SWE Conference in Anaheim
Wednesday
We left Olin at 4. Nice van, and the driver was listening to NPR.The plane ride was long--6 hours with no stops. I wrote up my problems for the Discrete group homework. I’ve never used my laptop on a plane before. It’s hard to open the screen far enough to see it when the person in front of you has leaned their seat back.
At LAX, we picked up our luggage and went to find our van. The van they sent only had seats for 7 of the 9 of us, but the driver insisted that we could all fit. Susan negotiated a discount, but it was very sketchy, because the driver was basically bribing us to not call the company and complain. When we got to the Best Western, at 11:30, there was more disappointment. They had advertised that they had wireless, but we learned that their wireless wouldn't reach our rooms. We could access it from the lobby, but the lobby closes at midnight. There was unhappiness. But it turned out that we did get weak signals in our rooms from neighboring hotels.
Thursday
Thursday morning it wasn’t hard to get up, because the time difference made it feel like 11, not 8. We walked over to the convention center as a group, and took an adventurous (past the loading dock, through a parking lot, and in a back door) route to the SWE conference registration.
I’m going to mostly just transcribe my disjointed notes and add explanation where possible. Hopefully I’ll be able to make these notes more clear later.
My first session:
The Power of Diversity in Project Design
The presenter passed out an interesting handout that illustrates a bunch of different kinds of diversity. It’s kind of a bull’s eye, with “personality” in the center, “internal dimensions” in the next circle, and then “external dimensions” and “organization dimensions.” So things like gender, age, physical ability fall under “internal dimensions,” marital status, religion, appearance, income, and educational background fall under “external dimensions,” and union affiliation, work location, and seniority fall under “organization dimensions.” She didn’t talk a whole lot about this handout, but I like it.
Ergonomic diversity: some products are best suited for people of a certain height.
Examples of missed opportunities in early designs:
- airbags were not safe for shorter people
- seat harnesses were/are not comfortable for shorter people
- early voice recognition software didn’t recognize the higher pitch of women’s voices
- artificial hearts/valves were sized for men
- pharmaceuticals and dosing not one-size-fits-all
Expanding your customer targets allows your employees to exercise more creativity.
At this point in the presentation, I realized that she wasn’t talking about diversity as if it were a burden and something that a company should strive for because “it’s the right thing to do,” she was actually saying that diversity is a good business practice. I’m sure I’ve heard this message before, but for some reason it surprised me or resonated with me this time.
Recommended books:
- The New Mainstream: How the Multicultural Consumer is Transforming American Business, by Guy Garcia
- Don’t Think Pink: What Really Makes Women Buy—and How to Increase Your Share of This Crucial Market, by Lisa Johnson and Andrea Learned
- The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, by Thomas Friedman
Challenge: How do you determine an accurate diversity metric? (this reminds me of in Five Dysfunctions of a Team, when they’re trying to come up with a way to measure “success”)
Diversity is not a burden for companies to deal with—it’s an opportunity.
In the design process, the best time to start considering diversity is in the concept phase (and in every phase following).
Test your product on a diverse audience
Operating instructions should serve a diverse audience
For systems design, the presenter showed a “V” diagram with design on one arm and testing on the other. The two arms converge eventually in implementation at the point of the V.
She recommends baddesign.com for examples of inaccessible websites
Consider geographical diversity (topography, climate). For example, water boils at a lower temperature in Boulder, CO.
Cultural Influences in Design:
- avoid ethnocentrism
- learn about norms, customs, taboos
- language
- customer interface considerations
- assembly
- operating instructions
- cautions/warnings
- customer service
- assembly
At this point in the session, people were asking questions. I thought it was interesting that some raised their hands and some just shouted out their questions. This is the only session in which I noticed people not raising their hands.
Language:
- verbal and non-verbal communication
- be aware of colloquialisms and multiple word definitions (using lots of slang can exclude people who are not familiar with it)
- important in
- advertising
- customer relations
- manufacturing/design
- operation and maintenance concept
- disposal
- advertising
Integrated-discipline product teams are the best practice for implementing diversity.
The presenter had a diagram on team behavior that I didn’t find useful, but I’ll record it anyway. It had four bubbles: “forming,” “storming,” “norming,” and “performing.” The bubbles were connected, with an arrow from forming to storming, storming to norming, norming to performing, and performing to storming, so s, n, and p formed a circuit.
