Over the last few weeks, we have discussed issues related to the hiring process, promotion, startups, and diversity. As evident in our class discussions, these topics are complex but important to consider.
For this second project, you are to work in groups of 3-4 on one of the following options:
Develop a promotional company profile.
Create a guide to the job interview process.
Sketch or mockup a prototype of a toy or write a story that helps promote or introduce STEM ideas to children.
Analyze the demographics of the Notre Dame Computer Science and Engineering program.
For the first option, you are to create a promotional pamplet or brochure for a major tech company such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, or Apple. Your mission is to sell the career opportunities and organizational benefits of the company to potential new hires.
Some things to investigate and possibly highlight:
What is the hiring process like?
How is promotion and evaluation done?
What is the company culture like?
What are the typical starting salaries?
What are the company demographics?
Does the company offer professional development programs?
Does the company encourage or discourage a sustainable work-life balance?
You will have to use your scavenging skills to find all this information (you may even know people you can ask).
Your final artifact should be a promotional pamplet or brochure in PDF format. Your document should also contain a list of the resources and references you used to put together your artifact.
Once one group member has posted this PDF to his or her blog, then each group member should create a reflection post that references the PDF, and answers the following questions:
If you have accepted a job offer, how does the company your group profiled compare to the company you are going to work for?
Otherwise, how does the profiled company compare to companies you have interned at or worked at previously?
Having profiled this company and comparing it to your future (or past) place of employment, what is important to you when it comes to determining a place to work at?
What are you looking for when perform a job search? What is important to you in terms of work and life?
For the second option, you are to create a guide to the job interview process for Notre Dame Computer Science and Engineering students. This guide can be in the form a podcast, video, or PDF document.
Some things to discuss or consider:
When should students start preparing or planning for internship or job interviews?
How should students prepare or plan for these interviews?
What resources should students consider? Books? Career Services? Student groups?
What extracurricular activities should students consider?
How can students take advantage of networking and alumni relationships?
How should students approach negotiations or contracts? Are there any pitfalls they should look out for?
Anything else you wish you knew before you went through the whole process!
Once one group member has posted the guide to his or her blog, then each group member should create a reflection post that references the guide, and answers the following questions:
From your experience, what are the most important parts of the guide your group constructed? What do you know now that you wished you new earlier? What is the best advice or guidance you've received?
College traditionally has been viewed as a place of learning, not necessarily job training and yet students are spending more and more time preparing for the job interview process. Should colleges adjust their curriculum to face this reality?
If so, how would you change the ND CSE program to better prepare students for the workforce?
If not, discuss why you don't think changes are needed and how the ND CSE program already supports students.
For the third option, you are to create a prototype or mockup of a toy, write a story, or create a video that promotes STEM (or a particular STEM-related idea or concept) to children in an inclusive way. Here are some examples:
Some things to discuss or consider:
What STEM field, idea, or concept do you wish to share with children?
How do you maintain inclusiveness in your artifact?
How do you balance fun or entertainment value with educational purpose?
Once one group member has posted the artifact to his or her blog, then each group member should create a reflection post that references the artifact, and answers the following questions:
What were your favorite toys or stories or movies growing up? What lessons did these things provide? Did they reinforce or promote certain gender roles or expectations? What influence did these things have in your life?
How does your proposed idea compare to your childhood favorites? Is it important that toys or stories or movies be inclusive or gender neutral? How important is for children to be exposed to STEM or positive gender roles/expectations at an early age?
For the final options, you are to analyze the demographics data of the Notre Dame Computer Science and Engineering students, which can be found here.
For your analysis, you are to create an infographic and then either provide a written discussion of the infographic or a podcast discussing the presentation of the data.
Some things to discuss or consider:
What are some of the trends in the ND CSE demographics?
How do the ND CSE students compare to the general ND population?
How do the ND CSE students compare to the general US population?
How do the ND CSE students compare to students at another institution?
How do the ND CSE students compare to the workforce at top technology companies?
Once one group member has posted the artifact to his or her blog, then each group member should create a reflection post that references the artifact, and answers the following questions:
What about the demographics data is surprising to you? What was the most interesting thing you discovered? What wasn't surprising and why not?
Should the ND CSE department (or Notre Dame in general) strive to improve its diversity? What are the benefits of diversity? What are the costs? What are the obstacles to increasing diversity?
Your project is due at 11:59 PM Thursday, February 18, 2016.
To submit your project, one group member should post the artifact to their blog. Everyone in the group should then reference it their reflection of the project.