Brittney Burchett 

Being Inspired at Work 

Everyone's career begins with a story. For Brittney Burchett, a Software Engineer on the Secure Partition Development team at Unisys, that story begins with a young technologist, about to graduate, listening to a lecture and being inspired to seek out the speaker's company.

"Being just elected the Vice President of the Temple Chapter of IEEE, I attended a dinner banquet hosted by the Philadelphia Section of IEEE in April right before ending my junior year of college," said Brittney. "At this banquet I listened to the most direct, inspiring innovation presentation I had ever heard. I will never forget sitting there staring up at the presentation thinking to myself 'I don't know or care what that company does, but I want to work for it.'"

The presenter, she learned, was Jim Thompson, Chief Engineer and Vice President, Engineering and Supply Chain, at Unisys. Within days Brittney's resume was on Thompson's desk; 2-3 weeks later she had an internship. She said her "ah ha" moment about what she wanted to do with her life came during that time: she wanted to be a software engineer. Having majored in Electrical Engineering at Temple University the transition was challenging, but within reach.

"I officially became the Unisys intern who never left," she said.

On her greatest professional achievement so far, Brittney said: "Within my first year as a full time engineer I helped form an innovation team to push a new product idea through the ranks of Unisys. Although it did not turn into a product, it allowed for me to currently have four software patents pending in my name (with a few more on the way). From that experience, I am now heavily involved in helping to push innovation and an innovative culture throughout the engineering organization."