Meet the Speaker — Amanda Barber
Why is speaking at WITS important to you?
I believe I have a responsibility to other women, whatever the age, to share some of my hard-won knowledge and make their careers and lives more successful, more rewarding, and hopefully more fulfilling.
What or who inspires you?
Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code. Reshma isn’t technical, but she saw the lack of girls taking computer science and decided to do something about it. She founded this non-profit to address the gap, found the right people to create and drive the programming, and in just 4 years has programs across the US. Her passion and her bravery to make the leap into an area she wasn’t an expert in inspire me to do more myself.
Most useful article you’ve read / video you have watched in the last month.
Actually, it’s a book — Essentialism by Greg McKeown. I’ve found myself stretched too thin lately, in part because I try to help everyone who asks. This book talks about how to start narrowing your choices down to the key thing(s) that you want to do, and how to protect your time so you do what really fulfills you.
Favorite thing you have learned or did during quarantine.
I’ve started doing Pilates at home. I’m not really good at it, but it’s a nice stress reliever and helps me wind down at night.
When you were a kid what was your dream job?
Veterinarian — I love animals and always have. When I had a chance to be a volunteer vet tech at an animal hospital, I discovered that while I enjoyed caring for people’s pets — up to and including assisting in surgery (I cleaned the tools and got to observe) — the pets we had to put down broke my heart too much to do it all the time.
Tell us something about your session.
Our four panelists have different approaches to answering the same question — how do I keep my career going in tough times? COVID, returning to work, changing industries — these affect many women today, and we plan to discuss different methods and tools we’ve found useful to help!
What other sessions or speakers are you most excited to see?
Wednesday’s Fireside Chat with Jenny Gray — I’d love to hear not just her perspective and experiences, but also her take on the “responsibility” piece of our role as women in tech. I’m also interested in the L.E.A.D Approach session — as a mentor, I’m always curious to hear of new methods and tools to use with my mentees!
