Don’t leave anything on the table| A brief report from the 11-3-17  General Assembly Women in Tech

Once again Friday, I wandered into Boston seamlessly (very odd) to attend my first meeting at the General Assembly, a “Women in Tech” breakfast.  Interestingly,  GA is actually a school for adult learning to promote career advancement and transition – addressing the “global skills gap” according to its founder.  Thus the audience and the speakers were focused on career-related topics.  The companies represented included Emily Glass, Datto Michelle Crothers, Logmein  Spectra Asala, Flywire and the panel was moderated by Sarah Case from the New England Venture Capital Association.

Although I am not in the job market, I was impressed by this dynamic group of upwardly mobile women in the workplace who had taken the bull by the horns to forge their respective paths.  Each reflected on the research they did on their choice of organizations for which they wanted to work.  If I was their employer or boss, I would be thrilled to have any of them on my team.  Among their key points of advice to the “next” gen was to:

• Spend a day at a company before you work there
• Identify what’s important to you and effectively profile the company to see if there is a match [so young mother’s – is time off, leave, and flexible hours more important than fast promotions, for example; are you a “learner” and if so, how would the company fulfill that need]
• Seek out the roles you want in the business and be aggressive about putting your name forward even if you aren’t 100% ready – BEING NERVOUS is good!
• Share your goals actively/let them be known
• Build relationships inside AND outside the business and cross-functionally

A bit more concerning was the discussion around how to approach the challenges that both women and other potentially “marginalized” groups might be dealing with in different work environments.   From my perspective, the educational and career “choices” are effectively a great leap forward BUT the issues inside the workplace are still surrounded by cautionary tape.   It’s important not to forget all the good work that has been done by so many female pioneers.

At the same time, an insight from the panel was not to focus so narrowly on one group’s needs to the exclusion of others, but to try to find a way to identify opportunities to highlight the incredible value of diversity on all levels and listen to the unique needs of a wide range of people in the work place.