HR With Heart: Preparing the Future, Not Just Hiring It

What if the future workforce isn’t just hired—but intentionally built?

In this episode, BGDE founder and CEO Kara Branch sits down with Kalynn Brown, a Human Resources Business Partner, to unpack what HR is really seeing behind the scenes when it comes to talent, skills, and the future of work—especially in STEM.

Kalynn brings a powerful perspective from the front lines of workforce development, where she partners with leaders and organizations to align people, performance, and long-term strategy. She shares insight into the growing skills gap, what employers are truly looking for beyond resumes, and why early exposure to STEM and real skill-building is critical for the next generation.

This conversation goes beyond hiring—it’s about preparation, access, and building pipelines that reflect the future we want to see.

If you’re a parent, educator, or leader thinking about how to prepare students for careers that are evolving in real time, this episode is for you.

🎧 Tune in for a real conversation about people, purpose, and preparing the future—before it arrives.

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:57

Welcome back to Black Girls Do Engineer Podcast. I'm Cara Branch, engineer and founder and CEO of Black Girls Do Engineer. Today's episode is one I've really been looking forward to because we'll be talking about the future of work from a perspective that doesn't always get enough credit. I'm joined by Kaitlin Brown, who is a human resource business partner who brings both strategy and heart to the work of building people, pipelines, and possibilities. This conversation is about why HR matters, who HR is really working for, the trend shaping the STEM workforce, and why preparing future leaders has to start long before a job offer is ever made. If you care about how students become employees and how employees become leaders, this episode is for you. So welcome, Caitlin, to the Black Girls Engineering podcast. Thank you. Thank you. Happy to be here. Absolutely. So this is going to be a great conversation that I'm very excited about. It just so happened to fall at the right time we're about to have this conversation. So I'm very excited to be able to talk about the importance of the workforce as we work to develop them as young as six year black girls do engineer, but also from your experience and your recommendations as well, and any greatness that you could provide from an HR perspective. So let's let the people know, my amazing listeners, a little bit more about you, like what first drew you to become a human resource business partner, and what does that mean for many people who have been listening?

SPEAKER_04 2:40

Absolutely. So yes, my name is Kaylin. I'm an HR business partner currently, but I have about eight years of experience in HR. I started my career off in talent acquisition and then became HR business partner about two years ago. In my current role, I work in the AEC industry and I serve as a strategic partner for various initiatives across the business, partnering with different business leaders, but also advocating for employees. So my role is very diverse. And to me, being an HR business partner means just really being a thought partner for both the business and the employee. For the business leaders, helping them anticipate challenges and make the right business decisions. But for the employee, also advocating for their psychological safety and just making sure they feel the workplace is fair and equitable. So I'm working for both the employee and the business.

SPEAKER_05 3:28

No, I love that you say that. So it's good to hear that the title, especially so important as your role, that you're a business partner and that you're working for both people. A lot of times it could be that misperceptive about people feel like HR is just for the business side. But to see that you are doing it both for not just the business, the employees as well, to find that middle ground is important. So that's a beautiful. I'm happy that your company has something like that. And if other companies are listening, this is mainly a good tactic to see if that's what your HR team is doing as well. Because it makes the employee most definitely feel comfortable. And it also brings back good vibe, good balance into the workplace that many employees are looking for. So tell me, like, what does that look like on a day-to-day doing journal?

SPEAKER_04 4:31

Yeah, for sure. So obviously, I'm working a lot with the leaders. We have different workplace challenges that come up, and leaders are like, hey, what do I do? So I'm really the thought partner to talk through situations or workforce planning of hey, this is what I think we should think through. Obviously, I can't tell them what to do, but I'm gonna give you some challenges and some different perspectives, really empower them to make the best decision for their business. But on the employee side, there's a variety of challenges as that come up. Employee relations matters or their performance or just career development. And employees sometimes don't seek out assistance, but I love when employees come to me and say, Hey, what do you think I should do? And I'm helping create a career development plan or hey, this is how you have that conversation with your leader to tell them what you want to do with your career. Because I think I've seen a lot of employees get frustrated and then they just quit. They're like, Oh, I'm out. And I'm like, no, you don't have to do that. Because if you love the organization, you love the people you work with, but maybe you're just frustrated. Let me help you figure out how to have that conversation and really build your tenure here, but also just overcome the tough conversations with your leaders. Because sometimes that's what I see a lot of is where employees are scared to speak of because they don't want to be like retaliated against or seen a certain way. But I'm that person that's gonna advocate. And even sometimes I go behind the scene and call the manager. I'm like, hey, this person is still in this way. Like help arrange some conversations to really make sure employees feel heard and seen, but also that leaders are being coached because sometimes they just don't know.

SPEAKER_05 5:57

No, so many gems dropped just in that same one that I kind of want to touch on. No, that's important that you say that. A lot of times I know like employees may feel like to reach out to HR when it's gone way too far, right? Like the situation. When would you suggest that people start involving HR during their career process?

