KatysBlog

“Invited CTOs” was the second panel I attended at this first morning
of the
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing here in Orlando, Florida.
Represented are Chief Technology Officers from Mayfield, Intel,
Symantec, Thoughtworks, and Network Appliance. I was pleased to
see Mark Bregman (CTO of Symantec), with whom I worked on the Silicon Valley

Heart Walk last month. I was sorry to see just one woman on the
panel, but that is reality.

One of the first themes discussed by this panel was how a CTO is
different from a most-senior Engineer or most-senior Manager or
Executive. From what the panelists say, this is also a regular
topic of conversation both inside and outside of companies.
“CTO” may stand for Chief Talking Officer or Chief Travelling Officer.
Justin Rattner of Intel said: “My job is about communication –
talking about our technologies. The ability to communicate effectively
across a broad range of technical subjects is very important. Influence
directions, nudge people, guide people – get them to make crucial decisions.
Cultivate technical workforce and then communicate with them.”
Another panelist said that being a CTO is being a technology
influencer rather than being a technology innovator.
(I am sitting in the way back of a big room because that is where
the electrical outlet for my laptop is so I can’t see who is talking…)

The most fascinating topic for me was:
What does it take for a woman to become a CTO or Fellow? Why does the
population of women in technology companies drop dramatically in the
mid-grades and higher? The first answer when this topic was raised was that
persistence and determination matter – you can’t get promoted if you
leave. Maria Klawe (President, Harvey Mudd College) then asked an
applauded question – “Do women choose to leave or get driven out?”
The panelists discussed management track vs. technical track and how they
often saw talented women encouraged to shift to the management track
(that is, discouraged from staying on the technical job ladder).

In answer to my question about how they had worked against the problem
that many women lack confidence in their own ideas and get lured away
into non-technical executive jobs because they don’t think they will
ever get promoted to Fellow, Mark pointed out that this could be a
cultural problem as well as a problem for women. He then said that
mentoring could help: a one-on-one encouraging relationship with a
very senior person promotes persistence and success. (The benefits of
mentoring was a regular theme and favored remedy mentioned by all of the
panelists.) Rebecca Parsons (CTO of Thoughtworks) said that
each of us needs to take responsibility to push back when arrogance
or agressiveness shut down questions or new ideas. Being shut down in
public will make many people stop trying and leave. None of us can
condone or sit silently listening to this kind of bad behavior if we
want to support the flow of diverse ideas and people in technical
leadership.

Official
GHC 2007 Blogger. You may comment on this blog by visiting the
GHC Forum. You
can find me at
http://blogs.sun.com/katysblog.

“Career Choices: Evaluating Technology Career Opportunities Among Diverse Business Sectors” was the first panel I attended at this first morning
of the
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing here in Orlando, Florida.
The panelists started by introducing themselves and telling us
where we can apply to work for their companies (Semantec, Amazon,
Goldman Sachs, Medco, SAIC, and Yahoo!). I am sitting in the back
corner of a very full room. I have already been at the
conference for 3 hours: setting up then moving then setting up Sun’s
recruiting table again for the first hour, then attending the Welcome
and Keynote session. Fascinating talks by Jeanette Wing (whom I
last heard when she worked at CMU, before she started at the National
Science Foundation) and Donna Dubinsky (CEO of Palm and now Numenta)!

Work-life balance is a big topic among the panelists. Without making
little of the need, I do get tired of that phrase! In my experience
(both before and since I had my two kids), work and life are best
integrated rather than balanced. Being able to work from home sometimes,
having supportive management and family, scheduling, prioritization, and
delegation are all essential to making life work. That is, I have never
found that work and life are two different things that need balancing
but rather work is a part of my life as my family and church and
volunteer jobs and hobbies are also a part of my life. It is
all my life.

Finding work you love, being brave about continuing to search until
you find that work, always continuing to learn, and the broad range
of choices are major (standard) themes of the panel’s discussion. It seems
like most of the women asking questions are looking for work after
school. Since this is not my situation (I have a job I love!), I am
less interested in this topic.

The panel grows most interesting to me in answer to the final question
about negative work environment and
the downside of being the only or one of the few women
in a technical workplace. One of the panelists said “The jerks
will eventually disappear – fade away – become irrelevant.” Another
said: “Become competent and confident and you will outlast them.
Find mentors!” A third said: “Listen to their point of view. Also, be
stable and authentic about what you know – earn your way to respect.”
The last said: “Ask questions! The person who asks questions is the
person with the power.” Good advice.

Official
GHC 2007 Blogger. You may comment on this blog by visiting the
GHC Forum. You
can find me at
http://blogs.sun.com/katysblog.

I arrived earlier tonight in Orlando, Florida, to attend the

Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing from today
through Saturday morning. Sun Microsystems is a Platinum Sponsor of the
conference. Sun has 10 panelists and BOF leaders as well as three of the

ten official bloggers.

Both of my flights were delayed. The most pleasant part of the trip
here was meeting the first woman cab driver I have ever had. An
auspicious start! The first person to meet me was
my daughter Jessica, also an official GHC blogger, whom I have
not seen since August when she went to college. It was a delight
to see her! We are rooming together and looking forward to
the visit as well as the conference.

I was one of the opening speakers tonight and I got to the hotel about 10
minutes before stepping up to the microphone. Robin Jeffries talked after
me and announced the 20th anniversary of
Systers, then
cut the huge chocolate Systers birthday cake. The introductory
remarks were followed by the reception and poster session.

I am still trying to make the network access in in our hotel room work.
Neither the wireless nor the cable work so far, so I am down in the
lobby using the wireless (which works fine). There are quite a
few other women sitting here in the lobby taking advantage of the
network access. Tomorrow is
our official Official Bloggers briefing but I want to get started
early. I took some good photos tonight which I will post as soon
as I get the mechanics of the hotel’s wireless sorted out.

Official
GHC 2007 Blogger. You may comment on this blog by visiting the
GHC Forum. You
can find me at
http://blogs.sun.com/katysblog.

Sun’s t-shirt for the
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing 2007 (in Orlando,
Florida: October 17-20, 2007) arrived today. The front
says I -heart-

opensolaris. The heart shape is full of

DTrace (Dynamic Tracing) script. The back says “Sun Women in Engineering”
in English, Hindi, Spanish, Mandarin, Czech, and Russian.

Since she has done so much of the work to prepare for the conference, Tanya
Jankot got the first shirt. Jesse Silver gets shirt #2 since he worked through
all of the funding, design, P.O., and ordering issues to create the
shirts. Tanya had to tape the boxes shut quick before more people could
think of reasons why they should get a shirt too. The photo on
the right shows me with our third shipment of Hopper boxes and posters
about to go off to Orlando:

Tanya Jankot	Katy and Hopper Shipment:
	.

Images Copyright 2007 by John Plocher

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