6 Women Engineers Share Their Thoughts on Grace Hopper

The weather is crisp 🍁 and Grace Hopper Celebration is just around the corner. This year things are a little different. For many of us, the world has been feeling very heavy. We’re pivoting our lives to Zoom, juggling work and childcare, fighting for a safe, equitable, and sustainable future … and time is more precious than ever. How to make the most out of time you spend at GHC?

I asked six women at Optimizely to share their tips on attending Grace Hopper. Here’s what they said …

From Neha Singla, Senior Manager, Engineering

Neha was Optimizely’s first female engineer. She drove Optimizely’s adoption of a 17-week parental leave policy and brought Optimizely to Grace Hopper for the first time. She was a software engineer at Microsoft for 5+ years and at Optimizely for 3+ years, before converting to management and then, senior management. Pronouns: She/her. (LinkedIn)

Neha at home with her adorable daughter!

I brought Optimizely to Grace Hopper for the first time in 2013. I was actually Optimizely’s first female engineer, but I didn’t know it until I joined. I’d met the former Director of Product at a Girl Geek dinner. At Microsoft, I had all these amazing engineers around me, 90k people, so I never thought to ask! Once here, I saw that the company wanted to do something about diversity, but didn’t know where to start. I’d seen from that dinner that networking between women works, so I deployed the same strategy and took Optimizely to Grace Hopper.

That first year, we didn’t have resources for a booth, so a recruiter and I walked around, handed out cards, and talked about Optimizely. I don’t remember us getting a conversion (hiring) the very first year, but we got a lot of resumes and got our name out. It was a success. The next year, the recruiting team worked with me to sponsor a booth. The rest is history.

If you’re looking for a job, figure out which companies you want to talk to, and what you’re genuinely interested in. Go there and talk. Talk about what you’ve done, the impact you’ve made, and what you’re passionate about. We meet so many people that everyone starts to blend in. When someone is passionate, it really stays with us. We can pick your resume out of a pile.

From Jessica Ross McKinnie, Senior Site Reliability Engineer

Jessica is an engineer from Texas with 12 years of experience. She moved from backend engineering into site reliability engineering (SRE) where her job is to “keep the lights on.” As a backend engineer, she focused on building internal services; as an SRE, Jessica finds joy in learning about and making systems work at an even deeper level. Pronouns: She/her. (Twitter, LinkedIn, Github)

Jessica and her husband at home, with their two adorable pups.

At GHC, I focus on networking. There are really cool talks but a lot of them end up on the internet anyway. Feel free to talk to people who aren’t there to recruit. I think my most valuable interaction was with another SRE from Twitch who is a Chef expert, which is what I was working on at the time. It was really cool to be able to ask questions and share ideas directly.

Grace Hopper is also a great place to meet other Black engineers who I otherwise wouldn’t encounter in a field dominated by White and Asian men. It’s awesome to see other other women, and other Black women, in a space where we can talk candidly. People at GHC actively try not to stereotype each other. That alleviates a low level stress of being prejudged based on outward attributes that people like me have to deal with all the time. It feels safe to be able to say what I mean without being seen as angry, bossy, or bitchy, when really I’m passionate. I can be authentic. The networking opportunities are amazing.

From Laura Hofmann, Senior Site Reliability Engineer

Laura is a site reliability engineer with 4 years of experience. She was hired at Grace Hopper by Optimizely in her senior year of college. She focused on frontend work in college but likes that being an SRE feels physical, like a puzzle, with a clear right and wrong. Lately, Laura has been spending her weekends helping people from communities that are underrepresented in tech practice their interview skills. Pronouns: She/her. (LinkedIn)

Laura in a slot canyon in Arizona, one week before we all went into quarantine.

When I was looking for a job at GHC, I did a lot of preparation ahead of time. For example, I stack ranked the companies I wanted to speak to at the career fair and started with the least important to get my nerves out. The more you practice, the better.

As an interview coach, I often see people spinning their wheels trying to come up with the absolute most efficient solution to a problem, when the best thing to do is get to a working solution first. If you have time at the end, you can always refactor your code or explain the improvements you would like to make to your interviewer. Also, code that you write under interview pressure will have bugs. Don’t sweat it. It’s an opportunity for you to showcase your troubleshooting skills and demonstrate that you understand the code you wrote.

I’m a woman, but I am a White woman with a C.S. degree from a pretty well known school. I was set up for success in a lot of ways. If you, like me, are in a position of privilege and are attending Grace Hopper, start thinking about how you can better support others. Consider going to sessions to learn about being a better ally or mentor.

From Harshita Kaushal, Software Engineer

Harshita is a software engineer on a billing team. She recently graduated from UC Davis and now works on backend projects like ensuring that our billing system, GAE, and impressions counting all function together. She values seeing applications of tech that are socially ethical and helpful, so Optimizely’s roots in the Obama campaign drew her to the company. Pronouns: She/her. (LinkedIn)

Harshita on a (secret?!) swing on Mt. Tamalpais, overlooking the Bay Area.

Recruiters are helpful, but I get a really good gauge by talking to engineers: what they work on, what excites them, what they’re challenged by, and what their company can do better. It’s very telling when someone can be honest with you about the good and the bad. If they say they love the people they work with, it’s a good sign that their company doesn’t have a cutthroat culture, or one built on secrecy and competition.

