Being a Mentor and Leading by Example
How Giselle Aldridge is giving others the tools to navigate the workplace
Giselle’s first exposure to computer science was copying code from a magazine on to her Commodore 64. After exploring programming further in a high school course, Giselle realized she had a knack for it. When it came time for college, Giselle was inspired by the ample scholarship opportunities offered for women in tech and decided to major in Computer Science. After a few short years, she graduated from Florida State University with her degree in Computer Science.
Giselle went on to work as a Software Engineer at a variety of companies. She was driven by solving problems and seeing the contributions she made to impactful projects. During one of her roles as a Software Engineer at a Fortune 500 company, she was assigned to a project that already had three failed starts. Through perseverance, she was able to lead the team to success and was promoted to Lead Engineer. Even though it was difficult and had many obstacles, it was a project that helped drive Giselle’s career and guide her towards pursuing more leadership positions and eventually management role(s).
“[After spending time as an individual contributor], I felt I tackled a lot of technical problems and realized the human problems were an interesting challenge that I had not really gone into before…I look at my role as one where I help engineers to not just bring value for the company because it’s definitely been part of the job, but also to help them in their careers so that their careers take off and they become stronger engineers.”
Having been in their shoes before, Giselle feels she can pass on career guidance to Silvercar’s Software Engineers as a Software Engineering Manager. Silvercar is a rental car agency that has developed software to solve issues within that industry. As a manager, she works with Engineers to hone their talents, learn new skills, and reach their personal goals in hopes of creating software that will help customers and rental car associates alike. She prides herself on being a mentor and feels that mentoring is a pillar to a successful career. She encourages other womxn to find their own mentors as they grow as professionals. She especially thinks it’s important to have a diverse group of mentors who can guide you in different facets of your career.
“I definitely encourage women to develop their own tribe. I actually advocate for not just mentorship of one person. I like the multiple mentorship model, where you have multiple mentors… and the more of them you have, the better. If you have a situation that you’re not sure how to navigate and you tap your network to ask them ‘how do I navigate the situation?’ If you get responses from six different mentors and four are the same, you have your answer.”
Outside of guiding engineers at Silvercar, Giselle has dedicated her time to helping other womxn through their tech journeys. In her role as a community leader for AnitaB.org’s local chapter in Austin, TX, she has developed programs to help others network and learn how to navigate the workplace. Giselle has found that “[leading a local AnitaB.org chapter] is a lot of fun and it gives women a lot of opportunities to network and also learn skills that they can help their careers to take off”.
Giselle has also shared her own experience through public speaking opportunities. She has presented at the Grace Hopper Celebration and given speeches for other organizations, specifically on her experience battling against pay inequality. Through her speaking events, she has helped many people advocate for themselves and even be able to bridge the gaps that exist in their own compensation. She has had the opportunity to speak to many womxn, as well as other underrepresented groups within tech. One of the biggest personal benefits Giselle has gotten from her work with AnitaB.org and speaking with other organizations is growing her network. She advises all womxn to try to grow a network to support her.
“The bigger network you have, the more likely it is you’re going to get a good job versus just any job. That’s a lesson I’ve learned. It took me a long time to learn that and my network has helped me get my last two jobs. One of the jobs didn’t even exist prior to me getting involved. They created it because they met me, so that’s the importance of a great network.”
This story was written by Natalia Gutierrez, Wogrammer Journalism Fellow. Connect with her on Linkedin. Support our mission to celebrate more amazing women in tech, like the one featured here, by donating to AnitaB.org.
