The College of Applied Science and Technology’s “A Day in the Life of a CAST Alum” series is designed to shed some light on how CAST alumni spend their days. As with many careers, our alumni will tell you that every day is different, but this series aims to provide a peek into an alum’s world.
School of Information Technology alum Enrico Washington ’99 serves as an acting project manager and program coordinator within the information technology department at State Farm Insurance. This encompasses managing a few projects, improving processes, and facilitating the flow of information for other projects within our program.
8 a.m. Start my day by focusing on action-related emails and existing tasks that need to be completed and plan the rest of my day.
8:30 a.m. I shift focus to last-minute preparation for a 10 a.m. meeting by reviewing the latest developments with some of the planned agenda items, discussion with team members involved in those items, and taking notes of any hot topics that now need to be covered.
9 a.m. Start reviewing risks and dependencies associated with a different project that I’m leading by assessing due dates that are quickly approaching and scheduling a meeting with all the parties involved to discuss these topics as a team.
10 a.m. Facilitate a meeting with team members from the first project. We spend most of the hour discussing testing the project. As project manager, I am mainly trying to get a general sense of my team member’s comfort level with where we stand and identify significant road blocks that could benefit from my assistance.
11 a.m. I attend a meeting related to the second project. I mainly listen for impacts to my project and I provide some clarity on the role my project plays with the new work.
12 p.m. I conduct a review of all the projects within our program with a partner and a few other associates. We identify troubled projects or projects that demand the attention of our program’s leadership before quickly grabbing a bite to eat.
1 p.m. I attend another meeting as a program coordinator where I mainly listen to the status of a number of projects associated with a single implementation. I address our leadership’s questions related to projects that don’t have representation at the meeting and take notes about any hot topics or major issues with any of the other projects in order to help me adequately represent them later if necessary.
2 p.m. I work on an effort that I lead to reduce the amount of incidents that disrupt project implementations within our program. I use this time to review and provide feedback on a list of best practices that were developed.
3 p.m. I start wrapping up my day by reviewing all the emails I received while in meetings and adding action items I’ve picked up throughout my day to my rolling task list.
4:15 p.m. I’m headed to daycare to pick up the kids.
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