I entered the workforce with my undergraduate degree in 2009 during the height of the Great Recession. Jobs were not easy to come by. One way I tried to get closer to my goal of productive employment was by becoming involved with AIChE, and the best way to do that, in my view, was to become involved with AIChE's Spring Meeting.
At the conference I met many professional engineers and established the contacts that led to my very productive employment today. This story is true for me and many others at every stage of their careers. Being involved with a professional society raises your profile with potential employers, and there are few higher-profile roles than being an invited speaker at a national meeting.
Make your best impression on employers
So if you are interested in making a good first impression with prospective employers, or furthering your professional development in your current organization, it just so happens AIChE and the Young Professionals Committee (YPC) are looking for presenters for the 2014 Spring Meeting in New Orleans. Topics range from "Sustainable Development of Unconventional Oil & Gas Resources" with the Fuels and Petrochemicals Division and "Disruptive Innovations" with the Process Development Division to "Environmental Issues and Controls in Select Industrial Sectors" with Environmental Division. There are many more opportunities for you to share your experiences, your company's innovations, or your original research with the broader engineering community. Presentations do not have to be excessively technical.
You might also consider "Transition from Engineer to Management," sponsored by AIChE's Management Division, where we would like to hear your story of climbing the corporate ladder. These stories are intended to benefit the next generation of young engineers.
How to sign up
Visit the call for abstracts site and select the division that most closely matches your interests to see the sessions that are currently available. You don't need to submit the whole paper now, only a brief outline of what you would like to present.
The call for abstracts ends October 28th so take advantage of this opportunity while you can to be a part of one of the biggest engineering conferences of the year and establish your reputation in the chemical engineering community.
Kendall Fosse is currently a process engineer at Fluor Corporation.