From the moment I discovered Grace Hopper Celebration, I knew I had to be in that room.

As someone who entered SFU’s Software Systems program without knowing what career I wanted to pursue (but with one clear goal in mind: being a woman in computing science) a celebration for women and non-binary technologists from around the world sounded like an actual dream.

What were my goals for GHC?

• Bask in the ambiance
• Having been involved in CS-related extracurriculars since my first year, I often found myself giving advice to younger peers. I hoped GHC would teach me how to guide others in a more inspiring, empowering, and inclusive way.
• Have fun!
• Talk to as many people as possible and absorb their wisdom
• GET MERCH
• Attend fun company-hosted events
• Get a job??? (More on this later…)

This blog will cover:

• How I prepared
• A breakdown of each day
• What makes a strong GHC application

Pre-Event Stuff

I remember applying for this grant while in my first year at SFU. I didn’t get it LOL. So when I found out two years later that I had been selected to attend, I was extremely happy.

The other SFU CS girls selected alongside me were Avni, Harpreet, Jamie, Mantaj, Clare, Dina, and Katie, so we made a group chat and started preparing.

I had read GHC 101 by Noble Tan, a former WiCS president, numerous times. To prepare for the conference, I contacted her and scheduled an informal GHC info session/Q&A for us in July. We learned a lot from her, including her experiences, what to prepare, and general advice. She also reviewed all of our resumes. It was a really nice group chit-chat with someone who had already been in the industry for a couple of years.

THANK YOU, NOBLE TAN!!!

I would stalk LinkedIn for any GHC-related posts and joined a GHC 2024 Discord server. There, attendees talked about job postings, events, and networking. I also looked at which workshops I wanted to attend in advance.

I also booked a hotel and flights with the other SFU girls. Some of us also planned a New York trip!

What did GHC do differently this year?

• You were not allowed to sell or transfer your tickets to someone else. I think this was added to reduce the number of male attendees.
• Instead of the GHC resume database they had used in previous years, this year they created a GHC job board where you had to manually apply for jobs. This is important to know because you should aim to apply for a job within 48 hours of its posted date.
• They split attendees into three groups: Yellow, Blue, and Pink (Recruitment). The Yellow and Blue groups had allotted times for the Career Expo. This was done to reduce the number of people at the Expo at once and make it more manageable.
• They added QR codes to badges so connecting on LinkedIn took seconds.

October 7th, 2024: GHC DAY 0

I had created two versions of my resume, one for Software Development and one for Product Management, as those were the fields I was interested in pursuing at the time. I asked Mantaj to print them for me because she owns a printer. She came through and gave me about 70 printed sheets. That amount was unnecessary, but I appreciated it. Thanks, Mantaj.

Since there wasn't a direct flight to Philadelphia, many of us had a layover in Denver. On the Denver to Philadelphia leg, you could tell the flight was full of GHC attendees. That was really exciting to see. Many women wore their company merch, and we thought about talking to them but decided against it because it was 5 AM.

October 8th, 2024: GHC DAY 1

We arrived at our hotel at 6 AM and asked if we could check in earlier than the 1 PM standard time. The man at the front desk said YES, 9 AM should be possible. We were like AMAZING, WE WILL JUST CHILL IN THE LOBBY. However, when 9 AM rolled around, that man had DISAPPEARED, and the lady at the front desk told us, "Yeah, I don't know why he told you that because we don't have any rooms available right now..."

OKAY???

We were all crashing from exhaustion (our fault though… we knew the official check-in time LOL). Our hotel was one of the official GHC hotels where the conference shuttle stopped, so as the hours passed, more and more GHC attendees joined us in the lobby.

We randomly chose to sit at the table by the GHC sign in the hotel lobby, half-asleep. I guess we looked inviting because other attendees would start talking to us. For example, two AWS employees came by and began giving us career advice LOL. Then students from other schools saw our mini networking session and started to join, so suddenly I had about 10 people in front of me. Mind you, I was running on zero sleep, so I don't even remember what I said, but it was nice meeting new people.

So TIP: SIT BY THE SIGN AND INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS MIGHT APPROACH YOU FIRST.

At 10 AM, we were able to pick up our badges early. We got the special Badge Hero ribbon for being among the first 5,000 people to collect our badges. We also explored the Philadelphia area a bit.

Back at the lobby, we met Sangeetha, a Senior Product Manager from Microsoft, who was also waiting to get checked in. I’ll mention Sangeetha again later.

At 1 PM, we were finally able to check into our rooms. Actually, our room was in the process of getting cleaned up when they let us in, but it was okay. We got ready as fast as possible and caught the shuttle to the opening ceremony.

Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony was so fun. There was a violin performance as attendees found their seats.

And the keynote speaker was America Ferrera!!!

After the ceremony, the SFU girls met up to grab dinner before the Roblox event. Now, Roblox had sent out an invitation to selected individuals, which among us were Mantaj and Katie. They also said not to share the links, but they did anyway LOL.

