Cory Hillebrand’s introduction to fire protection came early in his college career. Originally intending to major in mechanical engineering, he took an elective course freshman year that convinced him to switch to fire protection, and he hasn’t looked back.
“I like how many different topics there are, and I knew right off the bat I wouldn’t be doing the same thing day in and day out,” says Cory, who joined Harrington Group, Inc. as a fire protection technician in mid-November. “I get to work with the electrical, mechanical and plumbing guys, putting it all together under one roof.”
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in fire protection engineering in 2012, Cory assisted the acting fire marshal for the Chicago Argonne National Laboratory for a few years. He then moved to Las Vegas, where he did “basically everything that you could do that’s fire-related,” including sprinkler design, fire alarm design, smoke control, egress and code consulting.
As part of HGI’s growing team, Cory has spent the first couple weeks training, meeting his new colleagues, and getting up to speed on all the systems and processes. He doesn’t mind working from home and will continue to work remotely once the pandemic is over, but he looks forward to visiting job sites and traveling for projects. Outside of work, Cory spends a lot of his time at the gym, either lifting weights or training in mixed martial arts.