Author: Shelby

I have had a unique exposure to what work-life balance can be.  My father passed away when I was young, so my mom has been our sole caregiver for the majority of my life.  She has worked for the same telecommunications company for her entire adult life.  When we were hit with our tragedy back in 2002, they allowed her to work from home full time.  It was really the best option for her – it gave her the flexibility to be there for us if we needed her, and she was able to keep working and provide for us.  Growing up, I knew she worked a lot.  But I also knew it was a necessity for us.  She always wanted us to live the lifestyle we would have lived, had my dad been around.  So she worked harder and pushed herself to work longer hours, and to go the extra mile so she could get the best bonuses.

In recent years I have paid more attention to the hours she works and how she makes time for her friends and family.  Now that my brother and I are both in college, I hear of her making more trips to go see her friends.  And after years of being a single mom, I’m starting to hear about her being set up on blind dates.  While she misses having my brother and I at home, I am happy to see her have the chance to have more of a social life.  She tells me that for fifteen years, her only priorities were my brother and me, and her job.  I never knew of her having hobbies outside of her family or her job.  But, we did get to go on plenty of vacations as a family and we did a lot of things together.  Obviously I hope that I will not be forced to be my family’s sole caregiver like my mother was, but despite her not choosing this situation, I admire her for how she has risen to the challenge.  No matter what ends up happening in my life, I hope that I can perform as well as she has at her job, while being an amazing parent.

There is a lot that companies can do to promote a healthy work-life balance.  The United States is not known for having the best maternity or paternity leave policies.  By the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, companies are required to give 12 weeks of unpaid maternity leave to new mothers.  Numerous other countries give as many as 18 weeks of paid leave.  There are also more opportunities for fathers to take paternity leave.  And some companies do go that extra mile and give more leave than the required amount.  But most companies only give the bare minimum.  And, when it comes time for parents to come back to work full time, they may struggle to make the adjustment.  They may come back part time, which may cause them to fall behind at work.  Having more of a support system from employers would really help new parents to stay engaged and motivated at work.

I have heard information about vacation time from two of the companies I am considering for full time hire next year.  One of them starts off with 2 weeks of vacation, which I have heard is pretty standard.  Then, while doing an interview last week, one of the interviewers mentioned that as a new hire, he received 5 weeks of vacation time, that they encouraged their employees to take advantage of.  I think my jaw dropped in the middle of the interview.  I had never considered asking for more vacation time as a negotiating point, but I might consider asking for more from the other company.  I really liked that the company that offered 5 weeks encouraged their employees to take advantage of this vacation time and to have hobbies outside of work.  This would be nice to use for traveling while I’m young.  And looking into the future, it would be great to have that level of flexibility once I have kids.  I hope more companies take initiatives like this to make working for them more enticing.

We have three main sections to our code of ethics: integrity, community, and engagement.  As Notre Dame Computer Science students, we thought that we should all strive to be honest and hard working, in addition to making a positive impact on the community.  Our community section mostly had to do with how we interacted with each other.  We wanted us to be respectful and supportive and to work towards creating a better environment for future students.  The engagement section refers to engaging with each other, engaging in our work, and engaging in global issues.  We tried to address not only how to act while at Notre Dame, but to give guidelines on how to act once we leave this place.

While we cover many topics, we do have some weaknesses.  I think our organization of our ideas could have been more graceful.  There are many points that could fall under multiple categories.  We had a lot of ideas and found it difficult to place them under a single category.  I think having more categories that are more specific could have helped this.

I believe that having a code of ethics is useful.  Having a something to strive for in regards to how to conduct oneself.  And if everyone works together to create that type of environment, it will be a better place for everyone.  And if we all then take these ideals out into the real world, we could start to make a change in the world.  And all of this would be really wonderful, but only if we all actually took the time and effort to read and abide by our own code of ethics.  I believe it was useful to put into words the principles that were in my head.  That way, when I go out into the workforce, I can look for a work environment that embodies those same morals.

