April Updates

1. Last week I was the guest speaker at IEEE OU's Student Awards Banquet. I spoke on the importance of soft skills and experience in getting a job and succeeding in a career. I actually prepared some remarks, but really didn't use any of them; people seemed to be nodding along with what I said, so I assume it went well. Everyone said it was a good talk, so I assume I actually delivered a good message, or they're all conspiring to be polite. :-) As I always say, if anyone needs to hire a few good engineers, I can think of several.
2. Igor has a great exchange that showcases a little bit of the internal jargon found in some companies. I've never had to deal with anything so bad, but realize whenever I talk to someone "new" that in my day-to-day correspondence, it's still pretty bad. I realize what I'm doing when someone gives me a puzzled look when I mention "GFW," "GSI," "STI," or a variety of other acronyms. It's easy to slip into jargon, especially when you know what something is or does, but don't actually know what the acronym stands for. Now, I just have to go submit my TEA for my trip to OU in OKC by CoB, and I'll be GTG (Good to Go).
3. Jeremy's taken a gig at Apple. Cool! Good luck settling in San Jose!
4. In other interesting news, I now sit on the Dean's Advisory Board for Diversity at the OU College of Engineering. This'll be a great opportunity to take on an advisory role in the College of E, and remain a part of the OU family.
5. I also visited with some former professors and now mentors in the OU Office of Technology Development. Great things come out of OU; this office and these people focus on identifying intellectual property and managing the creation of any additional assets (patents, trade secrets, startup companies).
6. Finally, Thanks go out to Chris for letting me stay at his apartment when I was in Norman!
7. Matt VanDerPol, you're On Notice. Update your Blog URL, buddy.

Visiting Norman in a Two Weeks

The College of e

The rumors are true, I'm flying to Norman on Thursday, April 20th, and fly back to Austin Saturday afternoon of that weekend. Unfortunately, I'm not able to stay through the full weekend, since I promised my manager I'd keep the trip around a certain number. I'm coming up because I'm speaking at IEEE OU's Awards Banquet, on my experience as an employee fresh out of college, and how new graduates can get the most out of the early portions of their careers.

Melissa Walker, IEEE OU's outgoing Chair, invited me to come up a few weeks ago. In addition to my talk, we're going to make this a recruting event, since IBM will be sponsoring the banquet. Have resumes handy if you're interested in a position. While I'm not a hiring manager, I will be reporting back to them on potential candidates. To anyone from IEEE that might be reading this, if you haven't already done so (and this is a little late in the game), have OU's Career Services review your resume.

I look forward to seeing everyone in my first of several trips to Norman this year!