We Are Intel
Learn about Intel culture and the individuals who do something wonderful everyday
1003 Discussions

Intel Events: NSHMBA was a blast and SHPE is up next!

Not applicable
0 0 176
Intel boothYou know that saying, “There’s always a first time for everything”? Well, it’s true. Preparing to attend my first diversity conference, NSHMBA (National Society of Hispanic MBAs), I didn’t quite know what to expect. I had been to Chicago, IL several times before so I was prepared for the “windy city”, which by the way had gorgeous weather, but seeing all of the excited and eager faces of those looking for jobs was certainly an eye-opening experience. Sure, I had been to conventions before, but never one that had a specific focus on recruiting. And, with the current economic state, I think that was a big reason why there were over 8,000 MBAs and professionals attending the conference eagerly vying for jobs with some of the large companies, including Intel.

Even though I’ve worked for Intel for 10 years (my anniversary was actually this past weekend ), I didn’t actually know most of the 20+ Intel employees who attended the conference with me. So, I got to meet several of my co-workers from across the country (and even one from Intel Brazil!) and see our new “Faces of Brilliant” booth for the very first time. I must say that I was very impressed with both! Our recruiters, from SMG (Sales and Marketing Group), Finance, TMG (Technology and Manufacturing Group) and HR (Human Resources) did a fantastic job of covering the booth, presenting in both of our company information sessions, and narrowing down the long list of potential candidates, who will hopefully be joining our team of “rock stars” soon.

Netbook winnerI am extremely proud to work for Intel, if you can’t tell, and just when I thought I couldn’t be more impressed with our company, it happened. During our second company information session Friday afternoon my coworkers presented their materials to the audience of ~45 potential candidates and we held our drawing to give away an Intel Atom Netbook (see photo on right) and three Amex gift cards to the attendees. And, boy were they excited! We then asked all 45 attendees to stand at the front of the room for a photo and had them belt out that famous Intel tune, “bong---bong-bong-bong”. It was great! And, as a result, I had two people come up to me afterwards and personally tell me that our team was the most exciting, energetic group of recruiters they had seen at the conference and that they could tell that we were like a big family. They said that that was the clincher to make them want to come work for Intel!

Earlier, I mentioned there’s a first time for everything, right? Well, my job at this conference was primarily as the public relations rep. (i.e. Photography, video coverage, tweeting and of course blogging). And since I had never done that before, I was a bit nervous. I wanted to make sure that I covered every possible aspect of the conference from our exciting new booth, the thousands of attendees, our team dinner, our company information sessions, hospitality suite, etc. Tweeting was never something that I became interested in doing. I’ve just barely gotten started with Facebook! Being a Gen X’er, I never saw the importance or relevance of tweeting until attending a conference with a bunch of Gen Y’ers. (Truthfully, I felt like a dinosaur while getting a crash course on using Twitter from one of my Gen Y coworkers.) But, once I started tweeting and seeing the tweets from other companies and MBA students alike over the course of the two days, I finally started to see the huge following and how tweeting really does work to draw in the masses, when you want it to. (Follow us! @Intel_Diversity)

First time experiences can be nerve-wracking at first, but after all is said and done, they usually turn out to be very exciting. This is certainly one that I will never forget! NSHMBA came and went, and what a blast it was! We'll be at SHPE (Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers) in Cincinnati this week! Be sure to come by our booth, 1611!