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Computer science alumnus Allen Likens reflects on school, career, future
 Allen Likens is an IT Relationship Manager for Eastman Chemical Company located in Kingsport, Tenn., where he has worked for the past 29 years. During the course of his career at Eastman, he has supervised IT development teams of all sizes, and managed projects through all phases of the IT project lifecycle. When Likens is not at Eastman, he spends his time at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) as both a collegiate recruiter and an adjunct computer science instructor helping students bridge the gap between what a college education really prepares them for and what to expect upon entering the real world through a course that he designed himself: “Overview of Corporate IT at 50,000 Feet.” Likens is also an alumnus of the pioneer class of computer science majors at ETSU.
"I remember there was this whole big room of people in my freshman orientation and they called for computer science majors — and there were 12 people that got up and left and that was all. And I remember my dad turning to me and said 'are you sure this is the right major?'" Likens recalls. Regardless of its apparent lack of popularity, something about the field seemed to spark Likens’s interest, and so he took a chance and never looked back.
Even though computer science wasn't technically a major at the time, only a minor, Likens remembers the person who captivated the attention of that handful of prospective computer scientists — and the attention of their parents, during his freshman orientation. "Dr. Don Bailes the youngest PhD's in computer science in the nation at the time. We walked into a room and he had articles cut from newspapers from all over America for job ads and said; 'this is where we are headed, we will have a degree in this, and this is what we can do for your young people if they can go through our program,'" recalls Likens.
And so, Likens, along with a few others patiently waited until the day that computer science as a major would be made official. And soon enough, one day ETSU proposed that math majors (which Likens was at the time) would be allowed to change catalogs and accept everything they had had at that point if they wanted to make the switch to the new major. And so computer science was born at ETSU. The school immediately began putting money into new computers and equipment and effort into rapidly hired PhD’s. "It was everything a bigger program would have and yet there were only 19 of us ... we partied with the professors at night and learned from them during the day, it was like being in graduate school, it was wonderful," said Likens.
However these brand new computer science majors soon realized that their newfound field of study would be no picnic and the rest of the school took notice. "Immediately the reputation was that you would work almost 24 hours if you were a computer science major because we would go to school during the day and have to use the university's systems at night because that was the only thing that could run those junior and senior programs," said Likens, "we would be up at night in the halls of the administration building running our programs while everyone else slept." However the stigma that came with computer science was soon seemed of little importance when they started getting hired right out of college and realized the salaries that came with those job offers.
Likens was hired on at Eastman Chemical Company directly after his graduation in 1979 and has been there ever since. Eastman had hired a handful of ETSU computer science graduates around that time right out of school to recognize a growing need for manufacturing information system development and distributed computer capabilities in the workplace. Most of the ETSU graduates that were hired with Likens remain at Eastman still today. Eastman boasts an approximately 20-year average length of service from its IT employees. Likens gives the friendliness of the people a good portion of the credit for this amazing feat. Not only does Eastman recruit all over the world and hires some of the most brilliant minds they can find but they work hard to maintain a professional code of conduct throughout the corporation as well as always subscribing to an open door policy. "It is just a different kind of place to work and it is great — and it just happens to be located in northeast Tennessee," said Likens.
On top of all of this Eastman has always been able to peak Likens's technical interest throughout the years. "It is large enough to get into the newer technologies, and diverse enough in the marketplace and throughout the world to give us lots of challenges ... I have never been bored," boasts Likens.
But Likens has not forgotten his ETSU roots, and continues to maintain a close relationship with the school. In fact, Likens, in his spare time, aside from being involved with the College of Business and Technology Board of Advisors, and the Computer Science Advisory Board, Likens teaches a course at ETSU that he designed himself with the help of Dr. Terry Countermine, department chairman. “One of the things that we saw over the last several years was a gap of understanding between what college would prepare you for and political dealing of actually working in a big company,” said Likens, “everybody faces that no matter what you get your degree in – you leave school and get faced with a whole lot of real world things and there is a whole other learning that takes place during your first job.” So for the past three years Likens has been teaching “Overview of Corporate IT at 50,000 Feet” to both undergraduate and graduate students as an elective to bridge that gap.
Likens admits that when first starting out he was a bit in over his head and had little idea as to what to expect as a teacher. But after getting the hang of it, he decided that he enjoys teaching so much that he went back to school for his M.Ed. at Tusculum and will be conferred this December. Likens enjoys bringing in guest speakers from the field throughout the northeast Tennessee area to lecture on a variety of topics including security, interviewing and even recruiting just to name a few. He asks each of these guests to prepare a three-hour lecture for the night in which they are to instruct. “It is a topical course, every night is a different subject,” noted Likens, “All of these guests do a wonderful job and bring a lot of content to the course and I think that it enriches the student’s experience.”
“I had a rich, real solid computer science degree when I graduated,” Likens said reflecting on his decision to major in computer science almost 30 years ago that launched this extensive career and life-long dedication to the field. “I think it is a career that you’ve got love to do,” he adds. But Likens asks all students to remember that while it is good to concentrate on technology, do not do so for technology’s sake alone. “Always remember that a computer is a tool — a tool is best used in the hands of a master. To be able to apply skills to a business problem or a medical problem to help somebody else because you improved their process, saved them time or saved them cost is the pride that a computer scientist gets when they see that their system is bring used and value is achieved.”
– Article By Morgan Akens
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