IExactly today, one year ago, I was boarding a plane to go to Los Angeles to work for an unknown length of time, could be 4 months, could be 6 months. Only a couple of things were certain in my brain at that time; I had just received my divorce paperwork in the mail, I was furthering my career and I was ready to take on an adventure of my own. It can be crazy how removing yourself from a situation can really highlight what was happening in your life. For me, this was a new chapter to turn a new leaf from negative relationships. As soon as the airplane landed on the tarmac at LAX, I felt an overwhelming sensation of freedom and independence. I was so used to my comfort zone but this was truly my time to step out and see what I wanted in life. It was the first chance that I have ever focused on myself and ask where I eventually wanted to go into my career and return to the basics of what really makes Elaine happy. It took a while to get into a routine, I was living out of a hotel for the first couple of months, exploring new cities and getting used to a totally new work environment but all in all, I was truly thriving. Living in Utah often makes me feel like I am living under a rock. I was able to experience many new cultures, a less religious saturated work environment and remember what it is like to not be judged at work for being a female. It was incredible. I describe this 6-month stint to be my eat, pray, love summer, however, my spin on it would be "Eat, career, love". I was getting Per Diem each day so I didn’t flinch when it came to food prices. I became pretty adventurous with food and enjoyed all of the new flavors and bougie restaurants. We were working 6 long days a week but I was getting to learn invaluable skills that I know will advance my career and I perfected my networking skills. It always amazed my friends how many people I knew, especially because I was one of the only Level 1 Engineers working on this project. Most importantly, I was learning how to love myself again. It was perhaps the most moving 6 months, and it was exactly what I needed. I learned a couple of things over the summer Work Trips If you are able to go on a short term work assignment where they pay for everything, SAY YES. It will enable you to meet new contacts, spread your horizons and you can test out a new position without fully committing. Listen to your gut Whether it is red flags with a new person, or a gut feeling about a job truly listen to yourself. Take a minute to write down your concerns or talk to someone else about it! I made the mistake of not listening to my gut a couple of times over the summer and it resulted in some decisions that I wish I had taken a little more seriously. Surround yourself with people who believe in you It's quite magical when you surround yourself with support and constant encouragement. For the first time in a long time, I was able to visualize what I wanted to be beyond a manufacturing engineer and now I have formed better end goals for myself. Compassion is correlated to my happiness I have found that the more I give back to my community whether it is donating my time or money my happiness sky rockets. It reminds me that I am able to make an impact and it is so rewarding. After the summer, it is hard to come back from something like that with high energy, fast paced, and excitement. Leaving all of that hit hard like a breakup but worse because it held such a euphoric spot in my brain. I started a new job that sounded great on paper however when I accepted the job I had a gut feeling that I wouldn’t be as challenged as I was hoping. I am the weirdo that would rather have tons of hard work compared to sitting around, not having much work. My brain enjoys being stimulated, it is how I have learned to cope with ADHD. It's been one of the most career rewarding years; I was a convocation speaker for Weber State University which I loved. I enjoy speaking to people about my experiences and giving guidance to young people. I always strive to be a good resource for students. I was recognized as the SWE New ELiTE” Emerging Leader in Technology and Engineering” for my involvement with SWE, my achievements at work and my involvement in the community. I was featured on a billboard for the Weber State Composites program!! I purchased my dream car, a Porsche 911. The fascination started as a child and has never, truly left my brain. If you were wondering, it is all the feelings to have your dream car at a young age. I am so in love and I get so much happiness from driving in the Utah mountains. But, in all honesty, I got the car for other reasons besides it being my dream car. Since I basically work in a dungeon all day, she helps me get outside and explore. There is a large car community out here in Utah with great people so I have been enjoying that! All in all, the last 365 days have been monumental in my adulthood and one of the most impactful ones. It has taught me to always choose happiness and has made me even more thankful for all my “Rocks”, my family and friends that I can truly count on.
