VPs of Engineering Should Know These 6 Ps
Advice for VPs of Engineering (VPE) overseeing entire engineering departments is broad and crucial. This blog offers guidance on navigating the 6 Ps - Principles, Products, Platforms, People, Projects, and Processes - designed to empower engineering leaders in effectively leading their organizations.
Ask for What You Deserve
In today's challenging job market, negotiating your salary as a female software engineer can be intimidating. However, it's important to remember that there is still room to negotiate and advocate for yourself. In this post, we will discuss effective strategies for salary negotiation and provide valuable tips from industry experts Grant Battle - Sr Director People Partner for Pendo and Bavyaa Vasudevan, Head of Engineering at Point and expert negotiating mentor at SheTO
Scaling Yourself as a Leader
Have you ever wondered what it takes to scale the career ladder as a technical leader? What skills and experiences do you need as you grow from Individual Contributor to Manager to Senior Manager to Executive roles? Or even what a typical day looks like?
Last fall, SheTO had the opportunity to host two powerful women leaders who shared their perspectives and challenges as they navigated their career journeys
Mastering the Art of Presenting Case Studies
The SheTO community members have been practicing system design, leadership interview skills amongst the community members. The members have been having discussions both in our slack community on various topics. Some of the tips from our members on mastering the art of presenting case studies.
STOP Underselling Yourself
How often do you find yourself re-thinking a recent conversation and how you could’ve pitched yourself better? I just did this last week at a job interview. For some of us, getting better at accepting compliments and representing the work we do is probably a life-long process, as we’ve been socialized by family and culture to always downplay our achievements and contributions.
Toni Collis gave a one-hour session for SheTO last fall, sort of a crash course version of a workshop she usually does over the course of a week. Here are some tricks I learnt from this workshop.
Interviewing for a VP Engineering Role
“Studies have shown that women just don't apply for senior roles because of fear of failure. We don't want that to be you! We want you to succeed in your roles, your careers and thrive. SheTO is here to facilitate that growth journey in your careers by sharing insights from key leaders who have had to overcome these fears and setbacks to succeed.” - Nidhi Gupta
Tips For Starting Your Job Search
I am often asked as to what people can do when they start looking for a new role and how they can leverage SheTO community or other communities they may be part of. Here are a few tips I pass share.
Becoming a manager of managers
The SheTO community fosters a learning and sharing environment for our members. We discuss numerous topics on growth, leadership, mentoring, and technology. Sharing the strategies and tactics from our team community on growing from a manager to becoming a manager of managers.
A Case for Work Girlfriends
At our recent “SheTO CTO Club” meeting we laughed. We commiserated. We swapped stories. It always amazes me how similar our experiences are. It also kind of surprises me that we usually know what we “should” do. But we sometimes need to hear out loud, the words that we wish someone had said to us, when we were in the same situation!
The Business of Negotiating Your Raise
This article is the last of a multipart series based on a Q&A session hosted by divhersity called “How To Ask for What You Deserve”. In the series we will be sharing the questions and answers provided by our expert panel: Meenakshi Tripathy from Facebook, Savvithri Sivaraamakrishnan from Qualio and DivHersity Founder, Nidhi Gupta, formerly Chief Product Officer at Hired.
You’re Worth It
This article is the second of a multipart series based on a Q&A session hosted by divhersity called “How To Ask for What You Deserve”. In the series we will be sharing the questions and answers provided by our expert panel: Meenakshi Tripathy from Facebook, Savvithri Sivaraamakrishnan from Qualio and DivHersity Founder, Nidhi Gupta, formerly Chief Product Officer at Hired.
Why Negotiate?
This article is the first of a multipart series based on a Q&A session hosted by divhersity called “How To Ask for What You Deserve”. In the series we will be sharing the questions and answers provided by our expert panel: Meenakshi Tripathy from Facebook, Savvithri Sivaraamakrishnan from Qualio and DivHersity Founder, Nidhi Gupta, formerly Chief Product Officer at Hired.
Lead with Performance Reviews
Performance Review season is upon us. For most managers, this time is extremely stressful. Performance review cycles are time consuming, in some cases exhausting, and especially given today’s climate, it is yet more work on top of their already packed schedules!
Given how impactful these cycles are on careers, my dear managers, I want to challenge you this cycle. This cycle, show up not as managers. Show up as leaders. Leaders lead. They challenge the status quo. They ask the hard questions. They call BS. Be a leader for underrepresented members of your team. They need you the most. They often are not the best at advocating for themselves. They are usually held to a higher, unfair standard of excellence. And more often than not, they are not rewarded for all that they do.
Making the transition to VPE role successfully
I still remember how exciting it was when I first became a VP Engineering. It was the culmination of years of hard work. I was finally here! However, I also remember it being a painful path to becoming a VPE and a lonely experience being a VPE. No one really talks about transitioning to an executive and what that feels like. Afterall, once you become the “big boss” you are expected to know everything; have a solution for everything. And there’s really no one to give you guidance or advice. For me, I had to figure it out from my mistakes. Such was my transition.
As part of Divhersity series “Real Talk with Nidhi” I wanted to explore the tactics that some women engineering leaders have employed to make the transition to a VPE successfully.
Overwhelmed!
We are just overwhelmed! It’s been a year into Covid. We are all plain exhausted. In this Covid world, we are all workers, teachers to our kids, baby sitters, cooks and house cleaners. Pre-Covid, we had others helping us with some of these tasks. Pre-Covid, we had kids in school. Pre-Covid, being at work gave us some space and a mental break. Pre-Covid, just the act of actually driving to work used to create a natural demarcation between our work and life! All of that is gone today. Its all work and no play today. It’s no wonder that you, me and everyone around us, is just plain overwhelmed!