These last two weeks have been crazy with research projects and lectures, but a pleasant surprise last week was when a graduate of Embry-Riddle came to visit the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). SIAM is a club I found when I began my industrial math research class. It is an amazing club for Math majors to create networks and find out more about potential math job industries.

Last week a graduate from the Computational Mathematics program at Embry-Riddle came to speak to us. He was very interested to tell us his approach to the job industry with a major that you can do so much with. He has been investing time at a big insurance company called MassMutual, where he focuses on programming and software design. He is working on a graduate certificate that his company is paying for, and is looking at pursuing a graduate degree after that as well. After explaining his job, he spoke about his approach to applying for jobs and choosing a job based on offers. In addition, he had spoken of many things we could be doing in college now that will help us in the job field. He had spoken with us about job portfolios, research projects, internships, and practical experience, pretty much anything that could help us look good to potential employers or grad programs.

This was a great speaker to listen to as I soon will be swimming in all the job and graduate school applications, but I now feel like I have a better understanding of how to get to where I need to get to make the best post-graduating decision I can make.
The next SIAM meeting is on February 26th and I am looking forward to what else we will be doing to set ourselves up for success.