0 Comments
Here's “Alexa, Play Electronic Fields by David Goldsmith”
One of the most pivotal moments in this past year was when a friend showed me the SpaceX Past Missions Video (Linked here) The song was perfect, the excitement was exploding from the video. The timing was impeccable, who ever edited it really seemed to focus on lining up the beat drops and content of the video, making the video even more impactful. After seeing that video, I went down a deep dive of SpaceX launch videos. This is where I was reacquainted with Gwynne Shotwell who is the COO of SpaceX. I had the chance to see a keynote speech and take a photo with her at a SWE conference. Her story hit me hard because she proves that a blonde engineer can lead to greatness while having kids and wearing fabulous shoes of course (when I saw her speech she was wearing amazing Loubotin booties). At the end of the this launch (around 1:30) , was a very influential moment was when they turned the camera to Gwynne Shotwell, you could see the sigh of relief and overwhelming thrill from all of the hard work that she and her team had put in. Since then, This photo of Gwynne has been the main background for my phone and I have programmed my Amazon Alexa to play the song as my alarm for the last year. I feel if you are reminded every day of where you want to go and what you need to do in order to achieve it, anything is possible if you reinforce it with the effort required. Here's a really interesting article about her (linked here). Today I wanted to touch on the reality of college!
College can be really intimidating! It can also be somewhat deceiving! If I had one tip for my younger self about college it would be to PLAN. Plan into what classes you need before entering college, where they anticipate you coming in and try to figure out what interests you! I am very fortunate enough to have found a degree that fully fits my dreams, aspirations and future plans so I didn't have to change my degree a couple times. With that however, I did not come into college to where my program anticipated me to start. I wasn't planning into calculus my very first semester, and I am terrible with tests so I didn't get placed into the english that I should have. Needless to say, I am so proud to be graduating 4.5 years later and at the age of 22. I have gotten quite a few confused looks when I say that I will be a 4.5 year graduate and to be honest I think they need to revaluate the estimated time to graduate college. People's conceived notion of a graduate any time longer than 4 years is that you were most likely a slacker and didn't take the classes at the right time. Even with me taking 16-18 credits each semester and sadly not passing 1 class... I still had some classes that needed to be finished. At Weber State, I am one of the youngest students in my degree let alone most of the building. Most of my classmates are graduation at 27 ( I am not saying there's anything wrong with that, I think it is great that they are going back to school!) To wrap this up- Don't feel bad if you can't graduate in 4 years! Be happy that you might have taken that internship that helped you towards you future, maybe took some fun classes to help you expand your knowledge or didn't come into college where you expected! People that don't understand don't understand the hard work that you put into getting your degree. I was very inspired to do this post after my mom posted a couple photos of my room on Facebook and everyone loved it!! Here's how I turned my tiny apartment into a small oasis where I can relax and study! I always enjoyed elements of interior design- from a little girl until now! It has been a blast making this apartment mine. Mix Metals and Patterns As you can see, I have quite the mix of gold, silver, rose golds and bronze all around my apartment! It makes it fun and visually interesting! In my bathroom I have mixed many fun colors and patterns but it works! It's all about the balance. Motivational quotes everywhere! I believe surrounding yourself with positivity really helps!! I wakeup each day with some of my quotes to get me going through my challenges and daily tasks! Stay Organized It can be hard to sleep a couple feet from your kitchen so I have found the major key to this studio is keeping it clean. It will keep the food smells down and make it so much more fun to live in! I did clean up my apartment a little for these photos but not much! This is also why it is such a relaxing apartment to study in! Plants! I have had so much fun finding plants- real and fake! It helps to liven up an apartment and bring joy! I usually have a large bowl of limes to bring in some more color ( and flavor).. looks like I need to make a Costco run! Personalization without overdoing I love having photos scattered as well as small trinkets that remind me of past trips or inspire me. This can be hard because you don't necessarily want it to seem like clutter all around you. Clutter can often create stress. All the good smells! I am a big fan of Bath and Body works candles! They really smell great, and last a long time! I also have been enjoying my essential diffuser. There's nothing like falling asleep to lavender and peppermint!! One of my little tricks is when my kitchen sink has a little smell going on I sprinkle some essential oil drops around and it instantly smells better! Keep it inexpensive! As much as I love to shop- i love a good deal!! Most of my decor items I have made, bought from TJ Maxx or a sale! It doesn't have to be an expensive item to make your home look incredible! I hope you enjoyed seeing my little place! It truly is my oasis and makes me so happy! If you have any questions about where items are from or about my apartment let me know! What is Celiac?
Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune disease that mainly affects the gastrointestinal tract. Individuals who have CD are permanently intolerant to gluten, a group of proteins found in wheat, barley, and rye. Gluten is toxic to those with CD. In a person with undiagnosed or untreated CD, the finger-like ridges that line the walls of the small intestine known as villi become flattened and unable to absorb nutrients properly. CD may also affect other organ systems. My Senior year of High School I was Diagnosed with Celiac after an acne medication inflamed and engulfed my body in this weird, sensitive rash. I have always had stomach problems when I was little. Now, imagine being a little kid and having to be so careful around foods because it might result in stomach cramps. My parents and I just wrote it off as being “ fatty foods” – The cheese on the pizza, a pasta dish, some delicious fancy ice cream cake etc. It was really hard at first, I won’t be shy about saying that. I pretty much lived off pasta, bagels and my dad’s home made bread. Thank goodness my dad and I can double as mad scientists in the kitchen!! We came up with some great banana bread recipes using almond flour, but we also had some terrible attempts like using the old Bob’s Red Mill all purpose flour. It was a majority mix of garbanzo bean flour that ruined everything. I distinctly remember being out of this world excited for some good chocolate chip cookies….. but they had a similar taste to Hummus ( don’t worry, their flour now is 100% better now) Freshman year of college was I think the biggest struggle. I was still learning how to cope with the issue while being in a very unfamiliar place. Some of my friends would let me use their college meal plan to grab some food ( none of which was gluten free of course). I can’t explain how lethargic, sick and unhealthy I felt all the time. I was covered in a rash 24/7 for my first year and looking back at pictures I cringe because I know how I felt. I had a real turning point with this disease around the beginning of my sophomore year. I was tired of not being healthy and wanted to turn my life around. I had an endoscopy done, however, I had a false negative test due to my small intestines not being inflamed since I was on a gluten free diet (mental note for people looking into this test- ask your doctor if you need to be on a gluten diet for this) After this change, I felt like a new person. I switched to eating lots of meats, veggies and found so many gluten free substitutes to my old favorite foods. Here are a couple things that made the biggest differences in this change Snack Drawer! It can be tempting to eat whatever you want but I have found that it helps to have some snacks hidden in a desk. This can help to make sure you stay on track with what you are eating and healthier options! I tend to have more issues when I eat out so having this drawer calms down the cravings! Supportive significant other Since I have been with Hayden this journey has been much easier! He is the greatest at researching food places that I can eat (Real keeper I have!!) But it made such an impact to me because it showed that he cared and he wanted me to feel good. He is also a trooper and will eat most of my food! I do feel terrible if we go to a pizza joint and the people surrounding us have massive crust pizza vs our little thin crust cardboard looking ‘pizza’. Find some happiness hacks I always have some of the Gluten Free donuts hidden in my freezer! I love being able to defrost one if I know someone at work is bringing in a treat!! I feel like I can be part of the celebration!! If you are reading this and suffer from having to eat G.F discover the Costco pizzas by Sabatoss. They are some of the greatest that won’t break your arm or leg ( $15 for 3 cheese pizzas) They are such a great base to customize your own pizzas or they taste great on their own!! I often find when I stick to the outside perimeter of the grocery store I am able to get out quicker and stick to a healthier diet! You should try it sometime!! How to not break your bank As I mentioned earlier in this I try and stick to a meat and veggie /fruit type of diet. I will sometimes treat myself to gluten free items like one of the Costco pizzas or some bagels and cookies but they are so expensive!! I swear I can walk out of the grocery store having 10 items and it would be the same as a family of 4 with many more items. Sticking to veggies and meat is much more reasonable and easier. I have found that the Barilla GF pasta is very normal and so enjoyable!!! This topic has been on my list now since I started this blog ( as well as some others to come soon!) but now that summer has officially started I am excited to start a blogging routine and not go months without posting again.
