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POORNIMA VIJAYASHANKER: Hi, I'm Poornima Vijayashanker,
the founder of Femgineer.
Femgineer is an education company
where we help techies, like yourselves,
level up in your careers and build products and companies.
Now, like many of you, I got my start as a software engineer.
I was heads down, writing code, shipping product,
putting in long hours, secretly hoping
that someone would notice all my effort
and let me pick the projects I wanted and get promoted.
But, unfortunately, despite all my long hours,
I got passed up for promotions and projects.
So then I thought, you know what?
I'll just put in more hours.
I'll learn to write more code.
I'll learn a new programming language, and that'll help.
But it didn't.
In fact, it only made matters worse.
And that's when I realized what I needed to do.
I needed to speak up.
But "speaking up," you know, it sounds so self-promotional.
It sounds like you only care about what you're working on.
And, you know, why would anybody care
about what you're working on when all they care about
is the end goal or the end result?
It's scary to think about.
People might judge you.
They might wonder, you know, who are you to speak?
Especially if you're only a couple years into your career.
You might be thinking, you know, I've only
been coding for two weeks, two months, or two years, or two
decades.
Or, I'm new to a role.
I'm not exactly an expert.
Why would anybody care about what I have to say?
I don't know, you know, what to talk about.
And so often we think, you know, we're just not an expert,
we might as well keep our mouth shut because it's
too self-promotional.
But I discovered a way in which I could speak up for myself
and showcase my worth authentically.
And that was by teaching people--
teaching them about the work I was doing,
the results I was getting, and giving them
a step-by-step process to replicate it, because there's
always somebody out there who's a beginner, who wants to learn,
just like what you went through.
And by showcasing your work and teaching them, they care.
And they can actually learn a lot.
So it's actually a very effective form
of learning to come out and hear you speak, because the stories
that you share are repeatable.
And they're memorable.
And for many people, that's what they care about,
not just sitting at home and reading a book
or doing a Google search-- no offense to our host.
They're coming out to hear you speak.
And what they want to know from all of you is,
you know, what were your experiences?
What were your perspectives on a project, or even learning
how to build a product or learning
a new language or a framework?
And oftentimes even some of those moments
we have where we feel like, oh, it
took me years to learn how to code,
or it took me months to get through to my team,
or it took me years to shape a product, you know,
all those moments that we think are
failures are actually really valuable for other people
to hear.
Because think about it this way.
Those years of effort you put in,
all those gotcha moments you had,
all those things that you wished you could have done better,
well, now they are treasures for other people.
You're going to help them fast track their learning,
and that's really valuable.
They want to know that.
They want to accelerate their career,
and you're helping them to do it.
So in the end, it's an authentic way
of showcasing all the hard work that you've done.
Now, you might be wondering, how do you do this, right?
So Karen Catlin, my co-author, and I
have come up with the Inventory Method.
And the way that the Inventory Method works is you're
going to take stock of all the projects you've done
over the last 3 to 12 months.
The reason we say 3 to 12 is because it's
what's freshest in your mind.
And since we're in tech and things move pretty quickly,
it's also what's most relevant.
Now, as you take stock, you'll notice
some themes start to emerge.
And these themes can then be crafted into a topic.
And then if you're worried about what people think,
well, you can share the topic with your coworkers,
your teammates, and your friends or people who you think
are going to be the audience.
And when you do this, you'll notice a few things
start to emerge.
Let me give you an example.
For myself, when I was getting started,
I decided that I wanted to speak at a local conference.
I signed up, and I was about two years into my career.
I was the founding engineer of Mint.com,
and I thought, why would anybody want
to hear what I have to say?
But it turns out it was really valuable
for me to share my experience building a prototype,
launching it, and scaling it.
And as a result, people came out.
They heard me speak.
They wanted to come work at Mint.
And a lot of people saw me and thought, wow,
I want to learn from this woman.
She's a go-to resource for startups, engineering,
and entrepreneurship.
So realize that when you speak, opportunities emerge
and you're making a difference, both in your life
and your career, but someone else's.
You're helping them fast track their learning.
If you've enjoyed this and enjoyed
learning about the method, like Inventory Method,
we've got a lot of other great techniques
for you in our latest book "Present!
A Techie's Guide to Public Speaking."
Come by our booth and pick up a copy.
Thank you.
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