For my career, I have never envisioned doing much job hopping.  I realize it is likely that my first job out of college will not be my ideal job/company, which may lead to me changing jobs.  But, I don’t anticipate changing jobs for the sake of maintaining this “every three year” mark described in the Fast Company article.

Something I hadn’t considered was a valuable skill I could get from switching jobs every three years.  If I suddenly have to change jobs for any reason, it would be beneficial to have maintained that skill of obtaining a new job.  Also by changing jobs so often, I will have maintained my ability to pick up things quickly.  Even though I now recognize the benefits of changing jobs every three years, I will probably only change jobs if I have to, or I am just looking to try something new.  Out of loyalty, I don’t think I would leave a job just to maintain my job hunting skills.

I believe that most non-compete contracts are not fair.  It takes away to ability for an employee to negotiate.  Since their company knows they cannot leave to work for a competitor, they don’t feel inclined to keep them happy with raises or bonuses.  This leaves employees feeling stuck.  Workers should have the right to A) negotiate with their employers and B) walk away if they feel the need to or have a better offer.  I understand the need for these types of contracts in regards to trade secrets or other extenuating circumstances.  Companies should have the right to protect their property.  But then it becomes difficult to determine what constitutes a “trade secret”.  In this day and age where a company’s most valuable asset is information, it becomes difficult to determine what can be protected by these clauses.  There are definitely situations where these noncompete clauses become unethical.  What kind of information is the 19-year old summer camp employee or the factory manager in his mid-50s going to disclose with their competitors?  If those employees are really that essential to those companies, they should fight to keep them with pay raises or more benefits instead of trapping them in these lawsuits.

These articles have definitely made me rethink how I feel about company loyalty.  I had never looked into noncompetes much, but it is definitely something I am going to be on the lookout for from now on.  It makes me reconsider how I would go about switching jobs.  If I ever feel the need to change jobs, I want to have the freedom to, whether it be because I want a new experience or I need to move to a new city.  But as an employee, I want to be able to leave a job for any reason and be able to find a new job at the company of my choosing.  I hope that more states pass laws against noncompetes like California, Massachusetts, and Utah.  It seems to have helped Silicon Valley thrive and has proven to help raise wages.  While I wouldn’t want to put more stress on employers by leaving every two or three years, I don’t want to feel stuck either.

What I feel a hacker is has changed since I entered the world of computers.  The popular opinion is that they are a person who “uses computers to gain access to unauthorized information”.  According to this definition, all hackers are criminals.  In my opinion, this is not an accurate label.

When I am defining a “hacker” I think of what a “hack” is.  While there are many different definitions for this word, the one I like to use is similar to that of a “lifehack”, which is a “strategy or technique adopted in order to manage one’s time and daily activities in a more efficient way”.  Going with this definition, we can see a hacker as someone who finds and uses these hacks, or strategies, possibly using computers.  In this sense, I do identify myself as a hacker.  I believe that I use my knowledge of computers and computer programs to do things more efficiently.

Throughout the readings I found many other possible definitions of a hacker; some I identified with more, and some less.  I especially enjoyed the article entitled “The Word ‘Hacker'”.  The article described a similar description to the word “hack” that I identify with.  They also brought up the other side of that word that means that something was done badly, or not properly.  The author describes how these two definitions are connected because they both involve breaking the rules.  Whether it be simple instructions that we choose to ignore because we can see a more efficient route, or breaking laws by committing copyright infringements, they represent two sides of the same coin.

“The Word ‘Hacker'” goes on to discuss the problems with some of the recent laws against hacking.  The author claims how certain types of hacking do not involve directly stealing a certain component, but taking those components apart to see how they work.  Their point is that sometimes we need to do some sort of hacking in order to come to the truly best solution.  When we are limited by these laws, our creativity suffers.  While I understand the desire to protect people’s intellectual property, there is a downside to some of these measures.

