This short blog continues to present the answers of the following questions to members of ComSoc YP:
- How was their overall experience of being a YP volunteer for the last two years? Did they work in a team or as an individual?
- What has been their favorite part of being a YP volunteer?
- What they learnt as a YP volunteer? In what ways they were able to give back to the society?
- Which project they see was (more) impactful in the last two years?
- Discuss a time when they implemented feedback. What they see has to be done further as a YP team and their suggestions for 2022?
Debashri – Team Member
Project Involvement – ComSoc YP Awards Organizer/ Event Organizer
- I volunteered for last 8 months or so. It was a great experience for me as well to connect with such diverse set of energetic young professionals. I worked mostly in teams with other volunteers.
- To represent YP to other people and talk about our activities.
- I learnt how to efficiently communicate with team or other people. I was mainly looking at possibility of using a new award platform for the ComSoc YP award. I am also volunteering for organizing a fireside chat event at CCNC 2022.
- Webinars and conference events.
- I considered Shashank’s feedback on how to formulate the questions of our need while looking into different awards platforms. She also agreed with Shashank’s comments and suggested more outreach in more IEEE events.
Marco – Team Member
Project Involvement – Webinar Organizer
- The organization of webinars and other events involves a great team work for finding speakers, preparing flyers, broadcasting advertisements through our networks, and moderate the events.
- Collaborating with people with diverse technical and cultural backgrounds from different societies and IEEE communities, which promoted my personal growth and skills. Moreover, while organizing webinars and online events, I have had the opportunity to meet and get in touch with top-level researchers, professors, and professionals, thereby increasing my network of contacts.
- As a researcher, I’m quite used to speaking in public to present the results of my work, or discuss my research with other colleagues. However, as a YP volunteer, I also learnt how to moderate events, and improved my confidence when speaking in public in front of a large audience. Among other activities I promoted as a YP volunteer, I am particularly proud to have organized an industry panel gathering together senior representatives from top-level telecommunication companies from all over the world. I hope this event was the opportunity for YPs to “think outside the box,” and become familiar with some of the topics that telecom industries (their potential future employers) are exploring.
- Events
5. In the attempt to make webinars and events as much inclusive as possible, I considered Shashank’s feedback to invite speakers from Asia, which had been unrepresented in the past. However, work isn’t done yet, as we still need to reach out to speakers in Latin America, as well as include more female researchers and engineers. I’ve been a YP volunteer for only a year now, but unfortunately I haven’t had yet the opportunity to meet in person with any of my “colleagues,” mainly due to COVID. I think it would be important, if the situation permits, to organize more initiatives to promote team building. Also, it would be nice to start organizing more “live/in person” events to conferences and workshops, that could stimulate more social interactions not only among YP volunteers, but also with the YP audience.
Imran – Team Member
Project Involvement – Webinars
- A very good experience. Worked individually for 60% of the time and then as a team for the remaining 40%.
- Networking while learning from experts and sharing my expertise with learners.
- Generating innovative ideas for YPs, which I was able to give back via fireside chats and industrial panel.
- Webinars and Flagship conference event
- In future, I would like to suggest expand / grow towards regional ComSoc YP teams and/or towards YP-SIGs that may be linked with main SIGs. Topics-based YP-focused summer schools.
Joseanne – Team Member
Project Involvement – Partnerships and diversity management
- I am a volunteer for 3 months now. I had the opportunity to network with young professional member at Globecom 2021 and it was a good experience for me. So far I have worked individually
- My favorite aspect is seeing how enthusiastic this organization is about promoting activities that are relevant to young professionals.
- Learning how to engage people and industries in topics related to young professionals important for both sides is a significant part of my professional development.
- N/A
- In future, Increase social media engagement by creating relevant material that is targeted young professionals and industries.
Shashi – Member-at-Large
Project Involvement – Online contents, ComSoc YP blogs, YP events
- I have been with YP as a volunteer for the last two years. It has been a unique experience altogether. Great team, diverse projects and incredible learning experiences and opportunities. I am glad, together with excellent feedback from the team, the workflow for the YP blogs is all set. We can reach out to a larger audience with fresh online content related to significant research works, involved thought processes, YP events, awards, webinars, conferences and such.
- Opportunities to learn from an excellent and diverse team of young professionals, getting involved in organizing (and even leading some of the) YP events at the flagship ComSoc conferences helped me improve my soft skills and expand my professional networks.
- Communication skills, interacting and engaging with a larger audience helped me empower my leadership abilities, gain confidence and clarity in expressions. As a part of giving back, I try to reach out to experts for the online content, making these resources easily accessible and simplified for a larger audience.
- Conference events, webinars
5. I revised the organization of blogs, the guidelines and workflow for publishing it following Shashank’s feedback in the initial days of starting YP blogs. I implemented valuable inputs/ experiences of Shashank while hosting YP awards in 2020 and upon my interaction with potential contributors for the blog. Reaching out to young professionals in the deprived regions and communities; building stronger YP presence via peer-to-peer engagement, university-level mini activities, webinars and student projects.
**Statements and opinions given in this blog are the expressions of the contributor(s). Responsibility for the content of published articles rests upon the contributor(s), not on the IEEE Communication Society or the IEEE Communications Society Young Professionals
