Female Tech Exec

The market for talent is "hot" in tech.  Just how "hot"?  Tune into this week's episode to find out.

Andrew Abramson of Riviera Partners provides a timely update for anyone looking to land senior product roles in tech today (or just getting constantly stalked by recruiters) and answers your burning questions.

Find out:

• How hot is the market and what does it mean for you? 
• What can you ask for and what can you negotiate if you know how to play the game,
• How to be noticed and considered for senior roles today,
• The one hot emerging sector that is friendly for industry switchers right now and how to take advantage of that opportunity, 

and much more!

Interested in accelerating your career further?  Join us for the next free Product VP Challenge experience to jump-start your climb to VP (even if you're still just a Senior IC). Sign up at www.productvpchallenge.com

Riviera Partners is the premier recruiting firm for senior-level product and engineering roles in tech, having placed some of the top executives at companies like Airbnb, Grubhub and Uber.  Follow Riviera here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/riviera-partners/

In the midst of the "great resignation" and with the New Year just around the corner, many of you may be wondering if you should leave your current job in tech.  

In this episode, I explore a question I get often from successful driven mid-career members of our community who’re feeling stuck and unappreciated at their tech work: “Should I stay or should I look for something else?”

I lay out a few key considerations for you, so you end up in a stronger position instead of shooting yourself in the foot, including:

• The reasons you may be feeling frustrated, 
• The three traps that women in tech fall into that cause them to want to leave, 
• How to avoid or extricate yourself from these pesky traps once you’re in them,
• When is the right time to leave,

and more!

Looking to get clarity and inspiration for your career? Consider joining our next free Product VP Challenge (New Year's Edition) at www.productvpchallenge.com.  For mid-career female professionals in product and related fields.

This is one of the most important interviews I've done.  It's a conversation with two brave individuals - Natalie Egan and Joseph Schneier - who talk openly and honestly about their experiences as male and female in tech and about their experiences after their transition to the opposite gender.  

It's a unique opportunity to put a lens to the effects of gender and gender identity on people's careers in technology, answering questions such as:

• What are the prevalent gender biases in tech and how to navigate them?
• Do women have to work harder at getting promoted or raising capital?
• How does biology influence our perception of power and decisions on who to promote / fund / listen to?
• Do women have to work harder and how to get ahead in an uneven playing field?
• How to create an inclusive environment that celebrates our uniqueness without triggering blame or fear?

Natalie Egan is an openly transgender, B2B software entrepreneur and a recognized thought leader living her life at the intersection of technology and Diversity & Inclusion.  Natalie has
over 20 years of experience driving digital change, developing high performing teams, building complex products, and selling enterprise solutions. 

Today, Natalie is the CEO & Founder of Translator, Inc., where she and her team are on a mission to scale empathy and equality through technology. Prior to founding Translator in 2016––and prior to her transition––she was CEO & Founder of PeopleLinx, a venture capital backed sales technology solution that was acquired in 2015. In addition to her entrepreneurial pursuits, Natalie has also worked in sales leadership positions at large public companies like LinkedIn, Autonomy, and Ecolab.

Joseph Schneier is a serial entrepreneur who co-founded and exited two companies in the educational technology space. Following that, Jo worked with behavioral research scientists productizing their research with technology-based solutions for patient behavioral change, focusing on HIV drug adherence, health literacy, and addiction. In 2013, he co-founded Cognotion — a company solving the talent shortage of healthcare workers. In 2020, with James Firman, the former CEO of the National Council on Aging, Jo founded Bellage, a company empowering older adults in healthy choices.

In 2018, Jo founded Trusty.care, an InsurTech company that modernizes and simplifies health and Medicare insurance sales and the business processes that surround it so that agents and insurance carriers can focus on what matters most: beneficiaries. It’s Jo’s mission to make sure no one goes through bankruptcy because of out-of-pocket healthcare costs.

