Career Development
Career Stories from Alumnae - Pam Axberg
Find out where a MATH
major can lead you...
Pam Axberg, Math major, graduated from the College of St. Catherine in 1985. She came to St. Kate’s interested in engineering, but fell into Math because she liked all the classes and physics did not interest her. Pam also minored in Computer Science.
What is your work history and current employer?
- After college, she started at Northwestern Bell with an engineering type position
- She spent 20 years there, eventually becoming the Vice President of Policy and Sales
- Pam switched jobs after Northwestern Bell became Qwest because of family values and her future career options
- She is currently the VP of sales at United Health Care and is on an operations team that overseas groups that handle insurance issues
Please describe a routine day or week in your job.
- Many conference calls and meetings
- Overseeing four different groups
- Traveling
- Giving operational reviews and grant proposals.
How competitive is entry into this field? What’s the outlook for future openings?
- Advancement opportunities are growing but so is the level of competitiveness.
- They have been recruiting more MBA versus undergraduate recently
- This field has a hard time attracting and keeping enough employees because people want to advance faster.
What types of skills/characteristics does a person need to do this job effectively?
- Technical and sharp
- Easy learners
- Good problem solvers
- Team players
- Employees need to be balanced and fast-paced with strong communication skills for writing, power point and presentations
Are there a lot of women in this field? What inspired you to take this path? How did St. Kate’s help you? Do you have any advice for our students?
- It can be frustrating and stressful at times because it is “dreadfully male dominant.”
- Pam was inspired to take this path because she kept getting offered advancement opportunities, she feels valued and it has been a good social impact on her
- She holds a lot of admiration for the College of St. Catherine stating, “It gave me a broad liberal arts education, a sense of direction and many leadership opportunities. It was a rewarding experience, a good fit for me and ingrained many transferable skills.”
- When asked what advice she could give to our students, she said “Might as well switch jobs and learn something new for the next 20 yrs.! Take some time off before you get into the real world, even a month, because flexibility changes so much. You have so much more when you’re in college, so learn how to learn and develop yourself laterally…instead of going up a ladder. Do a good job in your current job!”