"Everyone here at Hallam-ICS has a story. Mine is about how I became an employee at Hallam. During the fall of 1988 I was a senior at the University of Vermont studying Electrical Engineering. Companies were coming to campus to set up interviews with seniors and I interviewed with a range of large firms, including Hewlett Packard, International Paper and Texas Instruments. I assumed that I would be moving to Boston or Colorado and begin my career working for a large, multinational company. Then, something unexpected happened.
My mother was a 1st grade teacher at Orchard School in South Burlington. That fall, she had a student in her classroom named Tyler Hallam. At the parent-teacher conferences, my mom met with the Hallams and during their conversation, she asked Dave Hallam “what do you do?” Dave went on to explain that he owned a consulting engineering firm in Burlington. When my mom told him that she had a son graduating from UVM, he said to have me come in to meet him.
We met and Dave offered me a job over the winter break. This sounded like a great idea and opportunity to earn some beer and ski money for my final semester. As it turned out, I really enjoyed the people at Hallam and the work that they were doing. I was also impressed by the culture and environment at the firm. I had worked for IBM the previous summer and while I enjoyed the work, I realized that I wanted to work for a smaller company, a place where I felt my voice would be heard and I could make a difference on a daily basis.
Before I headed back to school, Dave made me an offer to join Hallam Associates, P.C. (our name at the time) after I graduated. He told me he’d pay me $12.50/hour plus overtime for any work over 40 hours because he wanted his employees to live balanced lives and “we work to live, we don’t live to work.”
That was all I needed to hear. I started at Hallam in May, 1989, a week after graduating from college and have been here ever since. That was a pretty special parent-teacher conference and is My Hallam Story!"
