 |
Education:
BS Math and CS, University of Illinois,
Urbana/Champaign
Honors Program Recognition, 1999
Member Group Technical Staff, 1997
Quality/Excellence Award Winner, 1989
Current responsibilities:
Engineering Manager for the Advanced Products Center (APC) Analog/RF
Design Engineering group. Dallas representative on the Raytheon
Corporate Analog/RF/Microwave Engineering Council (ARM-EC), helping
define and coordinate engineering process improvement, tool selection,
and training activities. Team lead for our APC Engineering Process
Strategy team, coordinating definition, budget, and execution of
local engineering process funded improvement activities. Also a
member of our APC Engineering Automation and Computing team, maintaining
PC inventories, managing PC allocations and orders, and coordinating
forecasts, maintenance, and purchase of engineering software tools.
Campus recruiter at Oklahoma State University, and active in our
on-site interviewing efforts. Currently mentoring two female engineers
at Raytheon, and helping to lead mentoring implementation within
our engineering center.
The best part about my job is:
It's hard to pick just one aspect. Foremost, maybe the variety and
flexibility of opportunities and challenges I've been able to experience
across my 18-year career. My experiences have spread across technical
projects and technical project management, business/program management,
and functional engineering management. As a close second, I've felt
privileged to be teamed with so many smart, talented, and even well-known
and respected engineers, and learned so much from them. I've also
felt blessed to work for great managers who have supported and at
times mentored me in taking new assignments or selecting new directions
along my career path.
I chose a career in engineering because:
I always loved Math and problem solving, but was never quite sure
how to turn a Math degree into a marketable skill. After following
up on advice from family friends, I tried Computer Science and found
it to be an excellent match for my interests in problem solving.
Luckily, Computer Science was also extremely marketable in that
there were many opportunities across both business and engineering
applications.
My advice to the next generation of engineers would be:
Engineering degrees can be applied across a very broad spectrum
of career choices - hardware or software design, manufacturing engineering,
process engineering, and support/reliability engineering. Seek opportunities
through high school and college course selection, coop programs,
internships, or early career assignments that expose you to the
varieties and help you choose your niche. There will be many people
willing to advise, assist, and even train and mentor, but you have
to take the first initiative and ask for help. Approach your assignments
with a positive attitude and a willingness to give 110%. And when
you've mastered a skill, become the expert, or accomplished what
you set out to do, don't stagnate. Seek new assignments that will
add breadth to your knowledge, give you new skills, and always keep
your job challenging and exciting.
|
 |
