Letter from Kelly (Pokorny) Patrick - 9/23/98

Since I graduated I have gotten married and moved to Yukon, Oklahoma. I am working for Midland Mortgage Company as a Financial Analyst. My (permanent) e-mail address is kellypatrick@hotmail.com. I am taking computer science and accounting courses at Redlands Community College. I am also a den leader for my son's cub scout pack... just to make sure my schedule crazy!!

I know that some of the economics students that I had classes with and worked with were wondering what they could do with their degree and what fields they could get into. I have been interviewed by several companies down here and every one of them were pleased with my degree choice and felt my economics background would be valuable to their company. I interviewed with Midland Mortgage for the analyst position, CFS Inc for a statistical analyst position, and a local resource (oil & natural gas) company for a research and analyst position. The job opportunities are varied and I wouldn't want an economics major to feel he or she was confined to "teaching or banking."

The position I have now involves developing a budget and some of the more "financial" areas but it also deals a lot with researching more efficient ways of conducting business. My current project has me researching ways to decrease turnover rates and absenteeism while increasing tenure (within budget constraints) and tomorrow I am expected to present my findings and solutions to the president of Midland Mortgage... so there is much more available to the economics major!

I guess the one thing I would tell a graduating economics student is that any position they see they can convince Human resources is a position made for an economics major... the biggest hurdle you need to overcome when searching for a job is the fact that most human resource departments don't realize an economics degree fits their job and consequently fail to mention that in their list of requirements. Do not be discouraged by the lack of demand for economists - the demand is certainly there, you just need to point it out to the employers.

Well, that is about all the time I have. I have to finish working all the bugs out of my presentation for tomorrow!!

Feel free to post any or all of this and tell any of the economics students that if they would like someone to talk (e-mail) to about their future plans please feel free to write me - I remember being just as confused about what I was going to do with my degree once I got it.

Thanks for the great lessons,

~Kelly (Pokorny) Patrick