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Yesterday, some incredible women in tech gathered for "?????????? ?????? ??????", an afternoon of bold conversation, laughter, career insight, and celebration in honor of International Women’s Day.
Despite the rain ?? , we came together at SHACK15 in the San Francisco Ferry Building to connect over tea (and bubbly!).
We shared insights on career growth, advocacy, mentorship, and the bold moves that shape our career journeys. ??
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"Mentors see something you don’t see in yourself. My mentor saw me as a leader before I saw it in myself. They truly played a pivotal role in my career. It’s not a mirror—it’s a portrait of you that they see in a way that you can’t."
– Lauren Minkel, Head of Business Operations, Enterprise Data, S&P Global
"I have a personal board of advisors who I can call any time of day to ask for help."
– Monica Bajaj, VP of Engineering, Customer Identity at?Okta
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"At Netflix, we were splitting the company between DVDs and streaming. I chose streaming, no matter what the market said at the time. IT got to decide, and I decided to go all in. We built a secondary IT team alongside corporate IT to teach Hollywood how to upload content to the cloud."
– Ashley Sprague, Sr. Director, IT & Corp Engineering, GitHub
"When I was growing up, I had this weird imagination of doing something out of the norm, so I joined the Indian Air Force as part of the first women’s batch. Then, I pursued engineering, became a professor, and later moved to the U.S. with no phone, no money, just an H1 visa. It was a bold decision in the circumstances I had, but I just needed to prove myself and survive."
– Monica Bajaj
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"You should always ask, because if you don’t ask, you’ll never get what you want. When you’re ready to advocate for yourself, come with the data."
– Monica Bajaj
"Early in my career, I was running IT support at a real estate company. When our Head of IT left, I was picking up the pieces. I finally had enough and walked into the CFO’s office and demanded this much money and this title. He didn’t blink. That taught me I should have asked for more and sooner. I was already fed up. I should have been upfront about what I needed and not waited."
– Lauren Minkel
A huge thank you to everyone who joined us, especially our moderator Gwendolyn Thorn, organizers Gina Budak and Sheila Ahi, and our phenomenal speakers. ???
And, thank you to our friends at Moonshot Studio for bringing a custom fragrance experience to the occasion to fit the theme of capturing and sharing the essence of success!
Tea was spilled, wisdom was shared, and the inspiration is lasting. Cheers to the wonderful women shaping the future of tech!??? ??
#WomeninTech #IWD2025