We started off with what to look for in an employer. Do they promote growth in your career? Are you learning and advancing? Are you receiving proper feedback and promotions? Are you interested and invested in what is going on at your company? These are all questions you should ask while trying to determine if an employer is a good fit for you. Every couple years you should be seeing some signs of advancement such as taking on more responsibility, promotions or learning something new. The advice given was keep in mind you are responsible for your own career and if you see it stalled on the side of the road it is time to give it a jump start or buy a new car!
Another speaker spoke about women and activism and how women are often leading many of these groups to improve the lives of their families and children. She encouraged us to get involved in something we support and to donate time or coding skills to solve social problems. She used examples of volunteer coders for Bernie Sanders, codersagainsttrump, and socialroots.io.
We then heard about bridging the gap with wages for women. We learned how only 7% of women negotiate their first salary after graduation when 60% of men do this. The average woman earns only 77% of what a man earns and some of this we need to be more proactive about by asking for more money upfront as well as asking for raises. If a company declines your negotiation, this may not be the company for you. Also, if the company has a set pay for employees you may be able to negotiate other things such as vacation time or education benefits.
Next, were some tips on balancing education and personal life. The key to this is to figure out what works for you. I loved this talk. What I got out of this was, if you know your brain works best at 10am then plan this time for working on coding projects. The other late night times when you are more tired, use those for other things which don't require as much thinking like working out or cleaning the house, etc. Also, make sure to post your work where others can see it such as on github or a blog.
There were a few more speakers who spoke on women in history and current women in coding. This list is too long to give each enough credit so I will let you research on your own if interested. There was a talk on gender bias which suggested not to ask if a person is male or female on surveys since some do not feel comfortable with checking a box and only to ask if medically necessary.
Also we heard from a mom who was changing careers to give herself more flexibility which was very inspiring. She talked about confidence and faking it til you make it as well as believing in yourself and surrounding yourself with supportive people. Another speaker talked about how important feedback is and how to learn from it and accept it when it is positive. She also suggested to ask for more specific feedback and to make yourself a better coder using this.
Lastly, there was a talk about women and the dress code. Obviously this is an issue when we don't talk about what Michelle Obama is doing to better her community, rather we talk about the name brand apparel she is wearing. Should we wear dress clothes or jeans? Often women are told skirts are not appropriate or too short/revealing and in other instances they dress too casual. One woman was told she was required to wear a skirt and jacket while installing servers which required getting on the ground to connect wiring. What is appropriate? It is definitely not as easy as a slacks and a collar shirt. The recommendation was just to be yourself, dress comfortably and appropriately for your position, and defend yourself as necessary.
