Words of Wisdom....

Last night I spoke at a dinner honoring the Math Team members at my high school. I was asked to provide some words of wisdom, and I am pretty happy with what I wrote.

Words of Wisdom

My name is Sue, and I am a former Mathlete. That sounds like an opening for a “Mathletes Anonymous” meeting, doesn’t it? Mr. Sullivan asked me to provide some words of wisdom for the Mathletes that are being honored. At first I wasn’t sure what to say, since I wasn’t a “top” mathlete, and I certainly had my struggles. But I turned out well, so I must have done something right. I think the best advice I can give comes down to two words:

Be Distinctive.

I graduated 7th out of 140 students in my class. I played sports, did extra curricular activities, including Math League, like I’m sure many of you do. For many of us it is easy to excel, and being a Mathlete is another way to challenge yourself. I was surprised to find out when I went to college that I wasn’t as distinctive as I thought. I went to Worcester Polytechnic Institute to study mechanical engineering, along with the best and brightest from many schools around the country and around the world. I was no longer distinctive amongst my peers; in fact I was perfectly average. For someone who was used to being very good at everything I did, this was a big shock. I’ll be the first to admit that I did not do all that well my freshman year academically and really questioned if I was taking the right path.

It took a bit of time, but I got my academics on track, and I learned that I had to change my thinking on many things, starting with how to distinguish myself from my peers in ways other than academics. The first big decision I made was to take a year off between my junior and senior year to take a co-operative education job as an engineering technician. This was life changing in so many ways. I found out what the real world of business and engineering was like and learned many skills that were not included in my academic plan. As someone who now reviews resumes and interviews potential candidates for employment, I can’t stress enough how positive it is to see relevant work experience on a resume. It doesn’t particularly matter what your GPA is, and employers generally judge an undergraduate degree the same from any school. Relevant work experience, whether internships, summer hires or co-op terms show your potential employer that you have done something other than study books and take tests, since you’ll rarely have to do those things once you get a job.

Once you’ve learned to be distinctive in order to land a job, you need to switch gears in order to advance within your company, or to move on to different companies as you grow professionally. My advice here is to get as much experience with as many different things as possible, whether this is business areas, software, projects, you name it. My success has come directly from being a “jack of all trades”. My skills are useful in many different projects, I am not pigeonholed into a niche and I have the basic skills to learn a lot of new things along the way.

My last bit of advice in order to be distinctive is to learn to communicate. If you can verbally express your ideas, speak clearly in public to co-workers or clients and create quality written works (memos, reports, presentations, etc), you will be successful. And this takes practice, but it is by far the most useful of all skills you’ll bring to your employer. You could have a 4.0 from a top university but if you can’t convey your thoughts and ideas in a clear, concise way, you cannot be successful.

And never stop being distinctive. Recently I left my employer to start my own engineering consulting company. I did this not so much to be an entrepreneur, but to have the flexibility to stay at home to raise my two sons. It’s been a wonderful experience, although challenging in its own ways, but the experience will certainly benefit me later in life. Best wishes for the challenges in your life.

Has it really been that long?

Ten years ago today, I graduated from college. TEN years. I really don't feel much different than I did then, but so much has happened in my life that I'm grateful for. I had 9+ years of doing engineering work for a fabulous company and I've now started my own engineering consulting company. I met and married my husband, bought a house, and gave birth to two beautiful boys. I've traveled all over the country and met many wonderful people.

Here's to the next ten years.

Keep the Internet Free.

"This is about Internet freedom. "Network Neutrality" -- the First Amendment of the Internet -- ensures that the public can view the smallest blog just as easily as the largest corporate Web site by preventing Internet companies like AT&T from rigging the playing field for only the highest-paying sites.

But Internet providers like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast are spending millions of dollars lobbying Congress to gut Net Neutrality. If Congress doesn't take action now to implement meaningful network neutrality provisions, the future of the Internet is at risk."

Click on the link above. Sign the petition, be more aware. I don't advocate for much, but this is something that really means something to me.

It's raining outside and I can't go out in play..

...why do we need the rain, anyway? (Okay, just channeling Sesame Street memories for a sec)

I have no plans for today. That is kind of nice. I could have slept in but I forgot to turn off my alarm from yesterday and I didn't think to look at the clock after it went off, so I got up, then realized it was 6:30, but it was too late, I was already up, and if I went back to sleep, I wouldn't get up untul 9-ish, and I'm sure my kids wouldn't appreciate that.

So, I'll be mostly domestic today. Going to put a pot roast in the crock pot to cook, will do some laundry and cleaning, play with the boys, etc. Then during nap time I'll put my engineering geek hat on and do some report writing for work.

Speaking of geek hats, next week I am speaking at a recognition dinner for Mathletes at my high school. Yep, Math League members now get varsity letters and a fancy recognition dinner at the end of the year. (No, I'm not bitter.....wait, yes I am) I had to write some words of wisdom to speak, and of course procrastinated and procrastinated, and I kept getting emails from the coordinator (also my former calculus teacher) saying "your homework is late!". Ah, that takes me back. I am taking scrap classes at CKC-Manchester earlier in the day, so I'll be jumping between scrap-mommy mode and geeky-yet polished public speaking mode.

little pic of me

DH took this pic of me a while back. I have nearly zero pics of myself that aren't self portraits, since I am the family photographer.

Only in Boston.....

The Red Sox traded for a backup catcher batting .182 with no RBIs this season. They put him on a private jet to Boston, had a state police escort bring him to Fenway. He put on his uniform in the back of the police car on the way there. When he took the field he got a standing ovation.

Because he's the only guy on the face of the earth that can catch Tim Wakefield.

Doug Mirabelli, welcome back to Boston, we love ya!