>> Well, my name is well
Ryan Swan [assumed spelling].
I'm currently working at the Department of
Treasury where we do business intelligence.
I lead a team where we take information from
really all different aspects of business.
And we help make strategic
decisions on a variety of things --
everything on operation efficiency,
to what to do with funding
from a variety of sources of that nature.
My day kind of starts with working in
teams -- people with different backgrounds,
people with different specialties
that allow us to formulate an opinion
or recommendation to solve an issue.
My day is filled with technology, and
using that technology to take processes
that were once manual -- they
maybe took months or years to do
in the past and do it in hours and minutes.
It also includes a number of data -- pulling
data from different data points that allow you
to really take a data centric
look of what's happening
in our organization and then respond to it.
One of the things that you'll hear if you go to
data dot gov or transparency dot gov it's all
about what's measured, and how do you measure
those things so that we know what's happening
with our taxpayer money with efficiencies of the
government [inaudible] in general [inaudible].
What I love most is that I
get to actually see an impact.
We actually get to work in
the environment [inaudible]
where we're the cutting edge
kind of government [inaudible].
So it's all the things that
we would want our government.
You ever hear the catch phrase you know,
government is always behind
the private sector, you know.
The private sector has been doing this
for years, and government has to catch up.
And so one of the things I love about what
we do is not only do we get to see it impact,
which is why I wanted work in the government,
but we're in the cutting edge of technology.
We're doing things with information and data
that people have never done in the government.
And it allows us to make better decisions
versus oh, this is just somebody's opinion.
This is what the data shows.
Almost like the forensics of government.
You know what I mean?
If that's not -- you can
kind of use that analogy.
The hardest part is sometimes you have
to get through the red tape per se.
You know, it's the changing of the culture.
There are a lot of -- as
administrations change and people retire
that culture is slowly changing
and technology is fastly moving.
So you want to take advantage of the technology,
but the culture of the work force
per se is not changing as fast.
I think right now if I was bringing somebody
on a team it would have to be someone
that has the infinity -- the
want to learn something new.
Often times college will teach the baseline,
but you're really going to learn what you need
to know for this job or this
position on the job.
And it's the ability to learn
new things that's important.
Now obviously, if we're looking for
somebody that's more on the technical side
of our business, then we want
somebody with a computer background
or technology background some kind of
experience with databases and things like that.
But we also want people that
can connect the dots.
It's the person that can communicate effectively
to people with different functional areas,
and understand what they
need to do functionally.
And transfer that into a technology
that helps us be more efficient
and effective of what we do.
And so we're always looking
for just smart people.
People that want to do something
different and learn something different
because what we're doing is very cutting edge.
And so I don't expect you to pick up a
book and learn everything there is to know
about business intelligence in a
classroom -- it's not that simple.
You know, if you kind of cross computer
science with a strategic business
and operational efficiency you kind
of do a three way cross with those.
I mean, that would be the
ideal candidate per se.
But a lot of it it's on the job.
You learn it on the job.
So just somebody that is willing to work
that has a good work ethic and
is not scared of technology.
You know, I mean, I think that's very important.
So I came here to the University of Maryland,
and I originally was a computer engineer major.
I was also in the Science Technology
Society Scholar's Program --
a program that I loved a lot.
And then I decide that I wanted
to do something different.
Just because I was good at it wasn't meant --
didn't mean that was what I was supposed to do.
So I switched to communication
which was an eye-opening experience.
It really allowed me to understand
how to get messages across to people
that didn't have the same thought
pattern or background as me
from both a functional or technical standpoint.
I used those strategies and
methodologies every single day.
So I finished my degree here in communication.
I had a brief leave because I was in the
Marine Corp Reserves so my senior year here
at Maryland I went over to the war.
Did a tour in Iraq.
Came back and finished my last semester.
Started working at the government,
and then I went to Villanova
and did a master certificate in six sigma.
My final piece of advice would be to -- it
is important to find what you like to do
so that the passion on what it is you're
doing is apparent in your work ethic.
And it's okay to try one thing,
and if it doesn't work try to
the next and you keep trying.
You kind of fail your way forward, if you will,
to find the job that really makes you happy.
Because at the end of the day you're going to
spend a lot of time with these people, right?
You're going to spend more time at
work than you will with your family.
So you want to work hard.
You continue to learn.
Actually I think I've learned a lot more in the
years after college than when I was in college
because you're learning from
so many different angles.
And understand that learning never stops.
So you want to work hard, you know.
Find something that you like to do.
And understand that you will always be learning.
Learning doesn't stop just
because you got your degree.
You know, it's only the beginning.
So --