Industry experts bring real-life experience to the classroom
The knowledge industry professionals share with students can be tremendously valuable. For graduating seniors, MIE offers the Professional Development Seminar course in their final semester to allow them to learn from industry professionals who bring real-world experience to the classroom as they equip students with a deeper understanding of how to apply theoretical concepts.
Each week’s seminar covers topics relevant to their soon-to-be new lives as working engineers. Topics include continuous learning, job searching, financial responsibilities and planning, entrepreneurship, and excelling in your career.
“I give one seminar, but in general, the goal is always to have a guest speaker present the information – someone from industry with experience in the topic,” said Clinical Assistant Professor Brynne Nicolson, who teaches the course.
“The guest speakers pertain to different jobs and come from different companies, and they show what is necessary to get in the field. They have given us pretty good insight and a lot of information about what is going to happen after we graduate,” said mechanical engineering student Alec Telles, who is set to graduate in December.
Recently, MIE alum and advisory board member Brad Mueller flew in from Las Vegas to talk to the students about networking, finding mentors, setting goals, and skills needed to succeed on the job.
Mueller graduated from UIC in 1997 with a BS in industrial engineering and earned an MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He has run a private medical device company for the past 13 years and worked in all aspects of business across seven different industries in a variety of engineering and executive roles spanning 34 years.
“The course is all the practical career checklist items that an upcoming graduate needs exposure to. We want the students to ask the best questions and hit the ground running post-graduation. Students get exposed to so many different topics about things like resume building, job hunting, salary negotiation, career management and advice, patents, entrepreneurship, and a host of other topics,” said Muller, who is an original contributor to the class when it was first developed by Department Head and Professor Houshang Darabi.
As someone who has had a lot of success as a professional, he is happy to visit UIC and give back to the community that supported him as a student.
“I feel an immense sense of pride toward my degree and experience in industrial engineering from UIC and want to give back to students by sharing my career and life-long knowledge to help them get the most out of their careers right at the beginning. It’s important that a graduate of UIC MIE understands the power of the UIC engineering alumni network and that we can assist them in many ways as they get started down their own paths,” Muller said.