Page 6 - AEM-Newsletter-Spring-2023

ALUMNI NEWS
Pandemic experience turns AEM alumnus into NextGen Leader
When Ethan Och (BAEM ’20) arrived at the University of Minnesota from the rural city of Swanville, MN in 2016, he wasn’t intimidated by the campus’s size. He immediately became enamored by the hustle and bustle of life on the Twin Cities campus, where he was excited to be pursuing his degree
in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics.
“During my four years at the University, I learned so many fascinating concepts and met so many exceptionally talented people — students and faculty alike,”
Och stated. “But in early 2020,
on the precipice of my graduation and the start of my career journey, another unexpected turn of events — a social reckoning, and a global pandemic.”
Och had been preparing to begin
a full-time job at a company upon graduation, but due to a hiring freeze there, he ended up spending the next year and a half on numerous virtual mentorship programs and unfruitful job interviews.
“I began to fear that I had perhaps made a mistake with my career decision — as an individual with a physical disability, finding work was already difficult, since I couldn’t easily relocate across the country to where the aerospace work was most readily available. The pandemic made it even harder, and the protected nature of most aerospace work meant that remote work was rarely an option.”
Finally, in the fall of 2021, Och caught a lucky break and received a
full-time remote offer from Northrop Grumman to join a program in their space sector, developing satellite ground software. Within a half year or so, however, funding challenges on the program led to a transition to Northrop Grumman’s enterprise services sector, where he supports the harmonization of another sector’s engineering and manufacturing processes.
What an experience it’s
been!
Not only has Och found success in his field, but he also maintains his connections with those individuals and organizations who helped him to be successful. In early 2022, his former case manager at Vocational
6 DEPARTMENT OF AEROSPACE ENGINEERING AND MECHANICS