Aaron and Mary Klette: Making careers in Great Falls

Aaron Klette

Age: 30

Hometown: Conrad

Professional career: A master electrician and owner of Klette Electric in Great Falls.

Mary Klette

Age: 26

Hometown: Conrad

Professional career: An architect in training at Nelson Architects in Great Falls and chief financial officer and owner of Klette Electric. She is a member of the Great Falls Design Review Board.

Family: The couple have a 2-year-old daughter Landen.

After Mary Klette finished her degree in architecture at Montana State University-Bozeman, she and her husband Aaron both had jobs in the college town.

"But when we looked at where we were spending our free time, we were always coming back up to northcentral Montana to visit our families in Conrad," she said.

They decide Great Falls would be a great place to pursue their respective careers and still be close to their hometown.

"Frankly a lot of people were surprised," Mary Klette said of their move to the Electric City in 2010.

Aaron Klette joined Liberty Electric and two years ago attained his Master Electrician license. A year ago the couple launched Klette Electric, which does commercial, industrial and residential work.

"Great Falls gives me the opportunity to bid on more commercial jobs than we would have had if we had located the business in Conrad," said Aaron Klette. "But we get a lot of business in the Conrad area because people there know us and that is what allowed us get the business started."

In Bozeman, the architecture firm Mary Klette was employed by did primary high-end residential projects.

"Those projects were rewarding, but here I'm able to have a very diverse portfolio of work, commercial, medical and restaurants," she said. "And I am working four days a week, which I don't think I would have had the opportunity to do in Bozeman. It's a better work-life balance for me."

Klette Electric employs one additional electrician, Aaron's brother Adam, who is a journeyman electrician.

"Our goal is to grow the business and hire a couple of more employees, but to stay small enough so that my job isn't just to bid jobs and be on the computer," Aaron Klette said. "I like to be out in the field."

When growing up in Conrad, Great Falls was the big city, Mary Klette said.

"Now that we live here, you realize it seems like a much smaller town because it is very networked," she said. "But it is big enough to give us great career opportunities too."