I am a junior at UNM studying computer science. I went to the SWE conference. I had an interview with Boeing. Here is how it went. (this is definitely not presented verbatim, lol)

At the MASSIVE career fair, I went to the Boeing booth and started talking to a recruiter. I handed him my resume, while not-so-subtly flexing the fact that I have a sEcUrItY cLeArAnCe. The recruiter then says to me “Alrighty then, you want an interview? Come to the third floor ballroom tonight at 8pm and we’ll see if you’re a good fit.” Heck freakin’ yeah I will.

I show up at 8pm to the third floor, and there is a SUPER long line. I thought, “there’s no way that ALL these people have interviews right?” I start to understand that this was just a screening process to see who will ACTUALLY get an interview. Everyone is handed two tickets, and they can use those two tickets to talk to two different tables inside the ballroom. We are handed  packet that describes the teams at each table. I scan the packet for software engineering internship positions, and have it settled: I will talk to tables 28 and 29.

When I eventually got into the ballroom, I go right up to table 29. I hand the manager at that table my resume, and he starts going over it.

Manager: “HmmMMmm, I see you have some experience at Sandia National Laboratories. ”

Me: “Yeah, I’ve been there for two summers now!”

Manager: “Okay tell me about some of your work there.”

I explain to him some of the work I did, and answered some more generic interview questions.

Manager: “Well, you’ve got a nice resume here, but I don’t think you’ll be a good fit. We’re looking for data systems engineers. You just don’t have the experience.”

At this point, I am definitely upset. HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT I DON’T WANT TO SWITCH UP THE WORK I DO AND TRY SOMETHING NEW!?!? JUST BECAUSE I DID ALL THESE THINGS ON MY RESUME IN THE PAST, DOESN’T MEAN I WANT TO DO THOSE THINGS FOREVER!!!!!! I CAN LEARN TO BE A DATA SYSTEMS ENGINEER OR WHATEVERRRR

Anyways… I move on and go to table 28. These two nice ladies take my resume, and ask me some unapologetically generic questions.

Recruiter: “Describe a challenge you had in the past, and how did you overcome it?”

Me: “Well, I-” blah blah blah

A few more rounds of these questions occur. Finally,

Recruiter: “Well, I don’t think we’re a good fit. You just don’t have enough experience with the type of work we do”

WHAT THE HECK?!!?!?!?! I’M FREAKING APPLYING TO BE AN INTERN. OF COURSE I DON’T ALREADY HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH WHAT Y’ALL DO.

Me: “Ok, well thank you for your time.”

Recruiter: “May we take your ticket?”

I had completely forgotten about the ticket system. I hand the ladies a ticket, and I go off on my way. I still have one other ticket to spend, since the first table forgot to collect one from me, so I find yet another software engineering table. I want to take this moment to apologize to the Boeing lords for breaking their little hiring rules.

The next table I talk to are very polite, but they admit that none of them are computer science. They say that they COULD take my resume and give it to the computer science person who WAS supposed to be there, but my chances might not be great like that. They tell me I should spend my ticket on a different table.

So I find my FOURTH software engineering table, and queue up behind someone who is already speaking to these people. This poor person is getting DESTROYED by the manager. All I can see is that the manager is writing some problem with integrals on a piece of paper and the person isn’t able to answer it. They tell him he’s not a good fit, and he starts asking questions for how he can improve himself. He eventually leaves.

At last, I got up to the table, hand the manager my resume, and… things go fine at first. Th manager asks me about some of my work at Sandia, and I give him a high level overview of it. I tell him about a project I did where I implemented some sensors on a Raspberry Pi. And then, things take a turn.

Manager: “Diagram out the program you wrote for the sensors on the Raspberry Pi,” the manager said, as he flips my resume over to the back and hands me a pen.

Me: “Uhhhh, okay, so here we had this sensor that was detecting radia-”

Manager: “No. I don’t care about what the sensor was detecting, diagram out all the threads and processes in the program you wrote.”

Me: “Okay, so uhh we have this, um, main thread which would call this thread, and we’d also have um a different thread that is”

Manager: “There’s another thread!? Then why didn’t you diagram that one out as well?!?!”

I stumble my way through the diagram. He continues to interrogate me on all the details.

