December Member of the Month: Liz Biru

Congratulations to Dallas SWE’s December Member of the Month, Liz Biru!

Liz’s journey into engineering started as a love for physics and mathematics in high school. With the support and encouragement from her physics teacher, Liz pursued a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Texas at Dallas. Throughout her academic pursuits, Liz participated actively in various organizations such as SWE, ASME, and NSBE to expand her network of engineering colleagues.

While her senior year proved to be challenging it also provided the opportunity to receive a job offer from Emerson, her team’s corporate sponsor for their senior design project. Liz accepted her first role post-college as a Test and Evaluation Engineer at Emerson. This role allowed the perfect opportunity for the theories of engineering and practicalities of reality to collide which expanded her skills in applying engineering practices successfully in real-world applications. In this role, Liz built strong professional relationships with clients, vendors, and colleagues across the globe to be utilized for better product development. Liz continued her development in various roles at Emerson while exploring and experiencing other aspects of the business such as supply chain, business strategy, and project management. Liz is currently a Product Manager responsible for developing and executing strategies for new products and expanding current products across the business with a focus on maximizing profit and increasing customer satisfaction.

While in college and her professional life, Liz has recognized the lack of women representation and enjoys actively contributing to organizations that aim to change that. SWE provides a great platform to showcase the amazing opportunities that can come from pursuing an engineering career.

January Professional Development Event: Financial Workshop

Join Ana Gonzalez, VP of Professional Development for a financial workshop we will be reviewing the 50/30/20 Budget Rule and plan your own personal finances at the start of the New Years. Food will be provided.

Register by December 19th to receive a free budget planner.

This event will be on January 5 at 6:30-8 PM. Event location to be announced. Registration closes officially January 4.

Register for this event below or on Eventbrite.

November Professional Development: Career Shift Panel Recap

On Thursday, November 10th, Dallas SWE hosted a Career Shift Panel at Sonny Bryan’s Smokehouse. Barbara Read was our moderator and the panelists consisted of Shelley Stracener, Zaineb Ahmad, Amanda Alsbrook and Rana Karimi, all past and present Dallas SWE Presidents. The panel began with introductions and a question for all panelist: When did you know it was time for a change? For Amanda, it came down to having a work-life balance, with her traveling all the time it eventually became taxing and needed a better lifestyle. Shelley brough up attending SWE conference and being introduced to other industries, networking at conference is a great way to find your first career job and find like minded women that support each other throughout the years. Zaineb, mentioned burnout being a key factor of her choosing to leave her role, working at a smaller company she had to wear many different hats and it was starting to project outwards to where close friends would advise her it was time for a change, and she deserves and can do better. Rana’s industry chance came through the oil & gas recession at that time her company was going through layoffs and Rana wanted to be prepared and started looking for a new role. While landing the next role everyone agreed the main challenge, they faced was having to prove themselves but like Zaineb mentioned, you now have more transformable skills you’re bringing to the table and do have what it takes to drive change. Rana’s recent role away from engineering brought on the biggest risk in her career path it was a decision that she knew “it would be hard to go back to engineering”, but the opportunity was too good to pass on. Rana was able to define her new role, influence change quicker by reporting to executive team directly, and problem-solving supply chain issues every day. In the case of all our panelists their challenges are not failures, and they have in a better place in their careers.

The panel concluded with Q&A from the attendees, driving the conversation to thoughts around working in a startup company (having more visibility with executive team) vs fortune 500 corporate company (may get lost with in more employees, more politics, but do get involve with ERGs and find advocates that will have your back). Shelley ended with advice on starting a new role which may turn into another panel discussion for us in the near future.

FY23: October Book Club Recap

On October 8, Dallas SWE Book Club kicked off FY23 with a fantastic discussion on Think Again by Adam Grant. We met at Halcyon Dallas, and enjoyed breakfast, coffee, networking, and learning from each other.

We learned a lot about the importance of keeping an open mind, and continually re-evaluating our beliefs. When someone challenges an idea you hold, it is important to recognize when you are not opening your mind to new evidence. Most importantly, we discussed the importance of a growth mindset, and allowing people (and ourselves) space to change our minds and beliefs as we learn more.

Join us in December to discuss Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking!

Holiday Membership Party

Join us for our Holiday Party on 12/11 from 5-8 PM hosted at Claire Jordan’s house! Registration open until 12/11.

Register below or on Eventbrite.

FY23: Fall Social Recap

On Saturday, October 29th, Dallas SWE hosted a fall social event at the Dallas Arboretum! With Halloween around the corner, we got to see a lot of children wearing adorable costumes. We had a lot of tasty fall treats and explored the Pumpkin Village. It was a great opportunity to see our SWEsters in person and enjoy fall season.

Stay tuned for our next social event – it will be winter holiday themed!

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