While I quite enjoyed “The Word ‘Hacker'”, I did not identify as strongly with “The Conscious of a Hacker”.  To me, that article seemed more like whining than anything else.  I commend this anonymous hacker for being able to find where they belong when they discovered computers, but to complain about not showing your work in math?  Maybe it’s just because I majored in math, but there is never a reason to not show your work.  “…we’ve been spoon-fed baby food at school when we hungered for steak… the bits of meat that you did let slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless” If they are such a superior human, you really can’t go out and find other resources to feed your immense curiosity?  This high and mighty author needs to step off his pedestal and advocate for hackers in a more effective manner that doesn’t make us roll our eyes.

It is very important that as engineers and computer scientists, we study ethics.  Engineers have the power to create.  We create everything from machines to medicines to software.  Having a code of ethics helps to ensure that the things we build are for good and not harm.  In this new technology era, everything is evolving at a rapid rate.  We need a set of checks to ensure we aren’t inventing new technologies faster than we can decide their moral implications.  This is why it is important that we study ethics within Computer Science.

Ensuring product quality and safety is one way ethics has positively affected engineering.  Before this kind of thing was regulated, companies’ main concern in designing a new product was the cost.  In today’s business world, companies try to value cost the same as safety and quality.  This has come out of, not only people learning that building a higher quality product is at a lower cost to them, but through more safety and quality regulations.  Even one of the ACM Codes of Professional Conduct is “Strive to achieve the highest quality, effectiveness, and dignity in both the process and products of professional work”.

In regards to Computer Scientists, studying ethics is especially important.  A lot of currently deployed software is in need of more security.  Stories like Equifax occur because it has been common practice to think of security as an after thought instead of thinking about it throughout the design of the software.  But, this is just “how things have been done” up until now.  So do we blame the engineers? Or do we blame the higher up people for not putting a greater emphasis on security?  Whoever is to blame, I predict we will see more ethical codes of conduct that relate to problems like this, much like how quality and safety became the new norm in Codes of Conduct.

My name is Shelby Everlove Lem.  I am in my fifth year at Saint Mary’s College/the University of Notre Dame.  I am part of a 4:1 dual-degree program between the two schools where I spend four years at Saint Mary’s getting one of my bachelor degrees (Computing and Applied Math) and one year at Notre Dame finishing up my engineering bachelor (Computer Science).

I was born in Fremont, CA, but moved to Grosse Ile, MI when I was eight.  Grosse Ile is a small, residential island in the Detroit River.  Please come visit our 3 golf courses, 4 boat clubs, and token Alpaca Farm!

I was in the Notre Dame Marching Band for four years and played the snare drum.  This year I decided to take a step back from band to focus on finding a job.  I also enjoy skiing and playing the piano.

While at Saint Mary’s I complete a Senior Comp on “A Combinatorial Analysis of Shift Spaces”.  I observed natural patterns in binary numbers using a program I wrote and analyzed them for patterns using the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences.  I then gave three 40 minute talks on the topic and wrote a paper to accompany my research.  It was not an easy process, but I am proud to have completed it.

I have had two industry internships at AbbVie (2016) and Roush (2017).  At AbbVie I was an IT intern and acted as a Systems Analyst for the HUMIRA IT team.  At Roush I was an intern with their newly formed Software & Data Analytics group.  I got to work alongside developers, business analysts, testers, and project managers.  I even went back and did some work for them during the four weeks I had off at winter break this year.

I am very passionate about supporting women in the STEM fields.  This past Fall I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.  I got to hear some from many inspiring women such as Melinda Gates, Dr. Fei-Fei Li, Diane Green, and Dr. Sue Black.  I went to seminars on everything from Computer Graphics to “Am I My Own Worst Critic?”.  Being surrounded my so many inspiring women and hearing their stories made me excited to do more for women in Computer Science.

I think that one of the more pressing issues for Computer Scientists right now is our moral obligation to do good in the world.  One thing I think I would enjoy doing is working for a retail-like company to make online shopping more efficient and streamline.  But what good am I bringing into the world by doing that?  Am I helping people by giving them more ways to spend their money on things they may not need?  But, if its something I enjoy doing, should this be a concern of mine?  Technology is in every part of our lives, which is part of why I majored in computer science- I wanted to be a part of that revolution.  But what if that revolution isn’t what’s good for society?  Should we be fighting this move towards a digitalized world?