Q: Why did you decide to major in industrial distribution, and what do you hope to accomplish when you start your career?

As a young man entering college, opportunities that present themselves are not always easily recognized. Deciding on a major of study demonstrated to be a formidable task. However, once learning of the industrial distribution program at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, those opportunities for a successful career after school became clear. The program mapped out many opportunities that would present themselves in the semesters to come. Based on those opportunities, I decided that a career in technical sales and management would be the direction of choice to pursue my goals.

Now, as I prepare to begin my professional career, I cannot help but wonder what the business world has in store. The industrial distribution program has taught me to set high career expectations. Accomplishments that I will strive to attain early and throughout my career are building trusting relationships between co-workers, employers and myself, as well as building and maintaining life-long business relationships with the customers I will be serving. Finally, with the technical skills I have obtained, I am confident that the industrial distribution program has prepared me to become an expert in the products and services I will be managing within the industry.

Described as "Engineering with Personality," industrial distribution was the perfect avenue to fulfill all that I was looking for in a degree. As a student who had always enjoyed and excelled in math and science, I began my college career studying engineering. However, after learning that this job could potentially limit me to a life of number-crunching and dimly-lit lab facilities, I decided to seek out another avenue to employ my love of people and travel.

Since my involvement with industrial distribution, I have decided I am most suited for a career in technical sales. Areas that have attracted the greatest amounts of my attention include automation, pharmaceutical distribution, and electronics. I intend to choose a career based on where it has the potential to take me, location-wise as well as opportunities for future advancement. Becoming an industrial distribution major has hands-down been one of the best decisions I have made for my future. The faculty in the Texas A&M I.D. program are all esteemed individuals in their respected fields, the students are among the best and brightest in the nation, and I know my opportunities will be abundant based on the solid foundation I have received during my tenure in the program.