Guest Oliver Will was always good at math and when he got to college he figured he would parlay that into a science or engineering degree. While taking the mathematics prerequisites for a number of majors, he realized he liked the theoretical elegance of the math itself. And yet, he was interested in real-world applications, too. A course in bioethics introduced him to the idea of the computational work involved the human genome sequencing and the idea of bio-statistics. He applied to graduate programs straight from undergrad and got a PhD in applied mathematics.

As other guests on Roads Taken have discussed, a tight job market for academic positions is complicated by factors such as timing, geography, and luck. Although he’d thought the life of professor would suit him, after a rather unfulfilling postdoctoral fellowship, Oliver decided that the business world might be better suited for his skills and expertise. Unfortunately, his first experience was with a start-up that ran out of its funding, so he made one more return to the academic world—halfway around the globe—only to discover industry was probably the better fit. He became a statistician for a marketing company and continued using both big picture thinking and his applied skills to tackle everyday realities at a number of companies in a variety of fields.

While he got better at pivoting from his expected outcomes to the newer opportunities available to him in a business context,it was somewhat harder when the circumstances were personal. In this episode, find out from Oliver how sometimes sometimes envisioning a future and living into what's in front of you are two different things…on Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode’s Guest

Oliver Will is has been a research scientist in advanced analytics for primary research at a number of companies, most recently Cerner Enviza, an Oracle company. He holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Southern California. He lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and their cats.

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Email the show at RoadsTakenShow@gmail.com

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at RoadsTakenShow@gmail.com

Applied Lessons: Oliver Will on seeing the big picture and adjusting to the reality in front of you

Roads Taken