Sally Conference Part 1
This series of posts discusses my take aways from the Sally Conference at ThoughtWorks. I was awarded a documentarian scholarship to attend and share my experiences there. Photos used with permission from WomenWhoCodeNYC.
The Sally Conference was a combined effort between WomenWhoCodeNYC (an awesome group, who’s events you’ll often see me tweeting from, definitely checkout our next Algorithms event!) and a Behavioral Science Consulting group called Bloom Behavior.
I admit it! I had some reservations about this whole Behavior Science thing. In the same way that my mom, a nurse of over 40 years tends to be most critical of the nurses who assist her, as a former social worker, I don’t know if I always approach things like this with a fully open mind. That said, I think the ladies at Bloom did a great job for the first of hopefully many Sally conferences, and it definitely got me thinking critically on my own behavior patterns.
One learning lesson from Bloom that has stuck with me over the past few weeks is this idea of a “Big Hairy Audacious” goal. It’s this idea that all of us should consider goals that feel beyond reach. It got me thinking, am I really focused on big goals for my career? As I take my initial stumblings into the job market, I think I find myself so focused on coding challenges and cover letters that it is so easy to lose sight of the why. I find it hard to find the permission to dream big, to feel worthy of the big leagues. But of course the truth is that none of this is really about worth, it’s about luck, privilege, hard work, and vision. I find myself incredibly lucky and privileged to have been given all that I have and anyone who has ever worked with me can attest to my work ethic. But what is my vision? It’s not absolutely necessary for my success perhaps, but without one it sounds a lot harder.
So what’s my big hairy audacious goal? I want become a tech leader in the community here in New York City and to make a big social impact. I want to be building and designing the technology that not only turns a profit, but solves some of society’s biggest challenges: How can we help people to learn more? How can we help others to live happier, healthier lives? There are so many big questions out there and even more answers to be had. But I know I want to be working on the ones that matter.
In my next post I hope to recap on what I learned from some of the amazing speakers I heard at the conference, stay tuned!