Mr. Noppenberger, Engineer, VP at Booz Allen Hamilton
Published 11 May 2020
Tags: engineering, managementWhy did you choose to pursue this career? What made you certain this was the right path?
I chose to pursue this career because I was always really good at math. I liked understanding how things worked, too. When I was little, for fun, I would take things apart and put them back together to try to understand how their parts worked together in order to function.
What events, prior employment, or educational experiences led you to your current job?
I got a master’s degree in business, and then certified as a project manager. After working as an engineer for a couple of years, I was led into consulting.
What schooling, education, and/or certifications did you complete to prepare you for this career?
I got a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Maryland and my masters at the University of Pennsylvania. I have an EIT certification, which in engineering training. I am also certified as a PMP, which is a project management professional.
How did you make the best use of your time in both your education and career?
I made the best use of my time for my education and career by getting my degrees before I had kids. Once I had kids, all of my time was taken away, so I am very glad I finished my education before that.
What advice would you give to a high school or college student interested in pursuing this field of work?
Pursuing a career in this field of work gives you a lot of options in life and many career choices. It also pays well. I would advise that you always continue to learn and improve your technical skills, because those are very important. Also, stay an engineer as long as possible before transitioning to management because you will master your craft. Engineering is way more fun than management; building stuff is more fun than managing other people building stuff.
What opportunities would you suggest high school students participate in?
I would suggest that even if you are planning to pursue a career in the STEM field, it is still extremely important to have a strong background in writing and public speaking. This is still an extremely important part of any job, and a job applicant for an engineering position who can write and speak is unstoppable. Also, try to get an internship and get hands on experience early. You can also do something like the robotics club. Also, something extremely important would be to learn how to code early. That would be extremely helpful if you want to pursue a career in this field.
What opportunities did you take as a student that helped advance your career (research, internships, etc.)
I had three internships in college. I worked for the department of transportation twice and I also worked for a robotics company.
What do you wish you had done differently with regards to your career/education?
I wish I had spent more time doing engineering before I transitioned to management and consulting because that is the part of my job I enjoy a lot more. I also wish I had spent my first two years of college studying more so that my last two years of college would’ve been less painful.
What does a typical day at your job look like?
I work at a top-secret environment. I work on projects that solve national security problems and I help to defend the United States against our enemies and collect intelligence about our enemies. I go to a lot of meetings to discuss the problems we are faced with and how we will work to fix them.
What was a surprising aspect of your job?
The most surprising aspect of my job is the complete inability to describe it to anybody.
What qualities are necessary to be successful in your field of work, and why?
Qualities that are necessary to be successful in this field of work are that you have to be highly technical, passionate about your client’s mission, creative, articulate, and have great problem-solving skills.
Do you have any additional advice?
Don’t give up. It is very hard at first, but it will get easier. Especially in college, don’t give up your freshman and sophomore year when classes are more boring and book dependent. You must push through these years so you can get to the fun classes with problem solving and building new, innovative things. You may find your first two years difficult and not very exciting learning the fundamentals of science and math, but you have to stay focused on the end game. The last few years start to really become fun if you are really interested in engineering because there is a larger focus on building things.