Thomas O’Connell

Marketing and Computer Information Technology
Class of 2016

“I honestly was like most students coming into St. Joseph's University. I wanted that ‘going away’ experience but decided on not having enormous student loans. It wound up being the greatest decision of my life. I played baseball for my freshman year. I wound up getting internships all throughout my college career, working around my school schedule and building my resume to set myself up for the future.

"I also took advantage of the fact that St. Joseph's University has two campuses and spent my last semester at the Brooklyn campus living in the St. George Hotel in Brooklyn Heights which was another tremendous experience which also allowed me to intern in the city while going to school in Brooklyn."

All in the Family

"My sister went to St. Joseph's University thinking she would be a math teacher and majored in mathematics. Professor Hong and Sister Jane helped her realize how beneficial and easily compatible a double major would be for computer science when already a mathematics major. She wound up graduating in 2012 and getting a job as a computer science engineer instead of becoming a math teacher like she originally planned.

"I wound up getting internships all throughout my college career, working around my school schedule and building my resume to set myself up for the future."

"This led to me understanding that there is a clear job market within technology. After taking introductory comp-sci classes I was approached by Professor Hong and Sister Jane (who I owe so much gratitude to) and they encouraged me to try certain classes and I wound up deciding to double major in marketing and computer information technology. I really enjoyed all my  classes and with my sister’s, Sister Jane’s, and Professor Hong's encouragement realized this was the right path for me.

After Graduation

"I was fortunate enough to receive and accept an offer working for Ernst & Young as a technical advisory consultant. I get to work on teams who advise some of the most well known banks and financial service firms. We are expected to be able to do many things from very technical work (which St. Joseph's University prepared me for) such as building data extractions tools using VBA, or building reports themselves using custom made SQL views, to much project management roles where we are expected to manage extremely technical teams and be able to interact with them intelligently. I now live in Long Island City and mainly work out of Manhattan but also have to travel when necessary depending on my client at the time."

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