Leap Graduation
Congratulations to Jaclyn for completing the Leadership in Engineering Administration Program (LEAP) through ACEC Arizona. LEAP is a 6-month long career development program for young engineers that covers topics such as leadership, communication skills, project scoping, risk management and project management.
Upon her successful completion of the program, we asked Jaclyn a little bit about her experience. Here is our Q&A with her:
Q: What was the most challenging part of LEAP?
A: I would say that speaking in front of a large audience was the most challenging part for me. I am not very comfortable speaking in front of crowds in general, and then when you mix that with the fact that I had to speak on topics that were not my expertise, in front of others who were very educated in them, I felt very challenged.
Q: What was your favorite part of LEAP?
A: I really enjoyed collaborating with my mock interview presentation team before the final class. We had several team meetings to prepare for it and we ended up winning. It was really fun to get to know other young professionals in a similar job position as mine but in different cities and disciplines. The variety made it fun to collaborate and learn from each other.
Q: What is something you learned that you have already applied to your career?
A: There are a lot of things! Two big ones come to mind. The first one is that I now write job proposals differently. I have improved the way I pitch them to clients, while also fine-tuning them to be more upfront about the scope of services we offer. The second one is that I’ve learned how to adjust how I communicate with certain people based on their own communication styles. Using the same communication style makes things much more efficient and clear with everyone I interact with.
Read more about LEAP at the ACEC Arizona website.