1. Join Rewards programs! Allow me to start off by stating this- some rewards programs can be complete jokes, however, others are pure gold!! I am not sure about some of you, but the whole " come here 10 times and get your 11th meal for free" cards always seem to disappear for me. I do however have amazing luck with apps or just rewards programs that use your phone number. My all time favorite rewards program app at the moment is Noodles and Company. About everytime or every other time I get some free food item ie- free entree, appetizer or one of their new specials. It is also super convenient for me because I can just order it on my phone and pick it up without having to spend a whole hour getting lunch ( super convenient, right??) When buying school supplies, my boyfriend and I usually hit up Office Maxx- also have very good coupons! but its usually after you check out so some advice is to go through purchasing something pretty inexpensive then get the "$10 off $50" coupon! 3. ID cards! I know so many people that have graduated and they keep their ID on them just because of student discounts! I believe J. Crew offers a percentage off ( it even works additionally off of their clearance!!) quite a few food places as well! According to this website, you can get a free drink at places like Chipotle, Chick-Fil-A ect. just by showing your ID! 3. Benefits that you can find online! SPOTIFY! I hopped on the $4.99 premium account real fast after I found this one! It is so convenient to store the music on your phone especially because my work doesn't have wifi for us! or my drive home is about 12 hours through the Utah and Nevada desert https://www.myunidays.com/US/en-US Here is a website for all of the websites that give student discounts. The list is insanely long!! Don't forget to ask about student rate when comparing insurances! I can't tell you how much money I have saved by using some of these tips and tricks! I know my boyfriend always laughs that every place we go I always pull out my rewards cards or give them my information! I would first off like to apologize for the long disconnect on my blog- I promise I still think about it all the time but I have been running around like a crazy person since February! Update: Man has it been a great year so far! I don’t know about you all, but sometimes the universe just spins in the correct way and this is definitely been what I have needed lately. Since I have last posted, I have had some major things happen! At the Society of Women Engineers Region B conference, I won an Emerging Leader Award!! "The Emerging Leader Award honors a Sonora SWE professional and college member member who has been actively engaged in engineering or technology profession, has demonstrated outstanding technical excellence, has consistently engaged with SWE. " I was also awarded an outstanding student award in my department- in which we are recognized at this spring’s graduation (not my graduation, but still, that’s huge!! And lastly, this past week I received a SWE scholarship from Weber State, but most importantly I was one of the guest speakers! It was fun to talk about my “aha” moment with engineering and some advice that I have for all of the students in the room. Needless to say, I have just been on cloud nine. Now, I am not trying to brag about these awards at all, but more to open the eyes of others. I have worked tirelessly for each and every one of these awards/ accomplishments and speeches so it has been amazing to get them! But here’s a quick life update as well! We finish the semester in less than 3 weeks- holy cow has flown by! My internship is still going wonderfully! I can’t remember if I have written about what I am doing with Northrop, but what I can say is I am transforming an airplane hangar into a prototype shop! It has been so cool to see all of the equipment come in and I am thrilled to see the projects that we work on! I get to go on my first work trip ( wahoo!! #interngoals for sure!) to the Rapid + TCT conference in Pittsburgh, PA. If you don’t know me, let me fill you in- I love everything to do with rapid prototyping so this is soo cool!! If you are in the engineering field, I cannot speak more highly of Northrop Grumman! They offer 401K benefits for their interns, pay really well, and last year all of their summer interns were able to go on at least one work trip and they really value you as an employee! One