Spotlight on MITS ’19 Student, Nana Ekow Taylor
The McClure school provides a challenging and industry conscious curriculum that produces many talented individuals in the workforce. Reflecting this are the wide range of companies many undergrad and grad students of the ITS program work for upon graduation; examples – Nationwide, Progressive and Huntington. However, one grad student by the name of Nana Ekow Taylor, has received a position at a company like none other, Facebook.
Taylor is a grad student in the ITS program, originating from Accra, Ghana. Before coming to the United States, January 2018, Taylor was a telecommunications and software engineer for various companies. However, despite his success in the industry already, Taylor decided to pursue his master’s degree.
“After working a couple of years in the industry, I realized there was a trend of new developments and I felt that I needed to acquire some new knowledge and skills to remain relevant,” said Taylor. “Having said this, I thought to pursue higher education as a means of achieving this”.
Throughout his graduate experience, Taylor has taken a course load that has supplied him with a wide range of knowledge with industry concepts. Along with this, he has worked with Professor Aruaz on some of his projects as an graduate assistant. All of this knowledge and experience led up to Taylor’s application to Facebook.
“It was pretty straightforward. Once I turned in my application, I got an email from a recruiter and I was given a shot,” said Taylor. “After that, there was a series of 4 interviews, some technical, others personal.”
Upon interviewing, Taylor’s experience with telecommunications, programming and project management was what set him apart from other candidates. This ultimately resulted in his job offer and acceptance.
“It was a pretty exciting day,” said Taylor. “I always wanted work experience in the U.S., but I never expected a company like Facebook. I am very happy for this opportunity”.
Taylor will start his position after the end of Spring semester. He will be relocating to California, where the HQ of Facebook is located.