Networking for Success
For UNH Manchester senior Jared O'Connell '22, networking opportunities were key in turning a software engineering internship into a full-time role. The Litchfield, N.H. native is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and a minor in data science and has already secured a job as an associate software engineer at Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of enterprise open source solutions.
“UNH Manchester provided the resources to learn and network, which helped me secure my current job," O'Connell says.
O'Connell's full-time role originated from his internship at Red Hat, where he worked on the company's OpenShift platform, a secure and comprehensive enterprise-grade container platform based on industry standards, Docker and Kubernetes. His charge involved automation to improve the team’s efficiency testing the performance and scalability of the product.
Prior to Red Hat, O'Connell put his computer science knowledge into action at an internship with Ping4Inc., where he worked as part of a team responsible for updating the Android app, Ping4alerts, an emergency communications platform that allows public safety agencies to send high precision, location-based emergency alerts to people in their community.
One important piece of advice O’Connell would like to offer to incoming UNH Manchester students is to take college seriously.
“Fully utilize the resources provided to you and try to network with your classmates," O'Connell says. "That’s how I got my internships, one of which turned into a job.”