Student Projects

Career Development Workshop And Speaker Series

Project Manager

Lara Mocan

Society of Women Engineers

Amount Requested

$3,000

Summary

The Career Development Workshop and Speaker Series aims to give undergraduate women in engineering the practical skills and confidence to land competitive internships and full-time jobs. We'll host a range of professional development events, including resume and LinkedIn workshops, elevator pitch practice, and interview prep timed around the fall and winter quarter career fairs and recruiting cycles. We're also partnering with the Engineering Career Development office to bring in industry professionals, graduate students, and upperclassmen for networking and speaker events.

By the end of the series, members will have polished professional materials, connections they can actually use, and a clearer sense of what's out there after graduation, whether that's grad school, industry, or something in between. The goal is to close the gap between what we learn in class and what it actually takes to get a job, and to make sure women in engineering have the community and resources to do that with confidence.

Planned Activities/Investments

Our main workshops will focus on resume building, refining LinkedIn profiles in preparation for recruiter review, developing elevator pitches, and guided career fair preparation, frequently in collaboration with the Engineering Career Development (ECD) office to leverage their expertise. To bridge the gap between academic training and industry, we will also host networking panels featuring established engineering professionals, graduate students, and experienced upperclassmen who can share actionable advice on securing positions like research roles and internships and navigating post-graduation paths. Keeping these events small is intentional, giving members more individual attention and making the process feel less overwhelming. The requested grant funds will be directly invested into making these activities impactful and accessible. The budget will cover catering to maximize attendance and build community, professional takeaways like padfolios and LinkedIn headshots, and thank-you gifts for our volunteer speakers.

Impact

This project will primarily impact undergraduate women at McCormick by giving them the practical resources, mentorship, and professional network to navigate the engineering recruitment process. Events will be open to our full community and any allies who want to join as well. We will evaluate impact by tracking event attendance, member retention across the series, and the number of participants who secure interviews, internships, or full-time offers following university career fairs. We will also send post-quarter surveys asking whether attendees found the workshops helpful during their job or internship search, and whether the events increased their confidence going into recruitment.

Deliverables

The major deliverables for this project include a core series of five professional development workshops covering resume writing, LinkedIn profile refinement, elevator pitches, and interview and career fair preparation. We will also provide members with professional materials including new headshots and career fair supplies like padfolios. Alongside the workshops, we will host several networking panels featuring industry professionals, graduate students, and upperclassmen, as well as joint programming with the Engineering Career Development (ECD) office.

Sustainability

We plan to continue hosting this series annually, updating the content each year to reflect changes in the recruitment cycle and what we learn from participant feedback. In future years, we will fund the program through external grant applications and by allocating a portion of our organization's budget based on attendance and outcomes from the current year, prioritizing the workshops and events that proved most valuable to members.

Budget Overview

• Catering ($1,800): Food and beverages for 6–8 events to maximize undergraduate attendance and engagement.

• Materials and Supplies ($600): Padfolios, premium resume paper, and other necessary materials for attendees to use at career fairs.

• Professional Headshots ($400): Hiring a photographer to provide high-quality LinkedIn headshots for workshop attendees.

• Speaker Gifts ($200): Small, university-branded thank-you gifts for our industry and graduate student panelists.

Total Budget Amount: $3,000

Matching Funds

The SWE Professional Development Committee will contribute $300 in matching funds from our internal budget to co-sponsor this project.

Faculty Adviser/Department

Ellen Worsdall/McCormick Student Affairs