Individual Awards Training

Awards & Recognition CommitteeKristin Ramey– ChairJennifer Morikawa– Chair-ElectSpring 2011

Questions

• The Training Presentation will be posted on www.swe.org under Awards & Competitions, Individual Awards & Recognitions.• Title: Individual Awards Training Presentation

• A replay of this event will be available as well

Agenda

• General Information• Awards• How To Complete a Nomination• Responsibilities of a Nominator • Notification & Feedback• Tips to Applying• Points of Clarification• Questions

General Information

• 14 categories of awards• Eligibility is specific to each award• Each award includes a ‘Nomination

Checklist’

Awards

No SWE Requirement• Achievement • Upward Mobility • Resnik Challenger Medal• Rodney D. Chipp Memorial • Work Life Balance • Emerging Leader

SWE Requirement• Distinguished

Engineering Educator • Distinguished New

Engineer • Fellow Grade• Distinguished Service• Entrepreneur

Awards

Collegiate Requirement• Collegiate Member• Faculty Advisor • SWE Counselor

How To Complete a Nomination

• Go to www.swe.org/individualawards • Use the ‘Award Guide’ to select the award

that best suits the candidate• Verify the candidate meets the

‘Qualification’ requirements• Collect all items listed in the ‘Nomination

Checklist’ for the award selected• Submit the entire nomination package to

SWE HQ at awards@swe.org by March 31

How To Complete a Nomination

• Important Information• All packages are to be submitted electronically in a Microsoft

Word or PDF format.• Individuals are only allowed to receive ONE award per year.• If an individual is being nominated for more than one award a

separate package specific to the award criteria for each award is required.

• Incomplete nomination packages or nomination packages that exceed the requirements will be disqualified.

• Failing to include all required letters of support will disqualify the nomination package. Letters MUST have a signature!

• Review the ‘Nomination Checklist’ to successfully complete a nomination package.

Responsibilities of a Nominator

• Submit a complete nomination package to SWE HQ at awards@swe.org by March 31.

• Accurately complete the nomination form.• Confirm the phone number and email address provided for

both the nominee and nominator are current and correct. This information will be used throughout the judging process and for notification purposes (March - July).

• Inform the nominee of the result of their nomination. • Request feedback from the Awards Chair.• Discuss feedback with the nominee.

THE NOMINATOR IS THE POINT OF CONTACT BETWEEN SWE AND THE NOMINEE

Notifications & Feedback• Recipients will be announced at the WE11 Annual

Conference for Women Engineers in Chicago, IL in October.

• Notifications will be made to nominators starting July 1. • If notification is not received by July 15, nominators are

asked to contact the Awards Chair at awards-chair@swe.org. • NOTE: It is important that nominators confirm that the phone

number and email address provided on the nomination form is current and correct for both the nominee and nominator.

• If possible, check Junk Mail areas as Company Security Filters are a known source of a notification issue

• Feedback will be provided to nominators at the nominator’s request after July 15.

• To request feedback on a nomination packet please send an email to awards-chair@swe.org.

Tips to Applying

• Nominations are limited to 3,500 words• Include applicable information but be concise; don’t

add additional language just to meet the word limit.

• Discuss all ‘Selection Criteria’• Nominators can collect all documentation and

submit as one package.• Nomination Form, Formal Statement, Resumes, Photo,

Biography, and Letters of Support.

• If you have questions, ask them.

Changes to the Nomination Form

Calculating Experience

• We have added an area to the nomination form to calculate years of experience

• This will help the review process

Some Frequently Asked Questions

• How do advanced degrees count towards experience?

• Each advanced technical degree obtained will count as 1 year towards your experience.

• Is it necessary to obtain new Letters of Support each year if we are resubmitting a candidate?

• If the nomination is more than one year old, we recommend securing up-to-date letters of support, as we would like the information to be as current as possible. We understand that many of the same supporters may be asked to submit new letters, however, this gives the nominator a good opportunity to solicit additional and/or new sponsors for letters of support. If the nomination was submitted in the previous awards cycle, the existing letters of support may be resubmitted, if they are no more than one year old.

Some Frequently Asked Questions

• Does Co-op time count towards number of year’s experience?• Co-op time will not be used to count towards years of

experience.

• Do we accept submissions from International candidates? Do they have to work in the U.S to be considered?• We will accept submissions from International candidates as

long as they meet the requirements stated within the award criteria.

What do you mean by Signed Letters of Recommendation?

• We need to ensure the letter of recommendation comes from the person who is sending in their support for a candidate. Here are the acceptable forms of a “signed” letter.1. PDF/Word Document/Scanned .jpg with Recommender’s Signature2. PDF or .jpg of email chain to nominator showing electronic letter

came from recommender(s)

More Frequently Asked Questions Are Available After the Questions Slide for Your Reference

More Frequently Asked Questions

Questions Related to Nominators

• Does the Nominator have to be a SWE member?• No, the nominator is not required to be a member

• Can I Nominate myself?• No, we prefer that you find someone to be your nominator

to be another point of contact. You can ask your local SWE organization (Section, Member-At-Large Organization, Region) or someone at your company to nominate you.

