The Backstage - Stories of Women on Stage

The Philosophy of Women in STEM Across Continents and Cultures

In this episode, Sara Zare [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarazare/], an entrepreneur and investor with a rich engineering background that includes three different engineering degrees from three different continents, shares her unique and global perspective on the cultural differences of women in STEM. With degrees in Mechanical, Electrical, Nano, Bio, and Software Engineering from leading institutions in the USA, Germany, and Iran, and fluency in English, German, and Persian, Sara shares her vast experience spanning three continents. She offers insights into the philosophy and history of women in STEM across different countries and engineering disciplines, each with its own stereotypes and standards. Drawing from her unique experiences, Sara explores how cultural and educational differences shape the experiences of women in engineering, revealing incredibly surprising variations across continents.  Ultimately, Sara also discusses the impact of generative AI on society and addresses the common question: should we be worried that AI will steal our jobs? Tune in for a global perspective on women in STEM and the future of technology from one of the most impactful female leaders in tech.

Architect Your Career - Thrive as a Senior Woman Leader in Tech

In this episode, Jossie Haines [https://www.womenonstage.net/speakers/jossie-haines], an executive and leadership coach and a Former VP of Engineering, shares her journey as a senior woman leader in tech and offers advice on how to thrive in the industry by architecting your career. She discusses the challenges women face in tech, including bias and the lack of representation in senior leadership roles, especially in engineering. Jossie emphasizes the importance of networking, finding support systems (and gives some tips on where to find those), and advocating for oneself. She encourages women to focus on mindset shifts and taking action to create the career they truly love while staying in tech, to avoid the alarming statistic that over 50% of women leave the tech industry by the age of 35.

How to Discover Your Unique Value and Position Yourself as an Expert

In this episode, Moran Weber [https://www.womenonstage.net/speakers/moran-weber] interviewed Chedva Kleinhandler [https://www.linkedin.com/in/chedva/], CEO and Founder of Rooms & Words , a full-stack marketing and strategy agency, and formerly Co-founder & CEO at Emerj, an award-winning mentoring startup. Chedva is also a Future of Work expert and the host of the Looks Like Work podcast.  In this episode, Chedva shared her fascinating and inspiring journey of founding her own tech startup, and how she paved her way into it, despite coming from a very non-traditional tech background. She shared her perspective about the importance of getting your voice out, and about the similarities and the differences between sharing your voice out as a person (or as a woman) and sharing your voice out as a brand.  Lastly, Chedva explained how you can start to position yourself as an expert, even if you don’t always feel like one, and in case you don’t, how can you discover your unique expertise and your secret superpower, which makes you special and who you are.

How to Make Money From Your Personal Brand

In this episode, Moran Weber [https://www.womenonstage.net/speakers/moran-weber] interviewed Nur Lee Harel [https://www.womenonstage.net/speakers/nur-lee-harel], Chief Awesomeness Officer @ EventHandler [https://www.eventhandler.co.il/] and a personal branding expert for R&D people.  Even if you’re currently employed, having a strong personal brand is very important as it can get you a better job or better pay at the same job. In addition, you can also start monetizing your personal brand by acknowledging your own expertise and actually getting paid for speaking engagements.  In this episode, Nur shared how to start valuing yourself as an expert, and start getting paid for your hard-working earned knowledge after years in tech; How do you define your product and start selling it, and most importantly: how do you put a price tag for the first time and persist even when faced with a 'no' from potential clients, which are usually the hardest parts.  Nur emphasized the need to stop thinking about 'what they are willing to pay me' and start considering 'what I deserve to get paid'. In addition, It's much easier to make the jump from $100 to $1000 than to go from not asking at all to asking for $100. Nur shared her golden tips from 25 years of experience in the business world, in addition to being a Dev Communities Manager, a DevRel consultant, and an international tech conferences organizer and producer (such as JDevSummit IL, Leaders In Tech, React Next, Node TLV, and more).

Overcoming the Technical Interview Stage Fright

In this episode, Moran Weber [https://www.womenonstage.net/speakers/moran-weber] interviewed Ellie King [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellie-king-62842777/], Co-Founder of Equal IT [https://www.linkedin.com/company/getequal-it/] - a mission-driven business dedicated to helping companies worldwide build diverse and equitable teams. Ellie is also the host of the Equal Inspired Podcast [https://linktr.ee/equalinspired], where she shines a spotlight on the incredible work of women and non-dominant groups in the tech industry. Ellie shared her experience working with companies to uncover their wire around DE&I.  We talked about Tokenism, and underrepresentation and gave some valuable advice on preparing for technical interviews.