Current Position:

Senior Security Architect at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Degree (s):

• Bachelor of Science in Mathematics, NC State, 2003

Questions below were answered by Josh, while he was in his previous position as an Software Engineering Manager at FUJIFILM Holdings America Corporation.

Was the degree you earned required for the work you do? How did you find yourself in your current position?

My degree was not required for the work I do, though everyone here has at least a bachelor’s degree. I found myself in my current position when I was promoted from Sr. Software Developer at FUJIFILM Holdings America Corporation.

What skills or abilities do you find are most important in the work you do?

Critical reasoning, analytical thinking, communication, and interpersonal relations.

What preparation would you recommend for someone interested in entering your field? Are there any courses at State you would recommend?

You can get a software development job with a Math degree, but it helps to have some Computer Science classes. Most math course work lends itself to writing code. For instance, you can do numerical analysis work with Liner Algebra libraries in Python or C++. Abstract Algebra and Theory of Numbers form the basis of modern cryptographic libraries and there are basic implementations of crypto algorithms that are fun and easy (for a math major) to write. Also, statistical course work is widely applicable to “Big Data” and “AI”.

What other career paths would you suggest a student explore before making a final decision?

Software is eating the world, so good luck trying to get away from it. A math major can become a professional engineer, if they get a job at a company with other professional engineers and follow the track. Cyber Security is huge. Professional sales can be a great career if you commit to it and get proper training and mentoring.

If you had to do everything over again, would you do anything differently? Why or why not?

I’m pretty sure I’d still go into software development. It’s so easy and satisfying these days to develop meaningful software. But, I would give careful consideration to which domain I wanted to work in. A progressive career in a single domain is more valuable than bouncing around.