our third speaker is Edgar Ramirez who
will guide our review of professionalism
and work ethic Edgar Ramirez is a
manufacturing engineer at inovio
pharmaceuticals a company whose goal is
to deliver novel DNA based
immunotherapies to combat cancer and
infectious disease before embarking on
his professional ventures Edgar was an
SDSU amp mentee who was trying to help
those in need through various research
and development projects around the
world these projects included assisting
the elderly population in Taiwan to
combat degenerative disease helping
paraplegics regain movement right here
at home as well as enhancing the
survivability of big-wave surfers after
graduating and shortly after landing his
first engineering position Edgar decided
to become a mentor and support SDSU
students to move their careers forward
please welcome Edgar to the stage Wow
well thank you for that a really warm
applause I appreciate that
so I kind of drafted my presentation and
then I didn't really like it because it
seemed too corporate to be honest so
then I thought well I got it first
Google what professionalism kind of is
because I don't know the textbook
definition of it I'll be honest sorry so
then when I found out a really
interesting definition which is
professionalism is skill good judgment
and polite behavior that is expected for
someone who is trained to do their job
well so then I thought well I expect it
that word really picked my interests
here I thought well what constitutes
that expectation what is you know good
judgment and polite behavior and in a
good skill set as a professional you
probably right now for all you mentors
you're probably answering these
questions in your head because they're
pretty easy you have the experience you
have the background but what if you're a
student when I recently graduated in
2017
I was transitioning from a student
intern position into the real world
these questions were pretty tough to
answer and the honest response that's
because I think of students either
you're a student right now or you were a
student or you will become a student and
we have any young people around here the
reality is that we have an implicit
understanding what a professional is we
know what constitutes to be a
professional we know how they look like
you know no tattoos clean-shaved you
know nice haircut
well-dressed we have an implicit
understanding of how they look like I'm
a police and understanding of how to
conduct and we learned this because as
students early on we know that for them
how do I say this without sounding too
corporate
I guess sorry essentially you know the
norms and conventions of what
constitutes them and that to me didn't
seem natural it seemed really boxing the
creativity and what a professional is so
in my definition I redefine what
professionals meant to me and to me is
to show great character show the
greatest version of yourself in your
career and I think it's because I'm
seeing the room right now and I see many
different people many different faces
probably all have different stories how
we got here at this moment in time and
that should be in senshu it in
professionalism that should being
accentuated and for professionals
instead of being robotic and mundane and
and sorry for saying this but boring one
can be exciting and Ryan genuine and
intriguing it's all good so for me I
wish that when I had a class that kind
of taught this in school and that wasn't
really offered so instead of observing
and and role modeling as a student I had
to get my own experience my old trial
and error so a couple of examples I'm
gonna throw out there I learned about
time management and I learn about
sympathizing with people you know
emotional intelligence when I worked at
the rehabilitation lab at school I mean
I'm talking about people who had
difficult difficult lives and honestly I
one who needs to see him as a test
subject that's kind of hard to detach
you know and separate that inside want
to learn about speaking clearly and
concisely but most importantly is
speaking with passionately because if
you're in a conference for example it's
pretty easy to for them to realize that
you're probably pretty smart because
you're in a conference already but they
want to see the person behind that they
want to see the passion that drive why
are you talking about what you're
talking right now and just recently last
year as a forensic engineer other how to
evaluate and really really hone in the
idea of work value and work ethic
because for someone who is the kind of a
workaholic you kind of cinch in and your
ideas in your work and you don't really
appreciate how much do you do until
someone tells you until you see the
whole project scope so you know that's
something to think and I'm still trying
to grow into and comprehend that right
now but kind of to sinking in TMP all
these experiences that I've had I gained
myself but I didn't know how to name
them I didn't know how to apply them and
actually utilize them and that's where
my mentor came in and she really put
these things in categorizing themselves
it was really interesting to see how she
helped me with interviews and resumes
and how to network and how to actually
approach the professional industry and I
thought I was really unprepared for that
until she opened my and saying you know
you have the skills you just need to
know how to use them and that's I think
what's beautiful about the EMP program
itself which is all our mentors are so
giving and they have so much knowledge
and they want to pave the way for the
next generation of professionals that
kind of inspired me to do the same and
that's why I'm up here right now
and if anything I'll kind of end with
three takeaways of what you should do
and how what to take from professional
and worth epic which is number one show
great character show and use your
personality to pave the way for your own
career success because we all have
different ways
approach a certain career in position
and a job but we all have different
source how we got there number two
always learn to communicate and be open
to learning and Shane your experience
with the mentors and your mentees and
the reason I say it's because you don't
know how much value or actual
experiences are and so you communicate
them you don't know that for the way you
approach a class or the way you approach
an interview that might be a actually
really good experience for someone else
and number three know that there's
always room for growth and improvement
that's something I'm constantly learning
right now in my new job as a
manufacturing engineer how I have all
these skills I'm trying to apply them
through this new situation and try to
improve on them and then also teaching
my other peers you know to sometimes
take a chill pill if you're a workaholic
things like that and if anything thank
you guys for being so attentive and
thank you for listening to my
presentation
you
[Applause]