On March 4, 2010, SWE-UCLA hosted our last general meeting of winter quarter. We had the fortunate opportunity of having Vu Pham, a senior scientist from Boeing, speak to our members about five steps to a better engineering career. They are:
- Understand the implications of your choices
- Choose positions and develop skills
- Understand the implications for choosing a company (large vs. small)
- Understand the implications of choosing a career path (technical vs. management)
- Take action!
Mr. Pham made the presentation very energetic, entertaining, interactive, and insightful. One of the presentation highlights was that to simulate the product life cycle, Mr. Pham had the members join in groups of four; each team member was responsible for a different role in the product life cycle of building a paper airplane (requirements, design, fabrication, and test). This gave us a hands-on perspective on the responsibilities and advantages/disadvantages of working in various positions in a company.
Mr. Pham discussed many of his own experiences and those of other engineers he has worked with to help make us more informed and aware for when we enter our own careers. The hope is that we will be able to make better decisions after hearing his talk, and that we will seek future mentors of our own to continue to help us in our careers and/or lives.
To read more about Mr. Pham’s talk, you can take a look at the meeting minutes from our website for some great advice!
Good luck to everyone on finals, and have a spectacular spring break! See you next quarter!
Carolyn Chuang
Team Tech Director
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