Software Engineer, Intellectual Property Attorney Agree that Communications Skills Aid Their STEM-based Work
ETSY MACHINE LEARNING EXPERT, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAWYER AT KIRKLAND & ELLIS TEAM UP FOR SESION WITH FELLOWS
Andrea Heyman and Lindsey Shi work in entirely different fields on different coasts. One is a software engineer in New York with a bachelor’s degree in math from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. in math from Columbia University. The other is an attorney in California with a chemical engineering degree from MIT and a law degree from UCLA. Yet they have more than a few things in common. Both were very strong math students at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, MD, in the 2000s where they each earned the Sandra Lee Heyman Higher Mathematics Award.
Beyond that, they both feel strongly that communications skills are helpful tools in their dramatically different STEM-based careers. Shi, a partner at a law firm where he has high-tech companies as clients, encouraged the Fellows to pay special attention to more than just their math and science classes.
“I’d advise my high school self to pay more attention in my English class.…We work with very smart people with multiple PhDs, people who helped to create their fields, well versed in the technology. But they have a difficult time expressing complex ideas in a way that people can understand. Judges and juries are not experts in the field.”
Better communications skills “would have given me a leg up when I got to law school,” he said. His legal job now “is all about communicating,” Shi added.
Heyman – no relation to Sandra Heyman – agreed: “I can definitely relate to the importance of that communications aspect of any field.”
She also urged the Fellows to keep an open mind and think beyond special STEM interests. Keeping an open mind about how the Fellows might want to apply their STEM interests would be a wise course to take, Heyman counseled. “I fell into a trap of specializing early on…I saw the math career path in front of me…and wish I had taken more time to cast that wide net early on.” Math was always her passion and Heyman had imagined taking that more theoretical path. “Software engineering was not where I saw myself,” she admitted.
Heyman also described how machine learning plays a crucial behind the scenes role in the advertising that determines success for an online-based business like Etsy.
Shi explained how important a STEM background is for attorneys who litigate over patent rights and trade secrets. He also said that “There are a ton of other legal roles you can have with a STEM background that isn’t necessarily going to be going into court.” For example, he offered, “There is a big vacuum in the legal market for people who are very well versed in STEM fields to be able to accurately and reliably assess the value of intellectual property as it’s being developed,” for example. He also described the variety of options STEM-informed lawyers have for working in different areas of focus and companies or for the government.
The Sandra Lee Heyman Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established in memory of Sandra Lee Heyman, a long-time mathematics teacher at the elementary, middle school, high school, and community college levels. The 18-month long Fellowship is aimed at promising high school students who have the opportunity to meet with STEM leaders, visit prominent institutions in the Washington, D.C., area, and access peers and mentors to support career exploration in STEM fields. There are multiple ways to support the Fellowship program, and donations to the Foundation are tax deductible.