This Thanksgiving I'm grateful for one year of CareerClimb and most of all, grateful for YOU, the over a thousand women who have followed us and gotten to work with us in our Product VP Challenge or by listening to this podcast - my biggest hope and dream is that you have gotten support, inspiration and have accelerated your CareerClimb and picked up valuable momentum.

I want to especially thank the close to 60 members of our CareerClimb programs, who keep showing up to weekly calls, coaching sessions, workshops and even to our live events and doing your homework, even with a full plate of life-responsibilities.  The fantastic results you're producing and your faith and trust in me and the nascent CareerClimb project, is the sweetest reward I can ever wish for.

You have the choice to give your hard earned dollars to any large corporation or male-led company doing the “next Masterclass” getting millions of dollars of VC money thrown at them.  Instead, you chose to invest in yourself with a female-owned business, and with someone who’s been in your shoes.  And for that I thank you.

PS.  Focusing on women in tech is too niche for most of the VCs and they’re yawning at it. Most of the men in those investment funds don’t understand the market, they don’t understand us.  They would rather serve the biggest audience, even if it means lumping us into the big pot that’s still largely dominated by white men.  

But here's the thing - as women, we  DO have special needs, unique requirements and challenges.  The types of conversations that often happen in our CareerClimb safe space could not have happened with guys in the room - about crying in a meeting or in the office bathroom or whether we should let our manager know about our upcoming IFV.  

Ultimately, the bro culture will change.  I want to thank you for starting a movement with CareerClimb and changing the prevalent culture by modeling a different type of leadership and becoming successful while being authentically you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I sit down with a true powerhouse - a woman whose drive, unapologetic courage, contagious smile and boundless generosity made her a rising star in our CareerClimb community early on in her Product Executive Accelerator cohort.  

Linda Lee started the year as a stuck and frustrated Senior Director at Walmart.com and is now head of her own startup - Wonderblocks.io, which she started in the third month of our program and which aims to transform the gaming and leisure industries through blockchain innovation.

You would never guess that as a child she was called the “dumb one” and that she felt she had to compete with her “perfect” brother.  When it came time to go to Cornell, her father was told that he was wasting his money sending a girl to an expensive school.  Her childhood was all about adapting to new environments - born in Taiwan, she was raised in Costa Rica before moving to the US and beginning her adventures in tech.

Linda and I talk about getting unstuck in your career, recognizing when you’re operating below your level (as Linda was when she joined our Product Executive Accelerator) and being able to imagine the future in order to take big leaps instead of small increments. 

Linda's success today is testament to grit, perseverance and courage.  Linda’s message to every single girl is “just go for it”, even if nobody else believes in you but you. 

If you’re buying into the notion that you should be "networking" a ton, congratulations!  You’ve bought into the lie perpetuated by social media networks who want you to believe that sending canned messages and clicking on people’s stuff is authentic connection.  

It’s not. It’s spam.  Copy and pasting messages on LinkedIn to people who don't know or asking them to give time to you without offering anything of value in return is transactional and it’s actually closing doors for you with people, rather than making them want to talk to you or help you.  And over time, it will negatively impact your reputation.  

In this episode, I share with you a smarter way to "network" - one of the biggest keys to success in advancing your career and one that we coach our members on all the time.  Once they really get it, it changes everything for them.  It opens doors for them, it fulfills them rather than drains them, and it totally transforms their careers.  And the joke is that it will end up saving you lots of time in the long-run over the watered-down spammy version of transactional"networking".

• The biggest lie about networking and what to do instead to be successful in building relationships and advancing your career. 
• How to build authentic relationships and a strong reputation in a smart way, so it’s fun, effective and is not time-consuming.
• A deceptively simple strategy to leverage your existing connections and relationships to get people to be interested in you. 
• Why it's crucial to give something of value in every connection you make, and how to do it, even if you're junior, have no experience or expert knowledge in the other person's domain.  

