What SWE Means to Me, Part 1
As I have met so many new members to SWE and the SWE Tucson section, I wanted to share some of my thoughts on what SWE has meant to me over my many years of membership. As I started writing this article, I decided to break this into a few segments, so I will start with the early years and SWE Annual Conference.
My first exposure to SWE was as a collegiate in 1987 at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. As an EE major, I was the only female in many of my classes and the friends that I made through SWE are some of my most cherished college friendships. When I graduated and started working at Caterpillar, in Peoria IL, we were members of the Chicago Regional Section, 2 ½ hrs away. I was busy with my life, getting married, and starting a family, so finding time to participate in SWE activities was not a priority. However, I was fortunate that some of my Caterpillar colleagues wanted to continue their SWE collegiate experiences and they worked to charter the Central Illinois section in 1993. I was recruited by this small and awesome group of ladies to get involved with SWE again and became a professional member. We were a small, busy section of 15 members. It was rewarding to work with a group of people committed to supporting our engineering colleagues in their career aspirations and networking with others across the Central Illinois region.
In the role of Section Representative to the Council of Section Representatives (CSR), I was fortunate to attend my first Annual Society conference in Boston in 1995. This was my first exposure to SWE at the society level and I was blown away by the experience. I was the only person from Caterpillar to attend the conference that year, but felt welcome by the many wonderful ladies that I met from all over the country. When I returned from the trip, I wrote my report about the professional development experience and the opportunity available at the career fair to recruit for diverse talent on a national stage. My trip report as an entry level engineer, was routed up thru my management to my VP. When it was returned to me, I had been given the task of putting together a recruiting team to attend the next SWE Annual conference in Portland, Oregon in 1996. I led a team of 6 recruiters (all personal friends and SWE members) to the conference. While not successful in recruiting, we started something special. Caterpillar has been a fixture at the SWE Career Fair since 1996, with WE18 being the 23rd consecutive year.
I am looking forward to attending WE18 and recruiting again for Caterpillar at the career fair. I am still amazed that my trip report was used to create lasting change at the company where I have worked for nearly 29 years. It shows that anyone can make a difference when sharing their ideas.
I hope that others have a chance to attend a WE Society Conference or a WE Local conference in the spring. If you have any questions about how to approach your leadership to gain their support, please contact me. We can assist you with developing the business case to demonstrate the value of attending. And it is not to early to start planning for WE19 Conference in Anaheim!
If I don’t see you at WE18, I look forward to meeting you at future events and will seek your feedback on how SWE Tucson can better serve our members in our mission to Aspire, Advance, Achieve.
Cheers,
Carol J Weber
SWE Tucson Section President FY19
In the role of Section Representative to the Council of Section Representatives (CSR), I was fortunate to attend my first Annual Society conference in Boston in 1995. This was my first exposure to SWE at the society level and I was blown away by the experience. I was the only person from Caterpillar to attend the conference that year, but felt welcome by the many wonderful ladies that I met from all over the country. When I returned from the trip, I wrote my report about the professional development experience and the opportunity available at the career fair to recruit for diverse talent on a national stage. My trip report as an entry level engineer, was routed up thru my management to my VP. When it was returned to me, I had been given the task of putting together a recruiting team to attend the next SWE Annual conference in Portland, Oregon in 1996. I led a team of 6 recruiters (all personal friends and SWE members) to the conference. While not successful in recruiting, we started something special. Caterpillar has been a fixture at the SWE Career Fair since 1996, with WE18 being the 23rd consecutive year.
I am looking forward to attending WE18 and recruiting again for Caterpillar at the career fair. I am still amazed that my trip report was used to create lasting change at the company where I have worked for nearly 29 years. It shows that anyone can make a difference when sharing their ideas.
I hope that others have a chance to attend a WE Society Conference or a WE Local conference in the spring. If you have any questions about how to approach your leadership to gain their support, please contact me. We can assist you with developing the business case to demonstrate the value of attending. And it is not to early to start planning for WE19 Conference in Anaheim!
If I don’t see you at WE18, I look forward to meeting you at future events and will seek your feedback on how SWE Tucson can better serve our members in our mission to Aspire, Advance, Achieve.
Cheers,
Carol J Weber
SWE Tucson Section President FY19
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