Question: What if you are a small business or entrepreneur/self employed, and have limited resources to create a diverse team?
Answer: Go online (or elsewhere) to network and build relationships with people in other disciplines before you need help.
Success stories of diversity in design:
- When the airline industry was getting started, the average passenger was an upper-class, middle-aged male. Now there is more diversity. Designers wore suits to simulate the effects of aging, and then went through all of the experiences that an older person might struggle with when flying. Also, changing tables have been added to many airplanes.
- For examples of website accessibility, visit disability.gov
From Good to Great: Five Simple Steps to Landing Your Dream Job
Summary: This session didn’t really introduce any ideas that I hadn’t heard before, but the speaker was good and convincing.
9 out of 10 Americans don’t like their jobs (U. Wisconsin study)
The first step is to figure out what you want to do. Don’t be unduly influenced by friends or family.
The 5 Steps:
- Focus: which jobs should you pursue?
- Resume and cover letter
- Market yourself—appearance and 60-second commercial
- Verbal presentation—interview questions
- Network and follow up
Can you clearly state your career goals?
Can you explain why you selected your major?
Do you know what work setting you prefer?
Do you know whether you work better with people, data, or things?
(know yourself and be able to explain yourself)
The best time to attend career fairs is when you are not looking for a job.
Talk to your career counselor
Create externships (1/2/3 day experience of interviewing/shadowing someone at their job)
Volunteer work
Ask yourself what you are doing when you don’t look at the clock
Read books and websites about jobs for engineers
This speaker is good. Should we try to bring her to Olin?
Salaries and Benefits
There is no correlation between wealth and happiness
careers.wsj.com allows you to compare the cost of living in various cities, so you can see what your salary will actually buy
Focus your search. Don’t spread yourself too thin.
Do employer research (on competitors, financial outlook, etc)
2) Resume and Cover letter
Write a comprehensive list of everything you’ve done and keep it. Draw from that list to create a resume for a specific company.
Your resume and cover letter are not for you. They are for the company.
If you have an objective statement in your resume or cover letter, say what you can do for the company.
List accomplishments, not activities
Add an “other data” section to show the company that you are a real person—answers the question “do I want to work with this person?” Examples: built a car, ran 5 marathons. Create ways for the interviewer to remember you.
Cover letter should address any issues or concerns on your resume, and should highlight your main assets. Presenter suggests using bulleted format instead of 4 paragraphs.
3) Market yourself
60-second commercial
- who you are
- what you do
- what you’re looking for
- 3 best assets
- mention 1 interesting fact (for easy memorability)
Stay upbeat
Your commercial is your response to “Tell me about yourself.”
Practice, revise, practice in front of others, revise, practice, etc.
4) Verbal Presentation, interview questions
Smalltalk during interviews—participate! Interviewers form an opinion of you in the first 5 minutes that is difficult to change.
Discussion of qualifications/experience—relate your experience to their expectations/needs
Your questions—have some prepared
Conclusion—ask about next step in hiring process, get interviewer’s business card, send a thank-you.
How to answer questions: STAR (situation, task, action, result)
- situation: why did the action take place
- task: what goal were you working towards
- action: what specific steps did you take? Use “I,” don’t just describe what “we” (your team) did
- result: describe the outcome
Reputation: Google yourself. Manage your facebook accounts, because they might have access
Keep current: read NY Times (only front page is necessary) and books
Social habits:
- no “um” or “like”
- eye contact and firm handshake
- smile more than anyone else—seem happy, excited
- say thank you
- practice interviewing while videotaping yourself
5) Network and Follow up
It’s about giving, not getting
No expectation of payback
Think about what you have to share
Ask curious questions
Ask if they know anyone else who you should talk to
No one wants to help you until you help them
Books to read before your first full-time position:
- The Millionaire Next Door
- How to be a Star at Work
There was a student welcome lunch that was so incredibly poorly organized. When I got in the door, I was told that there was one line to get food, so I got at the end. Eventually there somehow came to be four lines, and I actually managed to get in a line that was reasonably short. And then they ran out of pizza so the line stopped moving. I was whining about being hungry, at this point, and considering asking other people for their leftovers. Finally more pizza was brought out, and I managed to grab three tiny squares of pepperoni (no vegetarian!) pizza before running off to the next workshop. I'm still annoyed by the lack of planning at this lunch. You had to have a ticket to get in, so it's not like they didn't know how many people were going to show up. Bah.
