>> I did the mechanical engineering undergraduate and then I came back
and did a master's in business and I think--
also at UNCC, and I think that's a great combination.
Number one you get the-- the technical understanding that you can use
to work effectively in a technical business like GE Aviation,
but you also through the NBA program also understand a lot about how business works
and that helps you in your day to day, you know, activities to make the better decisions
and I think that's a great combo.
I think one thing I would recommend everyone do is to take finance classes because once you get
into the business world you realize that finance drives a lot of decisions
and the more you understand about the financials and the metrics that are used to make decisions
for whatever business decision it is the stronger you can make your business case
to get your project ideas approved.
That would be the first thing.
The other thing would be getting to a role that gets you close to the customer, right;
I think that makes it a much more rewarding experience.
The closer you are to your customer the more you understand what they--
their needs are, the better you can do your job.
The other thing I would recommend is to try to get into a global team so that you're not just
in a small group, you know, of people in your--
your small area because you'll be able to be exposed to so many other different ideas
and you won't be locked into a single way of thinking.
You know, one of the things that I think I've--
I've relied on to be successful is I don't read what everyone else is reading,
and I read different things, and I think sometimes you can get good ideas
from the strangest places, the places you least think you're going to get a good idea
so I would recommend to kind of be a bit broad from time to time and look
at other things besides, you know, engineering journals or something like that.