Did you know the UW Career Center has its own blog? If you’ve ever read it, you may be familiar with Lokesh Ramani, a MSIM graduate who wrote for the blog while enrolled as a UW grad student. At the age of 22, this native of India had already received his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering when he decided to come to the United States and pursue his interest in software. After working for several big name software companies such as Oracle, Lokesh realized that he wanted to go back to school and earn his graduate degree in Information Management. Lokesh received several offers from various schools but after much contemplation and receiving some advice from his sister who lives in the Seattle area, Lokesh carefully made the choice to attend UW.

The decision to enter the MSIM (Masters of Science – Information Management) program was made much easier with the help and mentorship of program chair, Mike Crandall. “He is extremely motivating”, Lokesh says about Crandall. Lokesh took advantage of many leadership programs, such as the Student Advisory Board, and as a result of this had the opportunity to work with many students and faculty members. “I love it here” he says with a big smile when speaking about UW. That smile comes from knowing the benefits of using social networking skills as a tool to meet others and to learn about events and resources throughout the UW. Lokesh received his graduate degree in June of 2008 and landed a permanent job as an Associate Consultant at KPMG Advisory shortly after graduation. In fact, the job he has now is an extension of the summer internship he held at KPMG with roots that can be traced back to the UW Career Center’s online job and internship board called HuskyJobs.

Lokesh says that his school experience was great and he would do it all over again any time. In addition to his internship, several UW assistantships helped Lokesh grow and learn more about what he wanted to do with his future career. One of the most notable assistantships included a two year stint as a Technology Teaching Assistant for the Department of Sociology. In this function Lokesh learned about running IT operations and providing technology support for a small sized organization, in addition to earning enough money to help with his tuition costs and bills.

Lokesh is a believer of the Career Center and recommends that students take advantage of the many offerings available for job seekers just as he did. “I think I used the Career Center very effectively.” Lokesh goes on to say “I went to a lot of different career fairs and ‘how-to’ sessions and got information”. Since Lokesh was also a student blogger, it was natural and easy for him to utilize the Career Center website to get even more information for landing a job. When asked which one of the programs he recommended the most, Lokesh said that he would definitely recommend that students try the mock interview. “I wish that I had done this before I went on my first interview with Microsoft,” he said. It was a learning experience for him and that is why he feels that all students should take the time to practice and get some feedback before they actually go out on the interview.

Lokesh has seen quite a bit of success in his career and has followed his ever-changing path with a positive outlook. Lokesh has thought about going back to school for his PhD and possibly teach or be his own boss through entrepreneurship. One thing for sure is that his ideas keep changing because of his great networking skills and his use of the opportunities available to him through the Career Center so we may need to revisit this alum again in the future to see what he is up to. His ultimate goal is to make an impact and “change the way people do business” and Lokesh is well on his way to doing just that!

— Written by Ingrid Butler