The Life and Times of Benjamin Jones
Ben grew up in Monteview, Idaho. “Growing up in Monteview was fun! There are a lot of open spaces for bike riding, exploring, and just being a kid without worries,” Ben said. When he was not exploring, Ben was attending school in the West Jefferson School District. Ben’s favorite subjects in school were Math and Science. These subjects fueled his early desire to be an electronics engineer when he grew up. Ben also had an early interest in animals and had thoughts of being a veterinarian. Growing up Ben’s father was one of his biggest mentors, “My dad influenced me greatly with his desire to learn and tinker,” he said.
After high school, Ben moved to Idaho Falls and started a family. During this time, he held an internship for the City of Idaho Falls, studied computer networking, and delivered pizza to help pay the bills. Upon completion of his schooling, Ben applied for IT positions and accepted a job at ATC in Albion, Idaho. Over the past eight years, Ben has learned and grown immensely. Ben reflected on his early time with ATC and said, “My biggest learning curve was taking what I learned in school and applying it to my job. What you learn in school is a lot more theory than application, it was difficult to take what I learned and go through the steps to apply it.”
Ben’s current position is Systems & Network Technician where he is provisioning devices and helping employees with computer-related issues. Ben spends most of his day assisting the outside technicians with troubles and installations. In his spare time, Ben is working on projects such as server updates and new device research. Ben really enjoys working on projects, but more importantly, finishing them. When asked what puts a smile on his face, Ben’s response was, “Finally finishing a project makes my day.”
Ben has been a huge asset to ATC these past eight years, and we cannot thank him enough for his hard work and dedication. We love working with him daily, and he keeps our company moving forward in the right direction. When asked about the benefits of working at ATC Ben stated, “Working at ATC is like working with family. Everyone cares about each other, and all departments work very closely with each other.” We could not agree more and are so happy to have Ben as part of our working family. When asked about his favorite and least favorite part of his job, Ben replied, “My favorite part of my job is coming up with faster and more efficient methods to get jobs done. My least favorite part of my job is not having enough time in the day to really progress a project forward.”
Aside from work Ben is really into music. He enjoys playing the guitar and is starting to dabble in the piano. Ben is also health conscious and spends an hour or two every day exercising, stating “I really look forward to that.” If Ben could travel any place in the world, it would be Greece to see the ancient ruins. If he could spend a day with anyone in the world past or present it would be Leonardo Da Vinci. Ben said, “I would like to pick his brain on how he came up with so many out-of-the-box ideas and to watch his process.”
Ben was nominated by his peers for the employee spotlight in this month’s newsletter and it is easy to see why. Ben is helpful, hardworking, and solution-oriented. Our company would not be the same without him. Here’s what his coworkers had to say about him:
“He keeps my computer running so that I can do my job – I can call him and get him on the phone when computer problems arise. Always upbeat and laughing whenever I call him for help. Can’t help but smile and laugh along with him. Takes the time to answer my questions and will troubleshoot with me to resolve a problem, for me or for one of my customers.”
“Ben is a fantastic person! He always helps me when he can, and fixes my problems. Without ben I can’t do my job therefore he is the backbone of ATC”
“He has such good work ethic. He works hard every day. He is always willing to help out his coworkers.”