The Goldenwest Region

Hi all,

Welcome to the Region A blog! My name is Marci Ramirez and I’m the Region A Collegiate Communications Editor (RCCE) for Fiscal Year 13 (FY13). The RCCE’s role is to maintain the region blog, inform and connect the region as well as share best practices and resources between sections. If you have any suggestions on how to improve the blog or articles you want posted, please contact me at rcce-a@swe.org.  Otherwise, subscribe to the right and enjoy! Don’t forget to check out the Region A website and Region A Facebook group too!

FY13 Region A Collegiate Leadership Team at CFL 2012 in Minneapolis, MN

From left to right: Uysal Sezen (International SWEFL), Hannah Dahlgren (RCS), Betty A. Shanahan (SWE Executive Director and CEO),  Marci Ramirez (RCCE), and Eileen Reyes (RCR)

May Hot Topic: Life Transitions

It’s that time of year! No matter where you are in your collegiate experience, it’s probably time for a transition. Whether you’re transitioning from one school year to the next, from undergraduate to graduate school, or from college to your career, SWE has many resources that can help make your transition smoother.

C2C Membership

If you will still be a collegiate during FY14, and haven’t done so already, don’t forget to register on SWE.org as a collegiate-to-career (C2C) member! This is a great opportunity to save some money at the same time as making a big investment in your future. C2C members pay a one-time, $50 registration fee, which covers every year that you’re in college (including graduate school!) in addition to your first year as a professional member.

Moving? Say hello to your new SWE section!

If you’re moving this summer, be it because you’re transitioning between schools or are relocating for work, get ready to update your registration with your brand new SWE section! This is an exciting prospect, and one of the most important resources that SWE has to offer: Networking. Moving as a SWE member allows you to keep in touch with your old contacts, especially in person through conferences, when you’re moving to a new location and getting to know a whole new group of SWE contacts in your new section. Added bonus: your new SWE section can help make the transition a little easier, since you already have a group of locals to show you the ropes.

Leadership pipeline

Take advantage of SWE’s phenomenal leadership pipeline. The voting for FY14 has already passed, but hopefully you can keep in mind throughout this year how you will make your transition up the SWE leadership pipeline in the election seasons to come. Collegiate members can become section officers, and after two years of SWE experience, you can run for collegiate regional positions, such as the Region Collegiate Representative, Region Collegiate Communications Editor, and Region Collegiate Senator. These positions allow you to work with other collegiate leaders all over the country, as well as give you invaluable experience with the SWE regional leadership structure. Did you know there are even national-level leadership positions that collegiate can hold? These include the Collegiate Representative to the Board of Directors, and many national committee positions, among others. Talk to a region team member if you’re interested in more info about region or national positions, and you can always email me (or the current RCCE) at rcce-a@swe.org. Once you graduate, having leadership experience with SWE positions you to transition seamlessly into professional-level SWE leadership, and up the pipeline.

Mentoring

Mentoring is an amazing way to help make your life transitions more smooth. Finding a mentor is not always easy, but being a SWE member means you have access to literally thousands of professional female engineers who are invested in helping you succeed in your career. I’ve been told many times that collegiate members often think professionals don’t get anything out of mentoring but that they do, in fact, love mentoring collegiate SWE members. This is a huge reason why many professional member are active in SWE! As rewarding as collegiate members find it to help middle and high school aged girls, many professionals would love to provide advice and direction to help with your life transitions. If you have contact information for a SWE professional member who you’ve always wanted to get in touch with, now is the perfect time to ask for some advice.

Image source

March Hot Topic: Leadership Burnout

Collegiate’s tend to feel a little burned out this time in the school year. With three quarters of the year over and only a few more weeks in the last stretch before summer, keeping your head in the game is a struggle for anyone. Add to that the responsibility of being a SWE collegiate leader, and burnout can become a real problem. Here are some tips to avoid leadership burnout in your SWE section:

1. Be honest about your availability

When making plans for events and other responsibilities, you have to be honest with your section (and yourself) about what you have time and energy for. If you think that you or your fellow officers want to plan an event that you really won’t all have enough free time to commit to, consider including general members in the organization and responsibility, or delay the event until you will have more time. Keep in mind that we are all volunteers, including our collegiate leaders. Everything the people around you do, they do on their own time, so be respectful of people’s schedules and other responsibilities, and be honest with them about yours as well.