slight bummer with Solar Turbines last year was work instructions- I did so much editing that I didn’t quite feel like I was utilizing my engineering degree, however, with Northrop, I haven’t even seen a work instruction for me to work on!! Here are a couple pictures from the awards! Thanks again for reading! XOXO E After receiving 20 questions after our Society of Women Engineers, Evening With Industry Event I decided to make a post about my professional development recommendations. Resumes- I know I talked about resumes in a different post, but this event opened up a brand new can of worms. I looked through a couple of resumes and was amazed how many people had what looked like their high school emails on there ie- sledkid@... , Angelgirl12@... etc. Major Key #1- have a professional email listed. I know our school gives us personal emails so mine is [email protected]. If I were a recruiter I will admit, I would be embarrassed to email someone with a silly email. It seems really nitpicky, but it just polishes your resume! Major Key #2- Have a slightly unique looking resume. It will stick with the recruiter as well as bolding certain info so it is easier to find. I have attached my resume below so you can use it as an example. As you can see I have my school experience bolded as well as my work experience. If a recruiter only has 3 seconds to look at your resume this is your chance to make certain information stand out. The last courtesy for Resumes is to send it in a .PDF format that way it doesn't loose the formatting and to save the file as your name. I can't tell you how many resumes I have seen titled My Resume ( I used to do this, don't worry!) The next major section I have for Professional development is the follow up. I personally LOVE writing thank you notes, shoutout to my mom for teaching me young, however a brief email will suffice or the third option is to add them on Linkedin and include a little message. It is important to jog the memory of who you are contacting that way they can recall all of their thoughts and conversations with you. Here is a little example( it is not real)- Hi Bob, It was so nice to meet you at the Weber State Evening With Industry event last night. I really enjoyed talking to you about Northrop Grumman. They sound like an incredible company that I think my Manufacturing Engineering skills would be able to contribute to many of your projects. I am thrilled that you love the Giants as much as they do, let's hope they beat the A's again and win the championship. Please let me know if I can provide you with any information regarding my job experience or degree. Sincerely, Elaine Cope [email protected] As you can see above, I talked about something more personal we talked about, what my degree is and that I could really contribute to the company with it being short!! I can tell you that hand written notes are the creme de la creme. I wrote my current manager a thank you note for taking the time to interview me and still to this day it is on her desk. People love to feel appreciated, so use that to your advantage!! I have updated and edited many resumes so if you ever have any questions please feel free to get in contact with me! The final topic for the day is- Dress Code. The best thing I did my freshman year in college was purchase myself a pair of slacks, a skirt and a blazer. It is always best to dress to impress. If you are talking to some big wig from a company you bet you want to be wearing the best outfit in your closet. My recommendation is to always overdress than underdress. I would far rather be wearing my suit in comparison to jeans and a polo when interviewing. So the tip here is to have suit that fits nicely and you have it all planned out just in case. I hope you enjoyed this post and gained information from it! If you had asked any of my friends in high school who would be the least likely to leave Grass Valley the answer most likely would have been me. Everyone else talked about wanting to leave home the day they turned 18 or the day they graduated from Nevada Union. I guess I was so content with where I was. I am so close with my parents and my brother, and I guess I had never really looked for opportunities outside of where I lived. My eyes were quickly opened when my brother went to Weber State- The people were so nice, I researched jobs in the Engineering field and instantly fell in love.
