"I was very lucky to find a position that required the exact skills I attained from Penn State Wilkes-Barre," explains recent IST graduate of Penn State Wilkes-Barre, Robert Carey. "I was able to take way more courses than were needed for graduation, and even took an optional course twice for fun. I found that it was a really good idea to work on projects outside of class and talk with my instructors, who were always more than helpful, to get feedback."
Currently employed at University Park in the Department of Statistics as an IT specialist, Robert is part of a team, providing services to the Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education (CAUSE) as well as the Department of Statistics. Robert's position includes maintaining multiple MySql databases, creating reports, updating or creating forms, managing content for existing websites, assisting in the development of additional sites, and providing specialized guidance to users.
All of the courses at Penn State Wilkes-Barre provided Robert with an ample amount of information to use in the future, but Robert also gives much credit of his success to his Penn State Wilkes-Barre Advisor, Wei-Fan Chen, Associate Professor of IST and IST Program Coordinator.
"I spent a great deal of time with my advisor Wei-Fan Chen. Because of him, I was able to: find an internship, work on a conference paper, attend the undergraduate research exhibition, and get a job working in one of my favorite places, doing exactly what I love doing."
Robert's first major responsibility while in his new role at University Park was helping with the process of coordinating the 2015 United States Conference on Teaching Statistics. The conference was held May 28-30 in State College with the theme of "Making Connections."
During his time here at Penn State Wilkes-Barre, Robert used multiple outlets and resources that are provided and recommended for students. He used resources like our Student Support Services and Career Services departments to aide him in the career search process.
"Penn State provides an overabundance of resources to help students advance their careers. It unfortunately took me nearly 3 years to figure out just how useful they really are. Student Support Services (SSS/Trio) and the wonderful ladies in the Career Services building have been more than helpful in my job search and interviewing process. They were instrumental in fine tuning my resume and coming up with some really great responses to the typical interview questions."