Rather than focusing solely on the traditional skills a career center offers—things like how to write a resume and how to interview—ENGRG 2350 takes a much broader approach.
When you sign up for an engineering course, do you expect to see items like these listed among the learning objectives for the class?
Believe it or not, these are some of the explicit goals of a recently overhauled course at Cornell Engineering. The course is ENGRG 2350 Career Development For Engineering and it was taught in the Spring 2016 semester by John Belina, Christa Downey, Tracey Brant, and Nadia Dovi.
Dovi is the Assistant Director of Cornell Engineering Career Center; Brant is Director of the Kessler Fellows Program; Downey is the Director of the Cornell Engineering Career Center; and Belina is a Visiting Instructor and past Assistant Director of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell. Together, these four bring a range of strengths and experiences that are hard to beat.
The two-credit class meets for 1.5 hours each week during the semester and is open to students from any of the College’s 14 undergraduate majors. The course can also be taken by M.Eng. and other graduate students. John Belina says the course can be valuable to anyone at any point in their engineering education. The course offers “a carefully articulated process of career awareness, planning, and considered action,” says Belina, “often akin to the principles developed in the field of Systems Engineering. This process is one way to manage the complexities of the employment system today and make it manageable and highly rewarding.”
Rather than focusing solely on the traditional skills a career center offers—things like how to write a resume and how to interview—ENGRG 2350 takes a much broader approach. Students take time to identify their own strengths and values, their personal decision-making processes, and what it is they want out of their jobs. They learn the value of networking. And they discover the importance of communicating ideas clearly and effectively.
Belina has taught the course many times. He knows the impact it can have on the students who enroll. “They are generally amazed by the ‘strengths and values’ section each time we offer the course,” says Belina. “It’s an ‘a-ha’ moment when they realize that it is possible to plan a career that is true to personal values and uses their unique combination of strengths and interests.”
Most colleges of engineering do not offer a course like ENGRG 2350. From student comments and reviews of the class, other colleges should consider it. “I learned so many things in this class that I would not have learned in a traditional academic class,” says Christina Zhao ’19. “I learned about resources that are available to us that I didn’t know about before, interview dos and don’ts, networking essentials, and –most importantly—I learned about myself.” It is this focus on self-reflection and self-knowledge that makes the class different. Biological and environmental engineering major Kyrollos Barsoum ’16 says of the class, “I learned that creating and maintaining relationships is critical to success as a professional, as a leader, and as a human being.” This is some pretty heady stuff to take away from an elective offered by the career center.
Christa Downey, Director of the Engineering Career Center, says, “Self-reflection sets the foundation for students to have work that is meaningful, productive, and a satisfying part of their lives. We led students through the process of claiming and articulating values, interests, and strengths, culminating in each student creating personal mission and vision statements. As students make decisions throughout their lives, they can reflect on their personal mission and vision for guidance.”
Noah Pacifici ’17 took the class this year and agreed to share his statements.
Vision: “I see a future where any biological problem can be solved using engineering and technology.”
Mission: “I want to make people’s lives safer and more convenient using medical technology.”
ENGRG 2350 is helping Cornell Engineering students understand that career choices are about much more than a job title and salary.
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