Orange County Branch Newsletter

August 2018

ASCE OC Younger Members Forum

Speaker Series: The Complete Engineer - Unlocking Your Potential

By: Anne Girtz and Guillaume Iradukunda

The 2018 ASCE OC YMF Speaker Series was held at Tetra Tech’s Irvine office, on four consecutive Tuesdays starting May 1. The theme of the 2018 Series was “The Complete Engineer: Unlock Your Potential”. These interactive sessions aimed to provide young professionals insight on the valuable and desirable non-technical skills which can help them “unlock their potential” in the workplace.

 

The first session was a workshop-style seminar led by Maricel Perez-Lovisolo, with the topic of Learning Agility. With today’s “whitewater change” in the world, all engineers must learn to deal with this volatile and unpredictable change and how it impacts their workplace and careers on a daily basis. Those who are able to learn, adapt, apply, (and repeat) are those who will succeed and become learning agile, effective leaders. Five factors of a learning agile person were presented: mental, results, self-awareness, people, and change agility.

The May 15th session was given by Rob Himes who spoke on the value of creativity in the workplace. As we advance in our careers, “thinking out of the box” becomes more difficult, but the innovation that comes with creativity is the key to success for both individuals and teams. It is important to find a harmony in the workplace for those strong in innovation and those whose strength lies in creativity.

 

Ernesto Chaves from Metro Transit held an interactive session on Communication. Through sharing his own experiences of a self-proclaimed “introvert”, Ernesto gave examples of effective communication skills in order to become an effective communicator and leader. The session ended with a roundtable on the group’s experiences in challenging communication situations, and lessons learned from those experiences.

 

 

The final speaker of the Series was Elizabeth Ruedas, current ASCE President Elect. Elizabeth has used various platforms to hone her “brand” in as an engineer and educator. She facilitated a discussion on communication styles and networking, and encouraged attendees to use online platforms to develop their personal brand. In the end, it is not what you know or who you know that matters, but who knows you.

 

The Speaker Series was again one of the YMF’s most well-attended events, with over 100 attendees over the four weeks. Thank you to our speakers, sponsors and all attendees; we look forward to seeing you at next year’s Series!