GAINESVILLE, FL: Trudy Daniels (BS ISE 1981) returned to campus to address students in the “Introduction to ISE” course on Monday, November 19.  She opened the session by asking the group what they wanted to do for their careers.  As expected, few had a firm idea.  “For me, it was a bit of struggle to figure out what I wanted to do,” she confessed.  So she made a point of trying a lot of different jobs until she found the right one.  For example, her career started with General Electric in St. Petersburg where she took on a variety of roles in production and quality.  She found her passion in project management.  “I loved seeing a project from start to finish,” she said.  “That really clicked for me.”

She moved on from General Electric to Concurrent Technologies, where she continued to manage projects but also increased her responsibilities in line management.  After a brief stint with Nova Engineering, a subsidiary of L3 Communications, she is now with Crystal Clear Technologies.  She serves as Director of Information Technology Services for the small firm that supports the defense industry.

Daniels urged the students to work on preparing for the future by concentrating on finding their passion and how they would measure success.  She also stressed that each student pursues excellence in what they are passionate about and invest in themselves for the future.