Women in Tech: Advice on How to Career Change
Who runs the world? … and how’d they get there?
Find out in this recording of our panel Women in Tech: Advice on How to Career Change, featuring three dynamic speakers who discussed their highs and lows of being a woman leader in tech with CareerFoundry’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer MK Kirigin.
You’ll hear from Damilola Olotu who is a Product Manager at Google and mentors career changers outside of work, Rina Takikawa who began her career as a ballerina before becoming a Product Designer (by taking the CareerFoundry UI Design Program!), and Crystal Yan who is a Product Manager at Stripe as well as an advisor and leadership coach to emerging product and design leaders.
We discussed that buzz word—impostor syndrome—as well as our speakers’ experience with career change, and what it takes to overcome hurdles unique to women in this new world of work.
By the end of this event you’ll be inspired to blaze your own trail in tech!
Enjoy the hour-long panel to hear from women at the top of their industry.
No matter who you are or where you work in (or around) tech, we encourage you to celebrate Women’s History Month by taking concrete action. Learn something new. Try advocating for yourself or someone else in a new way.
For those who are not women in tech: keep listening, learning, and advocating in every way you can! Change happens as we all work together to make it happen.
And finally, if you want to read more about gender diversity in tech, check out these articles:
Featured presenters
MK Kirigin
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Officer at CareerFoundry
MK Kirigin is the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Officer at CareerFoundry. A proud Latina from Bolivia who studied education policy at Harvard, she’s been dedicated to DEI in education for over 8 years, as a university admission officer, public school teacher, and curriculum designer. MK is passionate about democratizing knowledge, creating inclusive communities, and making tech careers accessible to all.
Damilola Olotu
Product Manager at Google
Damilola (Dami) Olotu is a Product Manager with a background in Business Strategy and Finance. She has spent most of her career working on early stage products that require deep levels of user/stakeholder empathy, business strategy, and judgment because there is little, if any, mature existing precedent. She currently leads Product for Policy and Customer Advocacy at Google. Before that, she worked on drone delivery and innovations in physical store shopping.
Crystal Yan
Product Manager at Stripe
Crystal Yan is a product advisor to startups, and leadership coach to emerging product and design leaders. Currently, she is a Product Manager at Stripe, and previously, she led product and design at Remitly, the United States Digital Service at the White House, and FiscalNote. She teaches at Maryland College of Art & Design, School of Visual Concepts, and at technology and design conferences globally.
Rina Takikawa
Product Designer at Mooch
Rina Takikawa is a product designer based in Los Angeles. She began her career as a ballerina before transitioning to technology. She is one of the founding members at Mooch, a fintech startup that is building a budgeting app for Gen Z, where she leads design and research. Rina has been featured in press outlets such as Business Insider and Built In, and has spoken at the University of Arizona, Triangirls, and UX Copenhagen, among others.
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