Paulo DaMoura

As a senior mechanical engineering student at BU, Paulo DaMoura was thirsty for experience. His mindset was, “I need to get a job because I wanted more experience.” Experience was always what he was after. He thought, “There’s so much I could do.” He’d been applying to mechanical engineering and manufacturing jobs but wasn’t having any luck when, a week before graduation, a friend of his sold him on Questrom’s Master of Science in Management Studies program. He says, “The whole premise of the program was personal growth and that’s what I desired most.”

He was fortunate to have worked at Boston University’s Engineering Product Innovation Center (EPIC) for two years prior to graduation where he strengthened his skills in a big way. He had a strong desire to learn everything there was to know from that experience. And he did. During his senior year, DaMoura says his supervisor put most of the responsibility on him, he says, “…and I was ready for it.” Part of the reason he loved learning at EPIC was that he could take the skills he learned in the classroom and apply them to something concrete.

The MSMS program is no different. It allows DaMoura to apply his skills to real-world solutions while giving him the experience he craves. He says the program’s company partnerships are incredibly valuable. “It’s that validation that you’re actually doing something that impacts a company and the company impacts other people.” He says that in other programs, “a class project is a hypothetical situation and you don’t see the value of it.” He says in those situations you ask yourself: What is the impact? Who else is benefiting from this? But, with MSMS, you really see it.

For DaMoura it’s all about that impact. In working with one of the program’s partners, Thermo Fisher, he says he was really “nerding out.” “It was cool to learn about companies that rely on the technology.” He hopes to create a startup that will have this same impact. His plan is to someday start the venture with his closest engineering friends, and now his close friends from the program. He says, “I want to meld that all together, bring that talent into one spot, and do something that’s going to benefit society as a whole.”

MSMS has honed down exactly what he wants to do, but it’s also given him an amazing network of colleagues that he calls his close friends, ““I feel like my classmates are my second family. Outside of the classroom we actually go out and hang out. Every meeting we start off with lunch, and then we discuss our project, and then start doing the work.” He says the community MSMS provides is extremely supportive, “The only way we can benefit each other is by helping each other.”

The program has opened up DaMoura’s path and helped him see beyond his engineering framework. He says, “Now I can prove that I can do technical roles as well as business analytics and communications and consulting…I can receive a problem and turn something around in a short amount of time.” As a senior mechanical engineering student, DaMoura wouldn’t have told you he’d end up here. For others that may think business isn’t for them, he has some advice. He says, “Sometimes something you think might not be right ends up being the perfect choice for you. If you ask yourself: Why should I try it? Ask yourself: Why not?”