Jeff Chen

I graduated in 2013 and I did the MS&E concentration in the B.S. STS track (back when it was more choose-your-own-adventure). I would strongly encourage new STS students to seriously think about pursuing a honors thesis through the STS honors thesis program - even if you're thinking of going into the business world like I did. I, for one, benefited tremendously from the experience and continue the reap benefits 3 years into my career. I used my thesis experience as a key differentiator in the internship interviews that led to a summer internship at Microsoft, which in turn led to a full time offer in the prestigious ACE new grad rotation program. I was also able to leverage my experience with designing and implementing independent research in the professional setting and actually had the chance to run >$1M of market research projects for new PC hardware designs and Windows device marketing campaigns. I also continue to benefit from the holistic, systems-thinking approach taught through the STS program in my current role in enterprise software product marketing.  TL:DR - give the STS honors thesis a shot - it's especially useful in a business/market research/marketing setting because most people don't have that kind of interdisciplinary exposure or academic rigor.