We had a fabulous Day 1 at the WEST Leadership Summit! 🙌 Our speakers graciously shared stories from their career journeys, and our attendees brought great energy and thoughtful questions to each session. Really wonderful to see everyone engaging with each other and taking advantage of our networking opportunities!
Thank you to Gusto, Box, Teal, The Energy Project, and NextArrow for helping sponsor the Summit. Thank you also to our WEST volunteers - Kelli Rockwell, Henry Beaudin, Guadalupe Emigdio, and Danielle Walker, for their support!
Here is a quick recap of Day 1, through the eyes of our attendees:
Embracing Resilience in Your Professional Journey
Featuring Claire Hough, CTO of GetLabs and Heidi Williams, Founder of WEST Diversity & Inclusion
Key Takeaways:
Don’t be afraid to prioritize yourself - it’s a long career, do what’s best for you!
It can feel urgent in the moment but in the scope of a career, small breaks/setbacks aren’t as big of a deal
Everyone’s journey is different so don’t let others’ success/challenges dictate what you can or can’t do
Keep an open mind about the type of role/company you work for
How to Define a Personal Brand that Sets You Apart
A panel discussion featuring Mona Salvi, Senior Director, Product Security, Fraud & Risk, Hubspot, Leah Dillon, Social Media Manager and Recruiter, TEAL, and Ei-Nyung Choi, Technical advisor, mentor, speaker. Moderated by Karen Ko, Managing Director of WEST Diversity & Inclusion.
Key Takeaways:
Don’t be afraid to rebrand yourself. It’s never too late to craft a personal brand!
Understand the biases and know what’s working for you or against you
I loved the advice about the first 90 days at the company and how to use it to your benefit
Ask others those opinions you value what they think of you and what your strengths are. You have a big ol’ blindspot when it comes to yourself
Courageous Negotiations
Featuring McKendree Hickory Ph.D., Head of Coaching at NextArrow. (Thank you to NextArrow for sponsoring this workshop!)
Key Takeaways:
Think through what the other person wants and be creative with possible solutions
This has given me a means of understanding what I can learn from my past negotiations, both failures and success!
Breaking negotiations down into concrete details and steps to approach it is a huge help!
“It was helpful to think about how to prioritize *others* needs to motivate your own negation (i.e. how your family will benefit from your salary negotiation)
Choose Your Own Adventure as a Software Engineer
A panel discussion featuring Karen Lo, Director of Engineering, JLL; Kylie Taitano, Engineering Manager, Intuit; Rocio Montes, Sr. Engineering Manager, Github; and Krithika Jagtiani, Staff Software Engineer, Intuit. Moderated by Erin Hinson, Technical Lead, HubSpot.
Key Takeaways:
The imposter syndrome is normal, but don’t like it hold you back
So interesting to get different perspectives! Takeaways: definitely look for a mentor/sponsor, and you can be both an IC and a leader
So many unique perspectives. I got validation on some aspects of my journey in leadership as well – Shelby
Everyone faces similar barriers in the tech field