What was your major at CI? What was the month and year of your graduation?:
Mathematics with an emphasis on actuarial science; June 2013
What is your job title and the name of the company where you are currently employed?:
Sr. Financial Analyst; Cydcor, LLC
What particular skills or talents are most essential to be effective in your job?:
Analysis, excel, oracle BI, collaboration, public speaking, problem solving, creativity, leadership, hard work
Why did this type of work interest you, and how did you get started?:
It applies math in the business world, which I became interested in my 2nd year out of high school; I got into this business through a friend
How well did your college experience prepare you for this job?:
My statistical analysis and operations research class with Professor Weir absolutely helped me for this job! I use the basic and advanced skills I learned from these courses nearly every day. Also, a number of my challenging math classes gave me the grit to work the hard long hours. Finally, writing skills are important across the board! So every paper I wrote really helped, even with basic email.
Do you have any advice (job hunting or otherwise) for CI students?:
Do internships! Start building your resume even while you're still in school. The perfect combination of personality and hard skills go a long way, so work on being engaging, passionate on what you want to do, and have the technical skills, or at least an appetite to learn, to back it up. Have a vision for what you want to do mid and long term as this will come up and each step in your professional life should be leading you towards that end goal.
Would you be willing to connect with current CI students who have questions for you on LinkedIn? If so, please include your LinkedIn url.
Yes! Of course! I am really passionate about giving back. CSUCI really meant a lot to, especially the math department, so please let me know how I can continue to help out. https://www.linkedin.com/in/aubrie-smallwood-57a1a072