“Another thing that’s great here is that you can make your job whatever you want it to be,” Wanzek says.

It’s fun to see the Basin Electric logo on sponsorship signs everywhere,” he says. Wanzek says he feels proud to work at the co-op. He says he likes a little bit of timeline-induced stress at times and always enjoys the opportunity to work with others. I was happy to be in the co-op world again,” he says. “I appreciate the way a cooperative works. Today, Wanzek is adamant he wouldn’t have come back into this career with a Bismarck business other than Basin Electric. “Or do I get back into what I’ve done for most of my career?” Is this where I’m meant to be?” he asked himself. In 2014, he learned Basin Electric was hiring. “But I worked on office projects and a variety of other things that needed to be done.”īut opportunity struck, thanks to relationships he’d developed during his years in the electric co-op business. He took what turned out to be almost two years away from a desk job and worked for his brother-in-law’s landscaping business. When Mike Wanzek and his family decided to leave Minneapolis, MN, and a career with Great River Energy to move to Bismarck, ND, Wanzek didn’t jump into the corporate workforce right away. In addition, we’re starting a blog feature here, by the same name. You may have seen the story in the March/April 2016 Basin Today Magazine, Be the Light: How Basin Electric employees shine in their work. A new ad campaign is being developed by Basin Electric with the line “ Be the light.” The ads show how Basin Electric and its member cooperatives can be the light in communities and homes like only a cooperative can.

World of light co op