The following is a brief reflection by current student, Tim Jacque, about a panel held at Innovation Park on Friday, July 17, 2015
“Learn how to spin (ESTEEM) in a good way, 15 seconds of what we’re working on will go over their head, but that’s a good thing,” said program director David Murphy to the student audience. It was a Friday afternoon at Innovation Park in South Bend, Indiana and the students were gathered at tables listening to a panel of three alumni. The panel was discussing how their work in the ESTEEM program shaped their career through the resources at the University of Notre Dame.
“The resources are unbelievable,” said Chris Cali, an ESTEEM graduate of 2015. He encouraged the students to take advantage of all the opportunities to see the guest speakers on campus. Patrick Rice echoed his comments on the resources at Notre Dame by saying, “This program opens the gateway to the world through Notre Dame connections.” All three of them agreed that the alumni network would go out of the way to help a fellow Notre Dame graduate.
Shane McQuillan reminisced on his time as a student. He talked about his thesis project that was to create a voice detection application that tested the likeliness of a concussion. He mentioned that he missed being his own boss, but he enjoys his current job as a software engineer at Apple. McQuillan also encouraged students through saying “if your thesis is showing promise, don’t be afraid to take the chance (to start a company).”
Cali and Rice both work at consulting firms, Booz Allen Hamilton and Ernst and Young respectively. They recommended to students interested in consulting to start developing their skills soon and to “hit the ground running” on case studies. Rice mentioned the key to him getting into Ernst and Young was his “willingness to learn” which was inspired by the ESTEEM program. Cali built upon that point through saying, “start with the end in mind,” meaning know the goal and find the path to it.
As a current student with three weeks of class experience, it is exciting to see the promising insight instilled from the panel of past ESTEEM students. Overall, the panel stated that their time in the ESTEEM program made them more appealable to employers. Through the depth of engineering and the broadness of business, the ESTEEM program gives their students an unparalleled opportunity to succeed in the workplace.