How Engineering Opens Doors for Your Future: Alumna Blog

One of the great benefits of being a woman in engineering at Purdue is the amazing alumnae network that undergraduates can connect with. Stephanie Bartz, an incredibly successful graduate from Purdue Industrial Engineering, shared her story of how her Purdue engineering degree helped her achieve her goals after Purdue.

There is an unspoken truth that no one talks about when students are expected to make a decision about choosing a major for college; most of us have no idea what we’re doing or what we want to do in life. Teachers, guidance counselors, and parents all try their best to understand where interests may lie and draw parallels to encourage a “good fit” when you make a decision that sets a course for the rest of your adult life, but they are just as clueless. Even for the lucky few who think they definitely know the perfect major, it will most likely change as you mature, gain life experiences, and gather perspectives from people you meet along your journey. When the time comes to make that big decision, what major to declare for college, my experiences have shown me that choosing a path which gives you a solid set of skills, but still gives you the flexibility to choose different industries, roles and ways to impact the world, gave me a life better than I could have imagined.

For me, this was an engineering undergraduate degree at Purdue. I did not know much at 18, but I knew that after college, I needed a solid job that would allow me to continue to grow my career, take care of myself and pay my bills, travel, and enjoy my life. I was reluctant at first, and to be honest, I didn’t even really know what engineering was when I was entering college. But what I know now is that, with a Purdue engineering degree, no one questions your ability to get the job done, whatever job that may be, and this opens up endless possibilities for where your career and life can take you.

While in college, I discovered my passion for the healthcare industry, and my desire to make it better, and my engineering degree gave me everything I needed to pursue that career path, and much more. At graduation, it afforded me my first job, a rotational program with a healthcare company supervising operations and building supply chain knowledge. I lived in my first apartment in Chicago, worked hard, had fun, and continued to discover what motivated me at work. Two years later, I moved to California and expanded my perspective by taking a role in sales. While this may not be a role someone would typically expect an engineer to take, I used my engineering problem solving skills to help the business build shared goals and make solid business decisions. This role gave me a new perspective, and challenged me to think about how I could build a better future for healthcare.

Five years after graduating from Purdue engineering, I applied to Harvard Business School and was accepted – a feat I honestly couldn’t have imagined when I was 18 years old. I have no doubt that my engineering background allowed me the opportunity to attend one of the most prestigious schools in the world, where I would hone my business skills even further. Almost fifteen years later, I am an executive at a large healthcare company in the US – providing and improving health care for millions of people. I have traveled the world, met people who challenge me and make me better every day, and have been able to live a life beyond my wildest dreams. The impact on people’s lives that I have been able to make in this work is because of the hours I spent being challenged by some of the hardest problems with some of the smartest people at Purdue University, and because I made the tough decision to major in engineering. I had no idea where that choice would take me at the time, but engineering has given me the tools to live my best possible life.

Stephanie Bartz, Industrial Engineering '05

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