For some Cal Poly students, networking can mean a few minutes of small talk at a career fair. But Cal Poly’s Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is challenging the status quo.
Instead of students moving from table to table, résumé in hand, SWE brings students and industry representatives together over dinner at its 51st annual Evening With Industry (EWI), held Sept. 16 at the Madonna Inn Expo Center.
Sarah Chung, this year’s events chair, said the dinner setting changes the way people connect.
“The conversation over dinner creates a different type of intimacy where you’re not forced to just be like, talking, talking, talking, talking, like, ‘Oh no, I only have like 10 more seconds.’ It’s over the span of a few hours,” Chung said.
Selene Ruiz, a second-year mechanical engineering student and first-time attendee, said the event made networking feel less intimidating.
“Networking sounds really scary when you first think about it, but coming out here, it’s really just having conversations with people, and you just [have] to be yourself and then put yourself out there,” Ruiz said.
The event also gives students a chance to connect with other women in engineering.
Amberly Woolley, a third-year industrial engineering student, has attended EWI before.
“Every year I’ve had an amazing time at this event, not only with some of the industry reps who come and visit, but also with my fellow women in engineering,” Woolley said.
Kaylee Wong, EWI’s corporate director, said that sense of community sets the event apart from a traditional career fair.
“The message behind EWI isn’t primarily just all about networking. Career fair is all about career networking. You’re not really talking and getting to know people, and there’s no spirit behind career fair,” Wong said.
This year’s event theme was “World of Wonder,” focusing on sustainable solutions in engineering, and inspired by Wong and Chung’s experience abroad last year.
Chung said the theme reflected the role engineers can play in shaping the future.
“I think we just are both very conscious of engineering and the role that we can play in either creating sustainable solutions that help environmental security for the future, or we could be creating, like, detrimental things that have lasting impacts,” Chung said.
The connections also extend beyond students and industry representatives. Wong said seeing women in leadership positions can help students feel a greater sense of belonging in engineering.
“Just being able to see women in positions of power and leadership roles at Cal Poly was not only super comforting, but also really, really inspirational,” Wong said.
This year, event organizers faced an additional challenge as Cal Poly transitioned from quarters to semesters.
EWI is typically scheduled around Cal Poly’s career fairs, allowing SWE to connect with industry representatives already visiting campus. Previously held around the winter career fair, EWI moved to the fall to align with the university’s new fall and spring career fair schedule.
Chung said the change made it more difficult to finalize the guest list ahead of the event.
“We want ideally to have our guest lists finalized, like, a week before, a couple weeks before, but because we signed up week three, it was like, ‘Oh, like, wow, how are we going to do that?’ And it was a bit of a scramble,” Chung said.
Despite the shorter timeline, the event sold out, with students filling tables across the Expo.
For first-time attendees like Ruiz, the event offered more than an opportunity to make industry connections.
“Being in programs like this, you get to, like, connect with others and see that you aren’t the only one and you are capable of being a woman in engineering,” Ruiz said.