When Brad and Sarah Cothran began their careers in telecommunications, they discovered they already had a connection: They had both received their business administration degrees from USC Upstate in 2005, though they didn’t know each other at the time.
“I was moving, and I looked at a commencement book, and I’m like, ‘my gosh,’” Sarah says as she recalled finding Brad’s name in the same program. “We were on the columns next to each other, only one person off. It was so crazy, so we framed it.”
Their degrees led them to more than each other. After a decade working in the telecom field, the couple decided to open their own business.
The Cothrans own SafeIT, which contracts with businesses to provide IT services. Clients pay a monthly fee and SafeIT acts as their IT department.
The couple has hired Upstate graduates and has participated in the university’s Date with Data event to offer other Spartans opportunities.
“We’ve been fortunate enough to employ three individuals that are Upstate graduates,” Sarah said, “and so we have some really great talent that has joined our team and makes SafeIT successful.”
One of them, Steven Lowe ’21, a computer information systems graduate, now works as a systems engineer. Prior to his current position, he worked with the service desk at SafeIT and at Epsilon.
“A lot of the entry-level and advanced networking has been invaluable from a troubleshooting perspective,” Lowe said. “Without my degree, I probably wouldn’t have made as large of a foray into programming as I did.”
Sarah says starting on a help desk is a great way for recent graduates to further develop their skills. “It’s absolutely the first step for most in that profession,” she says. “We love to hire someone in that first tier, or tier one level is what we call it.”
Both Cothrans have fond memories of their time at Upstate. Brad says courses like intermediate accounting challenged him, and Sarah praises the close-knit community she found in the business program.
“It made it feel like it was small enough that people cared about your success,” she said. “I really enjoyed knowing people, and knowing the professors cared was a big deal to me.”
Brad advises anyone applying for jobs to do their homework first. His education helped him land his first interview, he says, “but what won me the job that day is I studied their website like I was taking a college exam. I showed interest, and when they asked me interview questions, I related back to the website.”
Most importantly, he adds, “Make sure that where you’re wanting to go work is something you have interest in.”
Get in the spotlight.
Each month, we spotlight one of our alumni to learn about their experiences since graduation. Through their stories, often in their own words, we discover the impact Upstate has made on their journeys.