He eventually has heard enough of this story and switches gears. He takes my resume, and starts writing C code. Not just pseudocode, like actual C code that would compile if you typed it character for character into a compiler.

Manager: “Tell me what’s wrong with this code.”

I answer this fairly obvious problem, but he starts hammering me on the details.

Manager: “Okay, so we are continuously allocating memory, but what happens when we eventually run out of memory?”

Me: “Uhhhhh, the program crashes?!”

Manager: “And how do you fix it?!”

Me: “Uhhhh, free the memory?!?!”

This goes on for a while as he switches to more coding problems. I don’t think I have said uhh and umm this many times in my life. I understood and had solutions for all of his problems, but the way he was pressuring me felt like I was being forced to cure cancer at gunpoint.

Eventually, the manager sets the pen down and looks at his hiring buddy. They nod at each other, and he says to me:

“Alright. When do you have time to interview tomorrow?”

I felt a massive wave of relief. I had wasted an hour and 45 minutes here in this ballroom by now. This event closes in 15 minutes along with all the other fun events in the convention center that I was missing out on. But I finally landed an interview. In the words of 21 Savage at Camp Flog Gnaw (later that weekend): “my throat dry.”

The next day, I showed up to the Boeing interview booth. I’m called into a room, and the same manager from yesterday sits me down, and says, “Do you know what a structured interview is?”

Me: “Uhhh, I guess, I mean isn’t that just an interview?”

Manager: “Yes, I will ask you 4 to 5 questions, you will respond to them, and I will take notes on your response.”

Me: “Okay yeah, so it’s just an interview?!”

Anyways, the questions start coming and they are pretty generic. A few questions go by, and eventually he asks, “Describe a time where you faced a problem, and had to go to someone more knowledgeable for help.”

I rack my brain really quick, and offer a decent story:

“I once had to install linux packages onto a Raspberry Pi at work without being able to connect the pi to the internet. I was still just getting familiar with linux so I struggled a bit. There was this one package that I couldn’t get to install on the pi. I then went to a mentor, and realized that my mistake was that I was building the linux package on my windows machine , and then moving it onto the pi.”

I thought it was a pretty good story, but I didn’t realize the one logical fallacy I stated. You can’t build linux packages on windows machines. The interviewer immediately pounces on that.

“You built a linux package on a windows machine? What are you talking about? That is not possible. Do you understand how linux packages work? Do you know what the difference is between a .dll and .so file?”

He proceeds to explain the differences between .dll and .so files. I reiterate to him that I was (and still am) pretty new to all this linux stuff, and that I wasn’t lying (AND I WASN’T). So he asks me once again: “HOW DID YOU BUILD A LINUX PACKAGE ON A WINDOWS MACHINE”

Me: “I… I um… I used Cygwin…”

The interviewer pauses for a few seconds.

“Oh… Okay. That makes sense. Okay, carry on.”

WHEW. I won’t get bogged down in the details, but basically, Cygwin is a tool that makes the process I described possible to do. At that point, I was no longer under arrest and I was in good standing with the computer science laws. I feel a wave of relief and continue on with my story.

The rest of the interview went just fine. I asked a decent amount of questions at the end to show my interest. When we were ending, the manager then made some pretty suggestive comments.

Manager: “Soooo, will you be around over the weekend?”

Me: “Uh, yes, I will be here until Sunday night.”

Manager: “Okay, just ummm, be sure to check your email and phone.”

Me: “HhmmmmMMMMmmm okay okay, I hear you my guy. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ”

Aaaaannnnnnnnnd so that is how my interview went. Later that night as I was getting out of an Uber, I received an email from Boeing. It was like “congrats u got de job!” and told me to go to a congratulatory brunch in a ballroom the next day. The brunch was pretty nice but it definitely took out a chunk of my Disneyland time (smh). There, I saw the first manager who rejected me and it felt empowering to give him that glare that was like “See, b***h, I’m worthy.”

As of now, I don’t know if I will take this Boeing offer, but I’m leaning towards it. All I know is that it’s in Fairfax, VA, which is 30 minutes away from Washington D.C.

