Oby Umelloh
Majors: Business Honors, Management Information Systems, minor in African & African Diaspora Studies
Position: Business Development Intern
Company: Microsoft
Topics: Technology, Coding, Service
Oby Umelloh is currently a fourth-year student who spent this past summer as a Business Development Intern in Microsoft’s Seattle office. “My specific role was to look at what areas a product might go into in the next few years and determine what companies we should partner with versus acquire to help us fill various functionality gaps and enter new regions in the next fiscal year,” says Umelloh. Because of her internship, Umelloh will be returning to Microsoft in August to start a full-time position where she will rotate through Microsoft’s different business sectors for one year. “I really like the culture and vibe at Microsoft. They really believe in growth mindset. Over the summer, even when I felt like I failed miserably at something, they encouraged me to try again and learn from my mistakes. I see this as a great place to start, learn, and grow as much as possible.”
Umelloh found her internship by attending a Microsoft dinner co-hosted by McCombs’s affinity groups. “There were about 60 people there and only 2 Microsoft recruiters, so I didn’t end up talking to one of them until the very end of the event. I was worried he was going to be tired and fatigued, but we just hit it off and had a great conversation about non-recruiting stuff like family and what my interests were.” Without a doubt, Umelloh had plenty of interests, activities, and experiences to share with the recruiter: She’s studied abroad in both South Africa and Hong Kong, interned for a nonprofit in South Africa, taught at a technology summer camp, and is involved in Code Orange, a campus organization dedicated to increasing technical literacy in underserved Austin communities.
“The campus activity I’m most passionate about is Code Orange because I’m very passionate about technical and digital literacy for underrepresented communities. Through Code Orange, I met a friend who was doing a program called iD Tech Camp in Houston. I was looking for programs that would help me teach children that might not have the opportunity to learn coding skills in their schools or have strong STEM programs, and iD Tech Camp was the perfect opportunity for me.”
Her desire to “pay it forward” through programs like Code Orange and iD Tech is influenced by mentors who helped her pave her own pathway into technology. “I was not a coding person at all in high school. When I took MIS 301, I remember reading this passage in the textbook about internet connectivity in underdeveloped countries, and it really resonated with me because my family is Nigerian. It made me want to become an MIS major so I could contribute to this issue of making internet more accessible. Then I took MIS 304 with Caryn Conley (who is a BHP alum) and she made me believe in myself and my ability to code. She and my MIS 333K professor (Katie Gray, also a CBHP alum!) empowered me and gave me the confidence to pursue coding and other technical fields.”
Umelloh also credits her Canfield BHP classes with preparing her to enter the workforce. “There’s something in every class that can be related back to the job. In Statistics (STA 371H) with James Scott, I was really forced to have a data-driven approach to analyses and get over any preconceived notions I had about what the outcome would be. And in (Robert) Prentice’s Business Law (LEB 323H) class, I’m learning about all the ethical considerations of decision-making, which is especially relevant in tech because there’s so much grey area.” Reflecting upon her experiences in the program, she shares the following advice for current and prospective students: “If I could talk to my former self, I would tell myself not to worry so much about the physical manifestations of intelligence, like your grades or how you compare to the statistics of the class as a whole. I would tell myself to instead focus more on what I’m learning and how I can get the most out of each class. Eventually, college will be over and all you’ll be left with is what you learned, not the grade you received.”