This post was originally posted in July 2016 on my old blog. It’s something I’ve been thinking about lately as I’ve been working on the mission again. Good read :)

My New Mission

There is one thing that Tech companies around the world don’t know about my University’s Computer Engineering [CE] program…. we produce good computer engineers!

During my involvements with the CE Club, I realized that the Club doesn’t have the time to help create a positive perception and the benefits of such a perception can go a long way. This year I am taking action.

The Problem

Brittany (the former Club President) and myself have already put much thought into this. We have concluded that not enough of our peers are creating an online presence for themselves to be noticed by companies and that their knowledge on how to make themselves attractive is very limiting (the Faculty of Engineering [FoE] is partly at fault for this).

Brittany and I believe that with our peers individually making themselves more attractive, a natural, organic and correct perception will be created.

The Plan

Our plan comes in two levels firstly to educate our peers — how can they become more attractive? — and secondly to help them make themselves attractive.

To educate them, we have been working with the Engineering Employment Centre [EEC] of the FoE to put on workshops on how computer engineers can create a good online brand for themselves. Brittany and I sat down with EEC in early May 2016 to tell them what our peers need — Github (and projects), website, resume advice and social media advice. Throughout the year, EEC will put on free workshops to teach our peers what they need to know.

To help them along, Brittany and I plan to host weekly “Coding Parties” where we can establish mentor-mentee relationships to guide students on establishing their online brand and to help them with their own projects/theory/schoolwork. The Coding Parties will help create a community amongst CE as well, which will help raise the status of CE within the University — which has it’s own benefits.

Although this is the official plan I have with Brittany, I’m also working on another wrinkle as well. I am pushing the Club to recreate its own brand so it can establish itself as the main contact for companies to get involved with computer engineers instead of having companies get involved through individuals. Having the Club as the main contact will help maintain sustained success after individuals leave as a natural passing-of-the-torch will keep those contacts alive for future years.

The Results

We’ll have to see :)