There are plenty of other interesting events that happened to me at this SWE trip, but I felt like this is the one most worth sharing. Some other notable things that happened was having 4 other interviews (Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin), going to Disneyland, and going to Camp Flog Gnaw. This trip was an absolute blast, and I would definitely recommend getting in on this conference next year if you have the chance.

So, the moral of the story is: breaking a FEW rules is fine on your job hunt, and never fold when an interviewer is drilling you.
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Completely unrelated photo (from Camp Flog Gnaw):

I had the awesome opportunity to travel to Anaheim, California for the 2019 Society of Women Engineers (SWE) national conference: WE 19. The theme this year was “We Live, We Learn, We Lead” and I can say with confidence that I did all three.

​This is my second year as a member of UNM’s chapter of SWE. I was lucky enough to attend WE 18, last year’s national conference, and because of that, I had some expectations going into it. My main priority was to listen to the keynote speakers. At WE 18, I wasn’t able to see the Thursday speaker. This year, my friends and I made sure we got there super early to not only get to listen to the speakers but get a great seat!

My Thursday started off with a plate full of pastries, a cup full of more cream than coffee, and so much excitement for my first talk of the weekend. Carol Malnati, Vice President CRHF R&D at Medtronic, was the opening keynote speaker for the conference. I was completely captured by her first story.

​She explained a turning point in her career. She was a mother working towards her Ph.D. when her professor gave her a lower overall grade than her male classmate. She explained how she confronted the professor, asked some of the most difficult questions while remaining calm and fought for the grade she deserved. Even then, she fully admitted how discouraged and defeated she felt but, in that defining moment, she decided to power on for her daughter.

Throughout the speech she gave great advice like following your inner compass, being resilient and finding your own moxie. After her standing ovation, I wandered over to where the UNM chapter took our group photo. It was then when I finally realized how many students our organization took. I was so proud we took 39 students and I really wish I had more time to get to know everyone who came.

​The rest of the day I bounced between the career fair and tech talks. It was different going to a career fair when I already have a job that I love. I talked to some companies and got awesome company swag, but having a job took a lot of pressure off the 30-second elevator speech I practiced about a thousand times last year. SWE’s career fair is one of the largest for women engineers. I got to learn so much about companies I never knew before and got some resume tips. Other members were lucky enough to be asked to interview and offered jobs or internships.

The second day, Rachel Hutter, Senior Vice President for International Facilities Operations Services and Worldwide Safety, Health and Engineering at Disney, empowered the crowd using the strong female characters from Star Wars to celebrate a new theme park’s opening: Galaxy’s Edge lands. Not only were there snippets from Disney’s Star Wars movies and TV shows but each piece of advice had a brilliant story accompanying it that kept me engaged the entire talk.
I revisited the career fair and went to some more tech talks. Some of the speeches where super funny like “How Netflix is ruining your Career” or exceptionally empowering like the plenary panel, “#SHECANDOIT.” The second day of the conference was my time to work the SWE boutique. This is one of UNM SWE’s best fundraisers. It was fun to volunteer for the club and look at how cool our stuff was. I fell in love with the SWE crew necks that sold out at the conference. The club is now special ordering it for our members (thank goodness)!

​By the end of the weekend I was super tired and so behind on homework, but I had a really amazing time living, learning and leading. I wasn’t at the conference the whole time either. I got to go to Downtown Disney, went out with the organization for out group dinner, and took a trip to San Diego. The conference was a perfect pick me up right before finals and re-inspired me to pursue engineering.

I hope you all are able to find new inspiration in your dream career field to help finals feel a little less awful.

Anna

Karen’s Summer 2019

​To start off, I placed both my kids in summer camp while I spent the summer taking Calculus 3 and Differential Equations. I took my maths at CNM because, let’s face it, I would rather pay cash for my classes instead of using student loans. I know that student loans will bite me in the a**, later on down the road, but I am still hopeful that there is a way out.

