Patrick McLaughlin

Patrick McLaughlin, who graduated with at BA in Economics in 2018, is a market monitoring analyst at the California Independent System Operator (ISO) in Folsom, California. Patrick started college with the intention of getting a degree in Engineering, but just before the last semester of his senior year, he decided to change his major to Economics. He finished his degree in Economics a year later. During his undergraduate years Patrick helped support himself by working as the lead facility attendant at Chico Area Recreation and Park District. 

During the summer before his last semester Patrick interned with Duran and Venables Inc., in Milpitas, California, as an estimation intern. “I was tasked with compiling and analyzing historical job cost data, developing a database of vendors, performing engineering take-off on jobs being bid, attending pre-bid meetings, and assisting with the bid schedule and bid documents,” Patrick explained on his LinkedIn page.

In his 2018 fall semester Patrick was a research assistant at Chico State’s Center of Economic Development. “As a research assistant, I worked on various socioeconomic research projects. Duties included identification, collection, and verification of economic, business market, and demographic data; fulfillment of technical assistance requests through the creation of written data summaries and visualizations.”

At the beginning of 2019 Patrick enrolled in a fast-track program at San Jose State University. “I decided to earn my master’s degree because my undergraduate program left me hungry for more knowledge. Specifically, I wanted to expand my understanding of econometric analysis and statistical modeling.” He earned is MA in Applied Economics with an emphasis on econometrics by the end of the year.

In early 2020 Patrick started working for the California ISO, a non-profit that operates most of the California wholesale power grid, where he is currently employed. (Last Updated 11/23/20)