GHC2007: Sun Recruitment, From Technical to Management, Innovation Inside Corporations, Corporate Women's Networks (Day 2 Sessions 3-6)
GHC 2007
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing
Session/Event:My turn to volunteer at the Sun recruitment booth (Day 2, During Session 3)
Commentary:
This was actually one of the highlights of the event. It was really interesting to speak to so many college students who are interested in working for Sun and learning about the vast subject areas that these girls are studying within the field of computing. Here are some pictures from the recruitment area.
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Session/Event:Technical to Management: Expect the Unexpected (Day 2, Session 4)
Commentary:
I missed the beginning of this since I was still working the booth but here's what I did get out of it.
How to transition...
1. First you have to want to transition!
2. Focus on helping people grow their own careers
3. Learn how to manage people
a. Be clear about expectations
b. Address issues immediately
c. Coach employees
d. Acknowledge accomplishments
4. Network with peers
5. Expand knowledge of the business
6. Jump in & out of technical management (Try it out)
7. Learn how to ask for help and define the help you need.
Session/Event:Innovation Inside Corporations (Day 2, Session 5)
Commentary:
For some reason I don't seem to have notes on this session. However, check out Angela Dalton's blog for details...
Session/Event:Building Sustainable Corporate Networks for Technical Women (Day 2 Session 6 BOF)
Commentary:
This session was given by a company called Invent Your Future who specialize in developing women leaders. It was done in a roundtable format and we went around the room introducing ourselves and asking which companies currently have women's networks to one degree or another.
These companies include:
Symantec
Google
Microsoft (3 day conference every 2 years)
IBM
Sun (Women@Sun)
Intuit
Cisco
Intel
HP
It was interesting both b/c it was many of the players you'd expect to see but also because of the fact that they players were so well represented in this session. The questions of what scale of networks, sub-topics discussed, technologies used (video conferencing, dial-in or in person) were uncovered.
We then got a little bit of a sales pitch about the webinars that Invent Your Future offers.
Some suggestions on creating networks were offered:
1. Roll out topics (train-the-trainers) that match company goals (to get funding). And, use "Slides-in-a-box" which will be customized as necessary.
2. Have mentoring "pods" (A 1-M model). These would meet less frequently (maybe once per month). You could then pick topics like: News & recent articles to discuss, Corporate Social Responsibility, Development Paths, etc... Alternatively, you can have multople mentors for a specific topic.
3. Look for existing mentor models to not reinvent the wheel. E.g. TripleCreek.com, MentorNet.net, MentorResources.com.
Platinum Sponsor Night pictures:
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