Positioning for Opportunities: Building Skills, Visibility & Value in STEM

Transcript

1. Positioning for Opportunities Building Skills, Visibility & Value in STEM Olamide Lawal Engineering Student | Community Leader | Researcher
2. 300L 200L Found My Way to Machine Learning For Health As I built my self, I built others Why You Should Listen To Me? I am building something bigger than me I have trained and mentored over 500 undergraduate and over 100 Pre-University Students 300L I have successfully built and I am still building SKILL, VISIBILITY and VALUE Somewhere down the Line I am KNOWN for what i want to be remembered as 3rd Year, Electronic & Electrical Engineering Machine Learning Research Community Building (I am the face of the OAU Tech Community) 100L Co authored my First research paper All Credit here Goes to My Seniors I planned WIE WEEK 2025 and it still remains Nigeria’s Largest WIE Day Celebration.
3. "If your dream opportunity opened today, would your current profile convince them to choose you?"
4. The Reality What many students believe ✕ The real formula Learn Skills ↓ Graduate Visibility ↓ Opportunity Relationships Consistency = Opportunities Technical excellence is important, but it isn't enough on its own.
5. Why Positioning Matters Women in engineering often: → Wait until they feel "ready" → Underestimate their achievements → Apply for fewer opportunities → Stay silent despite good ideas Positioning isn't about being louder. It's about ensuring your work gets the recognition it deserves.
6. The Positioning Pyramid VISIBILITY COMMUNITY CREDIBILITY CONFIDENCE COMPETENCE Everything builds on the previous level.
7. 01 COMPETENCE
8. Build Skills That Solve Problems Ask yourself: → What technical skills am I building? → What problems can I solve? → What projects prove my skills?
9. 02 CONFIDENCE
10. Confidence Stop waiting until you feel ready. Confidence isn't knowing everything. Confidence is trusting yourself enough to begin. Apply Volunteer Speak Lead
11. 03 CREDIBILITY
12. People don't trust potential. They trust evidence.
13. 04 COMMUNITY
14. Communities Create Opportunities Communities help you: • Learn faster • Meet mentors • Find collaborators • Hear about opportunities first
15. 05 VISIBILITY
16. Visibility You LinkedIn • Just now 🚀 Check Built my first ML model out the repository below! You Twitter • 2h You LinkedIn • 1d Spoke at IEEE today about women in STEM. Amazing energy! ✨ Successfully completed my Arduino IoT project! 💡🔧 Visibility isn't bragging. It's documentation. If nobody knows what you build, they can't recommend you.
17. Started Engineering Joined Communities Built Projects Volunteered Led Teams Research Speaking Global Opportunities My Journey Small actions. Consistent effort. Compounding results.
18. I didn't become visible overnight. I kept showing up. One application. One project. One volunteer role. One opportunity at a time.
19. 30-Day Action Plan WEEK 1 Update LinkedIn WEEK 2 Build one project WEEK 3 Attend one event WEEK 4 Apply for one opportunity
20. Resources Learning Communities → Coursera → IEEE Women in Engineering → DataCamp → She Code Africa → edX → Google Developer Groups → YouTube → Women Techmakers → GitHub
21. Build your skills. Build your visibility. Build your value. Position yourself.
22. Final Thoughts Your degree gives you knowledge. Your projects prove your ability. Your community expands your reach. Your visibility creates opportunities. Your courage helps you seize them.
23. Thank You "Don't just prepare for opportunities. Position yourself so opportunities can find you." Questions? https://em07adoz.vercel.app/