TED Talk - Robots With Soul

My weekly TED Talk arrived in my inbox this morning. It's a talk given by Guy Hoffman and it gives a background on his journey with animation and how he creates robots that are less like robots and more like people. This talk really appealed to the engineer in me, as well as the creative in me! 

Here's his talk. Enjoy!

For more interesting talks - click to visit* the TED website. You can sign up for daily or weekly talks that will challenge conventional thinking and expose to you many different, interesting people and their work, beliefs, callings and research. 

*Please don't blame me if you use up your monthly/weekly/daily allowance of bandwidth watching TED Talks! :)

If Diets Worked, We'd All Be Thin Already

I recently posted my views on diets and dieting and this morning when I logged in to my e-mail I found a TED Talk waiting for me and I immediately watched it. It's a 13 minute talk on Why Dieting Doesn't Usually Work by Sandra Aamondt and she gives some scientific insights into why diets don't usually work. She talks about a body's weight set-point, intuitive vs controlled eaters, dieting in children, family members teasing about weight and the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. Take a squiz at the video below.

I am so excited by this video as it sums up my view on food, eating and lifestyle. My "set-point" hasn't changed much since high-school and I think that this is partly because I've always been encouraged to eat when I'm hungry and stop eating when I'm full. 

Near the end of her talk she mentions, "if diets worked, we'd all be thin already. Why do we keep doing the same thing and keep expecting different results. " It's a profound statement and makes you think whether diets are really worth it.

She finishes off by asking us to stay mindful of when we're eating and to learn from your body. She encourages all of us to eat when you're hungry - and stop eating when you're full! Instead of trying to control your stomach through diets, let your stomach control your eating.

What's Your Closet?

Have you ever watched TED Talks? They're short 5 - 20 minute talks given by people on every single topic under the sun. Some of them are scientific. Some are funny. Some display skills that blow your mind and some relate advice for living life and being awesome. They generally leave you inspired and mind-blown! Yesterday I watched one given by Ash Beckham, take a look at it here.

If you're too lazy or don't have a good enough internet connection (the joys of living in Africa) here's a summary:

Ash compares all difficult conversations or situations to coming out the closet. She knows about these difficult conversations, as she literally had to have her own difficult conversation when she admitted to her family and friends that she was gay. She urges people to stop ranking their difficult conversations, trying to out-do each other in "hardness". Difficult conversations are hard, full stop. She recognises that whatever closet you come out of, you will be challenged and you will need to take a dose of courage to do it. She encourages us to sympathise with others, instead of judging them as every single person has their own closet to come out of. 

She shares some awesome bits of advice, that all came to her after an interaction with a little girl at the diner that she worked at. This little girl asked her whether she was a boy or a girl and even though she was ready to go all hardcore lesbian on this tiny little girl, she instead gave her the answer that she was more of a comfy pj's girl than a pink dresses girl. The little girl responds by describing her own pj's and then asking for her pancakes. Easiest hard conversation ever.

And the advice she gives when you have to have a hard conversation of your own?

1. Be Authentic
2. Be Direct
3. Be Unapologetic

I think it's definitely advice we can all relate to. She finishes off by encouraging people to never apologise for being true to yourself. Any expectations that others have of you, are ultimately their expectations of you. And if the reality does not live up to their expectations then they need to manage their expectations of you, as long as your expectations of yourself allow you to stay true to who you are. 

When having difficult conversations of my own, I've found that the easiest difficult conversations have always been ones in which I've followed the advice above (or when others have followed that advice with me). Be sensitive to the way that you convey your information, but don't pussy-foot around something so that by the end of the conversation you don't actually know what the point was - you'll just have to have that conversation all over again.

Grad Learnings

Last year I was part of a graduate program with my company. It introduced us to the complexity of supply chain and also aimed to give us broader business exposure. This year I have been part of the organising committee for the current grads and it's been an awesome experience. Last week we held our last grad event for the year.

At 4:30 last Tuesday morning I dragged myself out of bed so that I could get started with lifts to the airport for two of my grad friends. When we got there the whole of OR Tambo carousel had broken down and everyone's bags were piling up at the check in counters. I felt sorry for the poor guys who had to fix that broken carousel - they would have been feeling the pressure even more than our guys do when one of our conveyors breaks down!

Anyway, we got to Durban in one piece. I would really like to give credit to ACSA and all the airlines - even though our bags didn't come with us on the plane, our details were noted down and they were delivered to our hotel later that morning.

For the first day, our grads had the morning to finalise their business case presentations that they had been working on for the last month or so. We then went to another venue where they presented solutions to current issues in our company to members from the senior leadership team. They did a lot better than our group last year - we were told to go back, re-think our presentations and do them again in two weeks. This year they were much better prepared - mainly due to the horror stories and threats that they had been told by myself and the other committee members. 

