Investing Where it Matters
At Strava, diversity and inclusion is more than just a thing to talk about — it’s something we put time and energy into. Grace Hopper Celebration 2018 is just one way we do this.
I’ve wanted to go to Grace Hopper Celebration for a long time. When I joined Strava this past spring, I was excited to learn that we had already committed to a booth for recruiting and would be taking some of our technical women along to attend the conference.
I’ve attended many conferences (I like them more than the average person) and have been to some pretty big events, but GHC 2018 was the largest conference I’ve ever attended. This came with a few downsides — long lines to get into sessions, challenges acquiring lunch. But the upsides were amazing; the energy of 20,000 women together in the same place to celebrate women who are doing incredible things in technology was powerful!
Making it count
Given our relatively small size, attending the Grace Hopper Celebration is a large investment for us at Strava. However, we know that this investment (spending the money for a booth and committing the time and travel for multiple engineers and analysts to attend the conference) is extremely important. Strava is committed to diversity and inclusion at all levels of the company and dedicates resources to support that commitment. Having a presence at GHC 2018 is just one example of this, but one that we find especially valuable.
There are many well-documented challenges (https://medium.com/projectinclude/why-doesnt-my-company-get-credit-for-tackling-gender-diversity-b38f0c63a33b) to make a meaningful dent in representation in tech, and we understand that we’ve got a long road ahead. However, there are also many amazing people just starting their careers in tech. Changing what our teams look like requires hiring a diverse group of interns and entry-level engineers.
While I did get the chance to attend some sessions, including the opening keynote, I was primarily at Grace Hopper to represent Strava engineering and find some awesome future Strava interns and employees.
Small team, big impact
To be honest, our Strava team had no idea what to expect at Grace Hopper. We had a small booth close to the back corner of the expo hall floor, and to make matters worse, all of the signs for the small booths were orange, which made our branding stick out a lot less!
It turned out that we had nothing to worry about. From the moment the expo floor opened each day to the last minute it was open, we had a nonstop stream of visitors to our booth, a majority of whom were looking for jobs and already big fans of Strava. Many women attending GHC 2018 as part of recruiting teams for other companies came to visit us just to tell us how much they loved Strava (and to get some swag, of course.)
Most of the people who came by the booth were in college. The college students I interacted with were impressive! Each one had clearly put effort into a pitch about who they were and what they were seeking in an internship. As I went through my interviews, I talked to so many women who were leaders in their women in computing groups on campus and who spoke confidently and effectively about their classes and internships.
Key takeaways for 2019
Overall we had two big lessons learned from this year’s experience. First, given the strong interest in our internship program, our biggest takeaway was that we should do full intern interviews onsite. This will be a priority for us to get set up next year. Secondly, we’d love to continue to have Strava engineers, analysts and product managers represented on panels or giving talks, so we’ll make sure to submit to next year’s call for proposals. We can’t wait to return to Grace Hopper next year to support women in technology .
