CONSUMER PROTECTOR: Alum Jesse Ante worked for PG&E for 27 years but now works for the government body that regulates his former employer.

Real World Engineering brings many career stories and hints to students

During his Berkeley days, ME alum Jesse Ante (B.S.'68, M.S.'70) faced different pressures than students face today. His classmates were being drafted for service in Vietnam. Ante did a curious thing to avoid the draft. He joined the Air Force ROTC.

“I figured that if I was going to go into the service, I was going to go in as an officer and choose what service I enlist in,” he says.

After graduation Ante was stationed at an U.S. Air Force base in the midwest, where he worked on the country's nuclear weapons system and avoided active service in Vietnam all together.

Ante will share his career experiences with students as one of the panelists in Thursday's career event, Real World Engineering (See article on page 2 for more details.)

After leaving the Air Force, Ante was hired as an engineer for PG&E, where he planned to stay for only a couple of years. Twenty-seven years later he retired from the company during a downsizing, after helping build the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant.

It was the people, says Ante, that kept him at PG&E for so long.

“Almost everyone I worked with was a Cal Engineering graduate, so it felt very much like home,” he says.

After a 27-year career in industry, Ante headed back to school. He took all the computer classes he could fit into two semesters at a local community college. He now knows how to design a Web page.

“It was so nice to be back at school, but the other students didn’t like me because I was the class curve buster,” laughs Ante.

Ironically, Ante now works for the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), regulating his former employer. Two years ago, during the power crisis, Ante was responsible for visiting power plants that reported suspicious outages. His efforts helped put “enough information in the attorney general's lap to go after the generators.”

His current job is one he can feel very good about, he says.

“At PG&E I was making money for the company. At the CPUC I am saving money for the customer,” he says.
Giving back is extremely important to Ante, who has been mentoring engineering students through the Cal Alumni Association since 1992.

While Berkeley instills top notch technical skills in its engineers, Ante says that students aren’t schooled in the practical thing they need to get ahead in the world.

“What I missed in school was interaction with alums. I had no one to teach me practical things about the workplace, such as how to interview, deal with my boss and ask for a raise. I try to teach my students life skills such as networking savvy,” he says.

The only things he asks in return from the seven students he's mentored so far, says Ante, is a promise to join the Cal Alumni Association, give back to the university, and one day become mentors.

Ante tells his mentees to jot down ten goals, regardless of how outrageous, during commencement.

“Dreaming will help them achieve even those things they think are impossible,” Ante says.

College of Engineering Home Page

Send comments to editnews@coe.berkeley.edu   © 2003 UC Regents