Sample Essay On Seminar Memo

On February 13, 2014, we had the pleasure of hosting Mr. Terry Rector in our SELP 694 seminar class. Mr. Terry Rector comes from the small southern town of Yazoo City, Mississippi. What I liked about Mr. Rector is that, despite his aversion to go to school, he showed a lot of character. A very hard working innovator, Mr. Rector, throwing caution to the wind, invented a ‘UFO’ detector and home-automation devices while in school. After graduating from Yazoo City County High School, Mr. Rector joined the U.S Air Force. After two years of training, he was assigned to NASA’s Shuttle program, where he conducted para-rescue operations whenever problems with launches occurred. He married at the young age of 19, taking the responsibility to have a family, and finally, 20 years later, he retired. He has traveled widely to work, representing the Air Force and Intel. His list of academic achievements includes a BS Degree in Electronics Engineering from the Southern Illinois University, Carbondale II, an MS in Space Systems (Commercial &Defense from the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, and an MS in Management of Technology, with focus on Program Management and Disruptive Technologies. In the field of research, Terry was involved in Data management, certification, and transmission, development of small satellite technologies; commercial/civil multi rotor ISR platforms and sensor technologies; and robotics.
There were a lot of important points that I learned from Mr. Rector’s speech. The points that impressed me the most were, his view on the importance to remain safe when working with high voltage or current electronics, always be open to learning new things, give credit to what others say, and finally, reciprocate by giving back what you learned. However, the one point that really influenced me was the need for people to understand what their needs are to manage their lives better. Talking about Systems Engineers (SEs), Terry said that while they demonstrated competence, they needed to look at opportunities in management, supervision, training, policy & procedure development activities to grow. To transition to Engineering Management, these Systems Engineers needed to become great motivators, good communicators, and most importantly, be open to learning processes. To transit from SEs to Business Managers, SEs needs to understand how business is generated, understand customer needs, and study competition. Finally, SEs need to find out where the money is and what is required to stay in the business long-term.
Considering the above views expressed by Mr. Terry Rector, I have understood the points that can make me live a better life. I also understand that success in business comes from the collective views and opinions of others. I need to identify what is best for me and my organization and work toward it. There is a lot for me to learn, because the minute I feel that I have learned everything, my organization will fail. Every day should be a learning process and whatever I learn from it, I should share it with others so that they too can become better business managers.