Revision as of 08:29, 21 February 2012

Meet Ryne Rayburn (Ingersoll Rand), virtual guest for ECE400 Spring 2012

Ryne was unable to make it to our young alumni panel. We thus invited him to participate in a "virtual alumni panel". Please go ahead and ask him questions below. He will answer them directly on this page!

Name: Ryne Rayburn

Hometown: Attica, Indiana

Graduated from Purdue in May 2011 with a BS in Computer Engineering

Activities at Purdue:

• PSEF (Active 2006-2011; President 2010, VP of Communication 2009)
• PEPC (Co-President 2010)
• HKN (Active 2010-2011)
• TBP (Active 2009-2011)
• Teaching Assistant for CS159, 2009-2011
• Internship with John Deere in Waterloo, Iowa in summer 2010
• Undergraduate research with Dr. Brown, ECE
• Sports & other activities with friends

Post Purdue:

• Professional Development Program with Ingersoll Rand (2 year development program)
  • You work full-time through the program, starting as a hardware or firmware engineer in New Product Engineering for the first year. After 12 months, you rotate into Systems Test or Sourcing for 6 months & then spend the final 6 months in product management.
  • Currently, I am working as a firmware engineer with the prospect of moving into Systems Test in Summer 2012

Ask your questions to Ryne Rayburn below

• Mr. Rayburn, after working in the industry for about a year, do you feel the need to get a MS/MBA/Ph.D? -Bhakti Khandagale
  • Very good question Bhakti! During my senior year I considered continuing on to get a Masters & decided industry instead. Even now I am considering doing a part time Masters. Now that I have seen want industry is all about, I do not feel the need to return to get a post Bachelors degree. However, I will say that a post Bachelors degree will help set you a part from other graduates. I have not seen many jobs that request you do have more than a Bachelors in Engineering, but I have seen several job postings that state, "Masters highly recommended but not needed." With that, I'll leave it up to you to decide which level of education is right for you. The more educated you become, the more doors become open. But keep in mind, more education can close doors too. It just depends what doors you want opened in life.

• Mr. Rayburn, even though you are still currently in your first rotation with Ingersoll Rand's Professional Development Program, have you seen some advantages to participating in a development/rotational program after graduation as opposed to a non-rotational position? Are there any disadvantages related to development/rotational programs? - Joshua Marchi
  • Good question. I may be slightly bias towards rotational programs as that is all I looked into when I was applying for full-time positions. To me, the advantage to these programs is you get to see first hand different areas of engineering rather than just the field you are hired into. The other huge advantage is that companies do not just host these programs without top leadership backing. The majority of the rotational programs will allow you to interact with some top leadership within the company & they will know you too (they probably had a hand in hiring you). The only disadvantage I can see is the possibility you would not see the project you were assigned all the way through to the end. But this is by chance based on the projects the company is currently working. Overall, I'm a big fan of rotational/development programs.

• Mr. Rayburn, I know many people end up taking full-time positions with the companies they intern with. Why did you decide to move on to another company after you graduated? - John Jachna
  • Yes, several people do take positions with their internship employers & I could talk hours about evaluating companies (but I'll save ya the time :) ). There are many reasons people chose their internship employers for full-time. For me, there were two main things I was looking at upon graduation- a rotational/development program & the company's culture/work atmosphere. John Deere has a rotational program but I was not selected to be a part of theirs & their work atmosphere was just not for me. I was looking for a work atmosphere that was slightly relaxed & family oriented. Ingersoll Rand had both & much more. Be sure to be evaluating the company at interviews. The people present & the things done at interviews usually give a pretty good look into what the company atmosphere is.

• Mr. Rayburn I have accepted a position in an engineering development program for after graduation and would appreciate your advice. In your first year in the development program, what are the best ways to stand out and exceed the expectations of your bosses? I know it may not be a competition necessarily but won't standing out help when it comes time for getting a concrete position after the program ends? - Marcelo Leone
  • To be completely honest, it depends on your program. With the ones I interviewed for, most planned to give me a full-time position after rolling off program. If your employment status after the program is questionable, then I can believe their would be a certain level of competition. I am slightly more laid back & conservative when it comes to this; therefore, to me, I wouldn't get caught up in standing out. I would let your work do the talking. If you work hard & make sure to go above & beyond expectations, you're bosses will notice (even if it doesn't seem like they do). One big thing you could do to stand out is to be personable. As engineers, there is a stereotype most of us fit well into- we're shy, quiet & prefer to just work alone. If you fit into the "typical engineer" description, break this shell & venture out at work- be social-able, personable, and a team player. This will get you noticed faster than anything, especially if you work to do cross-functional things, such as getting to know marketing, HR, finance, etc.

• Mr. Rayburn, given your undergraduate research experience, what factors helped you decide to pursue your professional career after graduation as opposed to continuing research and obtaining higher education? - Jeff King
  • This is good question. I had never considered the factors in this comparison before. I loved the research I did with Professor Brown, but to be honest, the comparison for me to do full-time or do higher education came down to money (I hate that education comes to this, but it is reality) and the idea of not having homework & exams. For me, I needed a change of scenery after graduation and I felt higher education would not give me that change. Hence, I'm in industry now & I love where I am! Though, if the opportunity ever presented itself for higher education, I would end up taking it now that I have had a chance to relax away from schooling.

• Mr. Rayburn, I'm guessing that your extracurricular activities helped you get your internships and job offer, but do you think your experiences have helped you in your day-to-day work? - Brian Kelley
  • I'm sure the extracurricular activities I had on my resume helped the process, but they did something more than just help me on my resume. They allowed me to network with individuals. I can honestly say that about 90% of my full-time offers and internships over the years had more to do with who I knew through my extracurricular activities than what I had on a resume. Networking will help you tremendously. As for your actual question, I feel my experiences have helped. My internship at John Deere introduced me to how industry operates (each company is different but the general theme is there) and how industry handles the project process (similar to class projects just on a much larger scale). I would say the two experiences that has helped me the most in industry were the team projects in classes like the final project in ECE337 & senior design and then my time in PSEF. Now, brace yourselves for this one- I highly recommend taking some sort of English class your senior year whether it be business writing or even better, another communication class to give speeches. Learning how to talk, portray your ideas & be a team player will take you a long way after graduation. Believe it or not, the professors were right about learning to work as a team & be able to explain our ideas :)

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