Two weeks ago on Monday, September 2nd, I spent two hours from 5:00-7:00pm on the 3rd floor of Page Hall attending a professional development event at the Battelle Center Professional Development Workshop. I did have doubts as I came into this event, though, as I was skeptical of what all else I would learn beyond what I had picked up from being in a professional business fraternity for the past year. To my great fortune and surprise, I learned a lot.
The workshop focused on the transition students go through when they graduate and become professionals. We engaged in a facilitated conversation with three Battelle Center Alumni who have established themselves in the workplace at various organizations and agencies, and they helped to bring us to a better understanding of the transition from student life to that of a young professional. While this event did not specifically relate to the topic of International Affairs or any other topics I have learned in my coursework, I did gain a lot professionally from this event.
Before addressing all of the panelists with any unanswered questions from the collective group of students, we were split up into three small groups and each assigned to a panelist to first have our questions answered on a more intimate level. I was assigned to the group led by panelist and former Aerospace Engineering student Howie Schulman. He now works for Made In Space, Inc. in Jacksonville Florida as an aerospace engineer and has done so since before his graduation in 2018 in starting there as an intern in their early startup phase. Howie addressed the notion of burnout and its reality through his experience working for a budding startup and surrounded by the grind culture that absorbed him and his time. He explained its draining and depressing effects and then transitioned to the importance of having a healthy work-life balance. He told us how he stayed active by frequenting the beach to surf on the weekends as well as filling his time outside of work during the week by hanging out with friends and grabbing drinks at local bars for the sake of his social life and sanity.
Some other great tips that I gathered from the session including all three panelists were to respect the time of your superiors and to keep notes, as weird as it sounds, on your coworkers. All panelists agreed on the importance of respecting the time of your superiors before asking them questions that can be answered with five minutes of research on Google or keeping them from work by dragging out a conversation for too long. One panelist explained the importance of their time, and, while it is extremely valuable and should take advantage of their wisdom, we should be mindful of its importance to the superior themselves, as well. The third panelist also suggested that we keep notes on our coworkers not just for water cooler conversation starters but also to help us make lasting connections with our coworkers as we begin to get to know the office and the organization; she explained how this helped her to keep the overload of new details in order, too. All of the panelists also stressed the importance of maintaining relationships not only for professional gain but personally, as well, which I really appreciated.
I found the conference to be extremely helpful and informative in regards to etiquette and approach upon entering the work force. I very much enjoyed learning from the panelists and hearing their unique perspectives formed by their personal experiences in each of their respective fields. I am very glad that I decided to attend this panel, and I look forward to taking what I learned on that day and applying it myself.