Internship leads to job offer for computer science major McMillin
When The Meredith Corporation created a new technical position in their human resources department, they made a call to former intern Brian McMillin ’06. McMillin now works for the company remotely from South Dakota where his wife attends graduate school, and the couple plans to move to Des Moines when she graduates.
What was your internship experience like?
The entire experience was great – I worked with a lot of good people, I enjoyed living on my own in an apartment in Des Moines, and I really feel I had some significant accomplishments while I was an intern. My task was to redevelop the website for the Human Resources department. I worked with employees in the HR department and the IT department to implement a new Website powered by Microsoft Sharepoint, which was relatively new at the time. I actually worked part-time for Meredith all the way through my senior year at Cornell and even some after I graduated.
What are you doing now at Meredith?
My job title is HR Systems Consultant, a position that encompasses a variety of responsibilities ranging from maintaining (and ultimately upgrading) the internal Human Resources department Website to administering various technology-based initiatives, such as the online performance evaluation system.
How did you like studying Computer Science at Cornell?
I had a great experience. Even though I had some limited experience in web programming coming into Cornell, I think the core sequence of courses was a really valuable introduction to Java and programming in general. There were a lot of opportunities for independent study and we had a lot of flexibility when it came to course projects. I also appreciated the availability of the professors and knew each of them pretty well.
What sorts of projects did you complete?
In the Computer Graphics course I spent some time looking at a program where you could render computer-generated 3-D models of LEGO buildings. I also learned a lot from an independent study with Professor Tabak on combinatorics during my senior year, and I produced a few presentations that related to principals of combinatorics that could be illustrated with a deck of playing cards. During my sophomore year, I completed an independent study with (mathematics professor) Jim Freeman that culminated in a presentation that focused on the mathematics behind compact discs. On the side, I became the first Webmaster (“Online Editor”) for The Cornellian.
