Dear Future GHC Attendee!

I’m extremely excited to be sharing my 2025 GHC experience in Chicago, Illinois!

Felicia’s Pre-GHC Thoughts

Priior to GHC, you’ll see some emails from AnitaB.org but in order to get updated GHC events and recruitment links, join the GHC Discord and follow the hashtags on LinkedIn. This is how you’ll get to some company-hosted events, but keep in mind that even certain companies are picky with attendees and you won’t get access to each event.

For myself, I was invited to the Bank of America Brunch and MATH Company’s events. But due to other GHC attendees, I was also able to attend Workday’s AI/ML and Cloud Computing Reception at GHC too.

Day 1 (Pre-GHC, Sunday)

I only took a carry-on and tried to keep my clothes to a minimum as I told I would be getting a lot of merch, and people weren’t wrong! The subway into Chicago was very easy and Aniyah had great time exploring, soaking in the sunset and cafe hopping while waiting for Isabelle and Bhakti to arrive and grab dinner.

Of course we had to grab classic Chicago Deep Dish pizza and we chatted and just had the best time just chatting together. Both Aniyah and I had to do some work afterwards, so we ended up heading to a Subway and doing some homework/club work (for myself) there too!

Photos from our walk to our hotel and our hotel view

Day 2 (1st Day of GHC)

The conference opening ceremony didn’t start till around 4pm later in the day but since we were changing hotels from one downtown to the one near the conference hall, the girls and I got up early to 1) check-in into our new hotel and 2) grab our conference badges. Fortunately, our year the SFU girls were registered as the “pink” group which allows full-day expo access but different colours such as yellow/blue will only have half-day expo access. This is part of the reason why certain individuals are super dedicated at GHC, since they have only 1-2 day conference access with only 2-3 hours at a time.

Grabbing our entrance badges for the conference

After checking-in, the girls and I headed to near by cafe, where we chatted and prepped what we wanted for the conference.This included changing our phone backgrounds to our LinkedIn QR code (search it up, super convenient), searching which workshops and braindates we would attend and just GHC events we were wanted to do.

We ended up heading early to a Pre-GHC meet up where we got to chat with about a dozen different women, ranging from all different backgrounds and different education levels, some still in their bachelor’s while others completing their PhDs or Masters too. The girls there were incredibly helpful, sharing their own pieces of wisdom and passing on the location of the events they had received invites.

Appetizers from the Pre-GHC meet up

After eating, we all headed to the Opening Ceremony, which was much more grand than I ever could have imagined.With speakers like Vivian Tu (@yourrichbff) and the co-founder of Siri, I was most definitely starstruck by the speakers of the evening. The opening ceremony made me super excited for the rest of the conference.

Vivian Tu as one of the opening speakers

The SFU girls and I attempted to go to several events but events like MathWorks filled up extremely fast and other events like Google were packed. We ended heading to an Italian spot between the conference hall and debriefing our thoughts and feelings for the end of the evening. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I had some homework to still do, so Isabelle and I ended up heading to the Chinatown area while we both did some work for an hour or a bit.

Italian food withe SFU girls for Day 1 Conference dinner

Day 3

After grabbing a couple snacks from the hotel breakfast spread, I quickly walked to the conference hall. This was the first day of the conference and I came prepped with my full bag, packed with my stack of résumé’s, a powerbank, a bottle of water and much more. Since this was Day 1 of the conference, everyone had the most energy - including recruiters and company reps. I took the majority of the time lining up at companies that I was interested in, stopping in between to head to merch tables. Since companies only bring so much of a merch item, if you see it Day 1 - most likely by Day 2 or Day 3 they might run out, so my recommendation would be to also be mindful of their balancing lining up while grabbing merch.

The different conference areas to explore

After lunch time, they cleared the conference hall of everyone and as I walked out, I saw an already extremely long line of the next group of people ready to head into the conference hall.

Since GHC doesn’t provide any food during the day, Bhakti. Aniyah and I ended up heading over to a Mexican place and loved the food actually. Probably one of my favourite Chicago spots from the trip!

