Emerging Engineering Talent: a talk in two acts

by Robert Tomb | at Minnebar 17

This session will be fairly evenly divided between ideas for employers to successfully onboard and retain emerging talent, and ideas on habits and practices for emerging engineers to develop to help them... emerge?

  • Act one draws on my experiences as an engineering leader who has built teams that include engineers from across the experience and educational spectrum.

  • Act two is born out of my experience as an "emerging engineer" (long before anyone put buzz in that phrase) where I'll make some practical suggestions as to how you can shape your career.

Who knows? Maybe by bringing potential employers and potential employees together in one room, we can enable some serendipitous connections in the end.

Beginner

Robert Tomb

Well, on Twitter, this is who I say I am, "a nerd in the twin cities who has a family and a bike and some other stuff," which is pretty accurate.

Beyond that, I currently work in Minneapolis as a Director of Engineering for Shipt, by way of a couple of years in Target's tech organization. Prior, I'd worked in online advertising where I got my start in the SaaS world. Even before that, it was all on-prem software in the ERP world. I've helped build remote, local, and hybrid teams starting as far back as 2006. I like to build on those experiences to help new engineering managers grow their teams.

Most recently, I have formally gotten involved in Shipt's emerging engineer programs, where I'm building out the engineering side of what has traditionally been driven by Talent Acquisition.

You may recognize me as someone who has checked you in at a previous minnestar event, which I think might be the longest-running volunteer stint in my life.