SPEAKER_04 6:19

Yeah, that's true. A lot of times I do find out as the last person and they've been feeling this way for a year or two, and I'm like, oh my gosh, what have you been doing for a year or two? I would advise employees the minute you realize, hey, I'm struggling with something, I'm not comfortable, maybe going to my manager or one of my peers, go to HR. If you have a good HR business partner that will sit down and have a confidential conversation with you and give you some advice, it's free advice, right? It's between you and I, and we can just talk through, and I won't take that conversation anywhere unless you want me to. But if it's more about I just need help on how to solve something, I'd say go as soon as you start feeling that way. Because I what I see sometimes happen is employees feel sometimes different ways and they let it linger for too long. And so by the time they do decide, okay, I'm gonna resign, there's 60 different things that they're talking about, and you're like, we could have probably solved problem one six months ago. So I say as soon as possible.

SPEAKER_05 7:11

No, I agree with that. I know from being in industry, like a lot of times when I would go to HR was for career growth. And so let's see, I'm here at this part in my role. I've probably been doing it for one or two years, and I want to see what's next for me. So I will often go to HR just to have those conversations alone to see what other positions may align throughout the company that I can grow into. And I'm I probably I could like I was probably one of the few who spent the HR time in and talking about development because a lot of times people just think you go to your manager or your leader and talk about your growth. But sometimes HR knows other roles or other parts of the business that may be hiring too. So that is one of the ways that I used to use our HR leaders to have those cut discussions about what roles, what other sites are hiring, so that they can direct me on my career journey as well.

SPEAKER_04 8:03

Yeah. And I think that's great that you use HR for that. I think that's one key thing to mention too, is that sometimes your HR business partner may know about different workforce planning things happen behind the scenes that you may not know about. We may have plans in six months to re-org some things. And if you don't go to your HR business partner, you may miss up an opportunity that may be coming down the pipeline that hasn't been shared with everyone else yet. So I think it's so great that you mentioned that to be able to talk about career growth because sometimes there's opportunities there that you just don't know about.

SPEAKER_05 8:33

Absolutely. Yeah. So for my listeners, for your career growth, not just those major headaches, is what I like to call them. Because sometimes when you're feeling disgruntled and you're to that point of I want to get out of here, that may be too late. So HR is there for other great parts of the companies and to help you elevate and grow your career as well. I used to be an engineering manager for Fortune 100 company. I've managed for many years before that, too. And so I got to see what it was like from a manager perspective of helping my employees grow. But HR can do a lot too. And I've learned that too with Black Girls Do Engineer. I work with so many HR partners for so many other great companies. And so I've learned like HR is where it's at. There's a lot of greatness that comes out of HR. And so it's okay to have those kind, non non-hurt-filling conversations with HR, or you can lean on them from other great things as well. And then so another thing I wanted to touch on from that conversation is a couple of things. I want to get into the portfolio part because we just released our Black Girls Do Engineers their portfolio for you. So I had this conversation with my husband one day because we both, me and him both have worked in tech. And so we always knew the importance of having a portfolio to show to your hiring manager. And so we were like, kids need to need this now. We wanted to create a way with the program that they walk, walk their whole life journey with us, but with something in hand. And so we were able to release that this year, and we're gonna be able to help so many youth in our Houston community first, because that's where we're starting at, build up those portfolios to put in front of HR professionals when they go out to seek these jobs or internships and colleges and universities as well. So, what is your thoughts on those portfolios? Like, how many have you may have seen as an HR business partner? And how do you feel like the importance of someone having that over someone who does not?

SPEAKER_04 10:42

Yeah, that's a great question. I love the idea of a portfolio. I'll share, you know, three and a half years ago when I first started at this company, I went to Career Fair at University of Texas, and I was immediately impressed with the students that came with the portfolio, and they just seemed a lot more prepared than I think I had anticipated because they had the resume tailored, they had different internship experiences, and they had a whole summary of what they did. They were confident talking about it. It just it to me it was very impressive. And I think the portfolios went a wrong way because I didn't have to dig it out of them of okay, what did you do here and tell me about where you started? And they had it already laid out for me. So it was a really great first impression, I think, because they came prepared, they seemed really confident about their abilities because they were able to summarize it and talk about it. And I feel like we had a much more meaningful conversation with the portfolio there. So I definitely would encourage that. I love the idea of a portfolio. I haven't seen too many students actually bring that to career fairs or even on interviews, but I love the idea. I think that's great.

