I think it’s safe to safe that our trip to Seattle may have been my absolute favorite. First off, thank you to everyone who had a hand in planning this experience – Amanda, Melissa, Dean Bieschke, and Maddie, you all did a fantastic job and I thank you so much for making my final trip experience in the PLA amazing.

When I took a step back after returning from Seattle, I tried to think about what made this trip so impactful. For one, I had never been to the West Coast, so I think it was really special that I finally got to do that! But when I started thinking about it even more, I think the biggest takeaways from this trip came from our visits and discussions with representatives of companies in the Seattle area and the reflection they brought about within me.

In short, this trip really awakened me to the fact that when choosing a future job, I really need to consider the values that a company upholds and represents. I’m not going to lie, I don’t’ think that I thought about this too much before we went to Seattle. It’s not that company values weren’t important to me, but seeing such a variety of companies that really sparked my interests forced me to consider the type of place that I personally want to join and the type of work that I want to be involved in.

Before this experience, I think I had largely focused on how cool a job seemed, and whether or not I would have a good time doing the work it involved. Furthermore, I have always said that I want to do a job that helps people, but I had only really considered that by looking at the way that my own individual work would impact people, not necessarily how the goals and values of a company overall might achieve, or fail to achieve that. Well, after this trip, all of that has changed.

I think that this really started for me when we listened to Nic Freda’s talk. He had really fantastic ideas, and especially as someone who has received job offers from a variety of literally amazing companies, I trusted what he had to say on this topic. He talked to us about a company’s culture and about the fact that you really have to vibe with what a company is all about. Hearing someone so close to us in age – as compared to some of the other speakers we hear from – really made me think about this idea a lot deeper.

Beyond this, I was really struck by our visits to Avanade, Boeing, and Amazon. At Avanade, I was impressed with their work overall… However, in talking with a few other fellow PLA members, we began to consider the side effects of a company of their nature. Avanade provides tech solutions and ideas to companies to help them innovate and make their work more efficient. However, some of their products would eliminate jobs that Americans rely heavily upon to make a living. I’m not going to lie, this doesn’t sit quite well with me, so I would really have to consider this before taking any sort of position at their company.

A more positive example of this type of thinking that I encountered on our trip was during our evening with Blue Origin. I really loved the way that Blue Origin emphasizes exploration and the expansion of one’s passions and interests for the sake of scientific exploration. I would absolutely love to work for a company of this nature, and I really felt a connection with their mission, so much so that I immediately started to think of ways that I might be able to get a job working with them!

Overall, I learned a lot from my time in Seattle. However, I really do feel that this part of my experience was the most valuable. In general, I know that I need to find a company (or organization, or school) that aligns with my core values of love, kindness, and generosity. However, I don’t necessarily what this looks like in terms of a concrete place to work, or the specific rules and goals of that place in particular. Over the next couple of months and years, I look forward to figuring that all out!