“If you wanted to go to Mudd for a major and you end up switching, make sure you do it for the right reasons.” This is the advice senior software engineer Michel Balloni ’98 shares with Mudders.

Like many first-year students at HMC, Balloni had been at the top of his high school class. He expected to continue with such academic standing as a physics major in college, but it didn't quite work out that way.

“A lot of bright students get knocked down their first year at HMC,” he says.

Instead of sticking with physics, Balloni found his calling with software development and changed his major to computer science.

Upon graduating from HMC, he dove right into the work force as a software engineer at a circuit board and design automation company.

A year and a half later he decided to leave and partnered with a Pomona alumnus to start up a company that provided an Internet online file system. Before he left five years later, the company had taken off and was quite successful.

In 2005 Balloni moved onto DR Systems, a company that stores medical records for radiologists and manages reports and other medical records.

Currently, he is a senior software engineer who describes his company as a “wonderful place to work.” He says he would eventually like to bring more Mudders on board.

Looking back at his career and education, Balloni has some regrets about abandoning physics. But he says he got a pretty good deal out of it all.

The company he is at offers the flexibility to work on a variety of projects and allows plenty of time to enjoy his family—something he may not have had if he had stayed in physics.   

“People should follow their fate and understand that things happen for a reason,” Balloni said.