Angie Chang’s Path to Girl Geek X and Public Speaking

Meet Angie Chang , a prominent figure in the tech community, keynote speaker, podcast host, and the driving force behind Girl Geek X Community .?

Angie's remarkable journey encompasses her roles as the founder and CEO of Girl Geek X , where she organizes Girl Geek Dinners, ELEVATE Virtual Conferences, and Career Fairs that connect and empower women in tech globally.?

Through her work, Angie has built an inclusive community, provided a platform for women to share their stories, and facilitated countless career opportunities in the tech industry.?

In a detailed interview, she shared insights into her professional journey, the evolution of women in tech, and her valuable advice for aspiring women in the industry.

Liliya: What kind of work do you do in tech? What is your role?

Angie: My name is Angie Chang . I am the founder and CEO at Girl Geek X . I host Girl Geek Dinners, and ELEVATE Virtual Conferences and Career Fairs for women in tech.

We organize in-person events in the San Francisco Bay Area, and virtual events to support and connect women worldwide.

Liliya: Can you share more about your Girl Geek X?

Angie: I built an inclusive community of over 40,000 mid-to-senior women in tech globally who attend, speak, recruit, and sponsor our events.

We give women and underrepresented groups a place to find like-minded women, share their stories, and get recruited. Many industries are male-dominated and you can start to feel lonely, so Girl Geek Dinners are a fun place to meet other women and get inspired.

We also help women in tech get hired by the companies who are hosting our Girl Geek Dinners ( Slack , OpenAI , Grammarly , Khan Academy , Stripe , and more tech companies, to name a few). Women attending our events have been successfully hired for engineering management, AI, engineering, and data science roles at these companies, respectively.

Companies can partner (learn more - https://girlgeek.io/sponsor/ ) with Girl Geek X Community to recruit from our community, showcase their talent brand, and more. I’ve also been invited as a paid speaker to give inspiring career and tech talks at companies, conferences, and entrepreneurship centers globally.

Liliya: Who did you want to be when you grew up?

Angie: When I was younger, my mom was studying for her registered nurse license so she had all these books around the house that I started reading too.?

I loved the science and numbers of her medical books and imagined how it would be to do that diagnostic and care work. Then, school projects led me to realize my knack for writing and making websites, which serves my introverted ways of enjoying iterative work in a curiously public-facing way.

Liliya: Can you share your journey into the tech industry? What or who inspired you to pursue a career in technology?

Angie: I enjoyed dabbling in web design as a hobby, from getting newsletters online to coding simple websites starting in high school, so I was thrilled when friends referred me to paying jobs in IT and entertainment when I was a student at 美国加州大学伯克利分校 .

When I graduated with my humanities degree in English and Social Welfare, I had years of work experience on my resume, which helped land my first job - on the engineering team at a venture-funded startup in Silicon Valley, where I was the only girl on the team, and attended entrepreneurship events around the 美国斯坦福大学 area to learn, attending meetups and Startup School (a one-day event from Y Combinator ).

You can start to feel lonely as the rare woman, so I would ask about where the other women were in Web 2.0 (this was the time I started working in 2005 ish) - and this snowballed into me co-founding Women 2.0 and then making Girl Geek Dinners our rallying events to grow the community of women interested in tech, entrepreneurship, and business.

Liliya: What are some of the accomplishments you're most proud of in your career?

Angie: I have had the privilege of growing up in California’s public school system, with Silicon Valley basically in my backyard. Since I joined the workforce, I find myself doing whatever I can to support women in tech with regard to representation - on screen, magazine covers, branding strategy, onstage speaking as industry experts, you name it.

Earlier in my career, my passion project was blogging about women starting companies and the women funding them for the Women 2.0 community. This resulted in Fast Company naming me and my Women 2.0 co-founder as “Most Influential Women in Tech”, and being asked to contribute to books like Tarah M. Wheeler ’s Women in Tech with the “Crusader” chapter and Ivanka Trump’s Women Who Work: Rewriting the Rules for Success .

I’ve enjoyed being an invited expert speaker for the U.S. State Department, dispatched to cities and countries around the world, from Munich to Palestine, speaking about the intersection of entrepreneurship, technology, and women.

Liliya: How do you balance the demands of a high-pressure tech job with your personal life?

Angie: Prioritize boundaries, balance, and take time off. Prioritize time spent with friends and family. Find things you can do that fill your cup.?

Many people enjoy meditation and yoga as ways to center themselves, and others swim, or craft.?

