While Lewis Butler ’07 focused a large majority of his talk last Thursday on policy and lobbying for the solar energy industry, he said he wanted students to come away hearing one message: “Come work at Simpleray.”
Butler and two other Hillsdale alumni, Wayne Pugh ’06 and Jerry Perkins ’06, visited campus with Career Services to recruit students for employment at Simpleray, formerly known as Iowa Wind and Solar. The three had open positions that they hoped to fill with Hillsdale graduates.
Butler, Perkins, and Pugh met with students for lunch on Thursday, and that evening, Butler, sales manager at Simpleray, gave a talk on policy and solar energy. After his talk, the three hosted students for a networking cocktail hour at Park Place. The recruiting trip is unique to Hillsdale. Butler said it’s the only college from which he and his coworkers are recruiting.
“We are growing and we need to hire folks,” Butler said. “It’s incredibly hard to hire good people. We all have this deep belief that we can just walk on campus and hire anybody here. Hillsdale people are good people.”
While Butler said he wanted to hire Hillsdale students because they are “inherently good people,” Perkins, operations manager, cited the skills Hillsdale students have upon graduation.
“They have the ability to think on their feet and be flexible and to think through a process and how it will affect not only the immediate thing but the thing after that,” he said.
In his Thursday evening talk, Butler focused on Simpleray’s role in lobbying and policy-making. Junior finance major and math minor Brittany Loomis attended the talk to earn extra credit for her game theory class, but she said she came away with an interest in working for Simpleray.
“I didn’t realize how much policy was involved and how they have to consider every state that they enter into business with because that affects their customer and the demand they’re going to have for their product,” she said.
Simpleray has not hired any Hillsdale students yet, but Butler said there is a high likelihood they will. Simpleray will also offer a few summer positions for Hillsdale students. The positions will be paid internships based in Grand Rapids and will work with the internal sales team.
