NAAAP Professional Development Conference in “HOT-lanta”: A great way to network & make life-long connections
Posted Thursday, September 06 2007 by The JobsBloggersBy: Ginny Cheng
As technology continues to accelerate our pace, it often makes us feel there’s never enough time to start or complete everything we want to do. And, personal development opportunities outside of work (conferences, training and volunteering) often get put on the back burners.
But, the desire to connect and meet people that offer different perspectives for your career path is still there. So instead, we look for other venues like social utility sites to “connect” with other professionals.
While social networking is one way to get those connections, I would say the value of offline activities, whether that’s being part of the SWE (Society of Women Engineers) board in college, a marketing organization, or affinity groups, is priceless. It’s not just because it looks great to a recruiter (although it wouldn’t hurt), but because you’ll find the experience you gain or the people that end up being part of your “network” will lead you to other opportunities. Maybe even that next dream job of yours!
For the second year in a row, Microsoft sponsored the National Association of Asian American Professional Conference (NAAAP) held in Atlanta, Georgia, August 16-19th. Last year’s conference was in Seattle.
The 21st Annual Conference: Catalyst for Growth: Awareness, Opportunity, Leadership -- attracted hundreds of professionals, mostly of Asian/Indian background across the US and Canada and gave us an opportunity to be inspired by many presenters, including the key note speaker, US Secretary of Labor, the Honorable Elaine Chao.
I, along with 4 other employees (Mylene Padolina, Gil Gido, Mrigankka Fotedar, Gildas Cheung), had the honor of representing Microsoft as attendees and volunteers for the Diversity Career Fair where many “Who’s Who” of companies showed up to recruit. More than 50 participated including Coca-Cola, JP Morgan, Dell, Nike, Motorola, Walt-Disney, Proctor & Gamble, KPMG, Citigroup, the FBI & CIA to name a few.
For those that visited the Microsoft booth, thanks for stopping by!
In addition, the conference once again offered great interactive speaker and panel sessions ranging from leadership development to starting you own business, and from giving back to the community to building your personal wealth.
The conference, lead by the Atlanta NAAAP chapter, had a team of 50 planning committee volunteers and was for the first time in NAAAP’s history, hosted by a Southeastern chapter. Next year will be LA’s turn!
Of course behind the scenes at Microsoft, a special thank you goes out to Kelly Adamson for her wonderful Marcom/Collateral support!
This was a great experience for me and I highly recommend that you make the time to attend a professional development conference in the future.
- Ginny
6 commentsTagged as: inside-microsoft-recruiting, college-recruiting, industry-recruiting, ginny
Comments
It's really great that Microsoft participates in these diversity related events - is there an easy place where we can get information on all the conferences Microsoft will be sponsoring/attending for the year?
I'll bet their afraid to come to Canada... Bawk Bawk Bawk!
All that cold and snow and bitter ice. And that's just July!
Just kidding about... ;)
We all know that it's coldest in August.
Where's more Microsoft employees? I hear MS has a huge population of Asians that I would love to meet in a casual setting to get a better sense of life at MS. These conferences provide a great way to meet other professionals to talk about the high's and low's of life at different companies without the hard sell of recruiters.
To know that MS supports the development of their professionals in these diverse conferences is a plus for the company. I look forward to meeting more MS employees and perhaps find my way to MS.
Hi Ginny, it was nice to finally meet you in person at the NAAAP National Convention. You were very friendly and easy to speak to, and I enjoyed chatting with you and learning more about Microsoft. It was great to see Microsoft’s continuous participation in the diversity career fair. It really shows that Microsoft cares especially because you do not have an office in Atlanta. Thanks so much for your support and hope to see you again at the convention in Los Angeles next year!
I think it is great that Microsoft shows support for and participates in diversity events like this. Diversity is important and I'm glad that Microsoft feels that way. I would hope that they also do similar events for minorities of different ethic backgrounds. Is there a place to find that information?
Here are some of the diversity conferences that Microsoft is sponsoring this fall!
9/11/07 - National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA)
10/04/07 - National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA)
10/25/07 - Society of Women Engineers (SWE)
10/31/07 - Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE)
2008 National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE)
For a complete list, check out: http://www.microsoft.com/about/diversity/programs/events.mspx