SPEAKER_05 11:45

Yes. So hopefully with our new creation, you'll be able to see a lot more. Awesome. There's more to it because we're most definitely going to be using them. It was important to start it right at the new year so that they were able to build up over the year. And the good thing about our program is that we have a 95% retention rate. So no matter what city we go to, we see pretty much the same girls. And we get some great new vs, but we're able to help them build from the billion things they've already done too. So we're excited to be able to introduce that early so that they are more competitive and able to go into the workforce. Because I know when I meet students, I get to meet a lot of college students when I go places. And when they come up to me, the first things that kind of is very impressive to me first is delivery. If because my mind, people know I'm an engineer, so my mind, it just goes straight to the result for my part, my the way my brain thinks. Like I can tell that it's so very fast. So it takes a lot to really get me reeled in to really be like, wow. Once I get like that wow thing, like my attention is caught from delivery, I'm already bought in. But when you start able to build on all the things you have done and the way that you have done them, I'm like, how do I get you into my door to work for me? Or how do I get you into my partners who were hiring? That's my first step when it comes to engaging with college students and wanting to get them hired. So I can imagine what your day-to-day look like with a lot of applications coming through. So that you're not just being a balance for your company, I'm assuming, you're also doing a lot of the hiring too for the company. How did that go?

SPEAKER_04 13:37

Yeah, absolutely. Here in my company, I started off on the talent acquisition side. And so I was attending career fairs, I was reviewing applicants that came in internally, but now there's a lot of competition for early STEM talent. We have to be real creative and real on top of it to be able to attract and retain talent. So one of the things that we have had to shift our mindset on as organization is when we're talking to students, especially at career fairs, is being open to training. We're looking for soft skills. What are their critical thinking skills like, or problem solving, or just the overall professionalism? Those things we can build on because when we go to career fairs, we're there with hundreds of other companies, right? So we're having to really put our best foot forward and offer some training to these students and a good experience. For our internship program, when they come with us, they're partnered with a staff engineer or a project engineer, someone that has a few years of experience that they can really shadow and work with, but we're also offering them some training to show them what the day-to-day and the hands-on experience will look like as an engineer. But we've had to beef up our training program because we're competing with a lot of other companies, but we've definitely had to shift our mentality and be a little bit more aggressive to be able to attract that talent because you know the students have a lot of options now, right? So we really have to figure out okay, how are we going to attract that talent and retain them? And we've really been working towards our conversion ratio of students that come intern with us that convert to full-time. So it's been we've had some good success there, but it's definitely been a shift in what the economy or the job market was five years ago.

SPEAKER_05 15:07

Yeah. So I've seen it too from the pipeline development, the same pipeline development. And one thing that I can most definitely say with confidence is the competition is going to be like very fierce. These generations that's coming up, our scholars, many of them that I'm working with, they are just very advanced because they've had technology since like day one. They were born. They have they're getting more resources through programs that Black Girls are engineered and many more other STEM programs. Way more than I had. I had no resources as a kid, so they have a big step with that. And their parents are eager to take advantage of it. The ones who are aware of how this has impact their kids, and there's a lot of other areas we're working on. We have a period educational training ourselves. So they, if they're not familiar what this can do for their kids, that they're able to do that. One second, I have to pause. So, yeah, these kids, as I mentioned, they've been having devices since they were like out there. They're like very competitive. And I really feel like the parents who get that their kids are getting involved in a lot of these STEM activities and doing a lot of great things to get them ready for the STEM pipeline. What we see that they're lacking is it's just not enough. No matter how much STEM training you do, college is more competitive. So these schools want more than SMARTS is great. We want you to continue to succeed in school, make the best grade possible, be at the top, shoot for your dreams for sure. But they need those leadership qualities. They want to make sure you're involved in other clubs as well. They want a lot, make sure you're well-rounded a lot to go into these institutions now. And so that is a part that as a STEM program, we're working to feel like we can do leadership, we can encourage college things, but they're they need so many more skills. I know you mentioned soft skills. And so what are I want to talk about specifically on skills, what do you as a you or as a company or what you're saying think that they can prepare more in to go into the workforce?

SPEAKER_04 17:27

Yeah, I mean, that's a great question. I think one of the things that stands out quite a bit when we especially when we hire like interns is the problem-solving skills, critical thinking skills, and just the overall professionalism in the workplace. I think as we talk about the next generation, like you said, they have way more access to technology and different things, but those skills matter. And I think it starts very young. I always think about, for example, Home Depot offers the free workshop to kids on the weekends, I think one Saturday a month for like problem solving and skill building. I think those things may seem not that big of a deal, but I think they matter. I think if students and kids and the youth were involved in that or got exposure to that young and they did something like that starting as early as six, like you said, and were doing that up until they got to high school, college, I think they'd have a different readiness than some students who didn't get to expose to anything at all. And I think that's where I'm seeing as some more interns that some of them really come in and they knock out the park and it's oh, you could tell they've been preparing for years. And their others, they're still great, but you could tell that they're missing certain things. And I think it's hard to teach sometimes the critical thinking skills when you get to you can, but I think if it starts younger, I think our students would be even more successful just having the exposure early. I think it just starts there.

