Gigliotti became involved with The Stute, the student newspaper, eventually becoming Editor-In-Chief.  Over the weekend of December 6-7, 1941 (Pearl Harbor), Michael was chairing the Annual Meeting of the Intercollegiate Newspaper Association, held at Stevens.

During his four years at Stevens, Michael held several part-time jobs, including night-shift iron-worker in the Tietjin and Lang (Todd) Shipyards, evening shift copywriter at the Jersey Observer morning newspaper, morning milk deliverer, oil truck driver, and miscellaneous-item courier.

By the Fall of '41, Michael had received 5 offers of employment.  Of them, Monsanto's new Plastics Division offered the lowest salary, but "I told my mother and stepfather that I would choose Monsanto because everybody there was enthusiastic about the future of plastics, while all of the other offers were from companies that were worried about their profits and competitive positions."�  Monsanto was new to the plastics industry, having purchased Fiberloid Company in 1938; Fiberloid was one of the earliest manufacturers of cellulose nitrate plastic and cellulose acetate sheets.  

Immediately after graduation in 1942, Gigliotti joined Monsanto's Plastics Division at Indian Orchard/Springfield, Massachusetts.  Monsanto was involved in numerous projects for the U.S. Defense Plant Corporation and the U.S. Signal Corps.  The U.S. Signal Corps had a copy of Gigliotti's Stevens paper, published by the Franklin Institute, on magneto striction behavior of steel and nickel -- magneto strictive effects are used in the proximity fuse.  Also in 1942 Michael joined the Massachusetts State Guard, and was promoted to Master Sergeant (Sergeant Major) in the Headquarters Company of the 22nd Infantry Regiment; honorably discharged in 1945.