Ryan Esslinger – UIC Grad

Ryan Esslinger is graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago’s (UIC) Online Health Informatics Program.  Ryan also works full time as a Data Analyst for Milliman, a leading independent actuarial and consulting firm.  Ryan Esslinger

What was your first job?
Aside from my older sister tricking me into washing her car for a dollar, my first real job was working on a farm owned by a family friend when I was 14.  Call it a byproduct of growing up in Nebraska if you will, but to me it was money well earned after laboring all day in the hot summer sun.  I remember my mother dropping me off at dawn and picking me up at dusk.  These days, whenever I’m having a bad day at work I remind myself what it’s making a living working on a farm.

What was your worst job?
The summer after my freshman year in college, I worked as a receptionist for a small industrial supply company in Bensenville, Illinois.  I fielded well over 75 calls per day, mostly patching people through to the appropriate extensions.  I also had the pleasure of reconciling physical inventory with the inventory that was logged in what was a very antiquated computer system back then (and most certainly an extinct computer system by now).  Remember the old printers with the dials on the side?  The ones which you had to peel off the perforated holes on the edges of the paper and fan-fold? I had stacks of those piled on my desk on a daily basis, in addition to paper inventory slips.  The process was so manual-intensive, it would have inspired anyone to pursue a degree in information technology and management!  And that’s exactly what I did after that summer.  I never looked back.

What are you going to blog about?
Being a recent college graduate and former recruiter turned HIT professional, I find myself fully immersed in the Healthcare IT world.  I feel blessed to have found the right stepping stones that have helped me get to where I am today.  There is much talent out there just waiting to flood the market, and it is exciting to sit and ponder what the future holds for the industry.  My blog will primarily focus on life as a working graduate student, but I’m sure there will be much more to talk about!  After all, there is no better time to join in the HIT discussion than now.

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