Personally I have enjoyed finding saunas or hot tubs to sit in and chat with friends. And these days, exercise is toting my toddler around as strength training.?

Many people run marathons and triathlons, but I’m more interested in low-key things like boba, dessert, coffee… I am having a snail-girl summer.

Liliya: What challenges have you faced as a woman in tech, and how have you overcome them?

Angie: I haven’t viewed tech as a uniquely male-dominated industry, as many parts of business and corporate America are similar. Women do often face biases, stereotypes, gender gaps (from pay to promotions), etc.?

By creating safe spaces for women in tech to gather and share information, we help women understand and develop their expertise.

You always hear about the merits of learning to code and leverage AI because we need to be future-focused. What we don’t spend enough time and resources on is protecting women and underrepresented groups, from harassment and toxic cultures online and off.?

Women that I follow online that I hope will lead us to a better future are Meredith Whittaker (president of Signal Messenger ), Timnit Gebru (founder and executive director of The Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR) ), Renee DiResta (former research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory), and Frances Haugen (former Facebook data scientist and whistleblower).

Liliya: What advice would you give to young women aspiring to enter the tech industry?

Angie: It’s never easy to get a job, let alone break into a new industry. My first IT job in college took more than one try, and I never got a job offer from the biggest tech brands, so please don’t get too hung up just applying to a few brand name companies.

You can break into a job at a small company, startup, or nonprofit - they have tech jobs too. Landing a first job is a great stepping stone to your next job in a few years, or decades. I advise learning about different industries.?

For example, Axios covers a bunch of sections including technology, economy, business, and health.. and at the bottom of email newsletters with industry news may include a rundown of the week’s venture capital funding rounds for startup companies. I recommend that job seekers apply then to these companies because successful venture capital fundraising often signals future growth in hiring.

Liliya: How can men in the tech industry be allies to women and underrepresented groups?

Angie: Sponsor , fund, hire, and retain women and underrepresented groups!

Make sure that your recruiting, hiring, promotion, and retention processes are not completely broken.

For example, are your job descriptions written in a way that could deter women and underrepresented groups from applying? Some of the words I dislike are “hacker”, “rockstar”, and “ninja” - which could be off-putting to women.?

Have you examined the ways in which interviewer bias can sneak into the process and disadvantage women and underrepresented groups? Examine your leaky funnel. Are there women and underrepresented groups represented in your leadership and management ranks, as well as distributed across the company (not just concentrated in one or two departments)?

Liliya: What emerging technologies or trends are you most excited about and why?

Angie: Personally, I look forward to learning how tech can assist disadvantaged groups and vulnerable populations, especially as climate change worsens. I hope we have a future trend of investment in big societal problems (e.g. alleviating suffering from climate disasters, mental health and addiction issues, homelessness).

I would love to hear more about cybersecurity as well, there's a lot of work to be done there.

Liliya: What else would you like the readers to know about you and what are you looking for?

Angie: I will be thrilled when this era of monopolies subsides, and we have more startups and innovation!

A question from Maria S. who was recognized in Women in Tech prior. You can read her journey here .

Maria: What strategies have you found most effective in advocating for yourself and your ideas in male-dominated tech environments?

Angie: That's a good question. For introverts, I recommend communicating with people outside of big meetings to provide updates and lobby for influence.?

To lean into your strength, you can work on positioning yourself as an expert in the field - attend industry events, contribute an article or interview to an industry publication, and seek to speak on your expertise publicly, so it's not just creating influence in your team or company, but strategically building toward on the bigger picture and vision for the industry or profession.?

Maybe you organize or contribute to your vertical or expertise. Tech and its roles are continuously evolving, and our teams and managers are always shifting with reorgs, layoffs, etc.?

You need to build your brand not just internally in one company but for the long run. This is especially vital for technical women - to improve our representation in male-dominated environments.

Conclusion

Angie Chang's path to becoming a leading voice at Girl Geek X and an influential public speaker is a testament to her dedication, resilience, and vision for a more inclusive tech industry.?

Her story not only highlights the challenges women face in tech but also showcases the incredible impact of community support and mentorship.?

Angie's journey is a powerful reminder of the importance of representation, continuous learning, and the courage to share one's voice. Her experiences and advice inspire many women to pursue their passions and make their mark in the tech world.

• Book Angie as a Keynote speaker and get inspired.
• Attend the free virtual Elevate Conference on September 4, 2024, which focuses on motivating and hiring women in tech.
• Hiring organizations that support diversity and inclusion are welcome to sponsor the Elevate Conference .?

Let’s inspire, support, and hire more women!