The event had free drinks and food, and activities, and you were able to network with Roblox employees. Roblox made a video about GHC 2024 here.

October 9th, 2024: GHC DAY 2

We attended workshops: "Master Your Elevator Pitch," "Role of Firmware in Cloud and AI Systems," and "AWS: Build a Virtual Styling Agent Using Amazon Bedrock and Langchain." We also stopped by the Uber area and talked to a Staff Software Engineer there. The day was a bit overwhelming, so we decided to take an hour break before our scheduled time for the Career Expo.

We befriended a security guard as well.

Career Expo

Ahhhh, the famous GHC career fair. After talking to GHC attendees from last year, they warned us that these companies were mostly interested in talking to U.S. citizens and did not provide work visas. So going into the conference, I knew that the chances of getting an internship here were slim, so I did not focus on getting a job. Instead, I focused on talking to as many people as I could and learning something from them.

And they were right. Most companies weren’t interested in talking to Canadians. Even for the companies that had Canadian branches, their recruitment team was for the U.S., so they couldn’t provide much information for us Canadians. The good thing about this was that when you wanted to exit a conversation, you could just mention that you’re Canadian, and it was easy to leave!

When I first got there, I had lost Mantaj and Harpreet, so I was in a random line for the AMEX booth. After talking to an AMEX employee, I ordered a coffee at their coffee stand. While I was there, I started chatting with everyone. Notably, I started talking to this lady who was also waiting for her coffee. After 30 minutes of chatting, I learned that she works as a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley in their New York office and what had led her there. Turns out I had grabbed her during her entire break, and she had to go back to the Morgan Stanley booth… oops! She took a copy of my resume since I had asked her to review it, and we parted ways.

I found Jamie, and we went to the Roblox booth because they had blind boxes. But, unfortunately, they had run out by the time we got there! Then we befriended a program manager, Selina, because she had recognized my name from the attendance list of yesterday’s event, since she was the one who organized it. She said that there were a lot of Simon Fraser University attendees (because we shared the link with each other), and we were like, “Haha… Yeah!!!!”

Even though she wasn’t in a technical role, it was interesting to learn about Roblox from her perspective and what goes into recruiting event initiatives such as GHC. Rather than networking, it was more like a normal conversation.

We also befriended Rabia, a Lead Analytics Consultant at Wells Fargo. I don’t even remember what we talked about, but we were there for a while.

This is Jamie and I at the Meta booth, trying out their VR headset.

The Meta lady took these pictures of us for some reason, so we asked her to AirDrop them to us LOL.

This was all the merch from day 1:

Overall, I think we just had fun today.

October 10th, 2024: GHC DAY 2

Today, it was the Yellow group’s turn to enter the Career Expo first.

We talked to people from EY, Citadel, and many more… And then we visited our friends Selina and Rabia again to chat more.

Rabia recommended a Szechuan restaurant, so that’s what we had for lunch.

After the Expo, Jamie and I went to a cafe that sold Pandan drinks, and we attended some online workshops there.

Afterwards, we met up with the SFU girls and sumo and took pictures at the GHC sign!

Uber event

View of the sign from the Uber event

The sign

Every day we would run into Sangeetha. We saw her again while we were with sumo, and she vouched for us and said that we were hardworking girls 😊

After the GHC day ended, the SFU girls went to Dave & Buster’s for dinner and hit up a night market in Chinatown.

Back at the hotel, we started getting ready for bed. Later, I ran into Mantaj in the lobby, and then we ran into Sangeetha again. She said there were going to be northern lights tonight and asked if we wanted to come with her to see them. So, we rushed to our rooms to grab our roommates and jumped into Sangeetha’s rental car, someone we had only met two days ago. She drove us 40 minutes out to where there was less light pollution to see the northern lights.

We couldn’t really see the lights that well in person, but we were able to see them through pictures. Also, for some reason, we were at a cemetery at 11 PM 😭

This side quest was really fun, and we got to connect with Sangeetha and learn from her during the car ride. One piece of advice she gave us was to go into the workforce for a couple of years and then return to school for a master’s to specialize in something.

October 11th, 2024: GHC DAY 3

Today was a slower day, and we hit up the GHC spots that we didn’t make during the previous days.

“Women Who Lead: From Behind the Scenes to Center Stage”

Today, we attended my favourite workshop of the entire conference. It was a panel for technical women and non-binary leaders in behind-the-scenes roles and visible leadership positions. The panel consisted of founders, directors, and chief officers. They discussed everything from imposter syndrome to building a powerful support network. Sitting beside me was a diverse group of people of all ages, each eager to learn something that day.

Listening to these leaders share their journeys made me realize that it’s possible for me to reach a high-level leadership role too. Before this, I had always capped my career goals at Senior Software Developer or Developer Manager. I never really considered that I could go beyond that. This is something good to realize for yourself as well. You can always aim for higher.