Even though I had both the kids in summer camp (basically, out of my hair for 8 hours a day), I feel like taking Calculus 3 and Differential Equations during the summer, AT THE SAME TIME, was a big mistake. The classes were hard enough, but that was not really my problem. I just wish that I had focused on each one, individually, so that I could fully understand the subjects. I received a C in both classes. Nothing that I am proud of but, also nothing that I am ashamed of either. My only advise, is that if you need to take them during the summer, do NOT take them together. Calculus 3 wasn’t nearly as hard as Calculus 2 (a class that I received a B in), however it had sooooooooo much information, and sooooooo much homework. And I get it, we need the homework, it helps you understand the information. It just took so much of my time, that it was hard to concentrate on my family life while doing well in class.

During my first exams, my grandmother passed away. She was someone who lived with me for over 30 years. This hit me kinda…weird. Mostly because I have been fortunate to spend these 37 years of my life completely “death of loved ones” free. So I was feeling pretty lost, trying to be a good mother and student, and acting like everything was normal. You receive condolences from other people, but you don’t know if they REALLY understand. Hell, you don’t know if YOU really understand. There was even a point, about 2 weeks later, that I had a total meltdown which resulted in a lot of yelling and almost breaking things, on my part. However, that meltdown seemed to be my acceptance in my DABDA of grieving. Ok, DABDA stands for Denial Anger Bargaining Depression and Acceptance, for those of you who do not know the stages of grieving. Luckily, my father just happened to be visiting me during this time and he helped me TREMENDOUSLY to get through it all.
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I did eventually manage to do some summer things with the kids where we went to Santa Rosa with some old time friends, where I became well acquainted with relaxation and party time (in moderation since the kids were around).

This summer was one of the most impactful one for me since I began my college career. I was fortunate enough to land an internship at WE18 last year that allowed me to work with Northrop Grumman for 10 weeks this summer. I worked from one of their locations in Buffalo, NY with their software team. The internship was my first, so I was extremely excited to experience everything Northrop Grumman had to offer. I worked on various projects throughout the 10 weeks that allowed me to work with over 100,000 lines of code! I was really excited to actually apply what I learned in school on real products and projects. My team was really good to me, allowing me to work on tasks that actually mattered and make changes that would be put into recent releases. I felt like an integral part of the team, working with other engineers to create new solutions for the clients. The internship really allowed me to understand the work environment and culture I would be entering once I left school. At the conclusion of my internship, Northrop Grumman asked me to stay with them throughout the year and work remotely. Plus, the company has extended an offer to me to work full-time after graduation. I think this opportunity couldn’t have come at a better time, and I am super grateful to SWE for making it happen.

Additionally, being in New York allowed me to travel in the area a lot. Buffalo is 30 minutes from the Niagara Falls, so I was able to see one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World while I was there. Also, the city is 2 hours from Toronto, Canada, which made it easy for me to visit Toronto with my friends who came to see me. Lastly, of course I could not miss going to NYC if I was in New York. At the end of my time in NY, I stayed in NYC for a week and visit all of the places that I grew up in with other friends who came to visit. Overall, this summer has been super fun and exciting. I look forward to seeing what other opportunities I can find at WE19 this year!
​
Jessica

9/11 Memorial

This summer, I had the opportunity to go to Germany to work in a research lab, with funding from the DAAD RISE Germany program (https://www.daad.de/rise/en/rise-germany/).

One day after my last final, I flew to Germany. It was pretty rough going from thermo, to moving out of my apartment in Albuquerque, driving to Cruces, then to Germany, but it was all worth it.

Cologne Cathedral

First, I lived two weeks with a host family in Cologne learning the German language with other interns, which was so much fun. I remember stepping out of the central station, seeing the Cologne Cathedral for the very first time, and just being so amazed by its grandeur. I would see it almost every day as I went out with my friends, took walks by the river, and explored the area on my own.

Me, my flatmate (another intern), and my host family at breakfast

After my two weeks in Cologne, I moved to my internship location of Bochum, which is a smaller city in Germany near the Netherlands. I worked in Kristina Tschulik’s group at the ZEMOS lab in Ruhr Universität and researched the topic of the electrochemistry of individual metallic nanoparticles. I conducted electrochemical experiments, analyzed the data I collected, prepared presentations- the normal lab stuff.

I was fortunate to work in a very diverse lab group, and had a wonderful female PI and female supervisor. I had a lot of opportunities to get to know them- every Monday we had group seminars where two people would update everyone on their project, every day we would all eat lunch together where I would get to socialize and learn about the other cultures, and we regularly had socials after work where we would drink and play Smash Ultimate. My lab group comprised of 20 total people, and I was literally the only undergrad amongst the sea of brilliant German and international PhD’s.

