Digital Brown Bag

I took this course in the Spring of 2021. Rather than a project-focused class, it was instead a weekly seminar in which we were visited by industry professionals who gave us insight into their professions, industry trends, and general life advice. These speakers included:

• Shep Ogden from Scout Social
• Kylie Dorton from Amazon Web Services
• Kevin Planovsky from Vert Digital
• Matthew Goings from Goings Legal
• Ananda Costa from Lockheed Martin
• Claire Bertram from Google
• Malinda Inthirath from DC Public Schools
• Matt Weisberger from World 50
• Abbey Miner & Rich Fabritius from VMLY&R
• Kaitlyn Fellows from Fellows Creative
• Rich Mazurek from Spirit Airlines
• Emily Dardaman from BrightHouse

Among the things they discussed where: how to pivot into the tech industry, how to maintain a consistent work schedule, how to make professional connections, and how to find  a job out of college.

Additionally, we were tasked with a small series of assignments to help us get prepared for life outside of college. For the ‘work prep’ assignments,  I chose to investigate my personality via TypeFocus, and provided a report on a company I was interested in interning with.

Personality Assessment

For the ‘continuing education’ portion, I analyzed my credit score via CreditKarma.com, and I detailed my own digital identity. For the latter, I reviewed the search results that came up with my name, how I handled my social media, what portfolios would be worthwhile models for me, and how I could best create my own portfolio.

Digital Identity

These assignments together made me more cognizant of my habits, how those habits affect me, what opportunities were out there for me, and how I could best apply myself as a worker. Additionally, I was tasked with listening to a podcast that pertained to a field I was interested in. I chose ‘PodCraft’, which taught me how to I could set up my first podcast (and with what equipment). While none of these tasks were particularly challenging, I found that they provided valuable perspective that I could carry with me beyond my undergrad experience. Though Covid-19 made my experience in this class more unusual compared to other classes, I found that it was an engaging and worthwhile seminar.

Podcast Review