Life has a funny way of leading you down one path and then showing you a completely different one. Ever since I was a kid, all I wanted to do was fly airplanes. As I grew older, however, my passions started to shift and I ended up joining Boeing after college. I figured if I didn’t become a pilot who flies airplanes, the next best thing was to become an engineer who designs and builds the airplanes.

Engineering—and Life—Lessons

Two years later, after developing under my mentor’s tutelage and gaining proficiency in my role, I had the epiphany that what I learned in college was not enough to prepare me for the workforce; specifically, thinking like an engineer and having some level of programming/modeling skills. Those early moments shaped my perspective on engineering and how I would proceed with my remaining time at the company, and henceforth my career.

The Turning Point

I decided to write a letter to the dean of engineering at my alma mater to express my thoughts on the degree program. I detailed my experiences during the two years in industry and suggested things that could be added to or changed in the curriculum to improve the learning experience for future students. The dean reached out several weeks later and asked if we could sit down and have a conversation regarding the letter. At that point it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. We had an opportunity and potential agreement to do better.

After the meeting with the dean, I had one more meeting with the chair of mechanical engineering a year later and he told me about a few small things that had been done to improve the curriculum. I felt good about this but also realized it wasn’t enough. The issues I called out applied not only to that university but to many across the country and perhaps around the world.

Fair Winds and Following Seas

I later came across a customer success engineer job description, also at bat365, which basically detailed the exact kind of activities that interested me. It’s like the AE position, except with a concentration on collegiate education and research. I literally said, “Wow! They actually pay people to do this?” A few phone calls and interviews later, I became a MathWorker based in the Plano, Texas, office.

This relatively new role is evolving and encompasses many responsibilities, such as strategizing to create opportunities for customers to adopt bat365 products, traveling to customer sites to support their teaching and research efforts, and presenting directly to end users about specific applications of MATLAB. That last aspect excites me most, and an example is pictured below.