My Experience at the Liberty Mutual Women in Technology Summit
Hi everyone! My name is Vindhya Rachur and I am a rising sophomore double majoring in Computer Science and Statistics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst with the aspiration to be a data scientist one day!
Two weeks ago I was fortunate enough to attend the Liberty Mutual Women in Technology Summit. It was held in their beautiful Back Bay Headquarters in Boston! Truly it was a dream. An all-expense paid trip to my favorite city was all I could ask for but it was much more than just that. The summit was an immersive three-day program filled with opportunities to network with one another, empower each other, and to capture a vision of what it’s like to be a woman pursuing a career in technology.
Day #1: Arrivals
The first day was filled with students arriving at the fabulous Boston Park Plaza Hotel from all over the country and then we were brought to the Liberty Mutual office to kick off the summit with some networking! I got to meet so many amazing women and heard all about their aspirations and goals for the future.
We got to mingle with some of the recruiters that help put the entire event together and also networked with women from the Liberty Women in Technology group.
Day 2: Fishbowl Discussion, Growth Mindsets, GraphQL, and a Boston Duck Tour!
The second day was the “main day” of the summit and was definitely the most eventful. We started off the morning with breakfast and Women in Tech mentors came over to each table to introduce themselves and gave more insight into what they did at Liberty Mutual. I loved hearing so many perspectives about working at Liberty and how each of them got to their current role. We also got to listen to a speech on left brain vs right brain mentality which was super interesting and also learned about the growth mindset and how it affects our behavior and actions.
One of the most valuable activities from this day was the Fishbowl Activity. The gist of it was to have an interactive discussion about the gender gap in the tech industry, how to support other women in tech and to generally share our opinions about going into a male-dominated field. During this, students and mentors would go in and out of the circle and convey their thoughts on a proposed question. I felt so relieved to hear other women speak about their fears about the industry and the stigmas about women in tech because I wasn’t the only one going through these thoughts in my head.
There were also coding workshops on Graph QL, MongoDB, and React/NodeJs for students to attend. I went to the Graph QL workshop and learned a lot about how it was used at a high level. I was able to create a server and use it to query, add, and update book data. The workshop was really helpful since I had never been exposed to Graph QL before and now I can dig deeper since I was able to master the base foundation.
After the daytime portion of the day, everyone got on a duck boat and got to tour the city of Boston! We were even taken out to eat at an Italian restaurant where we indulged in amazing food and played trivia!
Day 3: Q&A with LibertyMutual Executives, learning about the TechStart program & departures!
At last, we made our way to the final day. We were informed about the Liberty TechStart internship program and even got to hear from current TechStart interns! There was also a tech leadership panel where several executives talked about the inclusive culture at Liberty and the strives to keep supporting women in technology. And that was the end!
Overall, I had an amazing time at the WiT Summit and would definitely recommend it to other female students, especially if you could see yourself interning at Liberty Mutual in the future! I learned a lot about the company’s culture and intern program and also got a lot of networking opportunities. I met a lot of amazing girls who I will be keeping in touch with as well!
It can be scary and overwhelming to take on the tech industry as a woman. As much as I’d like to think I can handle it by myself, it’s impossible to get through it without a support system.
I am really glad I got to attend this summit because it allowed me to form that support system and to feel empowered by other women in the same position as me!
