AMA #31 8300A_HOKIE'12

Name's Brett. In addition to the Hokies, I love the Green Bay Packers, Seattle Kraken, and I guess I could be considered a DC Defenders fan. I hold an MBA from ODU and am working on a Masters of Science in Analytics through Georgia Tech. My only real hobby growing up was video gaming, but I discovered my love of golf in 2022. I have yet to break 100 but I am going to do it sooner than later dammit! In high school I was a swimmer (specialized in the 500 free, team captain my Junior and Senior years), I was a band geek, I rode the bench on the volleyball team my senior year, and was an Eagle Scout. I am getting married to my other half this October in Cape Charles, VA.

My road to becoming a Hokie started in 2006. I was a sophomore in high school and my little brother was in 8th grade. I remember watching VT vs GT that year and all my little bro kept saying during that game was how badly he wanted to go to Virginia Tech. His energy infected me and from that point on I knew I wanted to be a Hokie. Fast forward to my senior year in high school, all my 17 year old self cared about was getting as far away from Norfolk, VA as I could while still remaining in-state and going to a school with a great football program. I only submitted one college application.

I came from a household and a situation in school where I was always allowed to skate by. All I had to do was behave and show up to school. I don't think I did a single homework assignment my junior and senior years (has to be hyperbole, but I swear that is how I remember it). Since I played trumpet in the high school band, making the MVs so I could watch as much VT football as possible was the dream. I got accepted, I made the band, I attended football games, life was perfect....... for three semesters.

My fixation on simply getting to college and watching football didn't exactly set me up for success. By the end of my sophomore year when most students are halfway through their degrees, I hadn't even declared a major yet. I entered as "Undecided" because "I would figure it out later, WOO COLLEGE!!". With a proverbial gun to my head and a real risk of not graduating on time, I sat down and asked myself why I was even in college. The answer was simply to get a job upon graduation. What degree best enabled me to do that? The very subject I had been actively avoiding and swore I would never do, Business!!

I entered Pamplin through the economic program since that was the only field that did not have any prerequisites. I fully intended on transferring out of econ once I figured out which business subject I enjoyed, but I discovered I enjoyed the subject. (This began a long string of falling backwards into areas that seem to have defined my life). I had a lot of catching up to do. Two years and 2 full summer sessions to cover my completely wasted sophomore year, I was short one class of graduating on time. I walked with the rest of the class across Cassel and graduated a month late in June 2012 after completing the one class I was short. The extra time was invaluable. I still remember driving away from Tech for the last time as a student and shedding a single tear where 81 starts to curve away from Blacksburg.

Immediately after college, the only job I could land was a financial sales job in Richmond, VA (being in Richmond was my call, I still refused to move back home). 2013 was the worst year of my life. The job sucked, I made no money, and within the same week in March my godmother passed away and I broke up with my college sweetheart. I truly went from being on top of the world to about as low as a person could get. It was TKP that began my rise out of the depressed stupor.

Once I got over living on my own, I moved back home to become roomies with my little bro. Soon after that I left my financial sales job. I loved the financial aspect of the job but sales was all that mattered and I was not built for it. Needing to keep the lights on, I got a job as a seasonal driver helper with UPS and bussing tables at a microbrewery called the Home Republic. If I was going to get paid minimum wage with a degree, I was going to do it around something I loved! (Beer, I love beer)

The Home Republic ended up being more of a god send than I realized. While getting to brew beer a few weekends and knowing how to disassemble and reassemble the beer tanks was really cool, unbeknownst to me, a manager at the brewery was also a recruiter for a government contractor in the area. He took note of my work ethic and background (especially as a Hokie), and was the catalyst for starting me second career as a consultant. Once again, I fell backwards into a great opportunity.

Nearly upon completion of my MBA, I created a plan to shoot up into the highest echelons of management I discovered what I truly loved. Data Analytics. My enjoyment of econ and finances finally made sense once I discovered the field. Having made zero traction to grow into the field at my previous firm, I made the decision to move on and got hired at a Big Four firm (the MBA wasn't all for naught!) I have since started my second Graduate degree, My career goal is to honestly be able to call myself a data scientist (So many people like to throw around the title. I am not there yet, I have automated processes for my clients using Python, but I have not created any machine learning algorithms).

Its never too late to figure it out or make a change! Sincere thank you for reading if you got this far.

#TeamPie. Cheese is the absolute greatest. I was sitting right in the end zone when Danny Coale caught that ball, I saw it with my own eyes. I like Moe's don't tell me how to live my life!! AMA!