Fifth General Meeting
Our fifth general meeting this semester has hosted by Marc, our Senator of Marketing. He began by congratulating the incoming officers for next year, then expanded on the other positions that were still available. Also covered was the availability of officer positions in sister organizations such as NSBE and IEEE. Finally, Marc talked about the upcoming Busch Gardens engineering tour. The second annual hosted by the USF chapter of FES, positions were limited and it was a tour everyone wanted to go to.
Then, Marc introduced the speaker of the day, Mike McKee from the CREOL school at UCF. Mike led off with a clip from Goldfinger in which James Bond is chained to a table and an industrial laser is slowly creeping up the table threatening to cut him in half. "Is this what you think photonics is?" Mike had our attention.
Mike outlined the various fields in which photonics is currently in play (from telecommunications to solar power to medical and industrial) and how to go about getting your Bachelor's in Photonics Engineering. A point of interest I had not known prior to this meeting: You can go from your Bachelor's straight into a Ph.D. program without getting your Master's first. Afterwards, the floor was opened for questions and through this period of time, the conversation turned to a more practical/general conversation on 'soft skills' and how important they are. 'Soft skills' is a general term for a code of professional etiquette. Things such as writing thank you letters, technical writing, not looking at your phone during an interview and knowing when texting is inappropriate. How you dress and how you look and present yourself all lead to better impressions and more job opportunities. Those in attendance truly had plenty to learn that day from Mr. McKee - both in regards to the photonics field, as well as how to conduct themselves professionally.
Then, Marc introduced the speaker of the day, Mike McKee from the CREOL school at UCF. Mike led off with a clip from Goldfinger in which James Bond is chained to a table and an industrial laser is slowly creeping up the table threatening to cut him in half. "Is this what you think photonics is?" Mike had our attention.
Mike outlined the various fields in which photonics is currently in play (from telecommunications to solar power to medical and industrial) and how to go about getting your Bachelor's in Photonics Engineering. A point of interest I had not known prior to this meeting: You can go from your Bachelor's straight into a Ph.D. program without getting your Master's first. Afterwards, the floor was opened for questions and through this period of time, the conversation turned to a more practical/general conversation on 'soft skills' and how important they are. 'Soft skills' is a general term for a code of professional etiquette. Things such as writing thank you letters, technical writing, not looking at your phone during an interview and knowing when texting is inappropriate. How you dress and how you look and present yourself all lead to better impressions and more job opportunities. Those in attendance truly had plenty to learn that day from Mr. McKee - both in regards to the photonics field, as well as how to conduct themselves professionally.