• Can a Nominee Request Feedback after they are notified of the results?• Yes, but it is preferred to work with the nominator as

sometimes it is the nominators who may need the feedback.

Does the candidate have to have an engineering degree?

• Please review the awards packet for each award’s specific qualifications• Here are answers to a few awards seeking more

clarification• Emerging Leader – No, as long as she has been

working/actively engaged in an engineering or technology profession

• Collegiate Member Awards – No, as long as she qualifies for SWE membership and is a member, she can be nominated

Do the following count toward years of experience?

• What about the time I worked as an intern or co-op? My service record counts it.

• What if I worked part-time and I got paid by my company while I went to school?• Can I count my part-time work for 2 years as 1

year since I worked 20hrs/week for those 2 years?

No, experience for SWE Awards is counted asfull-time, post-graduate work only. We donot count part time work, internships or co-op experience. Periods of unemployment are also not counted.

Does my MBA count toward my years of experience?

• No, an MBA does not count for an additional year of experience

Calculating Years of Experience Example

Scenario 1: • Bachelors Degree

• Interned for 2 semesters for company (company service time counts as 6 months)

• Worked 4 years full time• Went back to school for

Technical PhD full time / worked part time for 4 years

• Worked 3 years full time afterwards

• Technical Masters Degree obtained counts as 1 year

• Technical PhD only counts as 1 year

Total = 9 years of work experience

Scenario 2:• Bachelors Degree• Worked 4 years full time• Went school part time for

Masters in Engineering and worked full time for 3 years

• Went to school part time for Masters in Business Administration and worked full time for 2 years

• Stay-at-home mom for 1 year• Worked for 3 years after degrees

Total = 13 years of work experience

What is a SWE Resume?• A SWE Resume is basically a resume of all the activities, projects,

leadership positions your candidate may have done in SWE on the local, regional, and national levels.

• The separate SWE resume is to provide the judges with more information that the normal resume may not contain as not everyone can fit all their SWE participation on their job resume. (Also helps to reduce formal statement word count on SWE activities down and talk more about other criteria for those awards which require a SWE resume)

• SWE Resume not required for ALL of the awards, please see the criteria for each award.• Recommended for those awards that require SWE involvement

such as the Distinguished New Engineer and Distinguished Service Awards.

• Do not include if the criteria does not require it

If the company is a member, is the employee a SWE member?

• Full Question: If an individual is employed by a corporation that is a member, but that individual is not a member themselves, are they eligible for the SWE membership required awards?

No, the individual is not considered a member. We verify that by checking their membership number. Corporate Members of SWE are allotted a certain number of memberships that they can be assign to their employees. If the candidate was not given one of those corporate memberships, she will need to sign up as a SWE member prior to submitting her application.

Recommendations for companies who are pulling together submissions

• Full Question: Any recommendations for Universities, government agencies, small engineering firms, etc. in making submissions / nominations?• Work with your local SWE section officers, members who work for your

company. They may understand the organization better than the company designee to pull award packets together to find suitable candidates

• www.swe.org , click on Local Sections and navigate down to find a local section’s website or click on the Region and email the Region to help provide you with a contact.

• Compare potential candidates to bios found of previous recipients• Work with your potential candidate as you may need her/his help

gathering the right information• Companies who may have had a previous recipient – compare the

format, content of the previous package and cross-check to the award’s current criteria.

Tips for providing an outstanding submission

For All Individual Awards• Make sure a person not in the particular industry of the candidate can

understand the packet• Judging is based on the information presented/not if the judge happens to

know the candidate• Measureable information in the formal statement can help show judges

the impact of the candidate to their company/industry

• Resume should be set up as if one were to use it to get a new job• Be careful of long paragraphs in the resume• Dates of work experience clear (month/year) to help validate work

experience for the nominators and coordinators

• Address the criteria listed for the award in the formal statement. Items found on the resume may not always have to be talked about in infinite detail. Quality is more important as judging takes time over quantity.

Tips for providing an outstanding submission

For All Individual Awards (Continued)• Provide the documentation that was asked for (not more, not less)

• Quality is more important than quantity, ensure appropriate letters of recommendations are included

• Use the checklist for a guideline

For Rodney D. Chipp Memorial Award• Individual Candidates for the Award have been traditionally stronger

than submissions for departments/organizations/companies.

Is There More Credit Given for More Recommendations?

• No, we are looking for quality vs. quantity for the letters. However, do provide the required number of recommendations and from the outlined criteria for the award. • For example some awards require the person’s local SWE

Section to provide a letter, while others require one from a Team Member.

• More recommendations than the allotted also gets a candidate removed from the competition