On Thursday September 27th, I attended a session that had panelists in which spoke on how they became women in tech. The panelists consisted of Jennifer Tress, Katie Crepps, Elizabeth Lindsey, Amy Higgins, and Mandy Pet. Each panelist had their own unique stories to tell in regards on how they came into the Information Technology Industry. They spoke on the struggles and accelerating your career in the non-traditional way. Each one of them felt at least one of the following struggles: feeling like an outsider, being excluded, caring/engagement early in career can be difficult when needing to layoff others, and the typical stereotyping of what a tech person looks like. Each one agreed upon the following ways to accelerate a career on the non-traditional path: know your stuff, seek out a mentor for guidance based on topic, make connections/network with others in the field, and to keep learning. Their session has empowered me to connect out to my network for guidance and assistance in getting into my dream job in Information Technology.
#UMSL #Information Systems #Hopper #Women in Technology #UMSL2GHC