I hope you all have had a chance to attend some of the great SWE events the EC has put on this year!  After reading about the fall PD event from our VP Internal Stephanie, I know I'm bummed I missed this event.  Check out her description below and let's all join them at the next one!

​This past Thursday on 10/24 we held our first Professional Development (PD) event for the Fall! Our Fall PD events involve a positive collaboration with a collegiate SWE section. Outcomes in this collaboration are informing students of our active professional section, networking among student members with Houston area professionals, and experiencing the benefits of joining upon graduating.  We held the event on campus at Rice University with a successful student and professional turnout of about 30 members!  Expert recruiter Jenny Cones spoke on the all-too prominent problem of not getting the pay you deserve and shared enlightening anecdotes and engaging stories on addressing this issue. She emphasized that because recruiters always allocate some room to salary negotiation, you will be at an automatic loss if you deny this tacit opportunity. She offered a strong narrative on breaking the “Good Girl Syndrome” and determining the balance between likeability and assertion on raise negotiation. Jenny’s recruiting insights transformed that daunting future conversation with our supervisor into a constructive, strategic, and profitable dialogue on our accomplishments and successes. A huge thanks to Jenny and to our members who attended! Join us for our next PD event to be held in March!

Post by
​Stephanie Roohi
Vice President - Internal
Society of Women Engineers - Houston Area

One of the greatest benefits of being a SWE member is access to Professional  Development opportunities.  Locally, we bring in speakers from diverse organizations around Houston to speak on topics to help our members build professional skills.  Last year, we our speakers included a panel of female entrepreneurs with businesses here in Houston; a professional speaker – who also happens to be an engineer; and a woman who’s on the board of directors at three oil and gas companies.  These women talked to us about how they started and grew their businesses, how to combat information overload and how social media can be used to build your network and further your career. 
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This year’s professional development events will be just as exciting.  First up, on Oct 24th, we have Jenny Cones, a professional recruiter to talk about negotiating your benefits – both your initial offer when you  get a new job, and with promotions.  Statistics show that women leave an alarming amount of money on the table by not negotiating offers.  If you’d like to learn how to maximize your benefits, come check out this event!  As a bonus, we will be holding this event in conjunction with the collegiate SWE sections in our area.  It’s great for the students to have the opportunity to talk with professionals who attend this event.  You can register for this event here: https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07egmumv0pd548c8f2&oseq=&c=&ch=
Our two spring Professional Development events are still in the planning stages, but one of them will be on Team Building – a popular topic among first time leaders and mid-career engineers.  If there are other topics you’d like us to cover or you know an amazing female leader who’d be a great speaker, contact Stephanie, our VP-Internal at VP_Internal@Houstonswe.org.  We’d love to hear from you!
Join us for this year’s SWE-HA Professional Development Events and enhance your professional skills!

SWE-HA has had so many great events already this year!  Check out some of these photos from our recent events!