Grace Hopper 2009 was a great experience! During the two and a half days in Tucson I was able to attend 7.5 sessions and gain valuable insights, talk to the friendly recruiters of many companies, network with very smart women in technology from across the country, and have a lot of fun as well. Personally, the most valuable thing I gained from the conference was inspiration and confidence that, yes, I can succeed in this most exciting realm of technology and the possibilities of what I can do are diverse and endless.

I took a lot of notes during all the sessions I attended so I’ll organize and post those in the coming days. Here’s the first one!

Session I – Career Choices
The official name of the session was “A Wide Career Lens – Recognizing the Options.” It consisted of a moderator (Phyllis Stewart Pires from SAP) and a panel of four: Maria Olson (SAP), JeanAnn Nicols (Intel), Alysia Andrikopoulos (Google), Betty Chan-Bauza (LifeLock).

It is not easy to make tough career choices. However there are some key things to consider about the road you choose to follow:

• One job incorporates many roles. Have flexibility and capitalize on your strengths.
• Know your interests, goals, and core values. Make sure that the company you choose has similar values and will help you attain your goals.
• Use “Decision Cards”. Keep a list of index cards with your core values. Sort them by priority. Go over them every time you need to make a decision. (I thought this was a really useful idea to help in consciously evaluating each possible path in accordance with the values. I have personally found that consulting my core values has made some decisions much clearer.)
• Have motivation and passion for the career you choose.
• In the end trust your intuition and be confident in your choices.

Once you choose a career path there are still many things to keep in mind in order to be successful.

• A career is a journey. You need to break up the journey and be aware that challenges and learning go hand in hand and there are many trade-offs along the way.
• Find a good project that is interesting to you.
• Communication is key. Work with people easy to get along with and have a good manager.
• Don’t forget that delegation is essential in facing daunting tasks.
• Find a mentor. Talk to people who can instill confidence in you.
• Network a lot. Become accustomed to going out of your comfort zone.
• At the end of the day know what you have contributed.
• Above all know your job and do it well. It’s what you’re there for.
• However, don’t be afraid to fail because you learn from that (but be in a place where it’s okay to do so).
• When you do succeed, sometimes you need to toot your own horn in order to get the recognition you deserve and move forward in your career.

Session 1 Panelists

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