As y'all may or may not know, I'm currently a graduating senior. In the spirit of 21 episodes AND being part of the graduating class of 2021, I wanted to share 21 non-academic things that I've learned. While college is a time for expanding your knowledge and skills of the world, I think it's also a time of personal growth.

This episode is very much like a spoken journal or diary entry full of my reflections and takeaways - with hints of personal stories scattered throughout. I really enjoyed recording this episode, walking through the past 4 years of college through the lens of what I've learned, gained, and grown.

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This is a bonus episode because I'm planning a special episode 21, but also I have a major life update for you all (especially those of you who've been avid followers and listeners ;) ). While we're in this solo episode update topic, I thought I'd also drop some exciting podcast updates as well... and my podcast thoughts too. Enjoy ~ and catch up on previous episodes if you haven't yet! :)

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Whether or not you attend UC Berkeley, most colleges have some form of student government. At Berkeley, ours is called the ASUC. As a registered 501(c)(3) non profit organization, it's known as one of the largest and most autonomous student organizations responsible for handling millions of $$ of student fees, commercial activities, campus spaces, advocating for students on a local, state, and national level.

Last year, I was elected to be 1 of 20 ASUC Senators for the the 2020-2021 academic year - leading ASUC to become a major part of my life. For this episode, I wanted to bring on 3 other ladies that I've worked with over the past year to talk about our experiences. Specifically, we represent and work with different parts of the STEM communities on campus. We talk about our campaigning and elections processes, balancing ASUC among other commitments, things that surprised us about serving as Senators, our accomplishments and legacies.

Learn more about the ASUC here: https://asuc.org/ 

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Nadaa Taiyab is a senior data scientist at Ontada (McKesson, which is a healthcare company for wholesale medical supplies, equipment, pharmaceutical distribution, and healthcare technology solutions.) However, she was actually pre-med and majored in international relations. Her data science career began 15+ years after her first full time job out of college after taking an intensive 3-month bootcamp (from Galvanize). We talk about the applications of data science in healthcare and cool projects that Nadaa has worked on. Her experiences traveling and working abroad as a young female and what she's learned from transition careers and becoming a mother.

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Tiana Kara is the executive director of Built By Girls - a community that helps prepare women and nonbinary high school and college students to succeed in their tech careers. Built By Girls has mentorship advisors from all across the corporate tech spectrum: Twitter, Pixar, Squarespace, Huffpost, and many more.

In this episode, we talk about a myriad of topics, some that are specifically unique to Tiana. Her experience as a black women in the highest leadership position and the impact of being a leader and women in tech. Her personal motivation and goal for doing community work in tech. She shares multiple frameworks and tips on how to be successful in different aspects of life: seeking a mentor, finding sponsors, and more. Tiana keeps it super real while giving applicable advice at the same time.

More about the WAVE mentorship program: https://www.builtbygirls.com/about-wave

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Christina Zhang is currently a manager for the department of Ethical and Humane Use of Technology at Salesforce. She didn't start her career in either social impact or tech. In this episode, she shares her process of switching roles and getting into the tech industry. At Salesforce, Christina's worked on diversity, equality, and ethics projects: first as a data analyst, then a program specialist, and now as a manager. What's super interesting about her career is that she's basically written her own job description, not once but now twice and has been building out the Ethical and Humane Use of Technology department.

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In this week's episode, I share my personal experiences recruiting for a full time job in the tech industry as as new grad. This has been a topic that's constantly on my mind. It's also something that I've gotten many questions about: What's it like recruiting virtually, in a pandemic? How can friends (or the employed) do to help? Can we ask how the process is going? Can we give advice? On the podcast, we've talked about interviews from a recruiters perspective, but we've yet to share the interviewees perspective. To those of you searching for a new job or looking to make a switch, these are my thoughts about recruiting during a pandemic.

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Riya Patel is a senior program manager at Dcode - a for-profit business that works with technology companies and the federal government to solve challenges through commercial innovation. Riya is responsible for managing teams and projects but she also oversees and develops key relationships with various government stakeholders. Before Dcode, she worked with the Department of Defense because of her passion for security. In this episode, she introduces me to the world of government and technology: what it is, what kind of work she does, the types of clients and more. We also talk about her experiences often being one of the only woman of color and sometimes the youngest person in the room. Her experiences with discrimination and bias and learning how to advocate for herself in this very male, non-POC dominate industry.

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Katherine Berry, also known as Katherout, is a content creator, pianist, pottery maker, hiker, lifetime learner... (listen to the episode to find out where this comes from!). During her 9-5, she also works in tech sales at a Fortune 500 company. I love this episode for Katherine's raw honesty as we tackle some hefty topics about the tech industry and culture. We talk about employees taking action to keep their tech companies accountable for their decisions and actions. Katherine shares her opinion about side hustles/gigs/hobbies and why she believes everyone should NOT have one. We also dive into different aspects of mental health: from a personal front, at work and with your manager, but also in tech culture.

You can find Katherine on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube @katherout

Script to set boundaries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NivNxHo3ng

Activists Katherine recommends: 

https://twitter.com/raxsha

https://twitter.com/noname

https://twitter.com/BreeNewsome

https://www.instagram.com/ndncollective/

https://www.instagram.com/mariebeech/

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Jackie Bavaro is the former Head of Product Management at Asana (PM #1 at Asana). As a seasoned product manager who's worked on products at Google and Microsoft, she's also known for being a co-author of the popular interview prep book called Cracking the PM Interview. In this episode, we talk about the basics of product management and how to be successful. She also shares her advice on biases, tech, and career from her experiences being a seasoned PM.

Learn more about Jackie's newest book: http://bit.ly/crackingthepmcareer

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