Kim Brushaber, BBA 1998
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Senior Technical Product Support Engineer, Authoria
One of the wonderful benefits of an undergraduate business education is the chance for students to challenge assumptions and ideas they have about the world of work through coursework, internships, clubs, etc. Kim arrived at McCombs with the notion that "MIS was about statistics and number crunching," so she started as a marketing major. Along came MIS 310, and it didn't take long for her to realize that she was quite skilled with computers. The deal was sealed after a guest speaker came and Kim realized that she could build a career in information technology.
Kim joined Ernst & Young out of college and spent the first two and a half years of her career learning the skills required to negotiate a large, complex organization. In March 2000, she decided to try the other end of the continuum and started working as a Java developer with a small startup company called Hire.com (now Authoria). She now plays a support-engineering role by crawling through databases and logs, trying to find solutions to customers' problems. Although her role has her working with databases on a daily basis, Kim finds that "most roles focus on the people experience, and the technical piece is an afterthought." Kim sees herself staying in the IT world because she believes in what it can do for people and businesses. Authoria is now an established firm that continues to provide her with challenging work.
When asked what she missed the most about the MIS program, Kim says, "The people. I miss meeting people from all different walks of life coming together to work on the same problems." She stresses the importance of considering an organization's culture when looking at potential jobs. Most companies expect new hires to hit the ground running and learn quickly; however, that only gets you so far. You may demonstrate technical ability and other business skills, but at the end of the day, can you get along with the people you work with? Kim took every opportunity to figure those things out by being active outside the classroom at UT.
