Students Sharing Their Good Job News

Yesterday, a student came to my office who will be graduating next month with a concentration in Operations Management. He wanted to tell me personally his good news (rather than just sending me an email). He had received two excellent job offers recently and had made his decision. When he told me that he will be working for a company located in the Prudential Center in Boston, I was thrilled. He was so excited about accepting this offer (and told me that he had a 30 minute time window in which to notify both companies that had extended him offers, which had been stressful). He decided to go with a privately held company, which may be more risky. His father, who is a postal worker, had told him that he regretted taking the more conservative professional route in his life and wanted his son to avail himself of exciting opportunities. My former student will have full health and dental benefits as well as partial payment towards additional academic coursework. Plus, what a location to be working in -- right in downtown, gorgeous Boston!

It was wonderful to share in this student's happiness. I look forward to meeting his parents at next month's UMass Amherst graduation. This time of the year with graduations is truly special and marks wonderful milestones in our students' (and their families) lives.

Also, another student (this one a doctoral student, whose dissertation advisor was a colleague of mine, who died this past December) wanted to share her good news with me. She received a tenure track Assistant Professorship offer from a university in the South and has accepted it. Her doctoral concentration is in Management Science and she will be teaching quantitative methods at the university's business school. She said: I feel extremely lucky as well as grateful for the training I received from our doctoral program. I want to personally thank you, for being such a good teacher and inspiring professor. I hope in the years to follow, I can represent our school and our program well.

It is very gratifying to have students excel both in the classroom and on the job market and to have them take the time to acknowledge their professor. Students that have the work ethic (and wonderful manners) will do well. I am very proud of them.