I also look for red flags, like half-assed answers that indicate that they haven’t given a topic much thought, don’t care to, or don’t care about the organization or me. Or maybe they’re just really tired, that happens too.

Grace Hopper has turned into a very career focused conference so it can be overwhelming. Once I started going with the mentality to have fun and find people with similar interests, I had a lot of genuinely great conversations. It’s nice to find people who align with your values. I still have some very strong relationships with people I met at GHC.

From Alexa Lane, Senior Recruiter

Alexa has been a recruiter at Optimizely for 2 years, focusing on hiring for the go-to-market organization. She attended Grace Hopper last year to help the technical recruiting team. Pronouns: She/her. (LinkedIn)

Alexa and her husband on a hike at Lake Phoenix.

Grace Hopper is a great success for us; we hired a number of people last year. For recruiters, buzzwords in the resume matter. If you’re a frontend developer, I look for HTML, JavaScript, or CSS to be listed. And I look for not just a good skill set, but a good cultural fit — a fit with our company values.

It also really helps to make a connection with us and hold a conversation. Show us who you are. A lot of people apply online first; if you then come to the booth, it really helps if you’ve done due diligence and learned something about the company and the space.

From Jessica Chong, Senior Software Engineer

Jessica has been a software engineer at Optimizely for 5 years. She was part of the first class of I/Own It Scholarship winners. Pronouns: She/her. (LinkedIn)

Jess snapping a pic of an outfit that she sewed (!!) in the Optimizely bathroom.

Last time I went to GHC, I learned the limit of my extroversion. I’m typically extremely extroverted and love to be in a room full of strangers… but a conference hall full of strangers was a totally different beast! I found myself feeling overwhelmed and pining for a way to connect with people meaningfully!

If I had one piece of advice for job seekers, it would be: don’t just shove your resume in the booth staffers’ faces! We are people too; we’ve been standing all day, we’re probably hangry, we probably have to pee and are waiting desperately for our shift to end, and we’ve lost track of how many times we’ve repeated our spiel! And, we’ve talked to tons of people with similar educational backgrounds and internships. Tell us something fun about yourself that we can remember you by! This applies to virtual GHC, as well. Be yourself! Good luck :)

On being prepared:

Don’t go in with a speech and don’t memorize things. I like to get a sheet of paper, think of what people might ask me, write down a few bullet points for my answer, and never look at it again. You won’t remember everything you wrote, but you’ll be ready. — Jessica M.

On going to talks:

The keynotes are so empowering and inspiring. The conference is always in September, so it signifies the start of the school year. It’s so good to be in a room and feel inspired by the women who are sharing their stories. — Harshita

On keeping an open mind:

Don’t get stuck on A B C in your mind. I remember my resistance. I said, I’m a Microsoft person, a big company person; I’ll never do a startup. Optimizely’s former Director of Product asked me, “What do you have to lose [by coming to an interview]?” She was right. You have to do focused networking, but when you get a chance to talk to different people, keep an open mind and listen. Don’t shut doors until you get a chance to explore what’s on the other side. — Neha

Advice for your younger self:

I’m a lot less timid now, but I wish I’d known to ask hard questions that don’t seem interesting to ICs but are important. If you’re looking at startups, talk to people about the ways a startup fails. I’ve been burned a couple of times. Ask about the health of the company, the roadmap, and the projects you’d be working on. And negotiate your salary based on the job you’d be doing, not based on the salary of your previous job. — Jessica M.

Ask questions. I landed in an area that I had no experience in and had massive imposter syndrome. In the early days of my career, I used to write down all the unfamiliar terms I’d hear throughout the workday so that I could look them up later! I never asked my peers because I was afraid of seeming incompetent, when in reality they were always helpful and supportive. Now I ask ‘stupid’ questions all the time and see even my most senior coworkers do the same, and we’re all much more productive for it. That vulnerability is good for you, the company, and the culture. — Laura

On GHC being virtual this year:

Grace Hopper is a lot of talking, a lot of energy. I remember coming back with my voice gone and then hunting for ramen in Minneapolis. I think there will be a drop in energy this year, but that can also translate to the conference being less overwhelming. It’s not as noisy or crowded. Try to book appointment slots, because those may fill out fast. In person, people are willing to hang around and stay late, but in a virtual environment that might not happen. You may not be able to cast as wide a net, so it’s important to prioritize. — Neha

Final thoughts

The career fair feels like a meat market sometimes. Companies make offers with short turnarounds, which creates even more stress. It’s particularly important to think about how we can make that experience less daunting for people from groups less well represented. For those looking to hire at GHC, look for people with bootcamps backgrounds, or names of historically black colleges, or for involvement with certain affiliate groups. There’s a lot we can do to help, we just need to be willing to do the legwork. — Laura

At the end of the day, the person across from you is a human being. If you notice someone is tired, take a break together. Once, I talked to a woman about who was hiring for her company. At the end of the conversation, she asked if I could babysit her children. I wish she’d thought about how this would feel to someone young, who just spent time talking about her body of professional work! Needless to say, I didn’t apply to work at her company or offer to babysit. — Harshita

Grace Hopper is great, but it needs to be more accessible. It’s expensive, and one of the aspects that is disappointing is that you see a lot of White and Asian engineers, but there are people of other groups who need this help just as much but don’t have this resource. I think there needs to be more diversity. But Grace Hopper isn’t the be all, end all. It’s sometimes easier to network at smaller conferences. Look for ones in your space. — Jessica M.