06 June 2023 - WiT23 reflections
I was looking forward to this day to network with other women who are in tech and learn from their experiences. I wanted to know how they managed to achieve in their career while bringing up their families.
It was a perfect venue and location was easy to commute to. I was well directed from the reception to the conference room. As soon as I entered the room, I had a Wow moment as I saw the room full of smart, energetic women.
All the speakers and their presentations were excellent – it was so amazing to hear their stories. A common theme of those speeches was that they all needed to compromise their careers at one point in their lives to prioritise bringing up their children; eventually they ended up achieving their dream jobs and progressed well in their careers. I was able to relate my journey to theirs.
It was a great opportunity to look back at the paths we travelled on. We women always have too many things to juggle and rarely get time to reflect on ourselves. I started reflecting on journey, recognising the achievements, successes, and the opportunities that I could have taken. As always, there have been ups and downs, but the event made me realise that it is same for other women, and I am not alone. I felt motivated after the session and realised that it’s not too late make the next step in my career, and it’s okay to slow down at some points and prioritise other things in life.
Talks covered a wide range of sectors. The very first presentation on the University of Manchester’s network transformation project was interesting; it was a successful project managed by women at both the university and the Rock Technologies end. There are many more success stories like these which future events can bring light to.
My take home messages:
Dream big girls, you can achieve them one day! It’s never too late to take big steps in your career journeys. Your age is never a barrier; ageing comes with additional years of experience as a bonus!
Keep on looking for opportunities to expand yourself, don’t settle in one place! Grab all the possible opportunities - they can be additional responsibilities in your current role or a secondment. You can always create new opportunities in your current role by initiating and implementing new ideas.
Think about the next step and eventually you’ll be at the top! After listening to all the presentations, I realised that none of them aimed for the high-profile job at the beginning. All they did was put a lot of effort into their jobs and had the determination to progress in their careers. They carefully thought about the next steps, worked hard towards it, and ended up as successful women in their careers.
I would highly recommend coming to next year’s event as it would be the perfect opportunity to meet resilient and successful women like you!
Nilani Ganeshwaran, Manchester University