There were very good questions asked by the leadership team at the presentation. The learning that I took away with me this time was to take a look at how leaders can remove complexity from their business. How can you use current tools (or remove tools completely) in order to make your teams lives easier? Perhaps all the tools are there and it's the behaviour that isn't proper. How then can you change behaviour to make the best use of the tools that you have?

On the second day, we visited one of our packaging suppliers and it was awesome to see incredibly different technology at work in their factory. We learnt a bit about the difficulties experienced from their side of the business and of potential areas of improvement between both parties. That afternoon we took the grads back to head office where they were split into teams to do a negotiation role play between a supplier and customer. As most of our grads are engineers and had no clue about how to go about a negotiation, there was a huge amount that all of us (committee members included) learnt from participating and observing the negotiation prac.

What I took away from the prac is that maintaining the relationship and respect for the other party is incredibly important. It's also important to prepare - it was suggested to us that for every hour spent negotiating, you should prepare for 9 hours! You need to be willing to compromise on some things in order to gain advantages somewhere else. You also need to be strategic on the points that you negotiate on - it's very difficult to negotiate on labour and fixed costs. Rather pick things where for a seemingly insignificant decrease/increase you get a larger reward.

That night the committee had a close off event. All I'll say it that it was amazing. And all of us may or may not have felt tender for the whole of the next day...

We had a fear factor food race- split into 3 teams
and 3 different foods - I got the chicken feet as my dish...Luckily there was some traditional Zulu beer to act as a
chaser afterwards! 

On the last day we had a visit to a factory that manufactures specific types of parts for the motor industry and it gave us a chance to see a different type of manufacturing and supply chain process. To end off the day we had a close off lunch with everyone, got feedback on the program and we gave out a few awards. We got such positive feedback from the grads this year and I hope that next year it's even better for them!

And to my fellow committee members - it's been such a pleasure and I'm going to miss all of you and my excuse to come and visit Durbs next year!

Grads bonding over a drumming session at the
close off event while committee wrapped up award nominations

Interview Types and Tips

Interviews. For anyone looking to be employed by someone else, you will have to go to interviews. My boyfriend is currently going through this whole interview process so I thought I would use the opportunity to share with you what I learnt. During my final undergrad year I went to lots of interviews, so here are some types of interviews you can expect:

• Assessments - you will have to complete a variety of "tests" and they're usually done by the bigger companies, although some smaller companies may do them too. They test things from how quickly you learn to hardcore technical skills to what type of person you are. Often the tests are annoying. But when I got offered my current job, a complete stranger summed me up in a few sentences which was pretty astounding - so don't assume the tests are irrelevant. They could make or break your chances of getting a further interview
• Group sessions - in this type of interview you will be put in a room with a bunch of other hopeful applicants and given a case study. Often you are expected to play a certain role and solve a problem. Don't be fooled - it's not about coming up with a peaceful solution to the problem. The assessors want to see how you interact with other people and what sense of business you have and if you're able to look at an issue from a variety of angles. Again, these are usually done when being interviewed by a larger company.
• Role play sessions - very similar to the group sessions, but this is where you are given a role and told to role play with employees at the company. They will give you a certain situation/case and you may or may not be given time to come up with a game plan before you start to role play.
• Face to fact interviews - this is where you will generally meet with an HR rep and/or other employees of the company. These are probably the most difficult interviews to prepare for because you can get asked anything. At one interview for a large clothing company, I was asked about their financial report for the year. I didn't get that job. But most face to face interviews are a time to get to know you, they may ask one or two simple technical questions to assess your basic knowledge, they'll want to know your plans for the future. They will probably ask you to tell them a bit about yourself - don't tell them boring things, tell them things that will cause them to remember you.

I've been interviewed and I've also interviewed others and found it really interesting. Here are some other tips I've picked up in the process, or been given by family and friends:

• If there's no dress code specified on the interview invitation, ALWAYS be smarter than you think you need to be. Even if they give a dress-code, it's always better to look smart, or dress slightly smarter than the dress code stipulates. A scruffy dresser will give a bad impression before you've even opened up your mouth. A professional looking outfit will give people the impression that you're capable and willing to make an effort.

Who would you hire?

