Paylocity @ Grace Hopper Celebrations 2023
“A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for. Sail out to sea and do new things.” — Admiral Grace Murray Hopper
At Paylocity, we consider our DEIA initiatives as a journey and every day we strive to a carve a path through intentional actions, programs and policies. As a part of this initiative, since 2017 every year a group of employees who identify themselves as women and non-binary are selected to attend Grace Hopper Celebrations, known as a flagship event for women in Computing. This year also a group of us from Paylocity attended Grace Hopper Celebrations both in person and virtual, including an ally for the first time.
Read about last year’s experience here.
The 3-day Celebration from Tuesday to Thursday was interspersed with a interesting mix of experiences:
- Conversations with a large group of students in their final year interested in Paylocity’s Early career programs
- Sessions ranging from interpersonal skills to technical skills — Being a Woman with ADHD in FBI, Excelling at Code reviews, Classroom to Boardroom through STEM, Can I Cry at Work?, Be yourself — Everyone else is already taken, From Design to Delivery: A Software Engineer’s Handbook
- Walking around the Expo hall and talking to people from different companies about their experiences in Tech
- Braindates with like minded people from the industry
- Inspiring Opening Plenary to listening to speakers like Stefanie O’Connell Rodriguez about Ambition Penalty
- Networking with people from the same location/city
- Not to mention, a lot of swag!
What do some of our attendees have to say about their experience?
“Attending Grace Hopper 2023 and learning about diversity and technology was such an honor. In the sessions, I learned from the speakers’ experiences and research on topics ranging from succeeding through unapologetic authenticity to harnessing new AI technologies. Between sessions, I was able to talk with some of the incredible women and non-binary attendees there. It was so empowering to learn from these individuals and I’m excited to apply it in my work.” — Alyssa
“Inspiring and Empowering!! GHC is an amazing way to surround ourselves with so many talented female engineers. The technical sessions I attended were so well planned out and offered great information in such short span. I was very inspired by the female speakers and it definitely increased my confidence and helped me lay out a better plan for my future.” — Naga
“As a cis male attendee to the Grace Hopper Celebration for the first time, I admit I was a little nervous about how my presence would be received. But, after just a little while, those nerves were calmed and I was able to settle into a place of comfort as an ally. My intention while there was to be an observer, a learner, and to walk away with a stronger understanding of the difficulties women and non-binary people feel in a male-dominated industry. Throughout the week I listen to women like Beena Ammanath discuss AIs influence and the how focusing on AI powered systems that promote fairness and equality. And, women like Lislie Chen tell her empowering story about her career path at Microsoft and what she did to build her brand and herself to achieve recognition and promotion. These women, and many others that I listened to and interacted with throughout the week brought me both a sense of admiration of their ability to persevere but also a sense of sadness that there were so many others that have to push every day just to be considered as an equal. My hope is that gatherings like these can continue to highlight the need and the actions we all need be taking in our daily lives to ensure the brilliant voices and contributions of women and non-binary people are recognized equally among all of us professionals. I enjoyed my time at GHC and encourage everyone to grow to understand your own biases in an effort to do better for everyone.” — John
While we acknowledge some of the challenges faced by women and NB at this year’s conference, our experience as attendees was very gladdening. Paylocity has always been an advocate and ally and aims to make every single employee feel appreciated and empowered to bring out their best at work. As a take away, we plan to present our learnings and take away from these sessions in the coming weeks to the rest of the folks in the organization.
“The way forward” — this unassuming 3 word phrase is a perfect way to sum up this year’s experiences and look forward for the next. The way forward means we acknowledging the challenges in creating an impartial and inclusive future and pledging to be an advocate to drive that progress.
Rohini Balu, Staff Engineer — Software Testing at Paylocity wrote this blog post, with contributions from John Tumbarelli — Senior Director Engineering and Alyssa Felzien — Engineer -Software.
