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Career Zone

Professional Development/Leadership for Women Technologists in Industry Track

Women in technical roles at organizations face a unique set of opportunities and challenges in the workplace.  This track will provide forums for attendees to learn and interact on a wide variety of topics to help them advance in their careers. Career topics of interest include but are not limited to:

Career Management & Mastery:

  • Time management
  • How technical do you need to be when you move up?
  • Professional image & presence
  • Working in a male-dominated industry
  • Negotiation and conflict management
  • Happiness and career satisfaction
  • Challenges in a global workplace
  • Collaborations across disciplines and boundaries

Career Planning & Development:

  • Mentoring, Coaching & Sponsorship for Career Development
  • Networking
  • Managing upwards and sideways
  • Moving from tactical to strategic roles
  • Technical innovation & patents
  • Career paths for technical, business & management
  • Entrepreneurship & Intrapreneurship for Career Development
  • Technical Leadership vs Technical Management

Entrepreneur related topics:

  • Successful entrepreneurship skills
  • Startups vs. mid/large companies – the right fit for you.
  • What do you need to know about working at a Startup?
  • Developing your personal brand
  • Elevator Pitches
  • Disruptive thinking
  • Business Plan 101
  • Team Building

Other Futuristic ideas:

  • The future of the workplace – What does it look like?
  • What does it means to work in a virtual company?
  • The impact of social media in the workplace
  • People analytics

Important Guidelines (Please Read):

  • Submitters are asked to specify the audience(s) that will benefit the most from their session: Students, Early Career Women (~0-5 years), Mid-Career Women (~5-15 years), Senior Women (~15+ years). Preference will be given to submissions that have thought through the specific audience profile and  communicated clearly who this submission will benefit.
  • Preference will be given to submissions that provide novel approaches or fresh perspectives. 
  • This is not a platform for recruiting or sales pitches; such submissions will not be accepted.
  • Submissions that talk about specific roles within organizations (e.g. A day in the life of a … Software Engineer, Interaction Designer, Data Analyst etc) OR refer to what’s it like to work in specific areas of computing (e.g. What’s it like to work in HCI, Security/Privacy etc.) should be submitted into the Student Opportunity Lab.

Valid Submission Formats (Please Read): Presentations/Lightning Talks,  PanelsWorkshopsBirds of a Feather. Click the links for more information and for Starter Templates.

Submit


Professional Development/Leadership for Women in Academia Track

We encourage submissions to support diverse ideas for helping academic women succeed and advance in a global environment. The track will address topics that are relevant to all levels of professionals within higher education (e.g., Lecturer, Assistant Professor Associate Professor, Department Chair, Dean, etc.) from around the world. We invite submissions in, but not limited to, the following topics:

  • Preparing for an academic career: choosing the right department/school (culture, fit, funding, teaching vs. research, etc.), managing dual-career job searches, interviewing, etc.
  • Managing an academic career, from emerging to emerita: Navigating various career paths (tenure track, administrative track, etc.), work-life balance, mentoring students and junior faculty, networking, getting research funding, publishing research results, finding and maintaining productive collaborations, life after tenure, leadership development, etc.
  • Institutional support for a diverse faculty: Effective policies for an inclusive environment, support for dual-career couples, flexible tenure and promotion policies, parental leave policies, part-time and shared positions, etc.
  • We also encourage faculty to share their technical work and/or research with others in a “Lightning Talk”. A number of speakers will be selected to give short 5-7 minute presentations in a “Faculty Lightning Talks” session. This is an opportunity to share your work and help you identify other attendees with similar or complementary research for future discussions, collaborations, or mentoring.  Faculty who wish to make full presentations of a technical nature are encouraged to submit their ideas in the technical tracks.

Valid Submission Formats (Please Read): Presentations/Lightning Talks,  PanelsWorkshopsBirds of a Feather. Click the links for more information and for Starter Templates.

Submit


Student Opportunity Lab

The Student Opportunity Lab (SOL) will be an interactive session where attendees can seek personalized advice. SOL is a wonderful opportunity to present more content in an interactive forum. The focus will be on students and the goal is to provide practical techniques/tools that can help them achieve their personal career aspirations. We will have a large room with several round tables seating 10, each with a topic. Each table will have a speaker(s) or mentor(s) who will hold several mini sessions and the attendees will rotate tables to attend the “sessions” they are interested in. The categories for which we are accepting submissions are:

Careers In – Topics such as:

  • “Day in the life of” – Software Engineer, Program Manager etc.
  • Working in a specific area such as Cybersecurity, Big Data etc.

We recommend that you collaborate with people in similar fields from various organizations, to give the students a balanced perspective of that role or area.

Skills – Topics such as:

  • How to get noticed and excel at technical interviews,
  • Resume Critiques,
  • Resume Do’s and Dont’s,
  • Polishing Up Your LinkedIn Profile are very popular.

Extracurricular – Topics such as:

  • Participating in Open Source Projects,
  • Participating in Hack-a-thons,
  • Internships – which one is right for you, navigating internship landscape,
  • Mentoring and other topics, that enables a students get a leg up are encouraged.

Valid Submission Formats (Please Read): Presentations. Click the links for more information and for Starter Templates.

Submit

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