A Bryant University education “makes you comfortable being uncomfortable,” says Alexis Klein ’25, and the short-term pain of learning how to work in a group and speak in front of an audience of peers and educators paid off immediately when Klein entered the workforce.
“I had a group project in every single class I took up Bryant, and that is single- handedly the thing that has prepared me the most,” says Klein, who earned her degree in Finance with a concentration in Applied Analytics and a minor in Global Supply Chain Management.
Today, the alum works at RTX, the parent company of defense contractors Raytheon, Pratt & Whitney, and Collins Aerospace.
“My meetings are in person. I lead a team of people. I report to supervisors — there's no room for not being able to communicate,” Klein says. “Some of my peers at work tell me they’re extremely nervous because they don't really give presentations a lot. And I'm just saying to myself, ‘This is my bread and butter.’”
Finding her path
Klein started college knowing she wanted to pursue a Finance degree after being involved in DECA Inc. — a global, nonprofit student organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management — in high school, and taking accounting classes through her local community college.
“When I got to Bryant, I took Professor Chris Rothlein’s ‘Operations Management’ course and immediately knew I had to take other classes like this, which is how I ended up with Global Supply Chain Management as my minor,” she says.
“Some of my peers at work tell me they’re extremely nervous because they don't really give presentations a lot. And I'm just saying to myself, ‘This is my bread and butter.’”
In the summer of 2024, Klein took a position as a materials management and logistics intern at Pratt & Whitney, which helped get her foot in the door at RTX. Through Bryant’s Honors Program, she made supplier risk management for defense contractors the subject of her senior capstone project.
“I already knew I was going to be working for RTX, so I figured I might as well do something applicable to where I'm going,” she explains. “I had a real interest in supply chain and risk management and wanted to do something that would provide me some value and background before going to work.”
As graduation approached, Klein reached out via the Amica Center for Career Education to Bryant alum Taylor Oliver ’22, also a Global Supply Chain Management and Applied Analytics student, who was already working at Pratt & Whitney. “She helped get my resume in front of the hiring manager, which at a company that big was just awesome,” she says.
On to new opportunities
Hired in the fall of 2025, Klein is now in the second of three rotations as part of RTX’s Operations and Supply Chain Leadership Development Program. The first was at Collins Aerospace in Foley, Alabama, as an operating systems analyst; she just recently moved to a facility in Burnsville, Minnesota, that produces avionics equipment.
“In Alabama, I was taking on projects to make operations more efficient and cost effective in the assembly process for aircraft nacelles,” she explains. “In Minnesota, I oversee the day-to-day operations of a production line and have about 12 direct-report employees.”
Not knowing much about the defense or aerospace industry prior to joining RTX, Klein says the skills she brought from Bryant have provided a strong foundation for learning on the job.
“Honestly, I thought I was going to be at a desk, in an office, doing Excel all day,” says Klein. "Instead, I run around this site all day talking to people; I’m never sitting. It's pretty crazy compared to what I initially thought my job was going to be, but it’s awesome. I love the chaos.”