Since there is so much to talk about, we are posting our conference wrap-up in sections. In the second installment we are focusing on our experience of the conference as a place to be inspired and meet interesting people.Megan: My first seminar was the “Art of Engineering” by Rachel Hutter of Disney. In my pre-college days, I was a bit of an art geek. I loved to paint, draw, craft, and I was even in a group called the Art Task Force in high school. I could spend hours lost in the Detroit Institute of Arts. When I went to college, I had to immerse myself very deeply in my technical courses to keep up, and a large part of my creativity and artsy side died for a bit. In the past year or so, I’ve pushed myself to try recapture this side of myself, but I’m continually nagged by the thought that I’m not really good. Rachel’s talk at conference introduced a reaffirmed several concepts for me that are helping me as I rediscover this core part of myself.
The first is the idea that having multiple personas is not only okay, but can also be a valuable way to bring fresh outlooks to a project. Working on my sewing, creating a painting, reading a good novel – all of these keep my mind fresh and stretched and more capable of meeting creative challenges in all aspects of life. My role as a SWE president helps me gain valuable leadership and organizational skills. This is also reinforces the idea of bringing my whole self to work, a phrase that Bianca has mentioned several times. It seems vitally important yet so easy to forget.
I also appreciated that Rachel stressed the importance of planning for and accepting inevitable failures. I work in what’s referred to as a “Lean” culture, and I feel like efforts to be lean and profitable in this ever changing economy deeply forget this. I know I forget this. I often berate myself for failures before I can step back far enough to learn from them.
Rachel also encouraged us to ask the “veggie burger question.” A devoted vegetarian, she was at first embarrassed to ask for a veggie burger at her team’s annual barbecue. However, as she stressed, it’s important to address these vital aspects of self in order to be able to fully be one’s best self in your career.
Bianca: From “The Art of Engineering” I was inspired by Rachel's passion for art of all sorts. She reminded us that we each have the freedom to choose what is art for ourselves. We can each have our own personal journey with art, involving different periods, and developing the craft as we enjoyed it. Remembering that unlike our work in engineering, art does not have to be perfect, and no one has to see it, and it can be enjoyed without those pressures.
She cited studies that have shown that people can contribute more when they have “multiple identities” – as an engineer, artist, leader, mother, and so on. Each identity provides a new perspective to learn and solve problems with, giving us more tools in our tool bag. By having diverse teams, with team members who have broad experience, you can arrive at more innovative solutions. She also brought up something that I had heard mentioned recently at GE; bringing your whole self to work. This means that you don’t try to hide who you really are from your co-workers because it is different from the “norm”. Rachel gave the example of herself as a “marathon-running, vegetarian, tree-hugger” entering an environment that was the typical old-boys network: beer, beef and golf. She said that ultimately, it was to her benefit because when Disney started working on the Animal Kingdom attraction, she was nominated for that position because people knew that she had a real passion for animals and the environment.
In engineering, as in art, you have to decide when to stop and call it finished. You must realize how to let go and move on to the next thing. Another lesson from the world of art is to accept the inevitability and utility of failure. Because failure is a necessary part of trying new things and learning, you and your employer must be willing to take the risk to try it.
Thanks to Rachel's encouragement, I was inspired to try oil painting again. I finished my first project yesterday:
Rachel also shared some special advice for women:
- Learn to temper the analytical – we focus on being more analytical in college and trying to prove that we can hold our own in the workplace. Sometimes we can forget the importance of following our intuition and letting the creative juices flow.
- Recognize and reject the impostor syndrome. For most in South Ohio SWE, you will remember the Impostor syndrome as the short-hand way to describe when you feel like you are not as brilliant as those around you seem to think, or that you are only keeping up by working twice as hard as everyone else. By recognizing that this is a common issue you will probably find that the reality is that you are just as or even more smart, talented and capable as those around you.
- For women engineers, competence tends to be much higher than confidence. Women tend to sell themselves short while actually outperforming male peers.
- Subtle changes to communication can significantly alter the outcome. Rachel gave an example of having a discussion where you might disagree. Rather than saying to the other person “That doesn’t seem right to me” and putting them on the defensive, she would say “Why do you feel that way?” or “Why do you think that is the case?” to get into a more nuanced conversation.