• Don't mumble or give one word answers. It's difficult to get an impression of someone when you can't understand them or they don't elaborate on a question.
• Have an idea of a few long term goals that you want to achieve and where you want to be a few years down the line. You may want to live close to your family. You may dream of travelling for 6 months after 5 years of work. Maybe you want to be a manager within x number of years. My long term goals are to pay off my loans and to eventually pursue a masters in biomedical engineering.
• Who are you? You need to be able to tell the interviewers a bit about yourself. Who is Cath? If you say electrical engineer and stop talking you're not going to get very far. Tell people who you are. What makes you tick? What makes you happy? What makes you annoyed.
  I am an assistant engineer with a year and a half of experience in the maintenance department. I enjoy programming. I enjoy time to myself but I also love to be around my friends and family. I don't give up easily when faced with a challenge. Stupid people really annoy me. In my spare time I enjoy to paint and take pictures. I love seeing what South Africa and the rest of the world has to offer. I work hard, but when I'm not working, I don't want to think about work. Which "Cath" is more interesting to you?
• Try to give as many real life examples as possible. If you're a graduate, you probably don't have work examples to give. Give examples from varsity or your personal life. Have examples ready for the following types of questions: how do you deal with difficult people? What happens when you don't want to get up in the morning? When did you have to take the lead? What do you do when you try to negotiate something with someone and they won't budge? Give an example of a time you have succeeded and what do you think went right? Give an example of a time you have failed or done something wrong and how did you deal with it?
• Connect with your interviewers. They're people too and they're looking for people that they like and that will fit in to the current team.
• Don't EVER tell the interviewer what you think they want to hear. They can smell a phoney answer from a mile away; it sounds incredibly insincere and will probably turn them off you in a heartbeat. Instead, try to structure an answer that you can both work with. Where do you see yourself in 5 years time? If you answer "Working for this company because it's the greatest company ever", you'll probably shoot yourself in the foot. Tell them that you want to be in a management position. If they're an international company, maybe you want to be in a position that allows you to travel a lot. If they're a smaller company, you might want to mention that you're interested in specialising in hardware design and they're a good company to learn hardware design from. There are no right answers. But a sincere answer will go a lot further than a fake answer.
• Honesty is the best policy. In all my interviews I've been incredibly honest. While I was interviewing I was also planning a trip to the USA for 4 months with Frosty and some friends. I told every interviewer of this up front. I got solid offers from 2 big companies within a day of each other. If they want you, they'll be willing to wait.
• Treat your interview experience as a chance to chat with people and practice your interview skills. Learn from each interview so that at the next one you can be better prepared. This is your chance to interview the company as well. If, after the interview, you think you wouldn't be a good fit, tell them upfront to disregard you from the rest of the hiring process.
• Be on time. Your interviewers may be running late. But you must ensure that you're on time to your interview. Take a book to read with you in case there are delays.
• Think up a few questions beforehand that you can ask the people interviewing you. These questions may get answered during the interview, which is fine. But it's always good to write those questions down and consult them at then end of the interview to make sure everything you want to know is covered as well.

I'm not a professional interviewer and these techniques may not work for everyone. You may get asked a completely different set of questions to the ones listed here. I'm just sharing what I've learnt, the types of questions I've been asked and a few tips from personal experience in the hope that it will help you be prepared for future interviews. If you have examples of other interesting interview questions, please leave them in the comments box below!

Cape Town SAGirlEng Event

Last Saturday my colleague and I had the privilege of going to speak in Cape Town for the Western Cape SAGirlEng event that was held at UCT.

SAGirlEng is a branch of the SAWomEng initiative which was started by Mabohlale Addae and Naadiya Moosajee in 2005 with the aim of encouraging more female involvement in the engineering sector. It's an NGO and has a few different branches:

SAWomEng GirlEng - aims to expose high school girls to the idea of engineering as a career through information sessions, workshops and mentorship sessions with university students.

SAWomEng Conference - university students from across the country come together to participate in team driven projects which cover social and engineering problems and require the teams to come up with an engineering solution to these problems. The students are also exposed to different sponsors of WomEng, meet other females who are actively involved in the industry and network with fellow lady engineers.

SAWomEng@Network - allows practicing female engineers to network and acts as a means of guidance for career development as well as encouraging them to carry on pursuing a career in the engineering field.

Click here to find out more about the SAWomEng initiative.

We were asked to give a presentation at the GirlEng workshop event and included information on the different types of engineering and how engineers fit into our company as a lot of girls at high school don't really know the different types of engineering options that they have. We were able to expose them to the different types of engineers that we use in our company and give them a few details on what the different types of jobs involve. There was also a presentation given by a representative from the CBEm(Council for the Built Environment) which was extremely informative. You can read more about them here. After the presentations there were lots of questions from both the high school girls as well as their university level mentors. They ranged in topic, some were technical, some were general, but all of the questions allowed us to uncover a bit more about engineering, the "working world" and what it was all about.

This was my first interaction with SAWomEng and I really think that this organisation has an amazing idea, so much so that I've just completed my registration with them! Encouraging more girls to enter into a technical degree is something that I feel incredible strongly about - I only wish that I had had proper information on what engineering was about while I was at high school. I fell into engineering through chance and "luck" - imagine how many more people would pursue a career in engineering if they were exposed to it at a high school level!

Take a peek at some of the pics below that I took at the event :)

Hat Decorating

More Hat Decorating

In my pink hat after decorating.
I had a lovely time chatting to some of
the young ladies who attended the event.

SAWomEng - thanks for such a great event!
I look forward to the coming events