Aerospace Engineer, Entrepreneur, and Air Force Veteran Finds His Passion Through STEM and Robotics:
Meet Amir Tillis, Business Technology Analyst, Deloitte
Amir Tillis is an aerospace engineer, entrepreneur, and leader. Amir is an Air Force veteran and has a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder. Amir currently works at Deloitte, where he supports clients in the space and defense domain.
What is your personal/professional story?
One of the key inspirations in my life was my mom. My mom instilled in me from a young age that I could be whatever I wanted to be, and I took it to heart. Naturally as a young boy, I aspired to be what most young boys want to be. An athlete. I absolutely loved baseball, and fully intended to be a professional baseball player.
As I grew up, my interest started to expand outside of baseball. Our middle school had a robotics club, and I instantly fell in love with it. At first, I thought we would be building killer robots. As disappointed as I was to find out that was not the case, my love gradually shifted into the love of design, building, and engineering aspects of robotics. This was my first interactive exposure to STEM, and I decided this might not be a bad thing to do if being a professional baseball player did not work out.
Believe it or not, baseball did not work out! I didn’t make the team my freshman year in high school and I was distraught. I was lost and confused. But, I had to accept reality and figure out, what to do next. Over the years I had been privileged enough to have the opportunity to travel, and I fell in love with airplanes. I was absolutely fascinated by flight and the way planes worked. I ended up putting one and one together, robotics and airplanes, and set my sights on aerospace engineering.
Saying you want to be an aerospace engineer is one thing. Having the academics necessary to get into an aerospace engineering program is another. Even with that goal in mind, my high school GPA was a 2.7. During my senior year, I realized I would not be directly accepted into any engineering program. AND, I had no money to pay for school. Reaching my goal seemed almost impossible.
When looking at universities, I had to look for an engineering program with a straightforward transfer process. During my research I found the University of Colorado Boulder. They had one of the top aerospace engineering programs in the country, and a straightforward internal transfer process into the engineering school.
Now that I found my school, I had to figure out the financials. I essentially had two options, student loans or the National Guard. I initially wanted to take out student loans, but my mom pushed me towards the National Guard. After further research, and calculating the risks and benefits of each, it turned out the military made the most financial sense. In the end, joining the Colorado Air National Guard was the best decision I could have made. I was part-time military, full time in school, was able to learn essential trades, and gain experiences that put me ahead of my peers in school.
The training and experience I received in the military allowed my career to grow. While in the military I served in Information Technology, which lead me to secure my first internship at Cisco during my freshman year in college. From there I was able to transition into the aerospace industry, interning with Ansys Government Initiatives (AGI), creators of the physics-based modelling software, STK. I decided I wanted to shoot my shot at being an entrepreneur. My junior year, I had created a startup called Blade-Aid (bladeaid.us). Blade-Aid is my invention, training wheels for Inline Skates (commonly known as Rollerblades), making learning to skate easier and safer! We are still going and selling to this day!
These experiences, in addition to getting involved with industry networking events at my school, allowed me to connect with my current employer, Deloitte. Deloitte is a consulting and accounting firm. Within Deloitte I am a Business Technology Analyst, in the Government & Public Sectors, with a focus on Defense and Space. As an engineer, I was initially unsure of how I would fit in at Deloitte. But it has proved to be a great experience. I have been able to work on large impact problems that I wouldn’t have come across for at least a decade or two, if I had followed a typical aerospace industry career path.
It was a very challenging journey to get where I am today and I have had to make a lot of sacrifices. There were numerous times throughout my journey that I wanted to quit and give up. But in the end, it was worth it. Even though the odds may seem stacked against you, absolutely nothing is impossible. If you have goal, shoot for it, and don’t let anything discourage you or push you away from it. In the end it comes down to how bad you want it, and what you are willing to do to reach your goals.
What key moments in your life led you to where you are today?
I essentially had three key moments in my life, that shaped and guided me to where I am today. The first of these moments is my exposure to STEM, through my robotics club. This was a game changer for me. As a young boy, I thought robots were cool from television, movies, and video games. But I had more of a surface level idea of what robots were. I had no idea what went into making a robot. This club exposed me to mechanical work, coding, teamwork, and how to overcome obstacles and failures. Being exposed and having experience doing robotics, allowed me to see I liked it. It is very hard to know that you want to do something, when you haven’t been exposed to that something before. Exposure to STEM was an essential step.
From there, the second key determinate in my journey was my decision to join the military. I will be completely honest and say that I in no way shape or form wanted anything to do with the military beforehand. My belief was that if I joined the military, I would be shipped off to the middle east, and be yelled at and ordered around for the length of my contract. But the other option at the time was to pay for tuition and housing through student loans. The estimated cost to attend would be $60,000 per year. That is $240,000 in student loan debt given I graduate on time. At 18 years old, $240,000 worth of debt didn’t seem too bad. Besides, I believed I would be making the big bucks after I graduate and would pay them off quickly (I am indeed not making the big bucks…yet). But thankful, I had my mom in my corner who convinced me to check out the military and its benefits a little more.
After doing a bit more research into the military, it proved to be a sensible option. I focused in on the National Guard, where I would only have to work one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer. Therefore, I would be able to attend school full time. While in school, I would get tuition assistance and a housing allowance. The position they had available was a good career, that was easily transferable to the civilian world. Then in addition to that, my position had a bonus, and our unit was non-deployable, meaning we were not on a deployment schedule (very important as deployments can interrupt school). Additionally, I visited each unit I considered joining to get a sense of the culture, and leadership.
After doing further research, it was clear the military route made the most sense financially and would help my career. I am glad I joined, as I graduated debt free, with experience, certifications, and other non-tangibles, while having almost no impact on my schooling (I did have to take one semester off to complete a 3-month training). The military enabled me to position myself competitively in the job market and ensured I was financially stable both during and after school.
The third and final key determinate in my journey was seeing the process through and not giving up. This entire process was hard. The military was hard when I first joined, school was hard throughout. If I was to quit at any given time, my whole plan would have failed. I remember numerous times questioning if making all of this effort was even worth it. I cried, had many long nights, but in the end, it was worth it. It is important to note, when we see someone who is successful, we see the final product. We don’t see the toil and hard work most people must go through to reach their goals and aspirations. Always see your goals through and you will never have to look back and say, “ what would have happened if I would have kept going?”
Where does your passion to serve come from?
My passion to serve really comes from people before me passing down knowledge, mentorship, and guidance. I feel indebted to give back, as it would be wrong to receive, and not pass on the knowledge and mentorship that I have received. This is especially relevant in underserved communities, as there tends to be generational knowledge gaps that can only be filled by word of mouth and mentorship. It is essential we pass on knowledge on how to navigate, operate, exist, and be successful in systems that people from underserved communities may not be familiar with.
In addition, I am very passionate about spreading awareness of certain opportunities and careers that are available to young people. As I mentioned previously, it is very hard to want to be something, when you have never seen that “something” before. Too many children, have only been exposed to being an entertainer or athlete, or other such professions, making them unaware of other opportunities available to them. I am extremely passionate about spreading the word, and exposing young people to these opportunities. With this knowledge they can see the world is open for them and they can do anything they set their minds to.
How can GlobalMindED help you reach your goals?
GlobalMindED has allowed me to give back and mentor students, fulfilling my passion to serve, passing down knowledge and providing guidance to another student finding their way in the world.
