Message-ID: <28608373.1075856615428.JavaMail.evans@thyme>
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 07:58:00 -0700 (PDT)
From: heather.johnson@enron.com
To: vince.kaminski@enron.com
Subject: A&A math majors
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X-From: Heather A Johnson
X-To: Vince J Kaminski
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Vince,

Thank you so much for meeting with me Friday morning about the Research 
Group.  

After leaving your office, I remembered an issue I have had with the Analyst 
& Associate Program that might be of interest to you.

During a Texas A&M recruiting meeting, I learned that we have expanded our 
list of majors to include computer science.  I wondered why math majors were 
not mentioned, and was told that there was not a business need for math 
majors.  Like liberal arts majors, they said math majors were only considered 
on a person by person basis.  In my opinion, math majors have many of the 
same skills as finance majors, and can easily adjust to accounting rotations 
as well (I did last summer, and finance majors in the program are forced to 
every year.)  I think that Enron is missing out on many qualified candidates 
by limiting their recruitment effort.  

At Texas A&M the Career Center asks companies for a list of majors they are 
targeting, and only allows those majors to sign up for interviews through the 
career center.  I sent my resume to Enron and asked to be included in the 
interview process on campus.  However, many other math majors had not heard 
of Enron or the other companies, and assumed that there was no place for a 
math major at a company like Enron.  Many math majors want to continue their 
education, become teachers,  or work for an actuarial firm.  However, many 
are undecided.  We are constantly told of the many business possibilities 
available to math majors by our teachers and staff, but many undergraduates 
are still not sure exactly what math majors can contribute in a business 
environment.  By not mentioning math majors to the career center (a very 
simple and inexpensive step), Enron is losing out on a very talented pool of 
people.  While it would be nice to get the math majors that knew about Enron 
already, had thoroughly researched all companies and determined that math 
majors would fit perfectly, and went the extra step to send Enron their 
resume outside the career center system, there are many qualified students 
who do not do this, and opt for other companies who DID mention math majors.

I called a manager in the A&A program to suggest that we consider at least 
mentioning math majors to the career centers.  I realize that it may cost 
more to actively pursue them, talk to teachers, and attend math society 
events.  However, I told her that including them at the career center would 
be very inexpensive for Enron.  She reiterated that they saw no business need 
for math majors, and that if more upper level people began requesting them, 
it would be considered.  I searched for "mathematics" on the Enron job 
website, and had a surprising number of results.  I know that your group 
could use math majors as well.  However, this still may be too small a number 
to merit a focus from the A&A recruiting department.  I just wanted to bring 
it to your attention in case it was something that you felt should be changed.

Thanks,
Heather Johnson
x53240