JIM RAY, CLASS OF 2010
Jim Ray graduated from University High School in 2010 and is currently studying computer engineering at Purdue University. Below Jim answers a few questions about his college experience and how University prepared him for life at Purdue.
What have you been up to since leaving University?
I’ve been up to tons of stuff since graduating, but mostly my time has been split between school and various forms of work. On the school side of things, computer engineering has kept me very busy. However, I will admit that despite the heavy workload I still can’t stop myself from enjoying it at times. Especially once you get to the upper-level classes, the subject material tends to get more engaging, exciting, and applicable. They also stop forcing you into 7:30 a.m. classes — always a plus in my book. As far as work goes, I’ve spent three summers as a camp counselor in Michigan, done two internships at two different tech companies (more on that later), and even had a brief stint as a teaching assistant for the robotics J-Term class taught by Wes Priest and Mike Syrek.
How do you feel University best prepared you for college?
There are many ways that I could answer this question beyond the academic angle, but educationally I believe that UHS did an exceptional job of preparing me for college. I know this because I ended up doing very well during my first semester as an engineering student, despite being in the Engineering Honors program and having a full schedule. In fact, I had a much easier time with most of my classes because I had already been exposed to some of the key concepts in high school. Beyond academics, I thought UHS appropriately prepared me for many of the team experiences that I’ve had during my college and professional career by teaching me to respect and listen to the opinions and perspectives of others.
Do you see that the core values you learned at University still apply to your life now? How?
Absolutely. I have found that the core values align quite closely with the company cultures I have observed and with my own success. For example, mutual respect, support, and trust is hugely important within a tech company because there are so many moving, interconnected, and interdependent parts. Not only must you respect your own team members to do their jobs, but you must also trust other teams within the company to do theirs. Without that level of respect, it would be nearly impossible to build a cohesive product. Of course this is only one small slice of the UHS core values, but it’s the slice I feel I have run into the most thus far.
What’s your best University memory?
It’s tough to pick just one, but I guess I’ll have to go with any time we beat Western Boone in a soccer game — particularly our sectional semi-final win during my senior year. It’d either be that or finally getting our AP Computer Science projects to work.
Have you done an internship? If so, where was it, what did you do, and how do you think it is going to help you in the future?
I have done two internships during my time in college and they both have been awesome experiences. The first was in the spring of 2012 (I had a free semester due to AP credits) with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) down in Austin, Texas. AMD makes CPUs and GPUs (computer chips), and my job title was a long series of acronyms (PEO HST/SLT Fusion Dev Co-op Engineer). Specifically, my team managed one of the last test stages that all Fusion chips go through before getting in the hands of customers. Day to day this meant that I was making improvements, debugging, and maintaining the large test program that runs all of the tests on the chips. My next internship was during this past summer (2013) with Google out in Mountain View, CA. Needless to say it was pretty great. Living and working with a bunch of smart, fun, and motivated interns was an extraordinary experience. Within Google, I was on an Android team which develops internal software and automation tools for other Android teams. Specifically, my project involved improving one of the tools which was managed by my team.
Besides the obvious real-world experience, I think these jobs have given me a far more solid picture into the kind of job I would like to have and the kind of company I would like to work at. Despite being very different companies, AMD and Google share several qualities that I now realize are must-haves for any jobs I may take in the future. Specifically, I really like that AMD and Google are technical companies. Although they may make drastically different things, the employees at both companies share that passion for all things high-tech. They enjoy their jobs and take pride in the products they create and can do so while being some of the friendly and helpful co-workers out there. These experiences will help me in the future because I now know what to look for in a company and its culture.
What has been the most valuable experience you have had since leaving University? For example have you been on an amazing trip or had a valuable mentoring experience in a job?
Obviously I’ve had an outstanding professional career – one that I value very highly – but I also feel very fortunate that I’ve been able to spend three summers as a camp counselor in Michigan. Sure it may not be quite as glamorous as a summer at Google, but the experiences I’ve had being a counselor have been fun, rewarding, and have helped shaped me into the person I am today.
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