I was so excited to record this interview with Jackie Bavaro, one of the authors of "Cracking the PM Interview" where I had my own interview chapter as a VP of Product back in 2014. 

In this awesome reunion and the first time we met face-to-face, Jackie and I talk about the three phases of the PM Career, Jackie's new book about growing your product career and how you can take charge of your career today, regardless of your present circumstance.

Jackie shares the story about her manager wanting to bring an external manager of PMs and how she not only asked for the opportunity for herself, but managed to change his mind and land the promotion.  We talk about the elusive career ladder and how it really looks more like a zigzag path.  I also challenge Jackie if she can take credit for never having had to deal with a difficult manager, or if it’s pure luck.  Tune in to hear her answer and to learn about building your career in Product management.

Check out Jackie’s new "Cracking the PM Career" book here: https://amzn.to/38q6jGV
Follow Jackie on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jackiebo.

In this episode, I talk with a powerful female executive, who is also a member of our CareerClimb Community - Deepa Chand.  

We talk about:

• The brutal culture of financial services,
• The dangers of isolating yourself as a female in hostile work environments,
• How to surround yourself with support structures,
• How to not only survive, but learn how to thrive and be a role model for compassionate leadership,
• Going for it and having kids while not putting the brakes on your career if you want to be a mom.

Deepa is a Product Lead for Enterprise Product Platforms at Capital One and a member of our CareerClimb community and our Executive Development Program. She is an accomplished product leader with over 20 years of experience in financial services, focused on innovation and disruptive technologies.  Her values are Family & Relationships, closely followed by Integrity and her passion is Compassionate Leadership - the idea that the best leaders act as coaches.

I talk with Personal Branding Expert and CareerClimb trainer on Content Creation, Ryan Foland, about why it's critical for you to create a personal brand outside of your company to stand out in the marketplace and how you can easily start doing that today.

In our conversation, we address:

• How to establish yourself as a thought-leader by creating  “brand crumbs”
• How to amplify your impact by plugging into existing thought-leadership networks and conversations
• How to use your existing experience instead of waiting to become an “expert” to differentiate yourself
• How to be relatable and establish personal rapport without being “unprofessional” or oversharing
• How to create content easily and quickly while having a busy life
  
  Ryan Foland is a ginger, high-energy keynote speaker, host of 3 podcasts, the inventor of the 3-1-3™ method and a consultant to teach executives and brands how to build an authentic personal brand. He also teaches our Executive Development Program members how to start establishing their content platforms and develop their reputation as thought leaders in their markets. 
  
  Find him at www.ryanfoland.com
  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanfoland/
  Twitter:https://twitter.com/ryanfoland
  Ryan's book "Ditch the Act" can be found here.

Join me and my mentor Lydia Bradey - the first woman to climb Everest without oxygen and a mindset trainer at CareerClimb - as we delve into what made her not just successful, but one of the best, in her field of climbing and high-altitude guiding. 

Lydia has climbed Everest 6 times, most recently as a guide leading clients, and was recently invited to become the first female lead guide on a K2 expedition. She has been awarded the Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit award for her services to mountaineering. Lydia's story of being publicly accused by her male teammates of not reaching the summit on her record-breaking climb is the subject of an upcoming movie.

Lydia and I talk about:

1. Her incredible story of not just accomplishing something that many have died attempting to do, but overcoming accusations and bullying by the men in her field.
2. What she has learned from working with our CareerClimb members about women in tech and their fears, doubts, strengths and talents.
3. How the lessons she has learned in mountaineering can be applied by YOU in your career as a woman in tech.

More about Lydia here:

www.lydiabradey.com - Lydia's website

My article in the Mazamas magazine about my first encounter with Lydia and what I learned from her in the mountains (hyperlink to: https://www.dispatchesfromthe45.com/home/2018/12/29/daring-to-be-lydia)

A short movie about Lydia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8ScFjRPdMg

A news report about Lydia's award: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ezCZuB3FDc