Although GHC 2023 is now over, I can vividly remember stepping out of my apartment at 2 in the morning to head to the airport, uncertain and excited for what the coming days of the conference would look like. Through this experience, I’ve grown a lot more than I could have imagined and have had the opportunity to learn from my peers, from industry leaders, and from individuals set on changing the world.
GHC offers numerous talks during the day, a lively career expo, and more intimate after events in the evening. My favourite part of these sessions and events was being able to speak with people from all around the world and hearing about their journeys.
In particular, I was able to hear from Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett-Helaire, lead scientist in the development of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, at Citadel’s after event, and learn about solving challenging problems with high stakes.
One of the pieces of advice she mentioned particularly resonated with me, as I was preparing for my first ever on-site interview during the conference. She said, to achieve your goals, you must be willing to take risks, to fail, and you can’t be scared of things not working out. If you don’t put your all into achieving your goals, you’ve already set yourself back, so don’t be scared of failure. I think this is especially important to keep in mind as women often experience self-rejection and reject themselves from opportunities they deem they aren’t worthy enough for, which leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy.
But beyond learning from inspiring industry leaders, I also just had fun bonding with the girls from Waterloo during my time at the conference, from exploring Universal Studios to having late night conversations, and I will forever remember the friendships I built through my time at GHC.
If I could give a few pieces of advice to attendees, I would recommend the following:
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Note down which companies you want to speak with in advance and their booth locations, so you can navigate more efficiently during the Expo.
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Make the most of the first and seconds days of the Expo, as this is when most companies will be giving out interviews. I received an interview the night before the conference “officially” started because I went to the Expo Preview and had a conversation with a recruiter while things were less hectic.
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Speak to people and learn from their experiences. I found that the conversations I learned the most from were outside of the Expo Hall and either during talks or 1 on 1 interactions.
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Most importantly, have fun! Grace Hopper is about more than the job opportunities it offers.
- 2B Computer Science Student