Hi Guys! I'm sure you missed us all last week! Well the team was really busy getting ready for our very first workshop at the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Annual Conference in Pittsburgh! This week we're giving a little bit of a recap.
Coming to this NSBE conference in Pittsburgh was a surreal moment for me. I remember going to my first NSBE conference as a young, naive little freshmen just trying to get a job or some experience. I remember feeling discouraged after my first semester (which was rough) feeling unsure if I could really do engineering. Now, six years later, I've come back to the city where I began my engineering journey being able to recruit for my company as well host my very first workshop! Giving back and pouring into an organization that gave me the support and confidence to be where I am today is so satisfying and truly humbling.
Being on the other side of recruiting is such an interesting experience. We'll have to do another post on what recruiters look for, but I will say that it is so tiring and exhausting. You meet hundreds of people and are constantly repeating yourself over and over about your self and the company. As much as you want to be able to give everyone a job, it's impossible and you really have to make sure you select people that will be a good fit for your company and will succeed. It's also so rewarding because when you find the right candidates and they get the job offer you feel really good in the fact that you helped change someone's life in some way.
In addition to working at the career fair, my company also co-hosted a hackathon where I was one of the engineering mentors. Hearing all the different ideas that people had and wanted to showcase and being able to provide advice and suggestions on how to make your vision come to light was actually a lot more fun than I anticipated. To be honest, I didn't think that I would be that useful to the hackathon participants, but when talking to them, they all were glad that we were there to help. When the results were announced, the team that won personally thanked me for telling them to stick with their idea and encouraging them through the night which really warmed my heart. I feel so proud to work for a company that is actively trying to recruit and retain diverse talent and really cares about the people they work with.
The MacScientist workshop was a success! One of the goals that we have this year is for us to increase our reach and being able to host our workshop at a conference where over 13000 people attended was amazing and a great first step. In our workshop we had people of all ages come and learn about how networking, mentoring, and self-confidence can help shape your vision and plan for your life. In my portion of the workshop, I talked about mentorship and it's importance. The main topic of discussion was the way to acquire mentors whether through a formalized processed like a mentorship program or a more informal approach by meeting at networking or social events. Those who came got to act out both scenarios which everyone got to learn from. The students got to leave with notebooks and pens to be able to write their own personal goals and visions for their lives.
As exhausting the NSBE conference was, it was a huge success! We look forward to doing more speaking engagements and workshops! Have any idea where we should go next? Let us know! - The Engineer
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