ISSUE #4 - March 1, 2019

Hello!

Conference season is in high gear, some of you will be attending Lesbians Who Tech or SXSW in Austin, Texas! If cost is a factor in attending conference like these, check out the Resources section where I added a special list of scholarship opportunities. Apply early, scholarships are limited!

What conferences are you looking forward to? Send me an email or tweet/DM me, @audreygalo. Can’t wait to hear from you!

Happy reading!

Audrey Galo
Creator & Writer of Amplify
Founder of AG Voiced

Resources

Conference Scholarships (with application deadlines):
Grace Hopper, March 6
Next Generation Women Leaders, March 8
Google Cloud Next, March 15
Velocity West, April 8

[Virtual] A Conversation about Careers with Leela Srinivasan - WED, Mar 6, Free
SurveyMonkey's CMO Leela Srinivasan talks about careers and answers audience questions.

[Discussion] Women in Legal Speed Mentoring - TH, Mar 7, 5:30 PM, SF, Free
Meet leaders in legal -- both in-house and in big law -- and learn about their unique career paths. Mentors will share how they broke into their field, advocated for personal growth, and honed skills needed to succeed.

[Virtual] Girl Geek X: Elevate 2019 FREE Virtual Conference Celebrating Women in Tech - FRI, Mar 8, 9:30 AM, Free
Navigate your career with insights on what matters now: data science, machine learning, and more. Network with like-minded women in tech around the world.

[Virtual] International Women's Day panel discussion - FRI, Mar 8, 10:00 AM, Free
Join a virtual panel of women leaders from Automattic, Yelp, Pandora and DuckDuckGo exploring self-advocacy, mentorship, and leadership development, and dig deeper into their experience and expertise during a live Q&A.

[Discussion] Women's day Celebration: Awaken your Inner Power with Meditation - TUE, Mar 12, 5:30 PM, Sunnyvale, $25
Panel of women leaders share how they leveraged the power of meditation to be dynamic and strong leaders.

[Virtual] Solidarity School 2019 - Apply by March 15, Free
Five-week course to gain the tools, resources, and ideas to foster meaningful solidarity practices that bring about power, equity, inclusion and justice. Ideal if you are doing nonprofit or movement work.

[Discussion] Rooted + Rising: Preserving Intergenerational Knowledge, Fostering Revolutionary Possibilities - SAT, Mar 16, 8:00 AM, Berkeley, $15
Through a series of innovative workshops, a panel discussion, and speakers, we will explore how womxn of color can stay rooted and educated in our own pasts.

[Award] Rachel’s Network Catalyst Award, Apply by April 15
Award will recognize up to five women of color making an environmental impact in communities across the country with prizes of $10,000 per winner, as well as networking and mentorship opportunities throughout the year.

Perspective

This week I led a workshop on how to ace your interview by telling your unique story. During the workshop as I was covering the “How to think like a hiring manager” section a participant, a Black man, asked me a question about culture fit and his frequent experience of not landing jobs even after seemingly successful interviews. The reasons provided to him were that he wasn't a good culture fit.

I felt the undertone of his question - he was looking for some level of reassurance that “culture fit” might have some hidden meaning. He was asking me if there was a possibility that in the past he might have been the best qualified candidate only to be overlooked for reasons he didn't understand. He was trying to make sense of it. His question was a poignant one.

In that moment I responded with candor and after my reply, he thanked me. He thanked me for being honest, for not scurrying around the issue. I’ll share a version of my response with you:

Culture fit can be used as a default reason when a candidate isn't hired and the hiring manager doesn't have a clear reason why. Sometimes it can actually mean that the candidate doesn't fit within the existing dominant company values, approaches and perspectives. However, for anyone that has an underrepresented identity, not being a culture fit is often a measure of how dissimilar you are perceived to be in comparison to the hiring manager, interviewers and/or the company’s dominant culture.

The reason this unfair hiring practice happens, even though protected classes exist (race, sex, disability, age, religion, etc) is because 1) humans are always inclined to be attracted to people who are most like them, which through learned societal systems of oppression translates into bias (unconscious or not) and 2) companies don't adopt fair hiring practices (ie. rubrics, etc) that assess candidates based on experience, skill and access to opportunity.

As a candidate, you don't have visibility into the methodology (or lack thereof) used to make hiring decisions. We're left in the dark. We're left to hold the disappointment, confusion and disorientation of being qualified, making a strong impression in our interviews and not getting the job.

What kind of hiring practices does your company follow to make the process an equitable one? Share with me @audreygalo.

Inspiration