Background: The attraction and retention of female and minorities to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) related academic careers have been a concern for many years. Today, it is still unclear what are the needs of this STEM minority population to encourage them to pursue and be retained in academic career paths. Design/Method: In this study, senior undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral students and junior assistant professors were surveyed about topics that many studies have been reporting as essential for their success in academic careers. In this investigation, 123 attendees participated in surveys after a 1.5 day workshops held in three different institutions. The topics discussed and surveyed with the participants involved: Future Faculty Forum: What is Assistant Professorship?; Time management; Mastering the Science of College STEM Teaching; Culturally Responsive Teaching in STEM; Mentoring/career coaching; Graduate school 101; and Transitions: Being Proactive. Networking activities with the participants were also deployed, for example, round table and networking lunches (where all faculty and students in the college were invited to attend). Results: The results of the surveys showed that females and males participants had different opinions on which topic was the most beneficial for their careers. Overall, female and minority participants were more concerned about time management and mentoring; while male participants were more interested on the topic "What is Assistant Professorship?". Conclusions: This study indicates that different approaches are needed to attract and retain different genre and ethnicities in engineering and other STEM disciplines.