Career Shift Panel

* Aspire * Advance * Achieve *The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is a not-for-profit educational and service organization that empowers women to succeed and advance in the field of engineering, and to be recognized for their life-changing contributions as engineers and leaders.  Founded in 1950, SWE is the driving force that establishes engineering as a highly desirable career for women through an exciting array of training and development programs, networking opportunities, scholarships, outreach and advocacy activities, and much more.The Society of Women Engineers Dallas Section is here to help its members accomplish these goals. Tell us to what you aspire. Monthly meetings include speakers on professional development to help you advance your career. Meetings provide opportunity to share and recognize what our members achieve in their professions. Meetings offer opportunities to build your network.The SWE Dallas section meets monthly usually on the third Tuesday of the month. Members are scattered throughout the Metroplex so we rotate meeting locations to make them accessible to a broader audience.Meeting attendance is open to all, SWE member and non-members, female and male. Join us at our next event.

Dallas Society of Women Engineers

Join Dallas SWE for our November Professional Development Event, a Career Shift Panel!

Sonny Bryan's Smokehouse

Once upon a time, we entered the workforce with our engineering degrees and a plan. But as we quickly learned, things don’t always go as planned. These panelists navigated career changes into and across multiple industries, making big leaps, learning new skills, and forging a new path forward. Panelists will share their own experiences into what it takes to make a career change to different industries, some challenges along the way, and lessons learned, with multiple opportunities for questions from the audience. Attendees will leave the session with an understanding of making industry-switching job changes and perhaps inspiration to make their own.

 Learning Outcomes (3):

<ol><li>Recognize benefits and challenges of changing industries
</li><li>Identify reasons to move or stay in certain jobs and industries
</li><li>Discuss lessons learned from making industry-switching job changes</li></ol>Moderator:
Barbara Read is an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer and a Principal Software Quality Engineer at Raytheon Technologies. Over her 30-year-plus career at Raytheon and its predecessors, she has held a variety of roles in software engineering, systems engineering, process improvement, and team leadership, culminating in her latest assignment. Barbara finds that leveraging past experiences and the willingness and ability to learn what is new in the here and now are the key to longevity in the workplace. A large company offers the opportunity to make career shifts internally while leveraging existing domain knowledge. Barbara earned BS and MS degrees in Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. She is a Dallas SWE member and the Professional Counselor to the Collin College SWE section. She spoke about women and language at WE21 and WELocal in Albuquerque. Barbara is the President of the Friends of the Richardson Public Library and is also involved in her church community. Barbara is married with two adult sons and enjoys reading, crocheting, and watching Jeopardy in her free time.

Panelists: 
Rana Karimi is a Solutions Lead for ProcureAbility, a professional services firm focused on procurement, where she develops sales strategy and offerings for supply chain solutions for her clients. Prior to her experience in professional services, she was an engineer and worked in multiple industries as a project manager and manufacturing engineer. During her engineering career, Rana worked in oil and gas and then transitioned to food manufacturing. Throughout her professional experience, Rana has navigated four different companies, different industries spanning technical to relational, and a career pivot from engineering to consulting. With each transition, she has learned to advocate for herself, including negotiating to desired outcomes, and the importance of recognizing value to be successful at each change. Rana has spoken at WE22 and WELocal Albuquerque on the topic of women and negotiation. She has a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. In her free time, she enjoys playing the French horn, traveling, and improving her craft cocktail making skills. 

Amanda Alsbrook is a Senior Product Development Engineer for Acumed on the Craniomaxillofacial (CMF) team. She has worked roughly 10 years in the medical device field with roles ranging from designing custom knee implants to spending time with surgeons in the operating room to develop new systems or improve existing ones. She also has experience in oil &amp; gas and maintenance chemical industries. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Christian Brother University in Memphis, TN, and has found the versatility of the degree to be a helpful steppingstone when making career transitions. Being able to link the responsibilities of seemingly unconnected roles is another skill that Amanda has used to move between industries. She is a Dallas SWE member and currently serves on the investment committee. She enjoys reading, gardening, traveling and the outdoors. 

Shelley Stracener has seventeen years of professional experience in 3 major industries: business computing, aircraft cabins, and medical devices. She is currently a Principal Systems Engineer at LivaNova's neuromodulation division, a medical device organization that designs and manufactures Class III implantable neurostimulator systems for treatment-resistant epilepsy and difficult-to-treat depression. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Baylor University and is currently a Master of Science in Engineering student for Systems Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Shelley is a second-year Senator for the Society of Women Engineers and has held numerous other SWE leadership positions as a collegiate and professional at the Section, Committee, and Society level. In her free time, she enjoys riding her recumbent bicycle, crocheting, listening to podcasts, and spending time with her husband and two dogs. 



Zaineb Ahmad is a Senior Systems/Human Factors Engineer at Collins Aerospace. Before joining the aerospace industry, she worked in the healthcare IT, medical device, and biomechanical/sports medicine industries. In her 10-year career, she’s loved learning new skills and accepting challenges to grow, traits that have helped her navigate her career transitions. Zaineb is a SWE Life Member and Dallas SWE past president. She is serving her third term as the University of Texas Dallas SWE Counselor and recently joined the Society Affinity Groups Committee. Zaineb holds a B.S. in General Science from Birmingham-Southern College, B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Alabama at Birmingham. When she’s not working or navigating life as a new mom, Zaineb enjoys do-it-yourself projects, cooking, yoga, and traveling.

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Career Shift Panel

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