Brendan Abrams
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It’s no secret that Cal Poly graduates are valued by employers.
Most non-graduating students still have an incredible amount of work to slog through before they are handed a diploma, and the road ahead can sometimes seem interminable.
Luckily, there is a light at the end of the already-sunny academic tunnel that is Cal Poly. There is perhaps no better motivator toward academic success than our very own role models who have recently achieved it.
Olin Olmstead, a graduating software engineering senior, has witnessed his five years of hard work pay off. He has secured a job as an application developer at Workday, an HR and finance software firm, and he starts in September.
“I had an internship there last summer, and I really like the general problem-solving and the team that they have,” he said. “I’m fairly happy with where I am. I could see myself there for at least the next five to 10 years.”
Olmstead is living proof that this classic path to employment is as effective as students are always told it is — quality schooling coupled with firsthand industry experience is undoubtedly a good way to go.
“What I’ve learned (at Cal Poly) has definitely, definitely helped,” Olmstead said.
And the experience during his internship was equally valuable, however.
“Workday is unique in that they have their own programming language, so I had to learn that on my own,” he said.
Olmstead automatically became an even more attractive candidate for the job because he is already familiar with some of the defining features of the company.
As for his Cal Poly experience, Olmstead will cherish some aspects of it for years to come.
“I’m in a fraternity, and anything I’ve done with those guys has been the best time of my life. I also spent a lot of late nights coding with friends in (the computer science building) over there,” he said.
Before taking upon his new career in the fall, Olmstead plans to travel.
“I’m going to Europe for a month,” he said. “Specifically, Spain, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic and Italy.”
In addition, he’ll be visiting family in Juneau, Alaska.
“I think it’s important to travel before working because it makes you accepting of other cultures,” he said. “And by association, just accepting of different types of people in general.”
Though Olmstead spent five years at Cal Poly, he feels ready for the real world.