COVID-19 has disrupted the college experience in countless ways, cutting off students’ access to resources and community during a crucial period of personal and professional growth. The loss of in-person learning and mentorship through internship, research, industry panel, and student group experiences doubtless produces ever-greater challenges to students searching for career direction.
We hope to combat this in some small measure by convening a virtual career panel series available to Berkeley Mechanical Engineering students in Spring 2021. The series will cover a broad variety of industry careers available to ME graduates, with the aim of providing an open forum to students. Topics covered may include daily life, technical skills, career development and job search strategies, and finding passion.
The career panel will take place on Fridays from 1-2 PM via Zoom. There will be a different topic every week from February 5 to April 30 (excluding Spring break).
Spring 2021 Career Panel Series
| Date | Topic | Panelists |
| 2/5 | Session 1: Automation (vehicles and robotics) | Christopher Daily-Diamond (PhD 2017) Sarah Koehler (PhD 2016) Jason Kong (MS 2014) Alyssa Scheske (BS 2017) |
| 2/12 | Session 2: Navigating the job market during Covid-19 pandemic | Sharon Geraldine (BS 2016) Tiffany Hou (BS 2018) Nihal Murthy (BS 2007) Octavio Narvaez-Aroche (PhD 2019) |
| 2/19 | Session 3: Research laboratories | Katherine Dunphy Guzman (PhD 2004) Rishi Ganeriwala (PhD 2015) Maribel Jaquez (PhD 2019) |
| 2/26 | Session 4: Health technology and life sciences | Lee-Huang Chen (PhD 2016) Spencer Frank (PhD 2017) Peter Nakamoto (BS 2014) |
| 3/5 | Session 5: Energy and infrastructure | Tiffany Hou (BS 2018) Ryan Liu (BS 2013) Vineet Jagadeesan Nair (BS 2018) |
| 3/12 | Session 6: Engineering consulting | Farzana Ansari (PhD 2015) Arjun Dave (BS 2018) Alireza Lahijanian (MS 2011) |
| 3/19 | Session 7: Startups (founders) | Vince Romanin (PhD 2012) Charvi Shetty (MS 2013) Xiao Xiao (PhD 2008) |
| 4/2 | Session 8: Startups (employees) | Elina Lin (BS 2013) Shih-Yuan Liu (PhD 2014) Patrick Savidge (MS 2018) |
| 4/9 | Session 9: Aerospace | Michael Nill (MS 2013) Jake Olivas (BS 2014) Sawan Tiwari (BS 2014) Ling Wang (MS 2014) |
| 4/16 | Session 10: Automotive | Chris Meissen (PhD 2017) Monica Mohal (BS 2014) Nihal Murthy (BS 2007) Felix Yoon (BS 2017) |
| 4/23 | Session 11: Consumer electronic product design | Ennzhi Chew (BS 2017) Lucas Filshill (BS 2019) Robert Luan (BS 2013) |
| 4/30 | Session 12: Semiconductor | Melinda Chen (BS 2013) Maribel Jaquez (PhD 2019) Raechel Tan (PhD 2016) |