Lou, Georgie and Kelly have been reflecting on their summer learnings having spent an inspiring two days at Women of Silicon Roundabout and a month on wanted to share some key thoughts and takeaways:
Be a catalyst. You are enough. In a time where diversity and inclusion are buzzing around us, the conference created a positive and progressive space to gain insight, learn from each other and inspire women in tech. Apart from coming away keener than ever to learn React Native and create the next AI bot, we had a fantastic couple of days soaking up the wisdom of some of the most interesting, powerful and delightful women in tech. Time is precious, so we have summarised our learnings into three bitesize chunks to reflect on:
Learn and develop every single day
In the words of Dr. Anastasia Dedyukhina @ Consciously Digital, “your attention is the new currency” and it is more crucial than ever for us to use our time wisely and make the most of every hour, every day. Whilst we juggle work, family, friends, fitness and a plethora of other priorities, we cannot forget about learning.
In her talk about work life balance, Nicola Beste @ Adidas entreated us all to find time, every week, to learn something new. It is so important to make development a regular part of our week, to ensure our skills stay relevant and we continue to refresh and revisit what we know. There was a recurring theme throughout the conference to put an emphasis on learning and really make personal development a priority.
Pay it forward
Whilst remaining life-long learners, we must also remember to pass on what we know to others. The importance of “paying it forward” could not be more crucial than it is at the moment, as more than ever it’s a combination of what and who you know which will get you where you want to be.
Encouraging everyone to be ambassadors, mentors, coaches and cheerleaders for each other is so important: who are you going to bring up with you? We must all learn to celebrate our successes and to champion others.
The importance of being curious
With the rise of AI and automation, there is a well-worn question of how everyone’s role will develop over the coming years. More than ever, employers are hiring for mindset and potential rather than skill, and it correlates therefore that we must focus on developing our soft skills too.
Curiosity, creativity and communication resounded as the most sought-after skills in today’s market, and will become more prominent over the coming months and years.
To summarise – make time to learn both the soft and the specific, and then pass it on. Bring others up with you; there’s enough room at the top for us, the women in tech.
As Martha Lane Fox would say, be a ninja warrior woman.
Kelly, Lou and Georgie/AKA JDers
