It only takes a moment to make an impact on someone’s life.
Before I walked into one of the large social events at last month’s Society of Women Engineers conference, I decided that particular event (with thousands of people) would be one where I intentionally sat with someone I didn’t know. This is something I encourage my children to do all the time; to look for the person in the cafeteria who is sitting by themselves, to look for the friend on the playground who has no one to play with, to look out for the new child in the class who doesn’t have anyone to talk to. I knew tons of people in the room from my over 20 years of involvement, but not everyone is as lucky. This was the event where I was going to put my money where my mouth was and model the uncomfortable behavior that I so often ask of my children.
As I entered the room, my eyes darted around looking for someone alone. This particular event was held in a giant ballroom that had mostly 8-10 top round tables. People were quickly getting settled and reserving entire tables for their friends who had not yet made it to the ballroom. Through thoughtful event planning, scattered amongst those big tables were a few smaller ones, and my eyes landed on a small round table with a 20-something year-old man sitting alone. He didn’t look uncomfortable or nervous, he was just looking through some papers in a folder (I assumed attempting to look busy), and I think I startled him when I asked if the extra seat at his table was taken. He said no and I quickly sat down and began to chat (that’s what I do). I introduced myself and asked what brought him to the conference. He told me that he was wrapping up his Master’s Degree and had traveled about three hours to the conference in an attempt to secure a job at Cummins. He wasn’t just someone looking for any job, he had a job in mind and he thought the best way to connect with recruiters from his target company was to attend the world's largest conference for female engineers when it just a few hours from his home.
He and I chatted for a moment about his time at the career fair and I asked to see his resume (something else I often do). This request may have been more shocking to him than the request to sit at his table, but he pulled out a copy. Over the next 15 minutes, several people that I knew came and sat with us. We moved chairs from other tables and quickly he was surrounded by a group of female leaders from a variety of industries. We brainstormed and decided the best way we could help him was to get a copy of his resume to one of our mutual contacts who, unfortunately, was super busy during that particular event.
What did I do? I took a picture of his resume and texted it to her. I knew she wouldn’t have a chance to look at it then, but when she saw it later, maybe it would be the introduction he needed to get the job. I didn’t know if I would ever speak to him again, but I asked him to keep me posted on his job hunt. Sure enough, he connected with me on LinkedIn on his way home that night, and just this week, I got this amazing message, “Hello Wendy, I hope everything is good at your end. I just want to let you know that I got an offer from Cummins. I am looking forward to working for them. Hope you have a good day!”
I was having a good day, but this note made it a great day. I may never know if that text made any impact, but what I do know is that my willingness to step away from my comfort zone allowed me to make a new connection and support him on his career journey. I hope he has a long, successful, and fulfilling career at Cummins!