SPEAKER_05 18:42

Yeah, most definitely exposure for us to yeah, we watched these girls grow up, and so I got some college students right now that they most definitely knocking their like degrees out the park. A lot of them are being flips and things now, because they feel confident really going into college. They've been doing this since they were like in sixth grade, so they much more prepared. But other things that also made them add it to their sauce, I'll say of being great. Some of them used to do theater. So when they wasn't doing STEM, they were like leading it in their school play. We have like my daughter, my oldest, she does debate, which I encourage many more kids to do. I always tell kids you should try debate because it lets you know how to have a conversation with someone, right? They can have a totally different opinion than you and how to have a productive conversation anyway. And debate does a really good job at that. And of course, I feel like it prepares you to be a great attorney if you want to be an attorney because those kids be like, wow, like I would love to see them in a courtroom. So it's a lot more skilled outside of them. We try to encourage them to do. We have a lot of children who love to play sports, but I also say being on a sports team is one thing, but try to be like that team's captain, or even if you're not captain, co-captain, or somewhere it's looked at as a leader on your sports team because that gives you those leadership skills of how to really go into a workforce and lead. Because I can know as being an engineer, you work in teams. Like you may sit there and solve problems, but you can't get much done without having that team work behind you. So it's good to see that you're being able to be exposed to some college students now who are wild because they started in these Saturday programs or doing these after-school initiatives, but there is still some skills that's lacking. And I can understand professionalism for sure. Because it's the time has changed. The generation behind us is most definitely more fashionable than I ever had been. They're so trendy and they got going on. And we had our trends too. Right. They're like into a whole nother zone of how they dress from trends. From my daughter's into thrift stores and stuff, which I'm I love. But you have to understand that when you go into a workforce environment, there's many different generations there. So you have to learn how to adapt, I feel. That's something I had to learn my very first day going into the workforce. Funny story about me, when I graduated from college, I had a lot of piercings. And so I remember my first day on the job. I went home and I just started thinking about my piercings because I was like, maybe I can't have all of these. To really like get into the environment and be seen as a professional. I wanted when my voice was speaking to be heard and taken seriously.

SPEAKER_04 21:47

Yeah. And I'll one thing I'll add there too is I've seen a lot of early talent come in and they're like, oh man, I want to be a project manager tomorrow. And they have these really high goals, which I love. I think that's awesome when they have ambition and they have desire. And they know exactly where they want to be. There's things that did the project manager role with until, like you said, a level of professionalism and critical thinking skills and communication. And there's a lot of other things that our project managers took to get there. They didn't just walk out of college and get that job. They built their experience over the years and they really had to show their best foot forward for some years before they got there. But I love when students do come in and they have goals of where they see themselves in 10 years because it just tells us that okay, they're committed to the field and they want the support to get there. So I think just even that ambition and interest in learning and developing is critical because sometimes we see some students coming and they're you could tell they're just doing it because their parents made them do it, right? They're just here because they had teachers. But then there's others that come in, you can tell they are genuinely interested in in the engineering field and they ask questions and they're like coming in early, staying late, and just showing a certain work ethic that you know I think it's just really impressive. And so the engineers always compliment those engineers that are going a little bit above and beyond just to ask those questions and learn about what's really the next step to continue to grow in a career.

SPEAKER_05 23:10

I love that. So two words you said like goals. It's great to have that goal when you go into industry. They want to be a project manager. I used to be a project manager, it takes a lot of work to do, but you can't do it on day two. So I want to I want to keep it real on that. It's not happening on day two. There's a lot of other testing sometimes that's required even for you to become a project manager in other companies. I'm not the one that never says you can't do anything, but just come in with a perspective of things that's going to take time in the workplace. So I'd love that you said that. And for my parents who are with me, they have to want to do it themselves. And that's such a critical thing to discuss because I've seen it too. Like exposure is great. I always tell my parents, expose them, throw them into stuff. They're not gonna everything, but let them come try. And once they find their thing, then we'll develop them in that. But if they are just like mom, dad, I don't want this at all, that's okay too. Because I always tell people to become an engineer, it's very hard, not impossible, but it's very hard. And you can get into the workforce and it becomes even harder in some of these industries because you're trying to adjust to the environment for one, and you're new, you're still learning. And if they're not happy in it, it's not gonna be good for them on the long end. So I I love that you mentioned that. And it's and that are some of the things that you're seeing. And you're at the level where they have completed college and they're coming into this space or they're interning, and you're starting to see that in them too. So that's something we want to make sure is not happening by the time they get to you.

SPEAKER_04 24:57

Yeah, for sure. And one last thing I'll add there too is we've even seen the last two years, there's been staff engineer level or project engineer level staff that leave the industry all together. That's happened more recently where they've decided I'm gonna go do something totally different, gonna be a professional, something else. And it we support it absolutely, right? But it's wow, they invested a lot of time going to school and coming into the workforce, and they get maybe five to six years in, they're like, I'm just not interested in this anymore, which is totally okay. I think there's an element of the more hands-on experience they get early, they can decide, do I really want to do this or do I really not? And that's okay too, right? But I think some of them they didn't know until they started working full-time what really being an engineer looked like. And by the time they started doing it for four or five years, they're like, this is not what I want to do long term. So I think that's one of the things we've seen too, where there's some staff that just decide I'm getting out of engineering altogether.

