a little bit more cautious.” He enjoys duck, goose and deer hunting in the fall, goes downhill skiing in the winter and likes to be by the water all summer long.
On date-nights with his wife, they may enjoy a dinner at
Troppo, dance the night away at
Harem Urban Lounge, or take a ride on the
Michigan Princess, the paddlewheel riverboat that plies the Grand River in Lansing. “I always wonder why more people aren’t just hanging out there on the water in the evening,” he says.
Paalman can only go so far in dispelling the techie myth. Wonder what he’s watching on television lately? “Here’s the geek in me,” he admits. “I love ‘
Modern Marvels.’ I’m actually turning my son into a geek because he loves watching it as much as I do.”
As for the last DVD he watched? “My daughter asked if she could pop in ‘
High School Musical,’ so I saw it for the 800th time.”
Velocity in the CityBy day he’s a techie. And by night?
“I’m still a techie. I just can’t seem to shake it,” says Frederick Schramm, 37-year-old network engineer at Lansing's
Velocity IT Services.
To Schramm, a techie is someone who loves a challenge. “There’s always a new gadget that someone wants to connect to their computer. [Even if] I’ve never seen it before, I know I can make it work.”
But if you’re looking for Frederick Schramm after hours, “You might find me at Barley’s, Buddies,
Champps or Art’s,” he says. ”I love bar food.”
He also spends lots of time on
Lansing’s River Trail to make up for his bar food indulgences. “[You can go] from MSU to
Old Town, It’s a lot of fun to get out there and enjoy,” he says.
And Schramm certainly knows how to enjoy himself in Lansing. “There’s always something to do. From
Common Ground, to the
Olds Museum, to the festivals in Old Town, to
Lugnuts ball games. There is quite a lot that Lansing has to offer.”
As a network engineer, his job provides ample variety. “A day is never the same. I wake up in the morning and think about what I need/want to work on. By the end of the day, I’ve worked on about half-a-dozen other tasks that I never expected.”
Mostly, he loves the status that comes with being a techie. “It seems I’m always the hero of the day. People are always glad to see me when there is a ‘fire’ to put out.”
TechSmith’s Indiana JonesJustin Welsch, 29, is a software engineer at
TechSmith Corporation in Okemos. He believes that you can apply the term “techie” to just about anyone.
“Take a photographer who really likes digital cameras and has a fundamental understanding of how they work. They may not be considered traditionally a techie, but I would consider them a techie because they would have an in-depth practical knowledge of how something works.”
Welsch’s family owns
Fenn Valley Vineyards in Fennville, Michigan. He got his start in technology as a teenager, working on a Web site for the vineyard.
“Since it was a family business, I got to work there whether I liked it or not. I was assigned various tasks including working in the field—which isn’t all that fun. So I gravitated towards computers.”
He looks nothing like the techie prototype and has the same thrill-seeking qualities that Paalman mentioned. And with no children to keep him ‘cautious,’ Welsch and his girlfriend recently spent time caving at
Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky.
“It was a lot of fun. You kind of felt like you were a kid because you get to get dirty and climb all over things.”
He has also just returned from a trip to Norway with Michigan State University. “A few months ago, they were offering to let their alumni come along on a study-abroad trip they were taking to do arctic studies. So I decided to go.”
When he’s not spelunking or studying the arctic, Welsch is socializing with co-workers at Lugnuts games, or enjoying Lansing’s downtown scene.
“Not enough people go to the downtown area. My girlfriend spent some time in New York and she says it reminds her of New York. I spent a bit of time in Chicago, and it kind of reminds me of that, too.”
These adventurous, outdoorsy IT professionals suggest that not every Lansing techie belongs to a geek squad after all (even if some do watch High School Musical).
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For more on another area IT powerhouse, Liquid Web, click on the video.