Hopping with Grace

Three weeks ago, I got an incredible opportunity to attend the world’s largest gathering of women in technology. I spent three days interacting with and hearing from some of the most intelligent, driven and passionate women in the field of STEM at the 2018 Grace Hopper conference. It was awe inspiring, humbling and chaotic! Loved every minute and here are some nuggets I took away with me.

Technology is a great leveler:

As we started our drive to the event from the airport, our cab driver wanted to know more about the event and why it was causing this mad rush of traffic. Me and my colleague explained the story behind the event and then the driver began sharing about his children’s passion for gaming and wondered whether they could ever get into tech and be successful despite their economic background. We gave him names of several free coding resources that could help his kids get more interested in tech and gave some pointers on ways to groom their interest. It was an interesting conversation and led me to think about how harnessing one’s passion in tech can create opportunities for people regardless of race, gender, economics and physical constraints.

The second keynote from Jessica Matthews echoed this sentiment. Jessica, hailing from Nigeria gave an authentic and invigorating talk about how her humble beginnings and her passion for tech enabled her to dream of solutions for the world’s energy problems by using mundane objects such as soccer balls and by harnessing kinetic energy. Heck, she even jumped rope in heels! Making an impact in this world is now a possibility for every person, thanks to technology. If you are a young person thinking about a career choice, do consider getting into technology – You could be one of those great minds dreaming up the next technological innovation in your garage!

Girls like you…..

It was refreshing to see 20,000+ women fill the auditorium for the keynote and bustling about between the knowledge sharing sessions, panel discussions and interviews. Never before have I seen such a long line to the ladies’ room ??. Companies around the world are aware of the need to actively recruit and retain a diverse workforce and there has never been a better time to be a woman in tech than now. As Padmasree Warrier said in her keynote speech “Keep your eyes on the stars and feet on the ground. Open doors and go through them”.  I would highly encourage all women in tech to mentor and be mentored by other women and contribute back to this growing community. This is the time to start a movement. Seek to build your community and Be Bold.  

It is a Candidate’s market:

After attending the keynotes, our team immediately jumped into the main duties of the event – Recruiting! Between the career fair and the interview booths, we were swamped for the full three days. Per this NY Times article, unemployment rates have hit a rare low of 3.9% and it was evident to us as we interviewed various candidates. Talented and high performing candidates had a wide array of choices in their hand and most already had multiple offers even as they sought to keep all of their options open by interviewing with various companies. The Walmart recruiting team did a phenomenal job with our booth at the career fair – the branding, displays of Bonobos and ModCloth clothes, videos demonstrating our wide portfolio and the sponsorship of the badge tags for the event was right on point. Companies seeking to recruit talent in this market need to remember a few things:

• Treat candidates as peers and spend time in engaging with them in an authentic and personalized manner.
• Seek to demonstrate the value that your company can bring to the candidate by educating them on the type of projects, technologies and career growth opportunities that you can provide to them. Walmart piloted a V/R assessment for the first time that was quite well received and helped us influence the perception of our brand amongst the candidates. Some companies held live demonstrations and product booths. It is important  to “showcase” your value proposition to attract the brightest minds. 
•  It is tough when the candidate you woo eventually picks another company. If this situation happens to you, do not fret and continue to stay in touch with them. If you have established a genuine relationship, when their situation changes, there is a high likelihood of them choosing your organization. 

Being the best

Yes, the market is booming and companies are vying with each other to entice the best talent. However, as an aspiring young professional looking to get your first job, here are a few things for you to keep in mind:

• What unique skills do you bring to the table? Academic excellence alone cannot be a good differentiator – Are you contributing back to the technology community? Are you constantly learning in your field and testing new learnings’? Are you trying various hands on projects and refining your programming ability? 
• Try to hone in on your strengths as much as possible and do not expend energy pursuing areas where you may have interest but not much experience/exposure. For instance, we met some candidates who were claiming to be full stack developers but did not know much about RESTful services or were not strong in any backend programming languages. There are many candidates that are aspiring to be data scientists but do not have the needed awareness of various tools and methods used in data science. Bottom line is that if you are seeking to diversify away from your core strengths, then you need to be spending additional time to build those skills!
• When receiving a job offer, the natural human tendency is to base the decision on key factors such as compensation. However, cost of living plays a big part in your everyday reality. Try to use cost of living tools such as nerdwallet to compare whether the $100K offer you got in the West coast is better than the $80K offer you got in Texas… Ultimately, ask yourself what your goal is for the first 2-3 years of your career – Are you seeking to further your programming skills? Are you seeking to gain experience at a large corporation to enhance your resume? Are you wanting to take some risks and experience life at a start-up? Spend the due diligence in comparing offers against all factors before making the choice. 

I could keep writing on and on. I am incredibly humbled to have gotten an opportunity to attend Grace Hopper this year and hope to come back again in the future. I wish all the young women in tech the very best and sincerely pray that they each find their dreams and go on to become a pioneer in their chosen field. May the force be with you!