I found out after coming back from lunch that there were actually two parts of the GHC conference hall, one section for the Career Fair and the other being the Tech Expo. Aniyah and I explored the Tech Expo section, which included more fun activity-based booths by companies rather than focused on Career/Recruitment based activities.

Aniyah and I at the Uber booth with all our swag

For example, Uber had a super fun friendship bracelet making section while LinkedIn had a series of interactive games as part of their booth. Most of the time, these companies have just engineers at the company take shifts - so rather than asking them specific recruiting tips, I would rather just take the time to get to know about them, their work and what’s brought them to the conference.

I had planned one Braindate that day, with a software engineer from Workday who actually had questions on RAG agents, a topic which I had experience with at my previous company and I thought maybe I could take a shot at. Although, I wasn’t able to help out much, we did end up having a great conversation and for me - that was successful enough.

A busy GHC conference hall

We ended off the day by successfully sneaking into the Workday Event and getting to experience their hor d’oeuvres as well as their own DIY taco station, which was super delicious, I ended up chatting with a Workday data engineer who’s team works internally with RAG agents for Workday internal systems. I ended up connecting the engineer i chatted to with the Workdayt engineer from my Braindate and the rest was history.

Day 4

This was the morning of the Bank of America breakfast! I ended up getting up early and headed a bit late to the event via Uber. Like I mentioned earlier, most companies will either situate their events 1) near the GHC conference hall OR 2) set them up in the downtown area.

After arriving, I grabbed the breakfast served by them and listened in on the speakers presenting that morning. I still often think about those scrambled eggs - they were just that good! It was honestly really inspiring listening to the stories of those at Bank of America and I happened to meet some great company in the form of students around me.

Bank of America GHC Breakfast Event

Most GHC events by companies, if in the morning, will provide a free shuttle to GHC for attendees. So we took the shuttle there and I ended up chatting to many more companies that day, successfully got a couple of resumes picked up companies and explored the rest of the Career Fair Expo. After grabbing lunch inside the conference hall, I spent the rest of the GHC conference day collecting merch and chatting with the SFU girls and those just around.

After heading to Chinatown on Day 2, Denise invited Isabelle, Archita and I to hang out with a friend she had in the Chicago area - which we all gladly agreed to! We did the most Asian evening ever, grabbed milk tea @ Molly Tea Chicago, got dinner and followed up everything with dessert and card games at a late night cafe.

Isabelle and I finished the night playing card games with Emily and Bhakti in our hotel room and once everyone was ready for bed, I once again whipped out my laptop to do more work!

Day 5 (Last Day of GHC)

By the last day of GHC, I could tell energy was low including my own. My goal this last day was just to have fun and grab whatever merch I still wanted. This including heading to the Canadian meet-up and just doing any last merch collecting and Braindates. I ended up meeting a fellow Canadian who worked at Playstation, and we really hit it off! She gave me some great advice but more importantly, confidence to continue to work hard and reassurance that I was doing everything right.

I collected to this day, my most prized piece of GHC merch, a lego version of the Roblox HQ which had repeatedly gone out of stock. After wrapping up the last bit of what we wanted to see, we ended up participating in an Amazon Cybersecurity (?) challenge with the rest of the SFU girls. With this being the last day of good weather, and with the SFU girl and I moving hotels (to a place closer to downtown) we decided this was the day to do the famous canal tour of the city.

The views from the Chicago Canal Tour

Although expensive, it was 100% worth it. The city views were amazing and it was cool to get to know about Chicago beyond what we had just read online. Following the boat tour, we headed to a staple cheeseburger place in the city, that served basically only one thing - cheeseburgers (and maybe a side of bagged chips). We ended up playing more card games but decided to head off, after we were told off by a staff member.

If that wasn’t enough activities for the day, we wandered off to an ice cream shop to continue chatting (and playing more card games) and just chatting in the all the SFU girls in Emily, Isabelle and I’s room.

Day 6

At this time, the United States was undergoing a worker’s strike and many domestic flights within the states had been cancelled. Thankfully, I myself planned a trip to Toronto (which was only about an hour’s flight to Chicago) and international flights were said not to be affected by the strike. However, since I was heading to Toronto at around 2pm on this day I headed out on my own to go see the two things I needed to for sure visit while in Chicago.

