ANN ARBOR, MI -- The circle of life is alive and well at the Tauber Institute for Global Operations. This month, students are participating in interviews, presentations and networking sessions with Tauber alumni who represent team project-sponsoring companies. These unique interactions offer students insight into the real world applications their team projects will have as they embark on their careers. 

Chandrashekar Shastry, MSCM ’13, returned to campus as a Service Manager at Cardinal Health and said that being on the other side of the recruiting table was quite a humbling and awesome experience. “The students were great. Tauber has maintained its reputation of developing great talents and this year was no exception. They were quite inquisitive and were very excited about our project. The interaction was really valuable and helpful in knowing them better. We were looking for talents that have a good mix of business and technical skills along with an aptitude to go the extra mile and we were quite happy to find many students who fit this category." 

Shastry advised the students to have open minds, be inquisitive and be well prepared as they have a very short time to make an impact on the employers. 

“I participated in the campus visit because I believe it is very important to remain connected to U-M and the Tauber Institute. It's not just because I am an alum but also because of the great talent that Tauber is known to produce year after year. It always feels great to give back to both institutes in some way and to stay connected with them,” said Shastry. 

Matt Schnugg, MBA 2011, Microsoft, Cloud + Enterprise Data Insights Chief of Staff, called the experience returning to campus “electric.” For the students, he said the visits help them gain an understanding of what opportunities that they’ll have for the summer and to really envision the next six months, and potentially the start of their career. “For me, it was to meet another crop of elite talent that I would have the opportunity to work with for the project that we are sponsoring,” he said. 

Schnugg said the students he interviewed recently did not disappoint. “I think that this is a testament to the great job that the Tauber staff does, as well as the pull of a great institute in one of the best universities in the world. Truly, the best students in Operations go to the University of Michigan,” he said. 

He elaborated on what he looks for in the campus visits. “As for what I have been looking for, the three archetypes in my mental model are a Program Manager, a Quantitative Analyst and a Subject-Matter-Expert (we call them SMEs at Microsoft) in either computer science or supply chain management. Beyond this however, I was looking for a diversity of skills and experiences in the students that would allow them to move across these three archetypes over the course of the summer. The students of Tauber have proven time and time again their ability to handle this breadth; this is part of the reason that we continue to sponsor projects.”

As a manager, Schnugg feels it is important to remain connected to Tauber as it is a pipeline of talent that he said feeds his organization some of its highest functioning individuals. “Selfishly, by associating my name with the Tauber hires, I look good because their top-quality work and contributions to the organization makes me look good!” he said. 

Also participating in the campus recruiting visits recently were Stella Bi, MSCM ’13, global commodity manager with BorgWarner Inc., Jonathan Mattson, MBA ’12, manager with Boeing 777 Wing Body Join and Andrew Burgess, MBA '11 and MSE-ME '11, quality business intelliegence senior manager, Boeing.

For more information on recruiting Tauber students, call 734-647-2220.

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