Josh Freiermuth

What do you do?

I live in Minneapolis, MN and work for General Mills since February of 2018. They make Cheerios, Blue Buffalo, Nature Valley granola bars, Progresso Soup, Haagen Dazs, and Larabar just to name a few. I am an Advanced Security Engineer on GMI’s Cyber Security Engineering & Operations team. I work with firewalls, our SIEM logging platform, endpoint antivirus tools, and various scripting languages to protect the organization from and respond to threats.

How did you get there?

At WHS, I took AP Computer Science, Networking Concepts I/II, and game development. I took any course WHS offered in computing. Aside from that, I always took the opportunity to learn more, be it within a class or beyond the curriculum on my own. I also did the Youth Options program to take Assembly programming at UW-Whitewater.

I went to UW-Madison and graduated with a Bachelor’s of Business Administration with emphasis on Operations Management and Information Systems. I minored in Computer Science. Business focus areas included supply chain, finance, and sustainability. CS focus areas were mobile, desktop, web, relational database design, and artificial intelligence.

I interned for three years at TDS Telecommunications as a Linux systems administrator. I used my networking and programming experience here extensively. I learned how to work with critical customer-facing applications as a part of a larger team. One of the most valuable insights this gave me was the power of self-development and use of my education. An education not only teaches you specific skills, it teaches you how to learn a new skill in a structured way. I found myself having to learn new tools and technology on an almost daily basis.

I also did a short assistantship with the Operations and Information Management department within the business school at Madison. I helped continue class analytics projects from the previous semester and develop the next semester’s curriculum.

My first rotational role at General Mills was on the Digital & Technology Global Sourcing Analytics team. I worked with Data and Analytics to support the Supply Chain Global Sourcing organization in making purchases, optimizing invoicing terms, and generally provide tools to aid in decision making to make favorable buying decisions. I used Python, bash scripting, and Tableau to provide these insights to the business.

Missing infrastructure problem solving I enjoyed during my internship, I left the rotational program and joined the Cyber Security Engineering & Operations team.

My biggest recommendation to anyone interested in working towards an infrastructure or systems role is that they should have a home lab. A home lab allows you to learn technology in a place where failure IS acceptable, and the consequences are minimal. You also benefit from learning the whole stack, instead of your typical area of expertise in your daily job. In IT infrastructure roles, you will often find yourself supporting technology that you were not involved in setting up. Personally, I learn most by doing, and in setting up my own services I get to intimately understand how they work.

What advice do you have for current computer science students?

Don’t be afraid of working closer to the business. Many people like heads-down development and deep technical work. Having done that, now working closer to the end user, has proven a rewarding experience

Contact information:

josh.freiermuth@genmills.com

Updated November 8, 2021