Using Your Engineering Degree in a Non-Engineering Field
Summary: I’m not sure what exactly I was expecting out of this one, but it was different, although still good. I was surprised that the patent lawyer really made her job sound interesting, and I want to email some follow-up questions to her.
All of the panelists have at least one degree in something other than engineering
Their salaries increased, but that wasn’t their reason for doing it
Patent law—broad engineering background is good (woo!)—technical background is necessary. Being an engineer or scientist is a requirement for becoming a patent lawyer.
Work experience before getting an MBA was very valuable. Having a business degree has gotten her many promotions.
Having an engineering degree gives you credibility with the people you work with.
Questions that I want to ask the patent lawyer:
- How does your time break down?
- What do you like about law?
- What don’t you like?
- What kind of cases do you handle?
- How is the culture, both at law school and in your office?
- What are the people like?
There was an interesting discussion when somebody asked the panelists about when is a good time to have kids. The first panelist to respond said “Never.” The second panelist said “Always.” They all agreed that flexible schedules are important. Semahat, the professor, noted that it wasn’t just a women’s issue. She had a graduate student (male) who had two kids and his wife needed to work, so she said it would be fine if he worked evenings in the lab.
Lara was in this conference with me and at this point she turned to me and said she wondered if they talk about this at non-SWE (larger percentage male) conferences.
Question: When you move to a non-technical department, what do you do when you keep being asked to deal with anything related to technology?
Answer: a) prove yourself at non-technical tasks, b) call in technical people so you don’t have to deal with it
Being a “patent agent,” you will make as much as you would at engineering. They take the same exam as patent attorneys. You can work in a corporation or you can work in a law firm. It is hard to work at a law firm and go to law school at the same time.
Mastering Leadership Styles to Help Each Employee Reach Their Full Potential
We need to learn to have a flexible leadership style; it depends on the situation and the people being led.
Assess follower “readiness,” readiness = ability + willingness
There’s a grid of how to choose which leadership style to use based on follower readiness, but it will be hard to recreate and I don’t think it’s worth it—this workshop didn’t seem that useful.
Question: How can we as followers get our leaders to lead?
Answer: a) find the coaching somewhere else—get a mentor. b) talk to your boss and ask about their expectations. Then tell them what your needs are and ask where you can get those things.
When you are leading, make it safe for your followers to admit ignorance or weaknesses
How to Get Your Career Started
Summary: presented by a panel of five young women who have recently (within the past year or so) started working at Northrop-Grumman. This panel was useful, even though a lot of their advice seemed to be “stay cheerful and don’t let the old guys get you down.”
Be aware of first impressions; a slow start in your career can give an imprint of low expectations.
1) Make yourself visible early
Introduce yourself to everyone
Meet the leaders
Participate in meetings—literally sit at the table
Rotating is one of the best things you can do to make connections
2) Do reconnaissance
Explore physical surroundings
Note dept. locations and names on doors
Speak with someone from a different department every day
Become an info junkie—REALLY important early on, before you have lots of time commitments
3) Overkill your first assignment—set a good impression
4) Seek extra work, challenge yourself
“When someone asks you to perform an unknown task, respond to the positive and then quickly go about finding out how to do it.” –Teddy Roosevelt
5) Be enthusiastic
You can influence a whole department
Act enthusiastic, and true enthusiasm will follow
Comment to Erin and Sara from a male superior at one of their first meetings: “and these are the 14-year-old girls that we’ve just hired.” They chose not to be offended and just to laugh it off—was that the right choice?
6) Dare to change an entrenched method
You have a fresh view
Continuous improvement is generally valued
7) Toot your own horn
Take credit for your accomplishments
Join in conversations—you were hired to give input
When there is a victory to report, report it
Send regular updates to your manager—you can refer to these updates when you think it’s time for you to get a promotion
8) Accept uncertainty, risks, and failures
You don’t know what you can get away with until you try/ask
A career with a few minuses and a lot of pluses looks good
Being young at Northrop-Grumman is harder than being a woman
There are lots of entry-level Systems Engineers hired in Northrop-Grumman.
