Hayley LeBlanc ‘20, a senior researcher in the Systems Research Group at Microsoft Research, says what she loves most about her work is the opportunity to pursue long-term, high-risk projects with potentially high rewards — especially those she’s passionate about.
Hayley LeBlanc ‘20
She comes up with ideas to use new technology to build better storage and memory systems. “I really love my job,” she said. “It’s a job with a lot of freedom: I get to choose what problems I work on and define my own research agenda.”
Amazon software engineer Nicolas Nguyen ’25 likes the fact that no day is the same. “There’s always a new problem to solve, something to improve, or a new industry standard to apply,” he said.
The tech industry races forward at lightning speed, yet Denison computer science majors are thriving in satisfying careers with the potential, as LeBlanc and Nguyen can attest.
Nguyen says that’s because even though new tools and frameworks pop up every year, the underlying concepts largely stay the same.
“The CS program gave me a strong foundation in how to think through problems independently and break them down systematically,” he said, adding that he has “the fundamentals I rely on every day to make decisions when evaluating different software solutions and system performance.”
LeBlanc, who earned a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin, wholeheartedly agrees. In addition to the cornerstones, she also learned “a ton of non-obvious skills that are extremely valuable,” such as principled problem-solving, debugging and troubleshooting, and communicating challenging technical topics.
Being a lifelong learner is an essential ingredient to success in the field. “No matter how good you are, you’re going to run into completely unfamiliar things,” LeBlanc said. “The ability to bootstrap yourself into a better understanding is extremely valuable.”
Activities outside computer science classrooms also had a profound impact on their academic and career paths.
Nguyen invested extra time to deepen his understanding of areas where he saw industry demand. “Build projects around your niche, experiment, and most importantly, learn by doing,” he said. “These experiences will help you stand out and solidify the career path you want to pursue.”
LeBlanc took courses in philosophy and dance, “which seem completely unrelated to CS but in fact changed how I approach solving problems and how I communicate information to others — and they were fun,” she said.
A foray on the fencing team halfway through her sophomore year led to her senior year as a co-captain, an enjoyable experience that also taught her new leadership skills.
Denison helps CS majors launch their careers through myriad research opportunities, support from professors, alumni who invest time in students, and the Knowlton Career Center.
In his sophomore year, Nguyen leveraged the Denison alumni network to land his first internship. That allowed him to explore different areas of tech and helped him pinpoint what most interested him. Today, he’s working on services that support the Amazon’s payments to global tax authorities.
“We are a small team, and I enjoy high ownership over the projects I work on and the impact they have,” he said. “What I like most about my job is that no day is the same as the previous one. There’s always a new problem to solve, something to improve, or a new industry standard to apply.”
LeBlanc spent a summer on campus conducting research through the Summer Scholars program and another in a research internship in Germany. While she didn’t focus her doctorate on any of those research projects, she learned much more about what piqued her interest.
“Those experiences showed me that I wanted a career in research, and gave me the opportunity to start to learn important skills, like how to write about and present my research well,” she said.
At Denison, the combination of solid fundamentals, diverse experiences, and confidence earned by tackling complex challenges prepares students and alums to make meaningful contributions to an industry that never stops moving forward.