One was Chicago’s famous bean (which is literally what it sounds like - a giant silver bean) and Trader’s Joe’s to pick up snacks for the friends in Toronto. Lo and behold, the Sunday that a number of others girls had decided to leave at was actually snowing and I thankfully missed it. I concluded my GHC trip by heading off to Toronto, visiting friends there a couple days while continuing to study for my midterms awaiting me at the end the week!

Thoughts & Reflection

Remember this is YOUR experience, so truly the world is your oyster! For example. Doing Vancouver -> Chicago -> Toronto -> Vancouver was something that I had thought about for a while but if I had never committed to the plan, it wouldn’t have happened.

In general GHC is an incredible once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Being incredibly prepared by resume reviewing, understanding other’s experiences and doing a lot of the research was honestly 50% of making the experience it if of itself super successful.

Depending on what type of student you are and what your courses (or work) schedule looks like, you might find yourself catching up on lecture material or the like, don’t let that stop you from having fun! For me, I found it best to squeeze in work at the end of the night and tried not to stress about it during the day. Remember most of all to just the moment, that’s honestly one the most important parts of GHC i would say

Tips & Tricks

General Travel Tips

Make sure to buy an eSim using a platform such as Klook or Ubigi, you can find plans there for a pretty affordable price. I opted for being able to use my data often and instead of mobile calls, the group and I used Discord to call each other! If you still have room left over, you can get the eSim fees reimbursed.

To get the best prices on flights, make sure to book flights and ask around in the group who else might in interested in arriving/departing on similar dates so you can potentially share accommodations. More on that below!

Accomodations

Depending on the group, you might be closer friends to some than others, but don’t be afraid to reach out and be friendly! Rather than sticking to your close friends, many of the closest connections I made were with those who travelled together! For example, Aniyah, Bhakti, Isabelle and I were all arriving the same day so we ended up booking a lot of accommodations and activities together.

During conference days, we booked a hotel that was 1) super close to the conference hall and 2) had breakfast included. There were a couple of reasons why this was strategic; we were able to sleep in a little bit of later and get a bite to eat as well. Keep in mind that the conference hall had no actual food besides snacks and candies being offered by different companies. The extra money we spent booking the hotel room was definitely worth it for how close we were to the conference hall!

Before/after the conference days, you can always book a hotel which is closer to the city

Understanding the City

Do light research on the city and what activities and things you’d be able to do 1) closer to the conference hall and 2) activities that you’re interested in, just in general! Know how far your hotel is from the downtown as most companies host events are in the downtown core of the city, so for me it was a little bit of a Uber ride away,

Using American Lingo

In the States, most students refer to themselves as a freshman, sophomore, junior or senior as most programs are mandatory 4 years. When introducing yourself, introducing yourself as one the following will help some of the confusion.

Reimbursements

Feel free to keep all your physical receipts or just take a picture, the reimbursement process can get a little bit complex and some expenses you may have to justify but it is not bad! Make sure to not leave your reimbursements too late and reach out to your WICS GHC coordinator for details if you need more clarification!

All of That’s to Say….

You got this! Whether you’re reading this and you’re heading to, interested in or just wanted to get an idea of GHC, I have full faith that you’ll be succcessful no matter the path you choose.

I was incredibly that GHC opened several doors and even an Summer 2026 offer, so just try your best and remember that you worth every shred of confidence you have in yourself, I remember feeling a lot of what Gahee mentioned in her blog post, you can read it HERE but TLDR; be proud of the opportunity you earned through hours of your hard work; whether that be hard work volunteer, hard work leetcoding or even hard work prepping for job apps.

BIG BIG shout out to Noble for being SUCH a great resource to the WICS girls and for every year, helping us prep for GHC <3 Incredibly grateful for how willing WICS alumni are willing to share their knowledge and tips & tricks.

Ok that’s it! Thanks for reading all the way till the head and until the next time. Best of luck WICS members and I hope we meet again ><

-Felicia !