Although Erin Hayden and Matthew Garger were both students at S&T for an overlapping year, they didn’t meet until the Spring Career Fair in 2012.

“I was recruiting entry-level automation engineers for the firm I worked at,” she says. “I had no idea I was also recruiting a husband!”
Erin earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in 2008 and currently works at Mars Wrigley. Matthew earned bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and computer engineering in 2012 and currently works at EN Engineering. The couple married in July 2017.
Their relationship advice?
“Don’t focus on being so close to family right after graduation,” she says. “Be flexible in location because so many amazing opportunities are out there. Also, if you can marry an engineer, do it. Our dinner conversations together are some of my favorites. No one quite understands the daily struggles you go through like someone who does the same thing as you.”
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