Meet Team Member Jacob Hofman

How long have you been at Energenecs?

Five years. I started out in the service department for the first three and a half years, working with Craig Sampo, Energenecs Lead Field Service Technician. Every day was spent at a customer’s site where I was troubleshooting, repairing, fixing, calibrating or installing water and wastewater equipment.

Within the Energenecs programming team, my strength lies in being very versed in instrumentation, because I started out in the service department. I did a lot of mechanical-type work when I was on the service side, like rebuilding pumps and putting in new seals. I have that service experience that I fall back on quite a bit.

How did you get into the water and wastewater industry?

I was at a company for fifteen years working on imaging equipment for DNA research, then one of my good friends, who is now an instructor at Moraine Park Technical College. told me about Energenecs. One thing led to another and here I am!

What is a typical day like?

Most jobs are scheduled in advance, but sometimes I just wake up and see what happens! It’s about 50-50 with office work and on-site work. On-site could be upgrades, installing new equipment, starting up new equipment. Or it could be a service call, which I still provide.

On a typical project, I’ll spend a couple of days programming and testing the equipment. Then three or four months later installing, then another two to three days starting it up, making sure it works and testing it on-site. From start to finish, most projects take six months to a year.

Where did you grow up?

I grew up on a dairy farm, a typical Wisconsin kid! I worked on the farm since I was a little kid, up at the crack of dawn. Luckily my parents pushed me to play sports in high school so I didn’t have to work constantly, but if I wasn’t at school or some sort of practice, I was doing chores!

I bought the family farm about four years ago and live in the house I grew up in with my wife and kids. We don’t have animals anymore, but we still have the original buildings. My parents kept about six acres and the rest is now public hunting land owned by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Are you a hunter?

No, not really. [laughs] I go hunting on opening weekend on my friend’s land in northern Wisconsin. That’s the extent of my hunting.

What do you like to do when you are not working?

I play basketball twice a week with a group of guys. Pre-covid we used to play at Marion University on the Fond du Lac campus. Hopefully it will get started up again soon!

Other than basketball, I have four kids and we are all very athletic. I have spent the last eight years traveling throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois watching them play softball and basketball.