By Rachel Steere
Securing and Succeeding in an Engineering Job
Photos left to right: College of Engineering Dean Jennifer Sinclair Curtis, Cynthia Murphy Ortega ’91, Michael Hurlston ’88, ‘90, ‘91
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING DEAN JENNIFER SINCLAIR CURTIS developed a new course, Securing and Succeeding in an Engineering Job, when she realized that there was a need for a holistic, consistent career development course across all of the majors in engineering. This course, ENG 98, is is geared toward the development first-year engineering students, so they can start preparing for a successful engineering career early on in their academic studies. She began teaching the class in spring of 2018 and has continued to lead this course every other quarter. Many engineering students who are first-generation, low-income, or from underserved groups do not have a network of individuals that can assist them in their career development or in their job search. Many of these students lack first-hand knowledge of the creative and diverse types of work in which engineers are engaged. This course helps all students understand the career options available to them as an engineering graduate. Students gain information on how to successfully land an internship or job in engineering and how to thrive in 12 U C D AV I S C O L L E G E O F E N G I N E E R I N G
that role. This course also helps students develop valuable professional, leadership and life skills. “Some students don’t understand the importance of career development early on. In this course, they spend their time progressively developing these skills in addition to their regular coursework, so that all together they will be prepared to get a job after graduation,” said Curtis. This teaching opportunity also gives Curtis, whose daily schedule is dominated by meetings with faculty and staff, a chance to hear directly from the students and affirm to the students the college’s commitment to student success. “When I first started in my role as dean, I realized I hardly ever got to see any undergraduate students in my job. I really wanted to get connected with these students in a direct way,” said Curtis. The first class in the course begins with Dean Curtis and graduated seniors, who discuss the lessons they learned while they were undergraduate students. They also discuss the benefits of graduate school versus industrial employment after graduation. The following class is focused on building a
