GRAND PRIZE WINNER: "Coming Full Circle - Journey from Protégé to Mentor"
Brenda Liu, Intel/UC Berkeley/Carnegie Mellon, protégé and mentor
I first heard about MentorNet when I was a junior at University of California at Berkeley. Being an electrical engineering and computer science major, it was very difficult for me to find female role models. The undergraduate affairs office recommended MentorNet to me as a resource, so I signed up.
My first mentor, Zorina, gave me her perspective on being a professional woman in the technical world. In giving me a peek into her work life, Zorina also gave me confidence to continue in my major, knowing that it is not impossible to be a successful professional woman. Then come senior year, I signed up for MentorNet again. It was very difficult for me to choose a path post graduation in a major that was highly sought-after at the height of the dot-com boom. My second mentor, Norma, helped me tremendously in that aspect. She gave me advice on continuing education vs. working out of college, and showed me some examples of people at her company with various degrees of education and what they do. She even arranged to call me to discuss some of these issues, to help me analyze the pros and cons and reach a decision more easily. I finally decided that despite the financial temptation, an advanced degree would help me much more in the long run. I proceeded to pursue my master's degree from Carnegie Mellon.
My relationships with my mentors and protégés have definitely helped shape my career and my life... I realized that I am not alone in this path and the issues I faced were not unusual.
~ Brenda Liu
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I did not know this back then, but the dot-com boom soon came to a halt and the economy did a 180-degree turn on the techies. When I was about to enter the job market after grad school, it was at the worst of the recession. I again signed up for a mentor, and was paired up with Jennifer. This time around, my questions focused on two aspects: PhD vs. work, and small companies vs. large corporations. Since she works at IBM, I had the opportunity to explore what life would be like in that environment. Jennifer also helped review my résumé (some of her tips I use to this day!), and gave me advice for interviews and job searching in general. I decided that my interests lie mostly in the industry, and I would prefer the stability a large establishment offers. I was fortunate enough to land a job at Intel Corporation, and have been working here ever since.
After I started working, I decided that it was time to give back to the community that had helped me so much throughout my college/grad school career. I signed up to become a mentor, with the hope to help the next generation by sharing my experience. My first protégé was Mei-Ling, who is an international transfer student from Malaysia. Then I continued this year, with my new protégé Shen. It was very intriguing for me to find out about them, and even more interesting that they asked the same questions as I asked when I was a protégé myself (grad school vs. work, life in large corporation, etc). I shared with them my experience in college, encouraging them to attend extracurricular activities, utilize office hours, apply for undergraduate research positions and internships, etc. At times I also helped them to de-stress and take a step back to see the larger picture. I was able to relate to them very well since I went through the same thing just a few years back. I also helped them prepare for job fairs and critiqued their résumés. Since I have had the opportunity in recruiting and saw the process from the other side, I know better what a job applicant can do to improve their chances of obtaining a job.
My relationships with my mentors and protégés have definitely helped shape my career and my life. My mentors helped me enormously in providing advice on the paths I may choose, thus allowing me to make informed decisions. Additionally, just knowing there are successful, friendly women in the professional engineering companies is reassuring as a student. From interacting with my protégés, I realized that I am not alone in this path and the issues I faced were not unusual. In these relationships I also learned to use different probing methods to help mentor the girls, and in turn exercised my own coaching skills. It feels good to contribute back and reach out to the next generation, as well as receiving recognition from the protégés for the advice I gave. Now, I have come full circle, journeying from a protégé to a mentor.
Brenda Liu
Brenda Liu received her B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from U.C. Berkeley, and her M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. She is currently a validation engineer at Intel Corporation, working on the liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) display chip. In her spare time, Brenda enjoys reading, biking, singing, and playing video games.
Norma Fries
After teaching high school mathematics for 5 years, Norma Fries joined IBM. Now in her 24th year at IBM, Norma manages a team that writes the books and online information for database software. In 2/04, Norma received the Outstanding Management Achievement Award, given to only two managers a year in her division. One of the reasons for the award was her continued mentoring and coaching of others.