"Engineering Management Thought of the Week" Jeff Glass

We are fortunate to have a guest blogger for today’s post! At Duke’s Night with Industry Event on Friday, I had the great fun of talking with many returning Alumni helping us with the event, including Niyanthi Reddy, now working at Deutsche Bank, an excellent organization by numerous measures. We were talking about how the MEMP prepared her for her job and she had some very interesting points related to what many students struggle with – choosing technical electives. She was kind enough to write these ideas up for us on short notice so you can read them in this last week before your Add/Drop period ends! Her post is given below…. Jeff Glass

From Guest Blogger, Niyanthi Reddy:

Hi Everyone, I am a 2007 graduate of Duke University’s MEM program. I recently visited Duke after having worked for almost a year at an investment bank to share my two cents on the MEM experience. As I looked at the new MEMers, I began reminiscing about my first week at Duke. I was both excited and overwhelmed about the prospect of starting a new chapter in my life. As I got acquainted with the MEM program, there were numerous choices I had to make in the first few weeks. One of which was choosing my courses or electives. Coming into a program as flexible and broad as the MEM, I was obviously overwhelmed by the number of choices. I was not entirely sure what kind of an industry I wanted to get into and no clue what electives would help me in the process. So, I followed a wise person’s advice and chose those courses that seemed interesting to me and that would provide me experience over a wide variety of business disciplines (finance, marketing, etc).

In retrospect, that was the best advice I followed as a new MEMer. Although I’m now working at an investment bank, I did not take any additional finance courses. The projects within the courses I did take helped me immensely by teaching me how to work with different people on a project from start to finish. One project entailed marketing a medical device to non-profit organizations across the world. Another allowed me to direct my energies to develop nascent ideas I had into a full blown project. All these endeavors involved working in teams, proper allocation and delegation of work, creating project plans, assessing risk, etc – all of which you will need to do while working in the real world. In my interview, I was able to draw upon my experiences from working on these projects and highlight the obstacles I was faced with, how I overcame them and the lessons I learned in the process. I now realize that it was my whole MEM experience that got me the job and not necessarily the content and choice of a particular elective. It’s the experience of working and communicating effectively in a team, time management, dealing with unexpected problems that prepare you for, not only your first interview and job, but your entire career, which is more important in the long run.

So, do not stress out about what electives to choose. Every course can be a tremendous learning experience. In the end it’s the attitude and aptitude that matter while building a successful career. Duke and the MEM together offer you a great platform to develop that attitude and enhance your aptitude. You’ve already made an excellent choice to enroll in this program; all you have to do now is immerse yourself in the whole experience that is MEM!

Niyanthi Reddy
Duke University, MEMP 2007