Sara Javaheri

Tell us about yourself.
My name is Sara. I was born and raised in Iran and immigrated to the US in 2010. I received my bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from UC Santa Cruz. I am currently working as a Quality Engineer at Abbott.

Why Engineering Management? 
I have chosen this degree focus as I don’t want to leave the engineering field while exploring the management aspect of my industry. I believe, to successfully manage an engineering team, one needs to have the same engineering background. Having personally experienced the upsides and pitfalls of the industry will give me better insight as a manager so that I can lead a team more efficiently.

Why did you choose the Cornell Engineering Management program? 
Cornell gave me the option to study Engineering Management online. As I have a full-time job, it was very convenient for me to be able to keep my job and study at the same time. I found the career path of Cornell Engineering Management faculty and their research track very similar to my interests and vision for the future.

Can you give an example of something you learned in class that you then applied to your job? 
Many concepts taught in Engineering Management courses are directly applicable to my job. I can think of cash flow tables and advanced formulas in Excel that came to my rescue when I was asked at my job to update an advanced Excel sheet. I was able to do it in a few minutes thanks to the skills I had learned at Cornell. 
After taking the Product Management course, I understood many fundamental teamwork concepts that I had been working based off of for years e.g., Waterfall and Agile methodologies.

What is next for you?
I envision my future self as an engineer in charge of a team who can lead and learn. The sweet spot for me is when I can have equal involvement with the engineering and management side of my field. In the near future, I see myself leading a bioengineering team at a multinational biomedical company.