Name: Nikita Tiwari
Position: FY19/20 LCC Coaching Lead
What you did:
I was not aware about SWE for a long time until 2015 when my manager at work introduced me to it as I had listed more volunteer involvement in my development plan. That completely changed things for me. I signed up for SWE and immediately started engaging with my section leadership as a volunteer. The next fiscal year I took on a role on the EC. I enjoyed this world a lot, the satisfaction of paying it forward, the rich network and also the leadership skills that I learnt were amazing. Plus I get to reuse these skills in my day job and my manager being so supportive was very helpful.
In a few years I began expanding my scope, I started by exploring a few society committees and then WE Local happened. I remember attending my first one in San Jose. And fortunately the next one was in my home section in Portland. I joined the local host committee (LHC) and it was a very fulfilling experience as event planning is my most favorite and one of my stronger traits. WE Local has been a great way to have very specific assignments with lesser time commitment. You can be on a LHC for any WE Local conference as attendees travel from all over so the diverse perspective is always welcome and respected. I joined LCC in 2017 as a coach and became a lead in 2018. It has been a very rewarding experience to be able to work with so many coaches and sections; especially with regions gone LCC has become even more critical. I absolutely love mentoring new coaches and within my team have my coaches share their best practices with each other. Even when I moved from Oregon to Michigan in 2018, I already had my network in Michigan due to the society involvement and gained a lot of insight from them.
I have also been a presenter and award recipient at the conference.
Honestly, there was never a formula, I just kept moving and experimenting with different roles and tried to understand what brought me joy along with honing my leadership, strategic planning and inter-personal skills.
How did you find out about this position/what is the application process:
SWE HQ sends out a call for committee leaders and committee members around March and April respectively each year. It has details on each committee and individual roles. Joining a few committees as members is a great way to explore what you like or don't like by actually doing it. It gives you great exposure to understand the committee goals and operating style, how you could add value and if you want to continue or take on a bigger role. Honestly, this is the best way to learn and grow. Besides, you go about expanding your network within larger SWE.
Many times you may not like the particular domain and its totally acceptable. So being on a team will give you that idea. You can then focus on a role that you like and take additional responsibility the following year.
Also after having gained sufficient experience on a committee, moving to another society committee will broaden your knowledge and then you can always bring it back to the old committee. Moving around is what I'd advice.
Society has changed the requirement about being able to hold a leadership role on only one committee since 2019 to give more opportunity to everyone.
What does your SWE journey look like:
First of all one needs to understand what they really want. It's not necessary that everyone wants to be on the board. Some members are just happy being members and attending a few local events or attending the annual conference or WE Local conference. Some want to volunteer and some want to hold smaller one-time or low commitment roles like judging abstracts, scholarships or award applications. All of this is completely acceptable. At the end of the day it's how much you want to get out of it and how much you desire to give back.
I consider SWE to be a place to practice certain skills that you wish to develop or are completely new to you, in a safe space. You don't necessarily have to take on something that you are great at. In fact be fearless and take on something you wish to learn or find out if you even like doing it. For example finance is not my strong suit. So I became a section treasurer and also a member on the society's finance committee to learn more.
I would also advice to not spread yourself too thin and not overcommit…take on one thing and do it well. Also this helps avoid volunteer and leadership burnout. Always try to introduce one new role while keeping something you have experience in. At first you could join multiple committees to gain insight on what you like and once you have identified that, take a larger role on one committee and try growing upward on that committee. Once you are established you could mentor and train others vs doing everything yourself. This will also teach you how to no comfortably and say yes confidently.
Always question yourself why are you doing it? What are you getting out of this? It could be experience, a new skill, giving back or paying it forward. So it's very important to take that pause and analyze. Multiple roles will not get you up the SWE career ladder, rather fewer impactful roles will.
Position: FY19/20 LCC Coaching Lead
What you did:
I was not aware about SWE for a long time until 2015 when my manager at work introduced me to it as I had listed more volunteer involvement in my development plan. That completely changed things for me. I signed up for SWE and immediately started engaging with my section leadership as a volunteer. The next fiscal year I took on a role on the EC. I enjoyed this world a lot, the satisfaction of paying it forward, the rich network and also the leadership skills that I learnt were amazing. Plus I get to reuse these skills in my day job and my manager being so supportive was very helpful.
