Ready, Steady, #PowerPose

After months of anticipation, 15 September saw the official start of the Berlin Geekettes Mentorship Program 2015.

Karolin Rühlmann, event manager extraordinaire from the program organising team, kicked off the evening with a quote by rock star and crowdfunding pioneer, Amanda Palmer. It read: “Through the very act of asking people, I connect with them. And when you connect with them, people want to help you." The quote is taken from Palmer's book 'The Art of Asking', a book that is well worth a read if you are wanting yo rethink your ideas about asking, giving, art, and love.

Next we found ourselves up on our feet and standing in silence in a ‘power pose’ a la Wonder Woman (or Super Man for our male mentors), a well documented way of helping make you feel more confident and in charge. According to social psychologist Professor Cuddy, certain "power poses" don't just change how others perceive you, they immediately change your body chemistry. And these changes affect the way you do your job and interact with other people. You can listen language shapes who you are here.

Fully geared up for some serious ‘power connecting’, Karolin then introduced our theme for the evening, “Effective Networking”. Here we were joined by Yvonne Kania Customer Program Manager at HERE Deutschland GmbH, who shared her tips and tricks on how to network like a pro. Here are my top five:

1. Be authentic. You want people to like you and connect with you because you’re being genuine.

2. Give more than you receive. Go beyond thinking, “What’s in it for me?” to asking “How can i help?" do so with zero expectations of getting anything in return. Remember: No strings attached!

3. Quality trumps quantity. Focus on building long-term, meaningful relationships, not just collecting business cards.

4. Follow up and follow through. Follow up with new contacts within 24 hours by sending an email or personal LinkedIn invite. Make sure you deliver on any promises you have made.

5. #PowerPose. If, like many of us, you dread walking into a room and introducing yourself to a bunch of strangers, don’t forget to #PowerPose!

Coming up next time on the Mentorship Program... Personal Branding with Inka Kretschmer, Director at Mindmatters Coaching Ltd.

By Melanie Fieseler, member of the 2015 Berlin Geekettes Mentorship Program organising team, and a business and career coach/ trainer passionate about helping women find and build careers they love. Connect with Melanie on LinkedIn - she’d love to hear from you.

With special thanks to all those who have made this year’s Berlin Geekettes Mentorship Program possible, including Scout24, our main partner for the program, the organising team - Denise Philipp, Bianca Walterspiel, Karolin Rühlmann, Juliane Möllmann, Kate Castellano, and Irina Botea - Markus Kretzschmar Photography, and of course our fabulous mentors and mentees.

The Berlin Geekettes Mentorship Program is a five-month program focused on the professional and personal development of female professionals. This year’s program runs up until February 2016, and brings together a total of 70 mentors and mentees matched based on areas of interest, background, goals and expertise. To meet our mentors and mentees, and find out more about the program, visit our homepage.

NYC Geekette of the Month: Jheri Hardaway

What is your name and location?  

Jheri Hardaway aka MsJheri Worldwide. Brooklyn, NY. 

What's your background? 

Creative Writing and the Creative Economy. I have worked with several startups since moving to NYC however, writing is my passion. 

What inspired you to become a brand manager in tech? 

I was inspired to step into the eCommerce space due to my incessant online shopping. I completely understood the nature of an eCommerce transaction and wanted to gain further insights regarding the backend elements. I watched the market move towards online shopping so I felt I should make the shift as well. 

Please walk me through your day, what do you do at your company? 

I am an Assistant Brand Manager for a boutique eCommerce agency. Daily I create data based progress reports, execute PR requests, monitor social media, create retail pages for our respective brands on alternative marketplaces, handle issues with order fulfillment and customer service. My days are long! My company excels in assisting international brands as they enter the American market online. We have successfully grown multiple international brands domestically by tailoring brand identity and making American consumers aware of the respective products strategically.

Can you see yourself in ten years doing the same thing you do now? 

Yes, at a much higher level. 

What is the best advice you ever received? 

"It's not what you now, it's who you know"

What is the most important thing you’ve learned in the last year? 

No risk, no reward.

If you could do one thing differently, what would it be?

I learn well when I'm taught. I would like to be more disciplined at self-teaching. 

Any advice for your local/global Geekettes community?  

Be careful who you listen to. The most important voice is the one inside of you. 

NYC Geekette of the Month: Georgi Knox

What is your name and location?

Georgi Knox, an Aussie now living in Manhattan and loving it, especially now winter is over....

What's your background? 

Ive been a software engineer for around 8 years now. I came to NYC to attend Hacker School and kinda just didn't leave...

What inspired you to become a software engineer? 

I was one of the first kids in my school to get a computer. I was always tinkering with it, installing things (linux!) and playing games. I broke my computer so often that I must have drove my mom crazy. I remember "hacking" my friends computers back in the days of ICQ (when they displayed everyone's IP address) and doing things like popping their CD drive out. When I was 16 I built my own computer, saving up for parts from my after school job. There was no doubt I was going to study computer science at university but at the time I wasn't convinced I would be a software engineer, the classes were very theoretical and algorithms were so boring! But when I got a job as a software engineer I loved it - it was so creative and challenging and nothing like the classes I took at university. I still love it today :)

Please walk me through your day, what do you do at your company? 

I work in the back-end engineering team at Bitly where we mainly use Go and Python. The best thing about working at Bitly is that the back-end systems are actually pretty complex - we have a micro-service architecture and lots of distributed databases. During the day I will work on building new features for the Bitly paid product.

Can you see yourself in ten years doing the same thing you do now? 

In 10 years I'd love to be CTO of a successful startup. Id also like to be a role model for younger women entering the field - this is one thing our industry is really lacking is women role models.

What is the best advice you ever received? 

"Wherever you go, there you are". Always rang true for me. 

What is the most important thing you’ve learned in the last year?

I've learned to be more confident and to believe in my own abilities.

And what are your plans for the future?

To speak at lots of technical conferences! I love living here in NYC but at some point I can see the pull to San Francisco being too strong to resist any longer so I might move to the west coast and then probably eventually back to Sydney. The job opportunities here in America are world class, such exciting technical problems to solve and I feel really lucky to be here.

If you could do one thing differently, what would it be?

I wish I moved here sooner!

Any advice for your local/global Geekettes?

Be brave and aim high - if you fail then just try again. There are so few women in this industry that we all need to pull each other up and be supportive. Find a mentor and ask their advice and then when you are more established become a mentor yourself.