BYU student Jordan Stastny’s summer job with Vivint was more than the typical summer-sales program for security, home automation or solar energy. In fact, as an intern and member of the Vivint Fellows program, Stastny had a totally different focus, making an impact that will set him above the crowd as he moves ahead in his future.
“He did such a good job we kept him around while he is in school,” said Tim Lott, energy products director at Vivint, concerning Stastny, a 23-year-old economics major from Meridian, Idaho.
As a Vivint Fellow, Stastny’s main role was to coordinate the construction of The Zero Home, a net-zero home in a climate 5 environment, with the project’s partner, Garbett Homes.
It was unlike the portrayed image of a college intern, fetching executives coffee and performing busy work.
“At Vivint, I was given a project that was actually very meaningful to the company,” Stastny said.
Concerning the project, Lott, one of Stastny’s mentors, said, “We wanted to create a story that was an aspirational story about what we do at Vivint, as well as Garbett and what they do as a home builder.”
Lott explained that the net-zero home is an affordable, state-of-the art home that produces more energy than it uses due to solar and other energy-efficient products in the home.
“It was cool to feel like I had a very large part in that, and I felt like they gave me a fair amount of responsibility,” Stastny said.
Concerning the construction of The Zero Home, he said, “I was given the net-zero home, to make sure that everything gets done, make sure everything is in the home.”
His responsibilities did not stop there.
On top of the building coordination, Stastny worked with Vivint and Garbett’s marketing departments to put together a grand opening event in August that garnered national attention, including media from Newsweek and Forbes, who attended the open house. The event also drew in various leaders including the mayor of Herriman and Sam Rashkin of the Department of Energy, who spoke at the grand opening.
When asked what he has gained from this internship, besides a job while going to school, Stastny replied, “A lot of project management experience and product management experience. You get your project, or product, and you get to own it.”
Stastny said he has received lots of instruction from great and talented people including many Harvard grads.
“They really went out of their way to make sure they weren’t using us for their work but were investing in us,” said Stastny about the Vivint Fellows program.
Stastny said he worked with other students as well as senior executives. Other interns included students from BYU, Harvard and Utah State.
“Vivint Fellows are recruited from the top schools in the country, trained in our cutting-edge innovation tools and given huge responsibility to build new businesses,” said Matt Eyring, chief strategy and innovation officer at Vivint, who oversaw Stastny.
The internship has also helped Stastny solidify his decision in going to business school, specifically a top-five business school.
Stastny believes that “The value of internships and genuine business experience is fairly underestimated,” and that aside from a good GPA and doing well in school, it is important to have experience that matters.
“An internship early and often is something that every single BYU student should do,” he said. “I would definitely recommend it.”
