>> Announcer: From the VMware campus in Palo Alto,
California, it's the Cube, covering Women Transforming
Technology.
>> Hi, Lisa Martin with the Cube, on the ground
at VMware in Palo Alto, at the third annual
Women Transforming Technology event, we're excited
to welcome to the Cube, Caroline Hubbard, an Analyst
at LinkedIn, and the founder of ThreadBred,
Caroline, nice to have you here.
>> Thank you for having me.
>> So you, as young as you are, you're a speaker
at this event, you spoke in >> Caroline: I am.
>> The Emerging Leaders Track, tell me the name of
your session, and what >> Caroline: Yeah.
>> Some of the key messages were that you delivered today.
>> Definitely, my session was called, "Stand up, Stand Out,
"How to Become and Advocate for Change in the Workplace,"
and my session detailed my experiences thus far,
navigating corporate America, not only as a woman,
but as a person of color, and some of the really
eye opening experiences I've had, in terms of the toxic
cultures that are rampant in our organizations
across America, and through this experience,
I learned really valuable lessons.
And two of those lessons are that performance and how
you're perceived can only take you so far in
an organization; ultimately, if you're not in a place
that values your identity, or values you for
your differences, not just in spite of your differences,
then your chances of success are going to be limited,
and if you allow toxic cultures to eat away at
your own perception of self, then you're going to be
in even more dangerous positions.
So I sort of talked about how I learned those lessons,
and provided a framework for which we can all go back
to our companies and bring awareness to issues
that are affecting underrepresented people.
>> How did you hear about Women Transforming Technology?
>> Yeah, so since I've moved here, 10 months ago,
I've just been taking the city by storm,
networking, joining lots of women's groups,
to just try to find women with similar experiences
as me; I'm from the east coast, so I don't really have
that many friends or a network out here,
and that's what I wanted to build, so through one of
the women's groups I'm associated with,
I was speaking with a friend, who was like,
"Well, you should check out this conference,"
so I did that; I went online, and I connected with one
of the program leads here, and we were able to talk
a little bit about my experience, and I was
invited to speak.
>> Fantastic. >> Yeah.
>> And now you can say you've spoken at an event where
Laila Ali spoke this morning >> Caroline: I know
>> That's an honor (laughing)
>> She was so inspiring, because you know, you look at
a woman like Laila, who's >> Right.
>> Who you think is just born with confidence,
and courage, and she talked about how a lot of that
is true, very innate, but there was times where she
kind of has to recheck >> Caroline: Yeah.
>> Kind of do a gut check, and say, "Alright, I feel like
"I'm kind of nocked back a bit,"
>> Caroline: Mm-hmm.
>> I loved her recommendations for you know, like
the Boy Scouts, what, always
be prepared, >> Caroline: Yeah.
>> But the preparation is really key; have you found that
to be something that helps you kind of harness your
inner mojo, your
inner confidence? >> Absolutely.
>> Whether you're speaking at Watermark, or you're here.
>> Yeah, absolutely, and I come from a performing arts
background, and I spent a lot of time on stage,
and I just found that throughout my life, being on stage
energizes me, and being able to connect with people
and be fully transparent is something that's really
refreshing, but with that, comes a lot of preparation,
and I've spent hours, actually, last month when I did
a similar talk, my mother and I were up until five A.M.
the night before a big speech, just working and making sure
it was perfect, and deliver the right message.
So I definitely agree, preparation is always key;
it helps you feel confident, but like she said,
there are times when preparation isn't enough,
and you just feel a little bit unprepared or un-confident,
and that's okay >> Yeah.
>> What really matters is how you bounce back from
those instances in which you don't feel as confident.
>> I agree, I felt very
validated with Laila Ali >> Caroline: Yes.
>> Saying sometimes I don't always feel my best,
so tell me a little bit, before we get into ThreadBred,
I want to talk to you about a little bit about
this program that you're in at LinkedIn,
where you get to in finance, you get to work in different
parts of the business >> Caroline: Right.
>> Yeah, it's a really unique program, it's a two year long
program, for people directly out of college,
that gives you a lot of exposure across the company,
so it's technically under the business operations
organization, so your first year is split between
rotations in sales operations and business operations,
and then the second year, you can have more of
an elective choice, where you can sort of dabble
in product marketing or corporate developments,
so it's a really unique experience in that it allows you
to see multiple parts of the business,
and currently, I'm on the consumer product growth team,
which is responsible for getting people to use our app,
and I also focus a little bit on our SEO strategy,
so it's really opened me up to the world of tech,
and how large scale enterprise companies work,
which has been exhilarating.
