Jamie Palmer graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science in December 2006.  While at BYU, she also earned a second major in Chemistry and a minor in Physics.  And if a demanding academic schedule wasn’t enough, Jamie took the time to participate in a summer internship with ExxonMobil in Houston, Texas.  Her hard work and dedication paid off, however.  In December, she accepted a full-time placement position with ExxonMobil in Houston, where she is combining her love of chemistry and computer science and continuing to excel.

Upon arriving at BYU as a freshman in Fall 2001, Jamie realized that she lacked the basic understanding of computers that is necessary to survival in college.  She therefore decided to enroll in CS 100, a course in basic computer skills.  She was in for a surprise when she arrived to class the first day and found she had accidentally enrolled herself in CS 142, beginning Programming, instead.  Rather than learning the basics of spreadsheets and word processing, Jamie found herself studying programming, and found that she enjoyed the logic and methodology behind the science.  She continued taking CS courses until she was told she needed to declare a major.  Torn between her love of chemistry and her newfound love of computer science, Jamie decided to declare a double major until she was able to decide which path to choose.  In her own words, “I never got around to figuring out which major I liked best, so I majored in both.”

Some may be daunted by the thought of majoring in two such rigorous and time-intensive majors, but Jamie reveled in the challenge.  By not focusing completely on computer science, Jamie felt she was better able to balance her life.  Also, through her work in chemistry and physics, she learned more about the applications of computer science.  As she says, “In both Physics and Chemistry, there comes a point where the math just gets too hard to do on your own, and so you start to use programs like Matlab in order to do the computations and models.  Basically, my other two studies gave me a firm [idea] of the possibilities in programming.”

The additional disciplines also gave Jamie a leg up in the career field.  Following her junior year, she accepted an internship position at ExxonMobil in Houston, TX.  Her experience working for the oil giant helped bridge any remaining gap between her two majors.  In particular, the project she was assigned to work on during the summer allowed her to synthesize her undergraduate education and explore the many facets of programming.  Jamie was assigned to design, create, and test part of a larger program that the company was creating for its data managers to use.  She created a way for data managers to be notified by various alerts (email, GUI, etc.) if any errors occurred while data was being modified or moved around.  Incorporating GUIs, complicated logic, database work, and web programming, the project also gave her an excellent opportunity to work hand-in-hand with other team members, network, and learn better how to communicate with people of diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise. 

Following her senior year at BYU, Jamie was hired to work full-time as a software programmer at ExxonMobil.  She loves working at a company she feels she can support and being in a career which is dynamic, fast-paced, and constantly challenging and interesting.  Her career is reinforcing what she learned while working on her undergraduate degree: in the constantly changing world of computer science, there is never a dull moment.  She’s not worried about her work growing tedious or dull, as she is constantly learning about her field.  Jamie credits her internship with many of her current opportunities.  Her experience as an intern at ExxonMobil gave both her and the company the opportunity to evaluate each other.  She was better able to decide if it was a company she could work for full-time, because she already understood their policies and was familiar with the environment there. 

To students still working on their degree, her first piece of advice is to complete an internship.  In fact, she encourages students to complete several, if possible.  Secondly, for those who haven’t yet chosen a major, Jamie’s advice is to do something they love.  In her words, “You work better when you are happy and the world is a lot more cheerful looking too.”  She says that she absolutely loves programming, and it shows in both her work and her home life.  “Even after programming for most of the day,” she says, “I still come home at night and think about it and ponder more effective solutions.  That’s a good sign of someone who loves their work, which is how it should be.”