Our CALS Star today is Christian Truong, a 2010 Biological Systems Engineering-Food and Bioprocess graduate. He was born in France and immigrated to the U.S. in the early 90′s. He went to UW-Madison for one year and then completed one tour in Iraq with the 1-128th Infantry for Eau Claire. He then returned to UW-Madison and was a very successful student.
Q: Why did you choose your major?
A: I had initially entered as a Biomedical Engineer (it was a brand new major at the time) but found from my military career that medicine was not something I loved. I couldn’t major in Environmental Studies because it wasn’t a major at the time. Environmental Studies was literally the only thing I was sure of as an incoming Freshman. I thought seriously about becoming a Botany major after taking classes from Dr. Sharkey and Dr. Emshmiller. I then took some intro food science courses and then I just thought about doing Food Science as I didn’t even know that existed. After 2 years of searching and coursework, I was torn between the life sciences and engineering. Biological Systems was a perfect compromise between the two.
Q: What student organizations and volunteer opportunities were you involved in during college and how did these help you prepare for a full-time job?
A: I enjoyed many organizations: ASABE, Food Science Club, Ad Club, GUTS and Muir Woods Mentors. Many of these are volunteer organizations though and I also did some work for the Nelson Institute. What was invaluable in helping me find a job was Food Science Club, ASABE, The Nelson Institute and CALS Career Services. I hate to say I have to stick to my partisan “political lines” in an election year but these three basically helped me network and are the reason I had multiple job offers before the start of my final semester.
Q: What did you do to prepare for an interview for your internships and eventual full-time position?
A: The wonderful thing about an interview is that it’s not an exact science due to the social component of it. Unfortunately, many fail to fulfil the portions they can control which is an excellent advantage for people like me. I remember a lesson that was taught to me at an AFA Conference several years ago: “Preparedness is a sign of a professional”. I do not like being an amateur at anything, thus I come prepared to destroy my competition. Do not give your opposition any room because if you do, they will exploit it and there will only be regret. Iron your clothes, have a perfect tie, pants that fits, perfectly edited resume and attitude. When you’re up against engineers that can’t iron or tie ties it’s halfway in the bag. When you’re socially comfortable and have chemistry with your interviewer it’s halfway in the bag. When you have both you have a job offer and no regrets.
Q: Can you tell us about your internships and how these helped you in your career development?
A: I had a total of three internships. My first as a freshman was with WISPIRG working on the “Keep It Wild” campaign to preserve the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This internship taught me that being an excellent student in high school meant nothing at the college level. I also learned that you have to be passionate about your work to be successful at it. So if you don’t love your major, you will never love your job. My second internship was with ConAgra my senior year. There I learned that all the friends you make as an intern is great, too bad they’re also your competition. Many of them will realize this much too late. You still can have fun and make friends, just don’t forget why you’re there. The second thing that’s even more important is that results and performance are the only metrics in the professional world. Without excellent results and high performance you are not worth their time or money. My third internship was with CALS Career Services. Apparently Maria McGinnis and John Klatt thought I had it down compared to most of my fellow Badgers and thus would set a good example. Nevertheless, I still learned something, and that is you must not pass up any opportunity no matter how small or insignificant it might seem. I have in the past and yes, regret. The second thing is that you cannot stop continuously improving yourself both in the personal and professional sense. Both are essential in success.
Q: What was the most important thing you learned while in college?
A: Facebook is a waste of time. It’ll lower your grades, limit your real-life social interactions, you’ll workout less and it probably won’t make you any money. It also burns time which is in itself priceless. The losses on using Facebook are astronomical.
Q: What is a typical day like in your job?
A: I work for Battelle Memorial Institute, a non-profit R&D charitable trust, at their corporate headquarters in Columbus, Ohio. I work in and out of labs working on new medical technologies (irony?) and aerosol characterization. I can’t really go into it since much of it is confidential but I work with some really cool equipment. One of my favorites is the Dantec Phase Doppler Anemometer which is a Class 4/3b laser system used for my aerosol work. I can tell everyone I work with dangerous lasers for a living!
Q: Who is your role model and why?
A: The athletes that compete in the Paralympic and Special Olympics games. Their perseverance and courage to accomplish their goals given their disability serves as inspiration to me everyday.
