Why don't they teach it in schools?
March 6th 2007 09:18
Signature Tune
Sara Ford's weblog speaks for itself and she makes some interesting points. She was speaking to the Society of Women Engineers. She speaks of success just in case anyone is interested.
"Why didn't they teach me this in schools?" Society of Women Engineers presentation
Back in January, I visited my college Mississippi State to do a long-awaited visiting speaker trip. My advisor asked me to speak to the Society of Women Engineers on whatever i wanted, so I thought I would go with a “Why didn’t they teach me this in schools” approach.
“Why didn’t they teach me this in schools”
Observations
This was by far the most difficult presentation I’ve ever had to write, as I constantly struggled to figure out what messages to send. But as I started to work with my former undergrad advisor (now assistant dean of engineering) and another friend who runs the Computer Science IT Dept (hence, both very successful women in computer science), the messages became increasingly clear. We found one another saying, “hey, I feel that way too,” and “we have to get this across to them.” To my surprise, the talk really became a “this is what I wished people had taught me in schools,” as I related a personal story to each bullet point.
I’ve never given a talk on 13 slides that lasted a solid hour.
Highlights
• The audience gave no indications of being bored or day dreaming – I’ve never seen this before. I guess that’s why I was so stunned to see an hour had gone by when I reached the final slide deck.
Lowlights
• Only 10 women showed up. I’ve always been fascinated with how to increase attendance, as a former student organization president. I’d love to compare this attendance number to the number of women that drop out of the engineering department each year, just out of personal curiosity.
Feedback
Now, to answer a follow-up question in email (sorry it took me 2 months to get around to it).
Do you think whether Microsoft makes you so confident or it is just your personality. Did you ever think what if you didn't ever work in the biggest company like Microsoft?
When I first saw this email come through, I thought, “wow, that public speaking training must have really paid off!” =) The first time I ever presented at Microsoft, I actually ended up yelling at a couple of my SDET peers in the audience. They were laughing at something (it had nothing to do with me), but I could have sworn it was all about me, and I’m like “what the hell is so funny… ROAR!” I was so embarrassed later.
In my opinion, it wouldn’t matter if I worked at Microsoft, had a PhD from MIT, or stayed behind to start a career as a character at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom (true story: I actually overslept for my character auditions, so I decided to go to college instead). If you are not comfortable / confident in who you are, you cannot be confident anywhere. Changing the venue won’t change how you perceive yourself. The public speaking coach had to basically yell at me (quite literally) to get over my perfectionist ways, that I had already resolved myself to failure before the first word came out of my mouth. What he said really clicked. And for the first time in almost 20 years (no joke), I was actually able to listen to me talk on video without wanting to die of embarrassment.
As for my personality, when there’s something I truly believe in, want to see happen, and I don’t care what it takes to make it happen, then there is absolutely no stopping me. I should share sometime what I told Senator Trent Lott to get an appointment to the Naval Academy. But, if I’m not completely sold on the idea, don’t completely understand, or think others are more qualified, then I can begin to struggle.
I think success = luck hard working. BUT luck is something we can't control or can't get by ourselves. How do you think about that?
I cannot remember where I’ve seen success / luck = hard work opportunity. When you work hard and opportunities present themselves, you have to go for them. It will only seem like you were lucky from an outside perspective.
People's thoughts are always welcomed here....
Posted: Sunday, March 04, 2007 8:24 PM by saraford
Attachment(s): Why Didn’t They Teach Me this in Schools.pdf
The attachment is worth following up on for those who wish to go further.
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