HR Pathways: You Can Never Learn Too Much

Hey all! It has been just over 9 months now since I began my first day of work at Intel as an CG in the HR Pathways program. Time sure does fly! If you recall from my initial blog post, I wrote about the new employee integration process that’s in place to help bright-eyed new hires gain traction and seamlessly integrate into the workplace. Inherent in much of that early learning was a deep focus on the fundamentals such as understanding Intel’s values, business, and most importantly; where are the massage chairs?!

While I wouldn’t say that I’m completely done learning “the basics”, my development has shifted to more focused issues such as: career development, understanding the high tech business environment, and broadening my HR knowledge and skill set. With that said, I’ve been impressed with the seemingly endless amount of learning resources that are available at Intel and I’d like share a few that I’ve found useful with you!

Coming out of college my knowledge of the high-tech industry was pretty limited. Interning in the financial services and retail industries while in college gave me broad business exposure but I remember thinking to myself “what in the world is this cloud computingstuff?!!”

In my quest to become a Silicon Valley “expert”, I found a faithful friend in the Intel Library. No, Intel doesn’t have its own brick and mortar library on campus, but it does have a great web portal where you can subscribe to multiple digests that e-mail you daily reports on news topics from around the industry. You can also “check out” online books on topics ranging from people management to integrated silicon optoelectronics. Along with the library, many organizations offer “Tech Talks” where a fellow or someone from the business will give a presentation on their group or a project they’re working on. These talks are great for really learning the nuts and bolts of how some of our business groups operate. My favorite thus far has been a presentation I observed on the work Intel is doing in Eco-Technology Innovation(i.e. using technology to become a greener population while making a buck or two in the process).

When it comes to increasing my HR specific knowledge, the HR Pathways Rotation Program in it of itself has been a great resource to that end. Just last week I began my third and final rotation in our Compensation and Benefits organization after completing my last rotation in Business Group HR. It’s one thing to read about how to practice employee relations, it’s another ball game to actually do it. Rotating through such diverse organizations has given me the opportunity to learn multiple functions while simultaneously stretching my skills and abilities.

And finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention coursework in a blog about continual learning. Yep Intel offers classes too. On-the-job learning is the focus of our corporate learning strategy, but Intel’s Learning and Development organization also offers a wide-ranging set of 250 classes for employees to enroll in. The classes are taught in a variety of ways (web-based, instructor-led, etc) and will aide you in your personal growth and development as you progress in your career. For example a career development workshop is offered to help you think about what exactly you want to get out of your career in both the short and long term.

This is just a select sampling of course of the many resources available inside Intel to assist you in continual learning and development. Whether you’re a college grad with limited exposure or a 15 year industry pro, I think it’s safe to say that the learning never ends!