We11 Lessons Learned (Part I)

Last month your very own RPI SWE officers, accompanied by scholarship winner Jessica Wong, traveled to Chicago to attend the Society of Women Engineers 2011 Annual Conference. Each participant was asked to writeup a summary of what they learned over the course of the conference so that we could share such valuable lessons with you!

From Andie Maret:

 “Interview Strategies: Do I Fit the Company & Does it Fit Me?” ---  Hosted by 3M

Here are some general bullets on how you might interview a company as they are interviewing you. The most useful advice I received in this workshop was to think about what is important to you (what are you priorities) and ask the company about how they will support them. For example, I realized in this workshop that during my interviews I should be asking the company about their support for SWE and if I would be able to continue my involvement in my professional career if I was hired by that company.

·         Ask about the number of female executives are in the company

o   Be careful to consider thought diversity versus physical diversity

·         Support of higher education

o   What is the companies support mechanism for continuous learning? Are there mentoring programs or conference attendance support? Graduate school isn’t the only way to continue education.

·         Career Mobility—what is a typical career path like for a person in this company?

·         Ask about support of volunteerism/community Involvement

·         Compensation philosophy  -- constant competition with coworkers or a system that promotes teamwork

·         Are there training and development programs for new hires?

·         Ask to  talk to someone who is a new hire

o   Gain insight to whether there is a competitive or collaborative culture

·         Ask yourself: Will I learn something from the role? Am I excited and enthusiastic? Am I prepared to do this for 2 years?

·         When do you know if you fit?

o   Stick to it for 6-9 months

o   Try to move within company- maybe it’s just the role.

·         Think about what is important to you

o   Allow priorities to change

·         Lifestyle considerations

o   Where are the customers located—conference calls with Asia (time zones)

o   Where does work take place? At home?

·         Ask who held the position before you

o   Promoted or left the company?

 From Ashley Vassell:

 

• My favorite part about the SWE Conference was the career fair, I liked it because it was a lot bigger than the RPI career  fair and it was really good for networking. I feel like I learned a lot from it.
• My favorite program that I went to was on Cloud Computing, I really liked it because it covered the basics on cloud computing and it was kept at a level that even a beginner could understand.
• Overall I really enjoyed the conference I learned a lot about networking and how to improve RPI SWE!

 From Sammie Garrabrant:

• Recruiters use social media such as Twitter and Facebook to look for new hires
• Suggested two separate accounts: one personal and one professional 
•  Develop a 60 second sell and practice it so that it becomes “second-nature”