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Check ’em out: https://nanoec.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/en/

<– Me chillin with my double Faraday cage three-electrode microelectrode set up

​Aside from work, I traveled every single weekend. In total, I visited 10 different countries in addition to 14 cities around Germany. I even got to meet up with Isabella in Bavaria! It was a good reminder that the world is still a beautiful and diverse place. However, I was extremely exhausted at the end of the summer from the constant work and travel cycle, so more than anything in the world, I looked forward to just sleeping in.

Overall, I had a wonderful cultural and academic adventure this summer, and if there’s one important thing I got out of it, it’s that there is still so much that I don’t know. It was such a humbling experience to be around all these PhD’s and hear all these high-level scientific discussions that I could barely understand, so I feel motivated to make the most out of this school year!
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Interested in how I got to Germany and how you could too? Email me at roselee3@unm.edu

I spent my summer listening to “California Gurls” by Katy Perry on repeat. Why, you may ask? Because I found myself in a very fortunate situation – one where I got to spend my summer in Los Angeles, California, working at a UCLA inorganic chemistry laboratory (and also playing lots and lots of beach volleyball).

I am a Junior in chemical engineering. Chemical engineers and chemists, it turns out, are actually very different. So, working in a basic chemistry lab, I gained an entirely new set of skills. I learned about reaction mechanisms, nuclear magnetic spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and how to use Chem-Draw. I found it to be fascinating!

I worked with the Spokoyny research group, which strives toward “establishing new synthetic avenues, structural understanding, and applications for inorganic and organomimetic clusters and assemblies” (https://www.organomimetic.com/). Specifically, I worked on functionalizing polyhedral boranes. Working around such talented chemists inspired me to take more chemistry electives in my undergrad; there is so much about chemistry that I do not know!

Besides developing a knowledge of chemistry, I learned two important things this summer. First, I improved greatly at lab work by accepting that I will fail and that I will learn from it. It was really hard for me to adjust to the lab environment, at first; there was so much to track with the reactions and their work-ups, and getting it all right on the first try was impossible. Ultimately, I learned that that there are inevitable degrees of uncertainty when it comes to lab work, and that failure is not always bad. Second, I developed a better understanding of what it would be like to work in academia. I got to talk with graduate students, post-docs, and professors about their experiences. I found a path in academia to be more appealing than expected, and the conversations I had this summer will be very helpful as I decide in the coming year whether or not I want to apply to graduate school.
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Overall, I had an awesome summer in LA! Besides working, I was also able to go sight-seeing with my boyfriend (pictured below, at LACMA), play lots of beach volleyball, and take a bus up to Sacramento to visit my extended family’s vineyard!

If you want to hear more about anything I mentioned here –  about how you can find an internship in Academia, about what it was like to work in a synthetic chemistry lab vs a chemical engineering lab, etc., please reach out! My email is ganleye@unm.edu.

​At the start of every new year, my roommate Elisa chooses a word. One, simple word that speaks to her; that represents who she is now as well as all that she hopes to become in the following year. She makes a bracelet with this word so she can be reminded daily of her intention.

This year, I decided to choose my own word. My word of 2019 is:

Gratitude  noun

1. the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.

I feel grateful right now. I feel grateful for:

• My friends and my family.
• Books and science.
• Curiosity and creativity.
• & My health.

I want to maintain this gratitude, and I want to grow it. I want to manifest gratitude where I usually feel anxiety. I want to be grateful for:

• Having too much to do.
• Late nights.
• Tough exams.
• Challenge.
• Failure. & Success.

After all, in the words of Kurt Vonnegut:
“The truth is, we know so little about life, we don’t really know what the good news is and what the bad news is.”

What remains, then, is to be grateful for every moment of the life we are given.

What do I want from this semester?

Coming back from a long break makes a semester feel really daunting. It’s easy to get overwhelmed, and it can be hard to keep your focus on your own growth, and on the fact that you don’t have every single assignment due tomorrow. There’s a lot of information to process, and it kind of overwhelms me at the beginning of every semester. So I make a list; ‘What do I want to accomplish this semester?’, ‘What habits do I want to start or maintain?’, ‘What grade do I want in my classes?’, ‘What do I need for medical stuff?’

