On May 29th 2014 we had our 17th Amsterdam Girl Geek Dinner in collaboration with Hack In The Box.

Jenn Lesser and Christine Abernathy from Facebook talked about their career paths and what triggered their interest in programming (we got an Oregon Trail shout out) and management. Jenn told us how she whipped a security team into shape and got them to think more strategically and be prepared for questions about budget or headcount. She told us that someone took a chance on her and how that influenced her career.
Christine told us she gets bored easily and loves learning new stuff. Someone from the audience said she also “hops, skips and jumps” and asked if she should focus more and go deeper into one thing. Christines advice: Do what you do best. If something moves you, then don’t stifle it.

Jenn and Christine went on to talk about startup culture, cyberbullying and diversity in the workplace. This entails getting more younger people interested in the field, but also retaining the people that already work in it. They talked about inappropriate interview questions (Are you married and do you have kids?).
There was an audience question about mentors. There’s a difference between mentors and advocates. Sometimes you need someone to bounce ideas off, but you also need people that actively take an interest in your career, that sit in the passenger seat and navigate that roadmap with you.
So, all in all, an interesting evening with some good advice!

This post was written by Marjon Wiendels and originally posted on https://girlgeekdinner.nl.

Photos were taken by Tom Verstraat.