SPEAKER_05 25:49

Yeah, I've been there. I think one of the things I could speak for me, I love industry because black girls do engineering just took out. People love the programming, so it was one or the other at this point. But being in industry, I think because I was one of those engineers who was an innovator, like I always did the hard stuff. I loved it, but I didn't have a balance at all. And my balance is not people typically talk about work-life balance, and I have three daughters, so not just from a family perspective, I had nothing like an art or a book or anything I was doing to take my mind off the work. And I think so many people don't have that when you get into them professions a lot of times because we're introverts, many of us too. So I feel like if I would have put myself into that dimension of doing more than just always being at work, always just doing the work, which was great too. I think I would have felt a little bit more balanced to continue to stay way much longer in industry, too. Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. Yeah. So I just think you have to find your happy. So I always tell the youth that I work with, because many people know I want to be a dance major before I came an engineer. I always tell people, I wish that someone would have said to me, like what I tell these children now. You can be an engineer and you can still take those dance classes. Yeah. If you want to do all your arts, if you want to do biking, skateboard on a weekend, I highly suggest that. I'm hitting how many people who've worked for me and were comfortable enough to just have conversations with me to just say, hey, I'm doing a real estate thing on the side, and I've never told a manager that. And I used to be like, you should be doing something on the side, right? So encouraging people to still live and do their passions along with this work, I think is so needed.

SPEAKER_04 27:42

Yeah, for sure. And I love that you're telling the youth that early because I think that'll definitely help. When they get 10 years on the line and they're working in the field, that they still have a hobby on the side, that they don't feel disengulfed in work. I love that. That's that's yeah.

SPEAKER_05 27:54

So you see more people playing like pickleball now.

SPEAKER_04 27:58

That's what they're doing on the weekends. We've even seen that in the workplace where we have pickleball teams and we're like, that's like the afterwork thing. So we've seen it, we've seen that definitely be a good balance for some of the engineers that they're still able to do their hobbies, but still work and just have balance.

SPEAKER_05 28:12

Yeah, so I'm happy to be able to get to that point in this conversation because I think that peace, so many people need to hear that. I wish someone had really told me to when I first started off. So I want to get to now the heart of it all. Like, what passionating you said to you, like, I want to work in HR? What drove you to know what?

SPEAKER_04 28:37

So I started off my career working at a staffing agency doing recruiting for accounting and finance, which I loved. Great experience. I was working with accounting and finance professionals, but I was also partnering with companies and I worked with a lot of their HR business partners or HR leaders to help fill the open roles. And at some point, maybe two or three years into my career, I realized I want a seat at the table. I think we need more people that look like us at the table to help create opportunities for more students, more underrepresented communities, just different things. I felt like I really wanted a seat at the table to be able to be a part of the conversations to help influence some of the decisions in the company, but also just again, like create space for different people to be able to come into an organization. I really put my mind, that's what I wanted. So I went back to school and I got my master's in HR management. I studied for my PHR certification, and I just started to really engulf myself in learning what is it that human resources does? How can I have a seat at the table and be the most impactful? So here I am today.

SPEAKER_05 29:40

Making impact and creating change. That's beautiful. That's and that's not easy to do. It's so great to hear you say, because I've speaking on this a lot about I've always been the only black woman in all of my roles at my companies. And I always talk about the data of like how many black women are in STEM, which is less than 3% across the industry. Is that the thing for black women in HR?

SPEAKER_04 30:07

It's a little bit more common in HR, especially in areas like Houston or Texas. I've seen a lot more black women in HR, but it's a lower population for sure. I'm the only one in my company, for example. But in other companies, I think it just depends on the industry. I think in the AUC space, obviously there's not as many black women, but with other industries, it's more common.

SPEAKER_05 30:25

No, that's so you most definitely. I always felt when I found myself being the only one and I started to do great work and more started to come behind me. You're most definitely the one that opened the door. So could continue doing your great work for many more to see you. You'll become a role model for sure to some young girl too. And I look forward to seeing them go into roles like yours in this industry because we need it for sure. But no, that is a beautiful story to hear how you got to where you want, where you are today to make a change. That passion. I tell people all the time, you have to have that passion because this line of work is hard. I know being an engineer is hard, but I feel like being an HR representative is very much so hard because you have to deal with a lot of parts of the company for sure. And I love that you said you wanted a seat at the table. That is something I always tell young women or women, period, to create your own seat at the table. And if you can't get at the table, create your own. Exactly. I love to see that you are doing that now. So I want to talk a little bit about that early exposure and training. We talked about this a little earlier. But I know you get to engage with a lot of college students because that's what you go out to recruit, right? They're most definitely closer to those jobs. But how do you feel about the topic around HR starting to engage before that college? Do you think that's very important for you all to step out a little sooner, maybe with high school to start those internships? Or what are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_04 32:02

Yeah, absolutely. I think at this company and my last company that I worked at, we've definitely made a lot more effort to be in front of the youth a lot more sooner. I'll use my last company, for example. We had a partnership with the high school, and it was a manufacturing development program that was for future engineers that they could come do some time working at the employer, and then if they graduated and were interested, we would hire them on. But the goal really of the program was to just get the students involved earlier to get exposure and then to decide when they graduated that if they decided they didn't want to go the college route, they could do other things that were still STEM related and still get into the field. And so I think one thing we do here at my current company is we have our leaders go to different workshops at universities, at different lunch and learns. We have them go speak at events that are with the youth. Even myself, I've been to a resume writing course at a university here. And so we're really trying to get in front of students just to get our name out there years in advance, because obviously a pipeline is going to take a few years to build. By the time those students get through high school and college and graduate, at least they know, oh, I remember that company that they came to speak to me that time. I remember that person, where are they at? So we're really trying to build that pipeline, that neck network of different universities and schools that we partner with so that when students do get what we're looking for their first career home and where they're gonna start their career off at, that we are top of mind that hopefully.

