Women in Engineering

The first week of November was a great one for me - I attended the National Conference of SWE in Baltimore and am I glad I did! There were workshops, socials, networking events(my favourite - Speed Mentoring), formal dinners, presentations, regional meetings, technical/sightseeing tours AND a career fair.

I found it real inspiring to see those who led the way for others like me to enter into this predominantly male field. Now there are so many women engineers around that we would never realize what it was like some 15-20 years ago but when I heard some 50+ ladies tell their stories about being the first women in engineering in their college or their department or their company, it sent shivers down my spine just to realize it was not too long ago when I could have only dreamed about my place as an equal in this world.

The trip meant so much for me for many reasons:

1. I needed a break from being a student and a homemaker - both at the same time. I wanted to be just 'me' - free from the label of being either and just being 'an empowered woman'(yeah I know how it sounds;)).

2. I wanted to network with others who shared my experiences and concerns and knew exactly what I was talking about!

3. I needed to relive my undergrad years of living on a budget and meeting up with others from the world around and the things I generally did - watching a horror movie sitting with a bunch of unknown faces, cooking dinners with those I hardly knew and exchanging emails/contacts with a promise of keeping in touch. It brought back some fond memories of those scout and guide camps I so devotedly attended during school days.If only there were a camp-fire!

4. The career fair was amazing. Landed a few on the spot interviews and it could just mean a new begining.

5. I also attended some technical tours of the facilities I may end up working at - the UPS site tour was mind-boggling. The entire place looked like a manufacturing plant with workers working day and night sorting/moving/packaging/loading-unloading all sorts of deliveries/materials in a building the size of an outlet mall. ( No. they don't really handly your 'fragile' packages so gently! :))

6. Meeting with other Graduate students and professors from other universities and listening from them the inside stories of how to get there was an experience I would cherish for a long time. It was also a good prelude for my PhD in future.

7. I got more confortable wearing those professinal clothes I so despise most of the days.

8. And we got a free manicute too for simply telling our stories about SWE experiences! - THAT helps any-stressful-day!!!

So I must end now by saying - More Power to Women In Engineering! We soooooo ROCK:D!!!