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Metz, France | Posted: September 20, 2019
John Fritsch, Corporate Relations & Alumni
jfritsch@georgiatech-metz.fr
Summary Sentence:
Weekly Graduate Seminars featuring alumni speakers help prepare graduate students for their future careers..
Full Summary:
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Graduate Seminar Front and center on Georgia Tech’s website, you can read that, “Georgia Tech is in the business of creating the next – the next idea, the next technology, and the next legion of visionary leaders.” It can sometimes be daunting to make the leap from engineering student to working engineer, but luckily Georgia Tech-Lorraine’s “Graduate Seminars,” series helps to pave the way.
The Graduate Seminar series encompasses weekly seminars with the goal of opening students minds to the soft skills that are not taught within the framework of their degree coursework. The seminars, mandatory for graduate students but open to undergraduates as well, follow two broad themes – 1) The Company Ecosystem: learning about intellectual property, business ownership structure and laws, or how to raise venture capital, etc., and 2) Career Opportunities in Engineering: first-hand accounts of career paths, case studies, job roles for engineers, etc.
The “Company Ecosystem” seminars prepare students to navigate corporate culture in a large company, or even develop the confidence to branch out on their own with a startup. “A big part of my education was meeting alumni entrepreneurs who encouraged me to take risks and develop my leadership skills. Today, I’m an entrepreneur myself,” said Solenne Xavier Bastie, a 2006 alumna who started her own successful company, Allomarcel.com.
The “Career Opportunities in Engineering” seminars help students to better understand what is out there, in order to help define their career path. “The trick is to begin to know yourself better all while learning how to assess a given company’s line of business -- its issues, its production lifecycle and processes, and what it has at stake -- to better ensure a match between your core competencies and interests, with what an employer is looking for,” said John Fritsch, Corporate Relations & Alumni Affairs at Georgia Tech-Lorraine.
Since 2006, over 1,500 students, close to 250 companies, and more than 500 professionals/mentors have actively participated in Georgia Tech-Lorraine’s Career Opportunities in Engineering seminars on engineering student employability. Said, Fritsch, “We invite alumni who are experts in their field and who have risen through the ranks, to engage students in discussions on career paths, through sharing their own experiences.”
It’s a win-win situation for everyone. Students gain from the shared expertise and presenters/alumni experts can showcase their company and speak about their careers, empowering others. From bootstrapping startups to Fortune 500 companies; from small local companies to multinational powerhouses; from production engineers to CEOs, Georgia Tech-Lorraine’s Corporate Seminars exemplify “Creating the Next.” By the time they graduate, students have the perfect blend of the technical skills they’ll need on the job along with interpersonal skills that will serve them as they grow in their career.
Companies participating in the seminars present viable career paths to students and help set expectations as students begin to map out their future. It’s also a great way for companies to vet students for internships or first jobs.
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Is your company interested in recruiting future Georgia Tech global engineering talent? Contact John Fritsch at Georgia Tech-Lorraine to find out more about participating in our Graduate Seminars. Email John Fritsch.