SPEAKER_05 33:24

Yeah, I would encourage you all to continue, mostly because I do a lot of college tours and site visits to corporations. And I can't tell you how many girls leave there saying I can see myself here. And I've seen a lot of them actually go to those schools and work in intern with those companies. Um, I don't think that companies understand the that is the case when they're working with younger. I always tell people, yes, I work with college students too, right? So I get it. Like they're closer. They're most definitely closer to, yeah, I can hire you and have you here for many years to come. So that's great too. But if you really want to like mold them, especially for those skills we talked about, that we may feel like lacking those critical thinking skills, which is so important. This workforce, you have to start younger. I know it's not always easy to do. I feel like I do it quite often. It's not easy, especially how fast the world is in changing and evolving around tech and everything that that's changing now.

SPEAKER_04 34:28

Yeah, I will say I think one of the things is because the workforce has evolved so much over the last few years, I think it used to be where we just had an influx of applications sitting in our inbox and we could go plow, we could pick and plug. But now things are different. Like you said, there's a bit of a chase that has to happen, and I think companies are starting to pick up on that, which is why we're starting to encourage attending different school events or things that involve a youth more than what we were probably doing five years ago. So as the workforce continues to evolve, I think we definitely have to keep that as a forefront of our thought process because attracting talent has become harder and harder each year that I've been an HR. So I can see that five, 10 years from now, it may be even more challenging.

SPEAKER_05 35:07

Yeah, and that's a great point because I talked about this with some of my tech peers. We all talk about AI, right? Artificial intelligence and how it's showing up in the world many ways. But it's showing up in the hiring process. A lot of companies are turning it to it for review processes, and it's a resource. That's what artificial intelligence is for. It should be used as a resource. What kind of advice would you give if AI systems are scanning your resumes? Like advice may be there or other advice around like, are you gonna have to put yourself out there more now to make that personal connection? So I would I am interested in that advice.

SPEAKER_04 35:45

Yeah, for sure. I definitely think putting yourself out there and making connections is the way to go. We've seen a lot of the hires that we've made as a company have been through networking and referrals. It's there's obviously people that apply, which we also review each application. And we don't rely specifically on our ATS to do that, but we see a lot more success from the people that are asking a leader, hey, may I go grab coffee with you? Or can we go have lunch and just talk? We've seen a lot of success from students, specifically students that are in college, like either juniors or seniors about to graduate. So reach out to either an HR professional at a company or even some of our leaders that get the confidence to reach out and just say, Hey, can we have a quick chat? And we've seen that be very successful because they're just they're exuding confidence that sometimes people don't have. And I think even if there isn't an opening, that leader always remembers who is that student that reached out to me that I had coffee with, or they I've seen success stories from students that may meet me at a career fair and they've sent me a follow-up every year since. And hey, do you have any openings? And I've passed their resume along to different managers. So I think as students or the youth are more confident and engaging with working professionals, that's gonna be really helpful. And as far as the resume piece goes, I think being able to make sure you have a thorough resume with your skills listed of all the things that you've done, you can also send that resume to a person at the company and get on LinkedIn and find the HR professional or the project manager that may work in the division you're interested in and send that resume right over. I'm not saying avoid the system as far as applying, but I'm also saying that extra step of talking to a person via LinkedIn or a Griffin, I think goes the extra mile.

SPEAKER_05 37:25

Yeah. And I agree. I would tell like our participants, like networking is key. I also tell them look around. These girls you're growing up with now are going to go into the space. Those relationships are gonna matter, especially when you are looking for employment or advice or whatever it may be. I do want to say this for I know there's many HR professionals, especially like right now, that's getting a lot of inboxes and LinkedIn tags. How should people go about it when they're making those connections? I know for me, I'd have people reach out to me now. I'm not HR, but I do hire people to work for me. So I do have people who reach out to me. And you can get so many messages you can't get back to everybody. So, how could they reach out in a way that's suitable for you all, but also where it connects more? It's not just a res another resume and they're yeah, that's a great point.