Friday
The career fair was somewhat good… lots of energy and lots of companies. The first company I went to (on Thursday night, actually) was Northrop-Grumman, because I had liked the panel that I went to earlier. I had good conversations with two women at the booth and ended up spending about an hour there. But… they do a lot of military projects, and I’m not sure that I’m okay with that. I had this problem with a lot of the companies at the fair actually. I went through the booklet and crossed out all of the companies that mentioned connections with the military, which eliminated about 25% of them. I actually got an interview with Caterpillar—the woman that I handed my resume to said “Oh! Do you know Rick Miller?” Apparently he was her adviser. So that might be what got me the interview. I think it went okay, but I’m not sure I would want to work for them. It’s a large company. As were most of the companies present, which makes sense—they would be the ones with the resources to go to job fairs. I guess I’ll have to find other ways to search. IBM seems like it might be a good place to work though.
Patent Law for Engineers
Summary: I went to this hoping to learn what it’s like to be a patent lawyer, but his session was pretty much about why engineers or engineering companies should hire patent lawyers.
Presenter says her job is half getting her clients their patents, and half keeping them from infringing on other patents
Involve the patent lawyer early on (it will be cheaper in the long run)
There’s no such think as an international patent; you must file a patent in each country where you want protection
Patent laws are struggling to keep up with technology (witness Netflix v. Blockbuster)
Patent applications are published. If you are worried that your application won’t be accepted, you can keep it from being published so all of your information doesn’t get out.
A patent is somewhere between a technical and a legal document.
She had a handout which pretty much covers the rest of my notes.
Negotiating for Women: The Cost of Not Asking
Summary: I went to this to learn about negotiating salary, but it was also about negotiating in general. It was useful, although I don’t think I’ll ever enjoy haggling over money.
Negotiation is using knowledge to get what you want
Men see negotiation as a game that has a winner and a loser
Women see negotiation as a collaborative undertaking
If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
Example: female graduate students find out that all the male graduate students are getting paid. They complain about this to their adviser. Adviser looks into it, finds out it’s true, and goes to the dean (? I don’t remember exactly), to ask why this is. The dean says “I will find a way to pay anyone who comes and asks. The women don’t ask.
You can negotiate on behalf of other people when you are in a position of power.
Example: presenter knew a woman who was hiring a contractor. The woman had a list of the wages of each of the contractor’s employees. There were three employees with the same job function. One was making $20 an hour, one was making $24, and one was making $8. The one making $8 an hour the only female. The woman hiring the contractor told him that she wouldn’t work with him until he corrected this. He did. The contractor’s employee, when she found out she was now making $24 an hour, thought there had been a mistake. She didn’t think she was worth that much.
Why women don’t ask
- fear
- unsure about what they deserve
- afraid of hearing “no”
- don’t know how
- concerned about repercussions
- they believe that if you play by the rules and do a good job, you shouldn’t have to ask
Negotiating tactic: find ways to agree. Scenario: you and another person have $10 and you have to divide it between yourselves, and you can’t divide it equally. Idea: agree that each person gets $4. Now you’ve agreed on something, and you’re only negotiating $2.
Four objectives of negotiation
- display confidence
- achieve WIN-win
- know what you want, know what they want. Satisfy your interests well, satisfy their interests acceptably
- roadblocks: insufficient planning, ineffective communication, inexperience
- know what you want, know what they want. Satisfy your interests well, satisfy their interests acceptably
- Prepare, Probe, Propose
- Prepare
- Find out precedents
- Think about alternatives
- Fulfill both parties’ interests
- Have a timetable in mind (can we get a decision by ___?)
- Strengths and weaknesses
- What is your ideal position? What is your walkaway position?
- Strategy and team—get ideas from others
- Find out precedents
- Probe
- Why? (why did you decide to do that?)
- Hypothesize (what if…? Suppose…)
- Answers (well, I was considering something slightly higher)
- Tally
- Why? (why did you decide to do that?)
