Alyssa Chachka, a semiconductor process engineer at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center, describes how a failed lab in senior year became her turning point. Her professor doubted her fit for chemical engineering, so she retook it and got an A. She now emphasizes integrity in semiconductor work: admitting mistakes early saves materials and prevents cascading errors downstream.
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All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Alyssa Chachka with us. She is a recent graduate from the University of South Carolina. Go Cox! And is a semiconductor process engineer at IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center. So welcome to the show.
Hello. Thanks for having me.
Of course. Grateful to have another Gamecock on. So, Alyssa, the first one I got for you today is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Okay.
So when I was in, when I was in my senior year of college, I was doing this units operation laboratory where I was in a small team. And by some accident, my team and I did not collect enough data for the lab. So then we were kind of like, we figured that out, and I was kind of panicking and rushing, trying to get all the data or trying to like redo the lab and talk to my professor about it. However, and then we just went back in and redid the lab and no worries. But along that line, like, he kind of talked behind our backs saying that we shouldn't be chemical engineers or like shouldn't have majored in our field because we made this mistake. And that kind of like made me feel some things. And I was pretty angry about that. But instead of like complaining or whatever, I just decided that then and there that that was a challenge towards me. And so I then proceeded to like do the best I could in that lab and class. And I ended up making a great score on that lab as well as making an A in the class overall. So it's kind of just like having the confidence in my abilities despite any like challenges or whatever anybody else has to say.
Yeah, you got to use it as fuel.
Yeah.
Fuel to the fire. I love it. Exactly. So next one I got for you is what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Okay, so in my field it's a lot of research. So like mistakes are going to be made since we're only humans.
So it's like having that integrity to admit to your mistakes because what I do is not going to be isolated. Like what— when I process a semiconductor, it's going to go on to somebody else. And if I make mistakes, it's going to trip somebody. Like ahead of me too. So it's just like you got to be upfront and to say, admit to your faults. It's not going to be that big of a deal. It's actually going to be better because you're saving materials and people's time if you admit to your mistakes.
I love that. And then what's your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.
My best piece of advice would be like learning from anyone in any sort of situation, be it from your managers, guest speakers, your POs, even to like HR interviews, even if you fail, like always taking like little bits of knowledge here and there to like help build your business mindset, creo, and like your portfolio.
And then if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Just not stress about every little detail. Like if you're just so focused on the small little things, you can't see see the bigger picture of things and just like get it done. Like nothing's perfect. You can't get every little detail correct. So it's best to just like have it the best you can overall instead of like just having this one little bit great and perfect.
And then kind of going a little bit down a different path. In your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Probably like finding happiness in the simple little things in life because like And today everything's all about social media and like all the big things like vacation and concerts and all that little big stuff, but life isn't always about the big stuff. It's also about the little stuff too.
And— oh, sorry, I thought you were going to elaborate there. No, that was actually really cool. That would be really cool for the recording, like pause effect. Um, so the next one I got for you is what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Probably the best book I've read as of late is The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang. It's about this— it's a fictional story about this girl who started from like poverty, not— but then she had like to like— and then but it escalates where she had like— but it started off with her like wanting change for herself and like trying to get an education. And like working through it and like working through— and then she becomes a general and all that, and a lot of crazy stuff, but it just like all started off with her wanting change and to like move forward in life. And so she just got that ambition and just started it up, and then it just— the rest of the story takes off from there. So it's just kind of like what I took from it was that you are in charge of your own change, and if you want it, you have to go and grab it.
And then what is your favorite quote and why?
My favorite quote is probably "Attitude is the little thing that makes a big difference" by Winston Churchill, and it's because like your perspective of life and the world is just how you're going to view it. If you see it in a negative light, then everything's going to be negative, but if you see things in a positive light, then it's going to be easier.
I love it. Thank you for coming on. The last one I got for you, where can our audience best find you online?
They can find me online at akaka95@gmail.com and LinkedIn. I would love to connect with anybody.
Beautiful. Thank you again.
Thank you so much for having me.
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