At Rubrik, we have a steadfast commitment to our people and ensure they have every opportunity to develop their skills, form new relationships, and grow in their career. We do this through internal mentorship programs, learning sessions through our employee communities, and offering Rubrikans the opportunity to attend development conferences.

We had several members from our Women at Rubrik community attend this year’s Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) in Orlando, facilitated by AnitaB.org. One attendee, Ramya Thulasingam, described the conference as a “one of a kind, exhilarating conference with bustling energy from women technologists from all walks of life. Three days of non-stop wisdom from great presentations, panels and interactions from fellow smart and energetic women.” 

There were dozens of amazing speakers talking about empowering women in technology and here are some of the themes that our attendees walked away with.

You are in control of your own growth

There were a number of sessions that discussed topics regarding owning your own empowerment and becoming a resilient leader. The entire theme of this year’s celebration was “Next is Now” and the one message that overwhelmingly stood out was the need for change and the need for it to start now.

One of our Software Engineers, Nivedita Philip, shared that whether that change is addressing the major injustices in society, the need for impartial technology, or designing technology with scale and margins of error, by committing to constantly growing and embodying a growth mindset attitude, it’s possible to create real impact. This can be across the teams we work in and the communities and issues that are closest to us.

Another area of conversation was around career growth focused on developing your skills at any level. According to Evelyn Lu, “even if we’re not in a leadership position, we can still elevate our voices to influence decisions made by other people. It might need some finesse to get our messages across to the desired audience, but we shouldn’t forget that we have this option.”

Evelyn added, “At Rubrik, everyone is empowered to talk to our leaders and to schedule 1-on-1s with them, and we have the opportunity to speak up and share ways to control our career growth. I feel supported to put my plans to action.”

Conquering your inner imposter syndrome

Nearly everyone at some point in their lives and careers struggles with intrusive inner thoughts and imposter syndrome. Oftentimes, women in technology disproportionately struggle with imposter syndrome. It doesn’t have to be that way and we have the ability to change that narrative in our head. Some of the speakers at GHC had some great advice on how to take back your own power.

One session outlined “Four A’s to fight imposter syndrome” which are: Acknowledge that thought or feeling, Assess the root cause for the feeling, Act on the feeling based on the assessment, and Achieve your desired outcome. 

According to Ahalya Sugumar, one of our Software Engineers, “the most important takeaway from this seminar was knowing that you are never alone in facing these struggles and walking away with tools to recognize the imposter feeling and know how to tackle it.” Our Women @ Rubrik employee community group frequently hosts sessions on topics just like this, as well as others, to ensure our team feels connected and supported throughout the year.
 


Resilience in the face of uncontrollable external factors

There are a number of factors that have made an incredible impact on women in the workplace. At GHC, speakers dove deep into the history of wage discrimination, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and more. All of these factors affect your quality of life, the place you can afford to live, and increase demand on a person’s time sometimes leading to a decline in physical and mental health.

With all of the work that still needs to be done, women have faced issues like this in the workplace for a very long time and still prove to be resilient in the face of opposition. Arlan Hamilton, the investor, founder, and managing partner of Backstage Capital spoke at GHC about how you can turn being underestimated into an advantage. Priya Gopalakrishnan joined this session and shared that “[Arlan] brought a level of urgency to working for progress as she said that all’“the extra things that are encumbering our rise have to be shed and we must advocate for ourselves the way we advocate for others.”

Women @ Rubrik

The 2022 Grace Hopper Celebration was a fantastic opportunity for women from across Rubrik to learn from some of the most successful and influential women in technology, connect with others in the technology space, and develop skills to become more resilient in the workplace. Development opportunities are something we prioritize across our organization. We are experiencing so much growth and we are in a unique position to offer a variety of growth opportunities.

Our Women @ Rubrik employee community is a strong and passionate group. Through this community we have supported attendance at GHC, created a successful mentoring program, and helped to elevate any concerns within this community to our executive leadership team. To learn more about our employee communities, like Women @ Rubrik, visit our career site here.