2. Say “Thank you,” as much as you can!

Never underestimate the power of a little appreciation! This one goes out to collegiate members as well, keep an eye out for what section leaders do to make your section great, and say thanks, even for little things. Comments like “Thanks for making those cookies,” and “You really made a nice powerpoint,” can add up quickly if everyone took a few seconds to speak up, and can make a collegiate leader feel like their efforts are being noticed.

3. Plan a leadership retreat

This doesn’t have to be a traditional “retreat” in the woods, which can get expensive, but setting aside time for your section officers to hang out without discussing business or organization can not only help them take their mind off of the responsibilities of being collegiate officers, but it can also strengthen your leadership team.

4. Delegate tasks

There definitely is a limit to how many officers a section should have, to avoid too many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak, but that limit is usually much higher than you would think! Don’t be afraid to increase the size of your leadership team either as your section grows, or as your officers begin to feel the strain of leadership. Dividing tasks into smaller parts is a good way to make sure no one has to take on more than they will be reasonably able to get done on time and in budget.

5. Make a plan for smooth leadership succession

This one is last, but certainly not least. In fact, I think this may be the most important tip to avoid burnout of all! And the great part is, it’s also probably the easiest, even though it can make a huge difference. Having a solid plan for after your current leadership team is gone will be the greatest asset of all to the team that is in place after you. If you’re predecessors had a good succession plan in place for you, it’s likely you didn’t notice a hiccup. If they didn’t, however, you know exactly what I’m talking about, and you can attest to how important it is to give your successors the tools they need to keep the section strong. Try to keep detailed records of your finances, events, and best practices. Make note of what officer positions you’re making use of, and keep a list of contacts for your section; this can include former sponsors, locations for events, possible mentors, recruiters, professors, and section alumni. Have a plan for recruiting new members, and allowing those new members to let you know when they are interested in being future leaders. The SWEFL program is a great way to build succession into your section, so be sure to nominate a freshman or sophomore who shows leadership potential for the SWE Future Leader regional position, using the SWEFL Nomination Form, before April 9th!

Collegiate Election Candidates

The Regional Collegiate Team election time is upon us! I am pleased to announce the FY13 candidates:

Region Collegiate Representative (RCR)
Hannah Dahlgren

Region Collegiate Senator (RCS)
Maribel Locsin

Region Collegiate Communications Editore (RCCE)
Eileen Reyes

FY13 Region A Conference at UC Santa Cruz!

Early priority registration for the Region A conference in Santa Cruz ends March 1st, which is just two days away!

While you rush to the FY2013 conference website to register, here is some more information about the event:

• Region A Conference is being hosted by the UCSC Section. The theme is Hiking to Success!
• Registration is now open! Early Registration ends March 1, and prices will increase after that date.
• If you know any companies who would like to get more involved with SWE and sponsor the conference or come to the career fair, pick up the Sponsor Packet on the website and give it to the company.

The flier above is the best way to advertise this event to your section (you can download a PDF version of the flyer also). For more information, you can visit the conference website at http://www.swe-goldenwest.org/Conference2013/index.html, or email swe.region.a.conference@gmail.com.

 

Spotlight on a Section – San Jose State University, by Zahra Sarwary

There were five open labs that were run by SJSU students and staff: Semiconductor lab, Chemical Engineering lab, Soils lab, an SAE lab, and the Aerospace lab. There were four workshops that were mainly hands on and required the girls to work in groups. Blach Construction sponsored their very own building and construction workshop. We also had a “roller coaster madness” workshop where the girls had to construct their own miniature roller coaster out of foam pipes and cardboard. In addition, there was also a water filtration workshop and a robotics/aerospace workshop. Following the lab tours and the workshops was a student panel where SJSU female engineering students shared their experiences as students. In the end, there was a roundtable discussion where the girls got the opportunity to sit with the professionals and engineers from industry and ask questions.

