Neil Regan had long worked in the electronics manufacturing industry, dealing will all aspects from design to buying components, assembling and testing units, to running the operations.

Babak Zavieh had built himself a secure livelihood as carpenter and contractor, but wanted to do something a little less physical.

After working for a company that packaged open source software, Matt Randrup decided to pursue a degree and a career in information technology.

Arun Elangovan and Wale Soyinka are both recent university graduates and are looking for practical training that will give them an edge as they seek careers in information technology.

Although they have varied backgrounds and reasons for getting into the IT field, all five have just embarked on Lab internships designed to give them hands-on, real-world experience in supporting the computing and networking needs in a demanding environment. The program places students from East Bay community colleges in groups within the Information Technologies and Services Division, where they work 20 hours a week earning both pay and experience.

"In making my career change, I left a situation where I was one of the sharpest knives in the drawer and now I'm an entry level butter knife," said Goodstein. "By doing an internship, the people here will know I'm a learner, apprenticing myself to people who know what they're doing."

Goodstein said one of the things he enjoyed most about working as a printer was teaching new hires the ins and outs of the job -- and then giving them increasing responsibility as they progressed. Before leaving the business, he gave management a try, but decided to see what else was out there. The classified job ads, he said, were filled with page after page of computer-related jobs, so he took the IT plunge. That was at the height of the dot-com boom, he notes, "and my timing was horribly off."

Still, he kept taking classes at the College of Alameda, earning his certificate in computer information systems and getting certified for Cisco networking systems. Some of his fellow students talked about the Lab, which has also worked with many of the community college teachers to help develop curricula.

"It seemed like a really cool place to work, so I applied for the program and was accepted," he said.

From now through May, he will be helping out on the Lab's computer support help desk, answering calls, resolving those problems within his expertise and escalating the jobs that need more experience.

"I'm looking forward to it," he said, "but not without some trepidation."

Neil Regan came to the Lab highly recommended by his networking teacher at the College of Alameda. Once while troubleshooting a problem at the school, the instructor asked Regan for help and he identified the cause -- a duplicate DHCP server that caused conflicts with the computers in the lab.

Before going back to school, his career included working as a senior electronics engineer for Burroughs, programming Fairchild test equipment at Memorex, doing in-circuit testing for General Radio, and using computers to analyze manufacturing material needs at Applied Materials. But it was while working as a production manager for BMG Controls that he got interested in computers. One of the company's products was complicated software for accurately measuring how much material to load from silos to trucks.

"A systems engineer who worked for me explained a lot of troubleshooting procedures and that sparked my interest in PCs," Regan said. "I thought, 'This is interesting stuff.' "

His last job had him planning the entire move, including design of the new IT infrastructure, for a company squeezed by the economy. Despite getting the job done within the 60-day deadline, the company eventually failed. Soon afterward, Regan began earning his A+ certification in hardware and software, then went on to complete his Network+ certificate last June. He's now working on his Cisco certification.

During his stint at the Lab, Regan will help set up and install new Micron PCs, as well as help out with an evaluation of new server monitoring software. He will also work on a project to help with a program to "push" automatic updates of anti-virus software out to users' computers.

"Hands-on opportunities are really what I'm looking for to help my career," he said. "I've taken a number of foundation classes and now I want to take advantage of opportunities to learn more here."

Arun Elangovan graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in electrical engineering/computer science in May 2002 -- just in time face a shrinking job market and an overflowing pool of competition from laid-off IT workers. He did get a part-time job doing Web development at the UC School of Optometry, and began taking a Cisco class at the College of Alameda. That's where he heard about the Lab's internship program.

Although he had heard about the Lab while studying at Cal, he didn't know a whole lot about the institution. "But a couple of my friends had worked up here and said they got to do a lot of interesting things," he said.

Elangovan will be working on Web development in the Information Systems and Services Department. The job, he said, will both reinforce his past experience and give him in-depth training in new areas.

"I thought it would be a really good opportunity to learn new things and add to my resume," he said. "It will make me more marketable when things pick up."

Babak "Bobby" Zavieh spent a year and a half doing research and thinking long and hard before deciding to quit his secure work as a general contractor and go back to school to study IT. Much of the credit, he said, goes to his wife and her family.

One of his wife's brothers had muscular dystrophy and due to his disability, used his computer as his window on the world and to write music. Along the way, he learned how the systems worked, though he couldn't do the work himself. When he needed help with the hardware or software, he'd call Zavieh and talk him through the steps. When the brother upgraded his system, he gave the old computer to Zavieh. "I always had to call him when I had a problem, but I really wanted to be able to fix it myself," Zavieh said. "In working with him, I realized I wanted to go into IT as a career."

After he and his wife studied their finances, they agreed Zavieh could quit his job and take classes at Diablo Valley College, where his younger brother had taken classes. It was his first time in the classroom in 15 years and his first time ever in an American school. He had obtained his formal education in France, where his family moved in 1978 from Iran.

He has taken classes in hardware, networking and Microsoft applications. "What's good is they are all interconnected -- they all talked about the same thing, but from different points of view," he said. "The technical side was overwhelming, but I soon realized, 'I can do this.' Two years ago, I couldn't even create a file and store it in a folder."

The internship, he says, will give him specialized skills needed by others to solve their problems. That same idea, and the lure of a better paycheck, is what led him into the building trades. After moving to the U.S. in 1985, he was working as a department store stock person when the store began renovating. Zavieh got to be friends with one of the carpenters, who one day showed him a weekly paycheck for $1,700 - far more than the $8-an-hour wage Zavieh was earning at the time.

"People need services and if you are specialized in what they need, you can earn a good living here," he said.

Zavieh will begin honing his skills as part of the group setting up and installing 80 new PCs in the Facilities Division. He will also do general Mac and PC support as a member of the Mac/PC Support Group.

Matt Randrup is also a student at DVC, studying computer science in a program designed to help him transfer to a four-year school. Randrup grew up in the East Bay and has held jobs from driving a taxicab in San Francisco to working for Walnut Creek CD-ROM, a company that packaged shareware and freeware, including Linux and FreeBSD, as well as hosting the FreeBSD project.

"By chance, that was my first exposure to this field," Randrup said.

During his internship, he will be working for the Lab's centralized computer backup service, helping with the software, support and a growing list of related projects.

While he's not sure of his ultimate career direction, he's keeping an open mind. "I really don't know what all is out there at this point, but I'm willing to walk through doors as they open," he said.

Although he graduated with honors from the University of Lagos in Nigeria, Wale Soyinka wasn't earning a living with his degree in mathematics. Instead, he found himself more interested in fiddling with computers. "But the more I played with them, the less I found I knew," he said, "and I became thirsty to learn more."

He taught himself, doing research and reading books. Two years ago, he began taking classes at Ohlone College and working as an IT consultant. He wants to gain expertise in Linux and UNIX computer clusters while working at the Lab to increase his abilities as a consultant.

One of his assignments will be to help provide support for ITSD's recently launched Scientific Computing Support project, which will provide a wide range of support services for a handful of new Linux-based clusters used by Lab researchers. The first of those clusters, a 50-processor system, arrived this month.

Soyinka will also be doing system administration work with the UNIX Support Group and helping with the ongoing effort to modernize the UNIX distributed printing system.

"We're really happy to have such a talented group of interns working with us over the next few months," said Charlie Verboom, head of desktop support for the Lab and leader of the internship program. "In our experience, the interns quickly rise to the challenge and provide valuable support for our efforts. In return they get immersive experience that helps them prepare for their long-term careers."

Photos by TEID.