In a few years I began expanding my scope, I started by exploring a few society committees and then WE Local happened. I remember attending my first one in San Jose. And fortunately the next one was in my home section in Portland. I joined the local host committee (LHC) and it was a very fulfilling experience as event planning is my most favorite and one of my stronger traits. WE Local has been a great way to have very specific assignments with lesser time commitment. You can be on a LHC for any WE Local conference as attendees travel from all over so the diverse perspective is always welcome and respected. I joined LCC in 2017 as a coach and became a lead in 2018. It has been a very rewarding experience to be able to work with so many coaches and sections; especially with regions gone LCC has become even more critical. I absolutely love mentoring new coaches and within my team have my coaches share their best practices with each other. Even when I moved from Oregon to Michigan in 2018, I already had my network in Michigan due to the society involvement and gained a lot of insight from them.
I have also been a presenter and award recipient at the conference.
Honestly, there was never a formula, I just kept moving and experimenting with different roles and tried to understand what brought me joy along with honing my leadership, strategic planning and inter-personal skills.
How did you find out about this position/what is the application process:
SWE HQ sends out a call for committee leaders and committee members around March and April respectively each year. It has details on each committee and individual roles. Joining a few committees as members is a great way to explore what you like or don't like by actually doing it. It gives you great exposure to understand the committee goals and operating style, how you could add value and if you want to continue or take on a bigger role. Honestly, this is the best way to learn and grow. Besides, you go about expanding your network within larger SWE.
Many times you may not like the particular domain and its totally acceptable. So being on a team will give you that idea. You can then focus on a role that you like and take additional responsibility the following year.
Also after having gained sufficient experience on a committee, moving to another society committee will broaden your knowledge and then you can always bring it back to the old committee. Moving around is what I'd advice.
Society has changed the requirement about being able to hold a leadership role on only one committee since 2019 to give more opportunity to everyone.
What does your SWE journey look like:
- Joined SWE in 2015
- FY16 Section Representative - Columbia River Section (CRS)
- FY17 VP of Professional Development - CRS
- FY18 Treasurer - CRS, Leadership Coach - LCC, Society Membership Committee member, WE Local Portland Social subcommittee lead
- FY19 LCC Coaching Lead, SWE Detroit - Girls Engineering Exploration (Outreach) Chair, Society Membership Committee - LCC liaison, Society Finance Committee - EIN subcommittee, WE Local St Louis Sponsorship Chair
- FY20 LCC Coaching Lead, SWE Detroit - VP of Membership, WE Local Buffalo Collegiate Competition Lead (conducted virtually due to COVID)
- FY21 SWE Detroit President-elect, WE Local Buffalo Collegiate Competition Lead, Society positions pending results
First of all one needs to understand what they really want. It's not necessary that everyone wants to be on the board. Some members are just happy being members and attending a few local events or attending the annual conference or WE Local conference. Some want to volunteer and some want to hold smaller one-time or low commitment roles like judging abstracts, scholarships or award applications. All of this is completely acceptable. At the end of the day it's how much you want to get out of it and how much you desire to give back.
I consider SWE to be a place to practice certain skills that you wish to develop or are completely new to you, in a safe space. You don't necessarily have to take on something that you are great at. In fact be fearless and take on something you wish to learn or find out if you even like doing it. For example finance is not my strong suit. So I became a section treasurer and also a member on the society's finance committee to learn more.
I would also advice to not spread yourself too thin and not overcommit…take on one thing and do it well. Also this helps avoid volunteer and leadership burnout. Always try to introduce one new role while keeping something you have experience in. At first you could join multiple committees to gain insight on what you like and once you have identified that, take a larger role on one committee and try growing upward on that committee. Once you are established you could mentor and train others vs doing everything yourself. This will also teach you how to no comfortably and say yes confidently.
Always question yourself why are you doing it? What are you getting out of this? It could be experience, a new skill, giving back or paying it forward. So it's very important to take that pause and analyze. Multiple roles will not get you up the SWE career ladder, rather fewer impactful roles will.
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