Sponsors such as Google and Intel provided us with many swag items to give away at the event. The College of Engineering was nice enough to also sponsor us and purchase lunch for all the participants including the volunteers. The Santa Clara Valley Professional Section also played a big role in making this event happen. Some other SJSU student sections and organizations that were involved with WOW! include IEE, AICHE, Materials Advantage, SOLES, BASE, MESA, Formula SAE, and ASCE.

-Zahra Sarwary

SWE SJSU Outreach Chair,

WOW! That’s Engineering

Sell Yourself in 30 Seconds

In the article Make a Good Impression in 30 Seconds on the Harvard Business Review, first impressions are likened to advertisements. This is good place to begin your thinking when trying to plan that perfect first 30 seconds of conversation with a recruiter, new employer, or networking contact. In fact, anyone familiar with a career fair atmosphere knows that sometimes 30 seconds is all you have to earn the minute after that. Here are tips we can translate from commercials to make that great 30 second first impression.

A good commercial…

1. Causes you to feel emotion.
Whether it’s by making you feel happy, sad, excited, or even afraid, commercials are meant to put you in a mood that will make you receptive to the message they present about their product. When your skills are the product your selling, you want the person you’re speaking with to be in a good mood. If you’re in an interview or at a career fair, they have likely seen many people that day, and had the same conversation over and over. It’s possible they’ve had the same experience the day before, and maybe will all week as well. Putting them in a good mood will help anyone have an easier time liking you and hearing what you have to say.

2. Let’s it’s true motive come across subtly while being memorable.
A commercial consisting of a white screen that has “Buy XYZ laundry detergent” written on it for 30 seconds would not be very subtle, nor woud it be doing a very good job! The first step was to create a mood in the observer, and then the message that is the real point of the interaction has to be given without disturbing that mood. However, this message has to still be heard, which can be tricky. Have a simple message that you want to get across, and stick to it throughout your encounter.

3. Makes you believe you need something.
An ad has 30 seconds to make you believe that you need what it’s selling, even if you had never thought about the product before. When you’re selling your skills, you have to make the person your talking to believe that they need you! Maybe they want a new employee, assistant, or contact, but what don’t know yet is that what they need is a new employee/assistant/contact with your specific skill set and values. You believe it, so make them believe it too.

4. Does not let it’s appearance distract you from it’s message.
This is something you will hear over and over if you’re involved with SWE career building resources, but that’s only because it cannot be emphasized enough; your appearance will precede you when you’re meeting some one new, so make sure there’s nothing to make a poor impression before you get the chance to begin your advertisement. A commercial may serve it’s message with humor or drama, but the message must still be the star.

5. Speaks to it’s target audience.
Working a career fair would be exhausting if you were to approach each person with your elevator pitch, ask a few prewritten questions, and hand over a generic resume. On top of that, each person you talk to doesn’t get to see the side of you that will make them realize that they need you around. It’s good practice to do research whenever you want to make a good, fast first impression, so that you can show how invested you are in the subject at hand.

CLCC Leadership Summit Registration Deadline is Approaching!

The CLCC Leadership Summit, to be held on Saturday, January 26th from 9:45am to 3pm at Santa Clara University, is fast approaching! The registration deadline for the event is January 22nd, so be sure to register early!

In addition, the registration fee has been waived, so there is no longer any need to send a five dollar check in to hold your spot! Simply sign up using the Collegiate Leadership Summit Registration Form and you’re ready to go!

Once again, highlights of the summit will include:

• Networking with collegiate and professional members
• Professional development and leadership training
• Panel of successful female engineers from a variety of backgrounds
• An EXTENDED speed networking workshop between collegiate and professional members
• Certification of SWE Leadership Summit attendance, great on your wall and your resume!
• And don’t forget lunch is included!

If you would like any more information you can check out the official blog, SWE Collegiate Leadership Summit. I hope to see you there!