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[ Friday, April 20, 2007 ]
There's one thing that topped Tom Doody's list when he was looking for a job for after graduation in May -- and it even beat a desire for a top-notch salary.
For Doody (senior-agricultural systems management), the most important thing was finding a job that would provide a balance between working in the office and working out in the field.
In February, Doody got his dream job when he was offered a position at GVM, Inc., a family-owned business that manufactures and sells many lines of equipment used for fertilizers and chemicals.
Doody said agriculture is an exciting field to be in right now because there's a shift from food consumption to energy fuels, such as corn-based ethanol and soy bean-based bio diesel.
"This shift is going to be a major boom for agriculture," he said.
At GVM, Doody will work within the engineering department with three other people as an engineer specialist and will be responsible to design and manage all the equipment.
Doody started his job search last semester by looking at Monster.com and attending career fairs.
Midway through this semester, he was able to set up an on-campus interview with GVM, who had just hired two guys who graduated from Penn State.
Then he was interviewed on site at GVM and finally offered a job.
Doody said he thought what helped him get the job was a letter of recommendation, written by one of his former professors.
"I was blown away," Doody said about the letter. "It was a very nice gesture from somebody who barely knew me."
While Doody never had an internship, he said he worked for five summers at a masonry company. He started as a laborer and worked up to be a foreman, running all the machinery and fixing broken equipment.
"You got your feet wet in terms of troubleshooting and figuring out how machines work," he said.
Doody said Penn State has prepared him for the workforce.
"Not only did I learn in the book and homework, but I have practiced it before I enter in the workforce," he said.
The major integrates agricultural science, business management and engineering technology all in one major, Paul Heinemann, professor of agricultural systems management, said.
Because the major is made up of those different aspects, it opens up the doors to a wide range of job opportunities, Heinemann said.
A student could go into production agriculture by managing a small or large farm, technical sales, product testing or insurance companies, Heinemann said.
What sold Doody to the job were the types of activities he'll be involved in, including work on engineering drawings, working with a design team, finding ways to use the least amount of a substance efficiently, and field testing every piece of equipment.
There's been a lot of talk about environmental awareness, and Doody said the major at Penn State doesn't shy away from the issue, encouraging students to think resourcefully and with common sense.
Doody said GVM is looking to work on a computer mapping system, called provision agriculture, which would map out where farmers have planted seeds and would allow equipment to only spray pesticides where the crop has been planted.
Doody said he always wanted to make equipment for construction and farming.
"I always liked big machines when I was kid," he said, adding that he remembers growing up in Lawrence County, north of Pittsburgh, and seeing his family fixing and building cars and barns.
In June, Doody will begin working at one of the GVM locations in Biglerville, six miles north of Gettysburg.
Right now he's enjoying his last semester spending time with his friends and family, working out, hunting and fishing, apartment searching and learning new computer programs for the new job.
But Doody, a learner at heart, said he's ready to apply his knowledge so far to his new career.
"If you care about what you do -- if you're really interested in it, school's really not a chore," he said.
