Alumni spotlight: Teja Balasubramanian

Recent graduate Teja Balasubramanian (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, Teja shared some additional insights with us.

Tell us about your time on campus!

During the school year, I worked part-time supporting students. I worked as a Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) peer mentor, helping STEM students feel like they had a place on our campus. Additionally, I was a SOAR student assistant, guiding undecided students in their course selection. I also worked as a student assistant for algebra and trigonometry classes, helping students during class and for tutoring sessions. Finally, I co-instructed CP 125, a seminar for first-year students. My favorite job was my summer campus job where I worked for the Department of Soil Science. There, I drove to various agricultural research stations to sustain the growth of soy, corn, and potatoes. I was involved in some research my freshman and sophomore years in electrochemistry, exploring the low temperature electrochemical oxidation of alkanes.

What can you share about your career path?

I currently work for a biotech company called Illumina. During my junior year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I was lucky enough to be hired for a manufacturing operations internship at Illumina’s Madison site, where they produce the enzymes required for DNA sequencing through fermentation. After my internship, I was hired as a contractor with the company part-time during my senior year. I was hired back full-time and began working there directly after finishing summer lab. My role there spans many responsibilities, from developing user requirements for various engineering projects, running buffer screens and activity assays, to troubleshooting production line issues relating to yield and quality.

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

It was exciting to see my internship project designing a solids conveyance system come to fruition. As an intern, I worked on creating user requirements and functional specifications, and scoping out vendors for this system. When I became a contractor, I interacted with the vendors to identify the most appropriate solids conveyance technology for our applications. After that, it was time to design the skid, which was the most exciting part. We had so many constraints, from the dimensions of the room to where the utilities were located. I think there were around 50 total constraints that we had to be mindful of, as well as over 100 user requirements and functional specifications. Then, the machine was ordered and shipped from France. The full process took a little less than a year to complete, and it’s been my favorite project so far.

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

I feel like I have always been a curious person. However, being at UW-Madison exposed me to so many new opportunities and exciting ideas. Whether it was supporting collaborative, interdisciplinary projects or working at my student jobs, I was learning so much about communication, rational problem solving, and analytical thinking. The curriculum in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering instilled a strong sense of work ethic and inquisitiveness in me, both of which I appreciate now in the workplace.

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

The challenging coursework and high academic standards in the chemical engineering program helped me to develop a strong technical foundation and problem-solving skills that I use at my current position at Illumina – I still reference Perry’s regularly. Working with fellow students through my various jobs during the school year helped me to develop soft skills like communication. Balancing job responsibilities with academic expectation helped me with time management which has translated to improved project management. Developing reports and presentations during summer lab and other courses improved those skills for me so I can excel at those tasks, which I carry out regularly at my job.

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

The hardest transition for me was the realization that spring, summer, and winter breaks don’t exist after college. I started my full-time job the very next week after summer lab was over. Looking back, I wish I had taken some time off and enjoyed a final summer break before starting my job. Other than that, however, I would say that the transition from being in school to working was seamless.

What might you share with current CBE students?

One important lesson I’ve learned from working is the importance of financial literacy. Since a large part of my job involves optimizing processes, I often propose projects that require significant capital expenditures. A valuable skill is effectively communicating why the company should invest in a project using financial metrics for support.

Also, while I know the formula to calculate a three-year NPV, I’ve learned that finding the actual numbers that go into the formula is not always straightforward. I’ve needed to collaborate with multiple departments to understand all the financial angles of a specific project, often resulting in a rough estimate. Initially, this was frustrating because, as a student, I mostly focused on solving problems rather than gathering the necessary data. However, having needed to support my projects with financial metrics several times now, I am slowly understanding the nuances of working in a corporate setting where things aren’t always so clear-cut.

What was your experience of being an international student entering the workforce?

I think that being an international student makes many aspects of entering the workforce much more challenging. First, many of the jobs I meet the qualifications for don’t sponsor, so that the pool of jobs I am even eligible to apply for is very small. Often, the job descriptions won’t even mention that they don’t sponsor, so you learn the hard way when your application is auto-rejected after checking the “needs sponsorship” box, which can be very disheartening.

Secondly, once getting a job, the guarantee of future employment is not secure. As a STEM graduate, you essentially have three entries to the H1-B visa lottery with three years of OPT (optional practical training), where chance alone will dictate whether you can keep your job and your life in the United States or not. Thirdly, if I happened to lose my job due to layoffs (a real possibility, having survived three layoffs) I have less time to find another job, only being able to stay in the states 90 days unemployed.

Of course, jobs do exist that sponsor and people do get their H1-B visas. I’ve been fortunate to find a company that has employed me and given me an amazing working and learning experience. The resources provided by the International Student Services (ISS) at the university have been valuable for finding a job and applying for OPT and the STEM extension.