- Propose
- Make them give you the first offer you can counteroffer
- Never immediately accept the first offer
- Set your aspirations high
- Make them give you the first offer you can counteroffer
- Listen
- Make what you say count
- Be an active listener
- Eliminate distractions
- Listening is not waiting for your turn to talk
- Make what you say count
- Prepare
- Handle tough negotiations
- Don’t take it personally- they might try to shake your confidence
- Be prepared
- Take a time-out: “I think we need to take a break now” or break to get water, continue later
- Use tact: sail back and forth to move against the wind
- Don’t take it personally- they might try to shake your confidence
| Emotional tactics | Non-emotional responses |
|---|---|
| Anger | find out why they’re angry |
| Insulted | what wouldn’t be insulting? |
| Guilt | focus on the issues |
| Exasperation | understand |
| False flattery | refocus |
Salary negotiation strategies
- figure out your current worth and the top scale
- use online services
- professional organizations and journals
- ask recruiters, headhunters, temp agencies, colleagues, friends, family
- use online services
- leave the salary line blank on applications
- let them make the first offer—if it’s too low, don’t accept it
- strategic responses to “So what kind of salary are you looking for in this job?”
- I’m much more interested in doing [R&D] at [Caterpillar] than I am in the size of the initial offer
- I’ll consider any reasonable offer
- You’re in a much better position to know how much I’m worth to you than I am
- Ask for a range of salaries
- I’m much more interested in doing [R&D] at [Caterpillar] than I am in the size of the initial offer
I left a little early to go back to the hotel and change before going out for dinner. Simone hit me with an ironing board (but not very hard).
I got to have dinner with Marne and Jon, and they drove me around to see our old house, elementary school, etc. They asked about the conference. I said that it was great, especially the workshops. The career fair was good, but I realized after talking to companies all day that I had been concentrating on making them want to hire me, and not thinking nearly enough about whether I wanted to work for them. I told them that I was considering Teach for America. Marne wanted to know what I had done in City Year (we haven’t seen each other in at least 6 years). So I explained about my team and the program that we ran, and writing and teaching leadership curriculum. When I finished, Marne said “look how happy you are, just talking about teaching,” and she was right. I’ll have to think about this.
Saturday
Top 10 Reasons to Pursue a Career with a Passion for Life in the Medical Device Industry
Summary: Presented by a panel of women from Medtronic. This session should have been titled “Top 10 Reasons why Medtronic is Great.” I was disappointed that it focused so much on a single company and not on the industry as a whole and why it’s cool.
10) Committed to the Mission
Medtronic’s mission is to alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life
9) Committed to Excellence
8) Committed to Communities
$48 million donated in 2005
7) Committed to Innovation
2/3 of revenues are from products introduced within the past 2 years
Technical forum—Medtronic employees get together and talk about new technologies.
Good opportunity to network and find mentors
Question: How does R&D money get allocated—what gets priority?
Answer: It’s decided at a business level
Quest program—employees can get seed money to pursue innovative projects
Growth opportunity—medical devices is a great market
Continually incorporating new technologies into their products
Chronic disease solutions (AEDs, cardiac rhythm management)
Cardiac surgery (tissue and heart valves, “beating heart” surgical instruments)
Vascular (opening up blocked arteries)
Neurological disorders (electrical stimulation and drug delivery for pain management, deep brain stimulation to help with tremors, epilepsy, OCD, depression)
Spinal disorders (minimal access spinal technologies—less invasive)
Diabetes (Paradigm wireless management system—link between meter and pump)
Gastroenterological and urological disorders
6) Resources and experience
Lots of employees = lots of people to answer questions
Access to journals online
Technical training programs
Career development
5) It’s personal
“Everybody knows someone who has been touched by Medtronic technology”
4) On the cutting edge of technology
3) Fostering an environment of technical contribution
There was a student leadership lunch on Friday which was sort of interesting. There was a representative from Northrop-Grumman (who sponsored the lunch) at each table, and then a bunch of students. Simone and I were at a table with two students from Cal-Poly Pomona, one of whom is the president of her SWE student section (>450 members!). There was also a student trying to start a SWE student section at her school but having trouble getting people interested, and then there were a few other students from other schools. It was an interesting glimse into what other student sections are like.
Was it worth it? I think it was. For me, the workshops were more useful than the career fair, but even that was a good experience. I suppose it's good to get some experience talking to and interviewing with companies that I'm not necessarily interested in before trying to do it with companies that I care about. I definitely realized that I need to practice both my Olin spiel and my personal spiel. And networking is hard for me. Striking up conversations with strangers does not come naturally. And people make me tired--not that I hate people, but I'm an introvert, and the conference was exhausting for me (I think I went to bed by 10 every night except the night we arrived).
And now it's time to share what we learned with the rest of the Olin community in an effective way... (and this blog entry doesn't count).
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