>> What have been your experiences, in terms of the diversity
not just at LinkedIn >> Caroline: Right, right.
>> But as you say, you've been in the valley now,
for about 10 months.
>> Yeah.
>> What are some of the observations that you have made?
>> Yeah, I think that a lot of the workforces, actual
workforces are reflective of the actual diversity
that's in the city, and if you look at the city,
first of all, it's not very diverse, so it's kind of
impossible for the organizations to have that same
diversity, so it's been a challenge; I think that LinkedIn
has done an incredible job, given the fact that there
are not equal amounts of multiple different demographics,
and I think LinkedIn is very conscious of the problem,
and we're actively working to solve it,
so I feel good about that, but I have noticed that
in terms of gender, in terms of race, not everyone
is represented on equal levels, and representation
is so important, because for other people who are coming
in future generations, you can't be what you can't see,
so if there aren't people that look like you,
you're going to be discouraged from pursuing an opportunity
there, when that opportunity might be perfect for you.
So I'm really empowered and passionate about trying
to increase representation for all people
in these organizations.
>> It's refreshing to be at a conference like WT squared,
because the accountability is so key, and what they
announced this morning, with VMware investing $15 million
into an innovation lab for women's leadership;
the fact that they're together,
expanding this stand in VMware >> Caroline: Mm-hmm.
>> Relationship it's been over the last five years,
but actively going to be looking at what are these barriers;
the diversity barriers that women are facing,
how do they identify optimal ways to eradicate
those barriers?
>> Mm-hmm.
>> Because VMware knows, and the McKinsey report that was
actually cited in the
press release >> Caroline: Yeah.
>> That they came out with this morning, companies that have
more diversity at the executive level,
are 21% more profitable.
>> Caroline: Yeah.
>> So they're understanding this is going to not just be
benefiting our culture and diversity or our chief people
officer HR function >> Absolutely.
>> This is actually something that will benefit
the entire company.
>> Yeah.
>> And what does this company deliver?
Technology that other businesses and people use,
to better our lives, so they get that, and that's
saying refreshing is >> Yeah.
>> Kind of an understatement.
>> That is, yeah.
>> But it really is nice to see companies that are willing
to go, "Hey, we want to know exactly what these problems
"are, so that we can then be strategic
"in how we can solve them."
>> Exactly, it is refreshing, and I think that more and more
companies are realizing that diversity is not a luxury
or just sort of a platitude, it's something that is
intrinsic to the business, and to the health of
the business, and the retention of employees,
and as more and more people begin to realize that,
I think that we will get better at increasing representation
down the line.
>> You know, I talked with a lot of women today
and wanted to get their thoughts on the MeToo movement,
Time's Up; in the last six months, that erupted
on the scenes >> Caroline: Yeah.
>> Unlikely alliance with Hollywood, and the resounding
opinions have been, actually, that's momentum
that we can take advantage of; we should be leveraging
this, because when you have a platform that's that big,
and that global, >> Mm-hmm.
>> For an issue that affects every industry, including us
in technology >> Mm-hmm.
>> That they actually saw that as kind of an elevation
of the platform >> Caroline: Yeah.
>> I'm curious what your thoughts are about that.
>> Yeah, I actually spoke about MeToo, and a couple of other
social movements in my talk earlier, and one of the reasons
I started my blog, ThreadBred, is because I started
to realize this really unique cultural moment,
in which I've emerged into the workplace, which has
been characterized by these social movements,
and a lot of these social movements have been galvanized
through social media; social media's been able to bring
so much attention to important issues,
and shift public perceptions, so with MeToo, a movement
that was founded by an African-American woman in 2006,
and then it sort of gained more momentum in 2017
when Alyssa Milano tweeted it out, and then to have,
a month later, Jackie Speier, congresswoman of California,
introduce the MeToo Congress Act, you know,
changes happening at such a rapid pace.
More so than it ever has in the past, so I'm really excited
to be a part of that, and I'm really excited that we
are seeing this much progress on this rate.
>> We need to keep that going.
