Student Profiles

Jonathan K.

Rapid City, S.D., native Jonathan grew up West River with an intense passion for hockey. However, he never dreamed hockey would inadvertently lead him to the trailhead of his career at Daktronics. He first heard about Daktronics when he was attending a hockey game in Brookings.

“I was pointing out the huge buildings on the side of the interstate and asked my dad about them,” said Jonathan. “He told me it was Daktronics and proceeded to tell me what they did.”

Hearing about Daktronics roused Jonathan’s curiosity and he took a student position as a Buyer/Planner in Electronic Assembly. In this position, Jonathan became familiar with Glovia, an enterprise resource planning system; Glovia is a vital instrument in understanding supply and demand. He was also introduced to the world of purchasing commodities and materials planning. Driven by personal interest and an enthusiasm for learning, Jonathan accelerated from the least experienced to the most experienced Buyer/Planner student within his department within three short months. Moving up the ladder so quickly opened many opportunities for Jonathan, and gave him the experience needed to train new Buyer/Planner students.

Kayla A.

Kayla did not want to wait tables while attending college at South Dakota State University. She wanted something bigger that would give her mechanical engineering experience, and she found this in Daktronics.

She originally heard about working at Daktronics from some friends who also worked at Daktronics while they attended school. After she was hired, she began taking responsibility in a variety of roles.

One of Kayla’s first projects was to design a cart that could move the indoor scoreboards around in the shipping corrals. “I had to design all of the metal parts in ProE—which was a good learning experience since the program was new to me — and then send them to get made on the manufacturing floor, and assemble it once the parts came back,” said Kayla.

“This gave me the opportunity to become familiar with ProE, Windchill, Glovia, and the rest of the programs that are frequently used that I didn’t have any experience in.”

She said there were a few bumps along the way as she worked through this memorable project. However, she said her co-workers are always there to help, which enabled her to learn from these challenges.

“Having my own project to complete has brought up some issues that I’ve had to solve on my own, but at the same time has been a good learning experience,” she said. “It’s nice to know that my coworkers and supervisors are always willing to help or answer any questions I may have.”

Kayla said being able to watch ideas become reality is something she really enjoys about her job at Daktronics.

Kyle F.

As a student, Kyle found it exciting to be given the rare opportunity to work for a company well-known all over the world.

While he attends South Dakota State University in pursuit of a degree in construction management, Kyle is putting his knowledge to work in real-life experiences through Daktronics. Although he is learning a lot in school, Kyle said Daktronics has showed him that things do not always go as planned.

“I have learned that a lot of the theories from school and on paper don’t always work out in real case situations,” he said. “It takes creative thinking and quick decision making to be able to keep up with the fast-paced real world.”

Kyle currently works as a student project manager in the Reseller department of Daktronics. This job requires Kyle to help other project managers in different areas of their work, which involves specifications, quotes, contracting, and scheduling meetings with subcontractors and clients.

Tru B.

When Tru first began at Daktronics in the Information Technology Department, she didn’t have a lot of experience working with computers. However, after a little time and training she was not only successful at work, but she also was able to use her knowledge at home.

“I have learned a lot since working here. When I first started in IT, I didn’t know a lot about computers or other IT equipment, but having the opportunity to work in that department was actually a lucky opportunity,” said Tru. “I was able to fix minor things on my personal computer based on the information I learned working in IT.”

While working in IT, Tru was involved in helping deploy and retrieve IT assets such as computers, monitors, and phones.

Although she said she enjoyed the people she worked with in the IT Department, she took advantage of the flexibility Daktronics offers students, and transferred positions to test out another sector of the company in High School, Park, and Recreation (HSPR).

She said jumping into her new role after working in IT came with a whole new set of challenges. However, she welcomed this and was able to adapt with the help of her fellow employees who were always willing to help her.

“Learning the difference between all the displays took a while, but understanding them all and what components they have helped a lot in my position. Along with knowing all the different models I also had to learn how everything was priced as and that certain scoreboards and displays are priced differently than others,” said Tru. “I am very lucky that I work with great co-workers because they were always willing to help me out when I had questions.”

Tevis H.

As a South Dakota native, Tevis grew up seeing Daktronics scoreboards at area high schools. He also knew it is one of the largest companies in the state.

Therefore, while attending South Dakota State University, Tevis knew Daktronics would be the perfect place to gain professional civil engineering experience before he graduated and would help put him ahead of the crowd.

He began at Daktronics in August 2010 as a Systems Engineering student. There he was able to work on large projects and create shop drawings, parts, and assembly drawings as well as many other project-specific documents.

Then, in 2011 a Mechanical Design student position opened and he applied for the job, which he was successful in getting.

“The experience I have gained from this position has greatly helped me develop as a professional and as an engineer,” said Tevis. “I feel that my experience at Daktronics will make my résumé stick out to future employers because I have already gained experience in structural engineering that most people won’t get a chance to do until after they graduate.”

Working at Daktronics has also given Tevis the opportunity to collaborate on projects all over the world.

“The jobs I’ve had at Daktronics have allowed me to work on some interesting projects all over the world, including: the Mexico City Arena, Cines Callao, Colorado Rockies, Florida Marlins, Orlando Magic, University of Texas, Notre Dame, and many other event centers, colleges, and high schools,” he said. “A couple of my favorite projects were close to home like SDSU and the Mitchell Corn Palace.”