Betting on Yourself: Regaining and Maintaining Confidence as a Woman in Computing
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Pre-Conference Notes
Moderator: Tejinder Judge (Virginia Tech)
Panelists: Jamika Burge (Information Systems Worldwide Corporation), Robin Jeffries (Google, Inc.), Erika Poole (Pennsylvania State University), and Laurian Vega (Next Century Corporation)
Abstract: Women in technical fields may face gender bias, impostor syndrome, and stereotype threats on a daily basis. This BOF session will address the secondary and perhaps more enduring effect of these issues: confidence dips. With a mix of panelists from academia and industry, representing varying career stages, we will (1) present tips for managing and dealing with issues of self-confidence, and (2) moderate a hands-on activity in which attendees will practice confidence building.
Session Notes
Laurian Vega - had a baby and wasn't sure if she was good enough to stay in PhD...her advisor agreed.
Erika Poole - asst professor at Penn State. She suffered through not having publications, advisor telling her not to stay in grad school, failing qualifying exam.
Robin Jeffries - quantitative user experience analyst at Google, Her Systers Keeper, PhD in Quantitative Psychology, career spanned 40 years.
Jamika Burge - senior behavioral com scientist at i_SW, PhD in Comp Science. She was always diligent, raised her hand but teacher ignored her. Then even a colleague noticed she didn't get credit in class and that was eye-opening for someone else to notice. It's okay for others to have their perception of you.
Tips for Confidence
Laurian - seek peer support. She realized she needed a champion. She reevaluated where she was and how she got to that point, talked to others with kids, asked how they did it. She talked to faculty members and asked if she was good enough. When she got someone who believed in her, in 5 months she published 2 papers and rewrote a proposal. Create environments that build confidence. She took pics of her kids and put them in her office. When she encountered difficult things she looked at pics. Get rid of haters, put things that matter in your environment.
Erika - That which gets measured gets done. Dress for success. When her confidence dips she's wears gray sweatpants, ponytail, showers every other day. Put on something that looks good and you'll feel better. She was a faculty member but was young and got treated like a student. In parking lot she had to show her ID to park in faculty parking. So if you're the youngest one around, get a good blazer, expensive jewelry.
Robin - Fake it till you make it. She found herself reporting to CTO, so she invited herself to meetings. She didn't have power but had influence - started being the loud person in the room. But she was passionate about the impact she would have. Would ask herself, "what would a guy do?" She had a male friend she asked for advice. He would say, "Are you here to borrow my Y chromosome again?". Took about a year for her confidence to build up. When CTO need to hire someone for the job he hired her. Toot your own horn. She had to find someone to help her program. An artist told her, "I produce the art and I get someone else to sell it." If no one knows what you're doing you can't sell yourself - keep a list of successes, look at your activities in a different perspective. Women should talk about themselves not their team.
Jamika - Learn the art of moderation - learn to say no. Do things that have the greatest impact, some things have no return. Follow your intuition - women have great intuition. Take care of your mind, body and spirit. Define and live your values - do what brings you joy and it will drive success in school and work. You have to be masochistic to get a PhD, it's the last time you're really working on something for yourself and not working for the man.
Confidence building activity
Partner with person next to you. Imagine an internship, professorship, new job, etc. that you want. Imagine your partner is the person making the decision. Your partner asks you: "Why should we select you for this role?" Then you answer as confidently as you can.
Final Discussion Points
Audience member: - she got caught up in the confidence building activity, she wants to try it in front of friends before next job interview. She thought she was bragging but partner didn't think she was bragging at all, perception was different.
Audience member: - she is a high school senior - she takes acting/drama classes. Greatest thing is to practice, you feel good about elaborating and going into detail about yourself.
Panel member: - you never see employees doing an intervention on a male boss to say hey you're being a bitch but we do it to female bosses.
Panel member: - work on what you would say if the company president asked you what was going on
Audience member: - whenever a problem arose in a meeting, she would wait before proposing a solution so she could go back to her desk and verify that she the right answer. By the time she would respond, someone else had already responded. Now instead of verifying before answering - she immediately says, "I think such and such is the answer, go verify". This has led to her being viewed as the expert.
Notes taken by Keita Del Valle, GHC 2011 Live Notetaker.
