ISU alumnus Steven Bly attributes his career success to his internship experience, and he recommends current students pursue internships.

“If you don’t have internship experience, it’s really difficult for employers to gauge your ability,” Bly said. “Having an internship is almost a must.”

Bly, who graduated from Iowa State in 2008, is originally from Garrison, S.D. He said that growing up on a farm led him to pursue agricultural engineering. 

“Agricultural engineering seemed like the best way to really blend farming and science,” Bly said. 

Before attending Iowa State, Bly earned his bachelor’s degree from South Dakota State. He said he decided to attend graduate school because he wanted to gain experience in research.

“I just wanted to expand my career opportunities,” he said. “I wanted to get a master’s degree to give myself some background experience in research and broaden my research experience.”

Bly said he chose to attend Iowa State because he was interested in cellulosic ethanol. 

“Cellulosic ethanol allows us to give up our dependency on foreign fuel,” Bly said. “It opens up our potential to more ethanol per acre of agricultural land.”

While at Iowa State, Bly studied abroad in Talus, France, with six other ISU students. 

“That was an excellent, excellent experience,” he said.

Bly also had three internships while in college, he said. One of these internships was at POET, a biofuel company that specializes in bioethanol. He said he was the data system engineering intern. 

“I worked with data and information from all the ethanol plants all summer, and used those to gauge plant performance and provide feedback,” Bly said. 

After interning at POET, he continued to keep an eye on the company’s website for any job openings, he said. After graduating, Bly secured a job at POET as a process developer engineer. 

Bly said he was just promoted about a month ago to plant process engineer. 

“I’m responsible for the daily operations of ethanol plant and safety,” Bly said. “I’m responsible for troubleshooting and solving all technical issues with the plant.”

In the future, Bly hopes to develop his management skills.

“My main goal is to gain experience and knowledge of the general operations of an ethanol plant,” he said. “I think it will prepare me for different management opportunities.”