- Her last piece of advice was that sometimes you should allow others to “feel your pain” through experience. Every year at Disney during the high traffic season, all Disney employees, including executives, are assigned to go down and work hourly jobs in the park, sweeping streets, serving drinks, and so forth. This practice allows Disney’s employees to become familiar with the real issues affecting the operation. When I heard this I immediately thought that this is something that we need to do more of in my office. Finally, during the Q&A Rachel recommended a few sources that she uses to keep up with the latest trends in business: Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Books 24/7.
Megan: I work on a military contract at GE, and I was intrigued by a panel called “Women in Government,” which included a participant from the Coast Guard, US Army Biometrics Task Force, and two members of the nuclear regulatory commission. This session was also moderated by South Ohio’s own Mary Kinsella, who works for the Air Force Research Laboratory. As a contractor, I appreciated hearing some perspectives from the “other side.” One of the interesting comments made by a panelist was that she felt she had more power to make a larger impact working for a government agency and for managerial opportunities, because government positions are driven more towards a mission rather than a profit. The panel also highlighted benefits of working in the government, and the diverse opportunities offered by transferred to different government branches without losing seniority. This panel allowed me to see that working in the government might be more aligned with my goals than I thought, and gave me insight into an interesting career path I had never really considered.
Bianca: Meals were a great time for networking at the conference. Megan and I found Mary Kinsella of the WPAFB in Dayton at the Keynote Breakfast. At our table we met Brianna from Kellogg in Michigan, who was sponsoring the breakfast. Our table filled with women from Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin & Cummins Inc. As we ate, we introduced ourselves, learned about each others jobs, locations, and experiences, and just got to know each other a bit. One fun topic that came up was the challenge of working as a process engineer in food manufacturing. One of the perks, you can eat cookies freshly baked on the line! One of the challenges... the entire line must be clean enough to eat from.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night I joined other conference attendees for casual dinners. Wednesday I had dinner with a couple of SWE Editorial Board members, Deb O'Bannon and Sandra Wood. Thursday night at Phillips Seafood in Harbor Place attracted an eclectic group that included Shantel Samuel, one of my fellow panelists on the Rotational Programs panel, Karla Conn Welch who was a fellow UK SWE alumni who is now pursuing her Ph.D. at Vandy, Megan (our South Ohio madam president), Kate Youmans (a South Ohio SWE alum who has defected to Boston SWE) and Sharon Lee Dingle, a fellow Boston SWE member who also works for GE. Friday evening, I met DeLome Fair, who is the first woman to be named a Chief Consulting Engineer at GE Energy and found her easy to connect to and felt like we had lots to talk about. I have not had a chance to get to know our technical leaders in my own business well enough to have a long casual conversation with, so it was really cool to have that time with her. On my walk back to the hotel one evening I met a professor from the University of Alabama who turned out to have been the graduate thesis advisor for one of my friends and co-workers.
For lunch Saturday, Megan and I joined Kate Youmans and my friend and fellow panelist, Jessica Randall and learned a lot about the medical device industry and sales engineering. Afterwards, I took the afternoon to explore some sights of Baltimore with Jessie Gmeinder and her mentor Margaret Adriatico. We wandered around the Inner Harbor and historic Washington Place chatting about our choices, experiences and interests. In the three hours that we spent together, our conversation flowed from the cultural aspects of our companies to our families to an examination of our own personalities and talents. I think we also got some cool pictures.
I also met more students at this conference than I have since I was attending as a collegiate myself. Friday morning was spent on a special project for SWE Magazine that turned out to be a lot of fun. A new feature idea was proposed that involved setting up impromptu conversations between students and professionals and having them contribute a short article about the experience. I agreed to set up three of these and so the next several hours was spent finding willing individuals, arranging for recording and setting up rendezvous times and locations. It was easy and really fun to introduce people and get them talking. I think those types of conversations are what these conferences are all about, and I'm looking forward to seeing the result in the Spring issue of the SWE Magazine.
On the shuttle I took back to the convention center, I happened to meet the students from the University of Kentucky who were performing in that evenings Celebrate SWE. It was nice to be able to share some of my own UK experience with them and hopefully I will get a chance to see them again in the future.
By the time I got on the plane with Megan, I thought I had probably made as many new connections as it is possible to make. I turned out to be wrong as I ended up sitting with another conference attendee from University of Cincinnati SWE, and we just found that we had so much to talk about that the flight just zipped by. My new friend Alexzandra and I had a lot in common and I think we both enjoyed sharing our experiences. Since she is also Cincinnati, I'm very excited about the prospect of getting together for lunch or dinner and keeping that connection alive.