The list starts to get super long. I start to get stressed, because there’s so much to do, and so little time, and I should really start everything now…

Breathe in. Breathe out. I have until May to work on these things. It’s only day one, and there are so many more days to do everything I want to. It’s okay if not everything is done. So I take the list, and I look at it again, closely. What needs to get done today? Two things. I do the two things. I take the list, and I give stuff dates, so that when I look at the list, it isn’t just a cluttered mess of EVERYTHING that needs to get done, but rather a timeline for my own benefit. Do these other things need to get done, or are they just stuff I should probably do when it feels right? What things on this list will make me feel happy, or re-energized, or fulfilled? I make sure to do those things. After all, I can’t just do schoolwork and nothing else, I know that aggravates my anxiety, and worsens my depression.

My biggest intention is to become a better version of myself. I want to be better than I am. That means a lot of things, and can be achieved in a number of ways.

I want to be a better student, so I register for less classes, so that I can devote more energy to the fewer subjects.
I want to be a better artist, so I buy my ASUNM craft studio membership, and transport my art supplies from my parent’s house.
I want to be a better friend, so I find time to meet my friends for dinner, and talk with them.
I want to be a better boyfriend, so I spend time with my boyfriend, just making sure he knows just how loved he is.
I want to feel better about my body, so I update my doctor, and start looking into medical transitioning, and top surgery.

​I want to be better. So I make the list, of everything I think will make me a better person; and at first it’s overwhelming, cause there’s so much change to do, so much time to invest. But I take the list, and I do it. And maybe it takes more than one semester to do all the things I want, but I try to make everything an improvement.

As the new semester begins, I quickly can feel a panic surge over me. Homework, deadlines, exams, and quizzes, and that doesn’t even scratch the surface of working during the semester and extra-curricular activities. Yet, despite this restless panic, I also feel an electrifying excitement for life as I set my intentions and goals for the New Year and spring semester.

My 10 Intentions for the New Year and Spring Semester:

1. I intend to keep myself intellectually stimulated, not just try to make good grades.
2. I intend to allow myself to be creative and take the time out of my busy week to paint.
3. I intend to stay active. Whether this be yoga, a dance class, or a hike, I intend to take care of my health this semester.
4. I intend to start taking steps in creating the opportunity of travel. I intend to do this by saving money this semester and look into studying abroad.
5. I intend to live every day in every single situation as my most authentic self, flaws and all.
6. I intend to give myself permission to be flawed, make mistakes, and forgive myself and grow from them.
7. I intend to dream further than I have ever before, and free myself of all mental limitations and social pressures.
8. I intend to focus on the spirit of generosity.
9. I intend on taking every and any opportunity to dance. Weddings, concerts, or just a quick jam sesh with my headphones on, you name it, I will be dancing.
10. I intend on spending less time on my phone and using that time to read and expand my mind and understanding of the world.

Last semester, I was really lazy and generally unmotivated, which in turn led to me caring less and less about my classes and started accepting mediocrity as the norm. Right after my last final, I was glad it was all over since I was so burnt out, but upon some reflection, I felt like I cheated myself out of a better semester due to my own laziness and ultimately unsatisfied.
​
Over break, I had a lot of time to breathe and spend my time doing the things I like, which included catching up with My Hero Academia! This in particular inspired me to work harder and reminded me to keep aiming for my goals no matter how hard it gets!
​

(a very accurate representation of my current state of being)

​This semester, I intend to…

• Stay inspired throughout the semester by remembering my original motivation of why I chose chemical engineering!
• Become a better student! A really specific goal I have is to conquer a tough class I decided to take- MATH 312 aka Applied PDE’s (if anyone has tips, send them my way pls).
• Be on time to my classes.
• Take better care of myself. Maybe take a little more time for myself, since I definitely had the habit of missing out on the essentials (sleeping/eating/relaxing), which is probably why I felt so burnt out last semester.

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Anyhoo, hopefully everyone starts this semester off in the best of ways- work hard and go beyond! Plus Ultra!!