Other things from my really bad notes during the sessions were:

• Know what you don’t know and know where you could fill the gaps
• Getting a coach and having a strong network help you get to the next level
• Don’t have a mindset that everyone else is a threat
• Poke your nose in everything
• Rethink your perspective and think about how different fields connect to yours

After GHC officially ended, the SFU girls grabbed South Indian food for dinner. Later, Jamie and I headed back to the hotel and took a nap.

Then we had Cane’s.

THE END.

Making a Strong Application

I’ve been on the GHC Grant Selection Committee twice now, so I want to share a few things that can make your application stronger.

Between my first application and the one that got accepted, I focused more on my goals as a woman in Computing Science by getting more involved with SFU WiCS. My first entry was organizing Try/CATCH 2022, and later I started SSSS Girlies, the first social event for women and non-binary students in CS at SFU Surrey. We tried to hold it every semester during my term as an executive in the Software Systems Student Society.

As a disclaimer, I didn’t do any of this just to boost my GHC application; I am just really passionate about WiCS. If you are only participating in WiCS just to go to GHC for free, I mean yeah sure your choice, but I hope you realize SFU WiCS does provide much more than that.

NOW MY TIPS:

• You're more likely to get the grant when you’re in your 3rd year or later.
• As a first or second-year student, you likely won’t get as much out of GHC. Like I said above, spend those first two years attending or helping organize SFU WiCS events and getting involved in the community
• Go after you have had 1-2 internships. You’ll be able to understand the talks better and relate them to your experience. I know the Career Expo isn’t the only focus, but you’re competing with students from famous schools, students who already have FAANG internships, and AMERICAN CITIZENS (which matters when it comes to hiring eligibility).
• Everyone writes about how much they love WiCS and how inspiring GHC would be. WHICH IS AMAZING I LOVE THAT FOR YOU!!! However, EVERYONE WRITES THAT, which makes it a weak application if that is all you write. What’s something specific that makes you want to go? What do you want to learn, and what are you going to do with that knowledge? Is there a speaker you would like to connect with? Workshops you want to attend?
• You can write all about how you’re going to give back to the community after the conference, but it’s hard to trust you if you haven’t demonstrated prior involvement with WiCS or any other community.
• There is a question that asks about any other community initiatives you have participated in at the SFU School of Computing Science. This is the opportunity to brag about all you’ve done for other clubs/student societies (CSSS, SSSS, FAS, etc.), however, initiatives done FOR women/non-binary students within those clubs/student societies will be ranked higher.
• Shorter, multiple paragraphs and bullet points are fine. Please don’t be fluffy in your writing. Stay concise while making sure you’re vouching for yourself. Also, don’t make it obvious you’re using AI LOL.
• The selection process is done anonymously. The GHC Selection Committee Chair censors identifying information before we review.
• The GHC Selection Committee Chair will also fact-check everything you have written, so don’t lie.

Conclusion

It was an amazing experience overall. I’d like to thank SFU FAS for funding the grant every year, as well as SFU WiCS for being such an extraordinary community to be a part of.

Did I get a job???

Yes, I did. I got a suspicious email from Morgan Stanley in November (a month after GHC) inviting me to a 2-hour interview for an internship position. I was really confused because I didn’t apply for any job there, nor did I actually attend the Morgan Stanley booth at the Expo, because their line was really long.

So, the Managing Director I had bothered during her break at the AMEX coffee stand had put my physical copy of my resume in the right pile, which led me to my internship at Morgan Stanley that ends this August. It was a lucky chain of events that led me to this new opportunity. This just shows that printing your resume out is useful. Thanks, Mantaj.

Now, am I a diversity hire?

LOL. I struggled with this for a bit because I had gotten this opportunity from GHC. However, the reason I was at GHC was that I had spent countless volunteer hours working for SFU WiCS and the community on top of my studies.

I put myself in that Expo. Bothered that woman. I pitched myself well enough that she passed along my resume. I interviewed well enough to get the opportunity.

I may have gotten the opportunity through different means, but I worked hard for it. So if you find yourself in a similar situation, just know that you deserve it, and I’m so happy for you.

From the conference, I was also sent OAs and got other interviews from it. So, it is not the end of the world for us Canadians. Getting a job from GHC is doable!

I believe what really helped me find success was my strategy of focusing on connection. Talking to as many people as I could, not just those standing at company booths. That approach helped me not just in finding a job, but in learning something new from everyone I met.

I think it’s very obvious when you’re only talking to someone because you want a job. These reps have talked to so many people already and are probably repeating the same things. So give them a refreshing conversation. Talk about something else. Ask them what they’re passionate about. Why are they here at GHC?

Also, make sure to schedule breaks during the day. It is a very overstimulating day, and you will want some quiet time. And, explore the city with the girls. That’s what made the trip so memorable.

This was 3256 words. So congratulations if you read it all!