>> We need to keep it going, absolutely.
>> Tell me a little bit more about ThreadBred.
>> Yeah, so ThreadBred started in 2014, just as a fun,
personal blog; my friends and I were getting our first
internships, the summer after our Freshman year of college,
and we were all in different industries,
and couldn't really, or didn't know where to go
in terms of where to get advice about what to wear,
and of course, we wanted to make a good impression,
so I just started creating outfits, dressing my friends up,
telling them, this is what you should wear when
you go here or there, and it sort of turned into
this personal branding, as a young professional blog,
and I started writing more about what are some of the
experiences that young people have, directly out of college?
What are some of the things they wish they knew
before they started their jobs?
And then I restarted it when I entered the work world now,
and because of what's happening in society,
I wanted to shift the attention to focus on these important
social issues, such as women's empowerment,
the representation of underrepresented minorities,
and I've been able to have a lot of great dialogs
with people that I know, and people that I have just met,
who might have opinions that are different from me,
and I think those are the most interesting ones,
because they're the learning opportunities,
and it sort of transformed into this story space,
where we can consolidate information and learn
from each other.
>> I love that; one of the things that I thought was
really cool, when I walked into the event today,
was there's a headshot area >> Caroline: Yeah.
>> And there's a resume writing clinic and a LinkedIn
profile clinic, as well, and you kind of think,
those are really foundational pieces to help someone
have a professional looking photo, that doesn't have
like somebody's arm that you need cropped out.
>> Caroline: Absolutely, yeah.
>> Or you know, a strong LinkedIn profile, especially
if you're young, maybe just finishing with school
and don't have a ton of experience; those are really
important foundational elements, and it sounds like what
you've done with ThreadBred, >> Caroline: Yeah.
>> To advise young people on how should you look
professional; that's a really cool thing that you've
done, there.
>> Caroline: Thank you.
>> It's an area where you might think it's a small thing,
but I think that can be very impactful.
>> Yeah, it's kind of like the things that nobody tells you
once you go in, it's just we're trying to capture all
of that knowledge in one place, and share it
with as many people as possible.
>> Yeah.
>> So if you look down, finishing in the next what, year
or so, >> Caroline: Yeah
>> Your two year program at LinkedIn.
>> Caroline: Yeah.
>> What direction do you think you'd want to go in?
>> Well, I love LinkedIn, and when I interviewed,
I actually said that I was like the physical manifestation
of LinkedIn; I am a networking person, I love connecting
people with opportunity, and I love LinkedIn's message
of trying to create economic opportunity for
the global workforce, and I think that it's really rare
that you find a company that's for profit,
that also has this really social impact admission,
and I want to stay in this space as long as possible,
but years down the line, I could envision myself
being an entrepreneur, and starting my own company
to focus specifically on problems affecting people of color
and underrepresented people around the world.
I think that that's what I've identified I'm
passionate about, and that's what I want to pursue.
>> I can feel that from you, so I think definitely
entrepreneurial.
>> Caroline: Thank you.
>> Kind of in summary, what are some of the things
that you're going to be taking away from this third
annual Women Transforming Technology event?
>> Yeah, absolutely, well, from the keynote earlier
this morning, it's about listening to the inner voice
inside of you, always finding that inner warrior
as Leila Ali mentioned, because I think that's so important;
I think life is about just having good days,
and then having days where you're encountering adversity,
and it doesn't matter how much adversity happens
to you, it matters how you respond to that,
so always leaning into that inner voice and then using
your voice to empower other women around you,
who might have similar experiences, but who don't
necessarily know how to navigate the same situations
is where you can be most helpful, so supporting women
and always finding your inner strength is what I'm
going to take away from today.
>> I love that; I'm going to borrow that from you,
that was fantastic >> Caroline: Okay.
>> Well, Caroline, you're going to be a big star,
I can already tell >> Caroline: Oh, thank you.
>> It's really nice to hear someone that's so young,
that sees the opportunities here, and wants to
very naturally, make a difference in it;
you're one to watch, >> Caroline: Thank you.
>> For sure. >> Thank you.
>> Lisa: Thanks for joining us.
>> Thank you.
>> We want to thank you; I'm Lisa Martin with the Cube,
we are on the ground at VMware, at the third annual
Women Transforming Technology event, thanks for watching.
(upbeat techno)