A&A math majors

Vince,

Thank you so much for meeting with me Friday morning about the Research
Group.

After leaving your office, I remembered an issue I have had with the Analyst
& Associate Program that might be of interest to you.

During a Texas A&M recruiting meeting, I learned that we have expanded our
list of majors to include computer science. I wondered why math majors were
not mentioned, and was told that there was not a business need for math
majors. Like liberal arts majors, they said math majors were only considered
on a person by person basis. In my opinion, math majors have many of the
same skills as finance majors, and can easily adjust to accounting rotations
as well (I did last summer, and finance majors in the program are forced to
every year.) I think that Enron is missing out on many qualified candidates
by limiting their recruitment effort.

At Texas A&M the Career Center asks companies for a list of majors they are
targeting, and only allows those majors to sign up for interviews through the
career center. I sent my resume to Enron and asked to be included in the
interview process on campus. However, many other math majors had not heard
of Enron or the other companies, and assumed that there was no place for a
math major at a company like Enron. Many math majors want to continue their
education, become teachers, or work for an actuarial firm. However, many
are undecided. We are constantly told of the many business possibilities
available to math majors by our teachers and staff, but many undergraduates
are still not sure exactly what math majors can contribute in a business
environment. By not mentioning math majors to the career center (a very
simple and inexpensive step), Enron is losing out on a very talented pool of
people. While it would be nice to get the math majors that knew about Enron
already, had thoroughly researched all companies and determined that math
majors would fit perfectly, and went the extra step to send Enron their
resume outside the career center system, there are many qualified students
who do not do this, and opt for other companies who DID mention math majors.

I called a manager in the A&A program to suggest that we consider at least
mentioning math majors to the career centers. I realize that it may cost
more to actively pursue them, talk to teachers, and attend math society
events. However, I told her that including them at the career center would
be very inexpensive for Enron. She reiterated that they saw no business need
for math majors, and that if more upper level people began requesting them,
it would be considered. I searched for "mathematics" on the Enron job
website, and had a surprising number of results. I know that your group
could use math majors as well. However, this still may be too small a number
to merit a focus from the A&A recruiting department. I just wanted to bring
it to your attention in case it was something that you felt should be changed.

Thanks,
Heather Johnson
x53240