SPEAKER_04 38:18

And yeah, I agree. I do get an influx of people reach out at times. I think the ones that really stand out to me are the messages where someone reaches out with maybe three short bullet points about themselves and their resume, and they have an ask tied to it. If even if they're saying, hey, can I just still 10 minutes of your time, just introduce it myself and learn more about your company? Or hey, would you mind reviewing my resume for me? Or hey, would you mind connecting me? Just those things I think go a long way for me personally, where the person is they have an ask tie to it versus here's our resume, because it's just okay, that's great. But you could just apply it, right? If you're just gonna sing your resume. But if you go the extra mile and you actually say, Hey, or I've also seen students research the company and they say, Hey, I saw that your company posted that you just won this big project. Can we help on a call and I tell you why I'm interested in that? Those things I think really go a long way.

SPEAKER_05 39:10

No, that is great advice because for a lot of reasons, I always tell people so LinkedIn, especially for my young, my younger children, you need to be on there if you if you parents say yes first, create your profile. A lot of my high school girls have them, and they are those children. Everybody they meet, they say, Can we connect? And I think you should do that, get those connections so that you can build those long relationships as you continue to grow. So that is one thing for sure. Do have a great profile and do connect. I feel like you should have that least a connection with uh HR representative first. My preference. But also what you said like even if we don't know each other and you come and message me, I want to see some. Who are you? A little story about you, a great high-level overview of who you are and your acts. I think your acts is very important. I love that you mentioned like them knowing something about the company. Right. That's key. Many times companies want to make sure you know about them and what they do. So having that knowledge, knowing about their Bitcoins is a great tactic. Right because they want you to know about their Bitcoins. Yeah, we want you know, knowing that and going into their inbox, and I'm sure it has to be something more recent. So if you're gonna be using this tactic, something more most definitely recent to engage with our HR representatives, because they are most definitely doing a lot of roles within their company and they want to help, but they have a lot of people, especially at this time, asking for help. And for me, I my husband knows my heart, and like, I wish I could help everybody, but we have to do it to the best of our ability, and those relationships have to be there too. Because you gotta think about it. If you work as HR and your friend even asking you, your first question you're gonna ask your friend, you gonna do this? Are you gonna be here dedicated? Our friends, like the long we want to make sure I don't put my name out there. You come in here, and then you're not here. That's important. That's why that relationship piece is very important with those connections to get you in that door. And we want also, I'm sure for HR, you want to make sure they can get in there and succeed at the interview to be able to get the job.

SPEAKER_04 41:34

Yes. And one thing too that you mentioned I think is super important is even in the reach out to HR or whoever at the company is, like you said, being genuinely interested in the company, I think goes a long way because I think you can tell when there's a copy-paste message between one company and 70 other companies. So doing your research on that company and being able to tell me why you're interested in the company tells me that you did a little bit of homework, maybe you went on the company website and you you did a little bit of research. That tells me that you're genuinely interested in the company versus just finding a job, which that is important. But I think with so many applicants, sometimes you have to be able to differentiate who's actually interested in the company.

SPEAKER_05 42:11

And with AI, I people know nice to lead a division around AI. So I I love the technology. I know where it needs to go for sure, but it's a great technology. And there's a lot of AI literacy needed around it. With AI, we're missing that authentic part of people being able to relate to them and feel like they're people, right? So when you're going through those messages, if it doesn't feel real, you don't know how to engage it. So just be real, be yourself. Yep. Take a little couple of extra minutes to actually show your personality in these messages because that's missing. I know I get a lot of emails, and I'm just like where is the person? Yeah, who are you? Somebody knows I'm missing the realness. Like, where's the who is the impression? We still want that as people, and I'm sure because you work with people, you need that to make sure it makes your job a lot. I don't want to say easier, but it makes it better to be able to engage with an authentic person rather than a message that sounds very similar to others. Absolutely, absolutely. No, so this has been a great conversation. Like, I I'm loving this. I I do want to ask one more question for like my parents and educators. I'm hoping my educators are happy that we're gonna put into the atmosphere. We want our HR business partners, our HR professionals, our corporations to to most definitely get out there more with the children in that K through 12 range. But what advice would you give our parents and educators who want to help prepare students in their own careers that may not even exist yet?

SPEAKER_04 43:57

Yeah. No, I think that's such a great question. I think we touched on it quite a bit at the beginning, but I think it really does go back to a few things. One is early exposure, even as a child. If you notice your kid is interested in certain things, they have really strong skills, keep exposing them. Find free activities within the community or programs or summer camps or whatever it may be to really get your kid involved in things just to really see if they shine in that area. And then another thing I would say is the workforce readiness. To me, that can start as as young as I don't know, probably five or six. It's like getting them comfortable with how they show up, appearance, and how they communicate, and just really helping them be prepared. Because I think the earlier it starts, the better by the time they get to high school going into college, they'll they'll be more confident, right? So I think especially with educators, they do such an important role in our students is just continuing to help them, impolish them, help continue to build their confidence, parents too. Just because I think when students get to a point where they're ready to go into their career, the HR professionals and sometimes the hiring managers, they're looking at the students like, okay, we want to see your best foot forward, right? And so we definitely don't want that to be the first time that the student is having a conversation with someone or answering questions because it's okay totally to be nervous, but we definitely want to make sure they're comfortable just having a conversation because it's also just the human on the other side of the conversation. So I think exposure, workforce readiness, and really tapping into their strength. If you know your student is really strong at something, it's really developing that even as they start young. I think that'll go a long way.

