Bevin Mathew

EDUCATION

National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, India, B.Tech Mechanical Engineering, 2013

University of Michigan, MSE Industrial & Operations Engineering, 2016

CAREER SUMMARY

My first job out of college was in procurement for Toyota. Though I was seeking a production engineering position, my employers insisted I would be a great fit. Most of my hesitation was down to my total lack of understanding on what a role in procurement meant. As I worked through my first few months in this role, I realized that it was tailor-made for anyone who wanted to be a specialist and a generalist. Rotating through different responsibilities gave me a good general understanding on how various subsystems of automobiles worked and further also to appreciate the sourcing and manufacturing challenges. After my masters at Michigan, I joined Apple’s procurement team and was amazed at how within a year I could have a good conversation on Wireless technologies without ever having had any prior background in the field before Apple. Working on the Apple Card and being part of the core team was an insightful opportunity to completely appreciate the effort that goes into bringing up a whole new product from the design studio out into the hands of millions of customers. I would highly recommend looking at a future in procurement if you are looking for a role where you could create meaningful business impact and at the same time expand your technical knowledge of multiple diverse domains.

Reflection on Time Spent at U-M

Absolutely enjoyed every minute of every course I took. Some courses which I found useful in my current role : Inventory Analysis, Applied Business Analytics, Simulation, Manufacturing & Supply Operations. Some of the operations courses at Ross are extremely useful for practical applications in the real world. My personal favorite course was Stochastic Processes even though I tend to use what I learnt there less directly – but nevertheless, a great course to give you intuition about how to describe the world mathematically. Apart from course textbooks, I would also recommend purchasing a copy of ‘Factory Physics for Managers’ for all aspiring Operations professionals.