A little background story- My brother went to a community college right outside of where I lived.Needless to say it wasn't in the best area at all so after seeing the experience and transition of my brother my parents really encouraged me to get out of Grass Valley and really shine without it taking me 6 years to go from community college to a 4 year university(not saying that is a bad plan, it just wasn't the plan for me). The longest I had ever been apart from my parents was a week and that was to stay with my grandparents, so this was quite the leap of courage for me. I was very spoiled in the fact that my dad retired at the age of 35. My dad sold his travel agency when we moved from Virginia to California and was very content with the thought of being the Mister Mom to my brother and I (Mom being the bread maker= why I am such a persistent young woman now). Every morning my dad would come wake me up, make me breakfast AND lunch, depending on the time of year he would come pick me up from school to drive me to golf practice, wait for that to be over and make us dinner. So going from this to having to be self sustained was a quite the shock. I can't tell you how many times I would call my parents in tears my first year because I just wanted to see them and I was homesick. So this is where the Number one thing I wish I had known going into college comes in. Roommates. If any of my past roommates are reading this, please take no offense, this is just a quick lesson to others. I wish someone had told me to have no expectation to what it would be like. Movies and TV shows make it look so perfect to live with someone!! I wish I had been told that not everyone was brought up the same way- taught to clean your own dishes, not eat food that is someone else's' and to be quiet when people are sleeping. The other thing I learned is when you live in a place like the dorms, you have absolutely no contribution to how many times you will be moved. In the first year I think I moved 6 times. 6 TIMES!!! The residence halls had certain building that would be open in the summer, I became a Residence Assistant ( great idea btw- I got my housing paid for, and part of my tuition by doing this!) Anyways, very quickly I found out just how much I overpacked for college and how much it sucked to move. The second tip I wish I had known was how often I would come home. Since my hometown is so small, it was hard to justify staying home over the summers. There were very few jobs, most of which would be minimum wage, and this allowed me to get more familiarized in Utah. I was under the impression when I left that I would be home every summer, quite a few times over the year, thanksgiving and Christmas- basically anytime I wanted right! Little did I know that I would make it home maybe twice a year. I have made it home every year for christmas and maybe for a week during the summer. Tip #3- How many people come and go from college. Man, my first year was wonderful! I had a great group of friends, I believe there were about 15 of us. They slowly stopped coming back every semester- it got too hard, was too expensive or they didn't like Weber. I think there are a total of 4 of us that are still in Utah from the original group. The final tip is you learn to appreciate the little things! My mom would always leave me little notes in my lunches or backpack when I lived at home. I can't tell you how much I miss those- so now she sends me weekly notes! Even though I am a senior, I still LOVE receiving them! It makes me feel so special to get a piece in the mail, and sometimes she includes great articles from the newspaper or magazines. I also love it when I come home because my mom hides little notes in my luggage As you can see, it can be hard to move away, but in the end, looking back I wouldn't have had it any other way! Going to school out of state has been hands down the greatest decision of my life. I have had more leadership, job and countless other opportunities that I would have never had staying in my hometown. An athlete preparing for the Olympics is similar to how I prepare for SWE conferences.
Now, you might have read that and said, man Elaine, you went a little overboard on that statement, however if you have been to one of these professional conferences you would understand exactly what I mean! At the National SWE conferences they have career fairs with around 150 companies. This automatically triggers me to make my resume as best as it possibly can, make my elevator speech amazing, print out new pictures of my latest projects and start working out as much as possible. See, my major is very unique in the fact that it is less theoretical and more hands on. This can give a much better advantage in some situations or it can be a total pitfall... Either way, I always tried to be the most prepared to my abilities. The next thing I add to my to-do list for Conferences is to make sure my clothes look as professional as possible. It can be very hard to find cute professional clothes that are affordable but here is my biggest hint- Ann Taylor. Ann Taylor has a wonderful range of clothes from petite, to casual to business casual. I have never bought anything full price either. I always wait until I have found good coupons, sales or their clearance section is usually an additional 60% off. In my opinion, if you are going to torture yourself with heels these are my heels of choice. http://www.anntaylor.com/mila-leather-pumps/397108?skuId=20153281&defaultColor=3338&colorExplode=true&catid=cata000020 They are very classy and let's be honest. Ann Taylor has got their heels down to a science. Now here's when those coupons come in handy. You can find 40% off coupons so they become much more affordable. If you laughed at the working out part above here is some more information regarding it. The more confident you are the better you can sell yourself to recruiters and employers!! The other plus side of this is the conferences usually entail lots of walking and carrying career fair swag, notebooks stuffed with information from sessions and at the last conference I went to my suitcase broke so I had to carry my whole suitcase in wedges through the Seattle airport ( pictured below). As you can see, I put incredible amounts of time and effort into these things, but It has slowly paid off. I now have recruiters that remember who I am from the year before, I know how to present myself in such a way that the HR people aren't repulsed by the technical terms that I used but most importantly I have been able to network with other students and professional women from around the nation. |
AuthorMy name is Elaine Cope, I am studying Manufacturing Engineering. I decided to make this blog with hopes to inspire other young female engineers to pursue their dreams. Archives
November 2019
Categories |