SPEAKER_05 45:32

Yeah, and one of the things that I've been looking into this past week, uh, because people know I'm an innovator. I actually called myself a nerd in one of my articles last week. I don't know. Okay. I've been raising my nerd era. I am so into it. Yeah. One of the things that I have that has been on my mind heavily is we're in another shift. I feel like when it comes to the workforce, and I'm trying to figure out what that shift is. Yeah. I feel like we are both definitely in it. And I'm trying to figure it out because I feel like once I can figure it out, I'm always thinking about how I keep these children prepared in advance. The very futuristic programming we offer. But I'm also thinking about other people like what they should be training of skilling, knowing for this next shift. I know the shift is like newly here. I feel like it just happened. Yeah. I knew from working in industry, like I can look around and be like, man, we're advancing so fast on the day-to-day in industry. So I knew it was gonna come. But I was like, okay, we probably got about three, three to five years. I used to tell people we don't have much time. I used to always say that about But I used to look at me and I'd be like, we really don't. Like I but now we are at that point where we are running out of time because now it's just gonna keep moving faster and faster. So with this shift, like what kind of advice? I don't know if you're starting to experience it too on your side of HR, what kind of advice would you give for people who are trying to figure out what skill maybe they should be looking at now? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 47:06

Yeah, I think it's hard to foresee the future, right? But like you said, things are evolving quick. But I would advise the youth or anyone that has access to professionals that are in the industry currently is have a chat. Ask them. They can tell you, like, hey, this is what's going on with our clients and our projects and what we're seeing. Because as things evolve, they can tell you real time, right? What's happening and what you need to be prepared for. Because I think things that mattered five years ago is changing than what it is today. And I know it's gonna be different five years from now. I think getting connected with individuals that are in the field that know what's going on is really powerful. And if someone doesn't have access, like you mentioned before, you can get on LinkedIn, everyone may not respond, but there's gonna be someone that is gonna respond that'll have a conversation with you, a coffee, chat, a lunch date, or something, and just give you some insight because those professionals that are in the field every day, they know real time what's going on.

SPEAKER_05 47:58

Yeah. And I've like, for me, I haven't been in industry, I haven't worked in the industry for about two years, but I've been innovating, like still at the same speed as others. And so I also want to tell people who don't have access to probably talk to some professional. I think that's why people always say it's important that the girls work with me as an engineer who's so innovative. They have that right available to them. Yeah. But for people who don't, this my tech, I just read and I tell this to my children all the time. I people hear that word and they'll be like, uh okay. No, it's a very important word. I think you should be reading to understand. I have a list right now of so much that's happened in the world of tech this just this week alone that I'm about to be reading about because I'm like, let me go see what they're talking about.

SPEAKER_03 48:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:44

So just read. There's a lot of technical find your best source, something that's you feel is true and near to you. Just read about what's going on. And I think that'll open your perspective to ask more questions.

SPEAKER_03 48:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:59

I didn't see the whole, I'm not gonna say the person's name, but I seen a whole robot that didn't popped up that I knew it was popping up, but it's really got popped up. And I really want to know more, not from like why is this happening or to find wrong in it. I want to know more because I want to understand that technology behind it.

SPEAKER_03 49:19

Yeah, the more you know, yeah, the more you know, the more informed you are. You can make different decisions, the more you know. So that's a great point. It's definitely reading and just staying connected to what's going on. I think sometimes it's easy to say, oh, I'm gonna shut off the the internet or TV or whatever social media, I don't want to be involved. But sometimes there's things happening so quickly that you can miss it. You just don't even know what's going on. So I'm totally with you. Find you a credible source that you can tap into and keep up with updates and just really be in the know so that when the time comes, that you're not completely left in the dark.

SPEAKER_05 49:56

Absolutely. Now, this conversation has been great. I really thank you for coming on here, sharing your background and your knowledge and just your heart for HR. I believe it most definitely takes that to do this role. It is a most definitely a people's role. And so kudos to you for doing this role and for giving our listeners today so much insight. I'm sure you're gonna help so many families, so many people that listen to this podcast know how to move forward into this space for sure. So thank you for being on, Kaylin. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_04 50:30

Thank you for having me and hope I can be of help to somebody. So thank you again.

SPEAKER_05 50:34

Yeah. So this conversation is a reminder that HR isn't just about filling roles, it's about shaping futures. Preparing the next generation of STEM leaders require early access, intentional training, and people who are willing to think long term. If you're listening as a parent, educator, or partner, know that the work you do today directly impacts the workforce of tomorrow. Thank you, Caitlin, for sharing your insight and heart. And thank you for listening to the Black Girls Do Engineer podcast, where we build confidence, community, and future system. To learn more about Black Girls to Engineer, visit blackgirlsdoengineer.org or email us at info at blackgirlsdoengineer.org.