Alumni spotlight: Taylor Adkins

Recent alumnus Taylor Adkins (BSChE’23) took some time out of her day to meet with graduating seniors taking summer lab. In addition to answering their questions about entering the working world, Adkins shared some additional insights with us.

Tell us about your time on campus!

I had quite a few jobs during my time at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During my freshman year, I was a middle school tutor for math, science, and reading and worked with the IEDE student center to plan events for area K-12 students. COVID happened during my sophomore year. I still worked as a peer mentor for Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) and lead a PrEPS session for Physics 201 throughout my time on campus. I was involved in chemistry research sophomore year, using rotational spectroscopy to determine extremely precise structures of organic molecules and allow for search of these molecules in the interstellar medium. For this research, I was awarded a Hilldale Research Fellowship. Other than those experiences, I was pretty consumed by my academic pursuits.

What can you share about your career path?

After finishing up summer lab, I took about one month off before starting at Elutions, a machine learning and artificial intelligence company that works with industrial clients to optimize their performance. There, I was an Intelligent Enterprise Solutions engineer. It was my job to understand clients’ processes and uncover areas to improve with machine learning models. I got to work with clients in logistics, chemical manufacturing, oil & gas, and water treatment. I really appreciated the opportunity to learn about many different processes across various industries.

Though I generally liked most aspects of my job there, I was concerned that by working behind a desk and not in a manufacturing environment, other companies I may want to work for in the future would not accept my experience. I began keeping an eye out for opportunities that had more hands-on experience in a manufacturing setting. Luckily, I found an opportunity with IFF as a process engineer. Now I work in a facility that produces cheese and probiotic cultures!

What are your career highlights so far? What are you most proud of?

I got to be the main expert from my company for a case study on fluid catalytic crackers. This involved doing research to understand catalytic crackers and their major control variables, looking into client process documentation to understand how to get the operational data for those major control variables and important indicators for an example cracker, working with our data science team to build an ML model of the system and optimize it, and figuring out how to estimate the benefit provided by using the optimized model to control the system. It was a quintessential example of the kind of work we did for clients. I loved having a leading role in the process.

How has UW-Madison shaped you into the person and engineer you are today?

Being a Badger engineer gave me extra tools in my toolbox to function as the person and engineer I am today. The coursework does an excellent job of overpreparing you for the necessary technical skills and knowledge to succeed in the workforce. The all-too-many lessons on writing concisely play in my head on repeat while preparing reports. The instant connection you have with coworkers and supervisors who are also UW alumni is great for building working relationships. I would also say that the rigor of the classes and coursework instilled a tenacity in me that I have found extremely useful when troubleshooting on the job. UW-Madison is also where I found my current friends, who are a great support system (and great pickleball partners).

How did CBE prepare you for your next steps? Did any mentors make an impact on your experience?

I learned a lot from all the CBE classes I took, not just necessary hard skills, but also about how to juggle work, stay organized, and solve tough problems by using all the resources at your disposal. My research experience helped me at dissecting information from academic papers, which I did utilize often. I don’t want to call out any specific mentors, but I did find that by speaking to professors during office hours, such that they got to know you, really positively impacted my experience.

How was your experience pivoting in the industry?

I went from working hands-on in a process engineering internship to working more hands-off in a ML/AI consulting position and I am soon to be back in a manufacturing environment. So far, I have felt prepared for the challenges and growth that come with each. I spent a lot of time at my “desk job” worried about how it was impacting my future prospects because many of the job postings I came across were looking for experience directly in a plant. I still don’t know the definitive answer on that (and am sure it is very situationally dependent), but I took it upon myself to switch to a position that I was more interested in long-term and had more growth potential. At the same time, despite my “desk job” being my only full-time experience, I was hired for a more hands-on role.

My final advice on the subject is to continually aim yourself at where you want to end up.

What was the hardest transition from being in school to work?

Overall, I would say that the transition from being in school to working full-time has been really positive. The hardest transition for me was how you have to show up for work every day, with many fewer exceptions. During college, though it is frowned upon, you can miss a class if you aren’t feeling up to it. Or you may not have any classes until 11 am and can spend your time how you want. Of course, the expectations are quite different during work. Fortunately, my workplaces have allowed some extent of remote work.

What might you share with current CBE students?

For me, I worried about finding a job right out of college at a company that I would work at for most of my career. I learned first-hand that changing jobs, changing industries wasn’t as scary as it seemed, especially early in one’s career.

Also, I find myself very hesitant to apply to anything that I don’t match the requirements for exactly. I worry that companies may think I didn’t read the job description. However, the job that I recently accepted was looking for two years of experience, but I only had less than a year of working full-time and a three-month internship. I learned that the duration of your work experience is not the only thing that makes your experience valuable. The lessons and skills you learn also have tremendous value.

Additionally, finding a way that you really connect with a company or position can also provide a leg up. I hypothesize that a key component for me in landing my latest job was from conveying my passion for fermentation. Both in the cover letter and interview, I shared how I ferment kombucha, kimchi, and sourdough in my free time and connected that to the fermentation done by the company.

My last piece of advice is to worry less and ask for help when you need it, in school and beyond.