Moving Beyond the Boys’ Club - 10th May 2011

Women in Technology, Girl Geeks Scotland and Shell hosted "Moving Beyond the Boys’ Club" on Tuesday 10th May 2011 at the Hilton Doubletree Hotel, Aberdeen. It was our first event in Scotland and we were really pleased to be involved!

Shell is a passionate ambassador of diversity and inclusion and, in particular, the support of women in the fields of science, engineering and technology so we were delighted to be working alongside their Women’s Network on this exclusive joint event with Girl Geeks Scotland!

Our keynote speaker for the evening was Dr Suzanne Doyle-Morris, Director of FemaleBreadwinners and author of ‘Beyond the Boys’ Club: Strategies for Achieving Career Success as a Woman Working in a Male Dominated Field’. Suzanne has a background in women's issues including a PhD from Cambridge University that explored the experiences of successful women in male-dominated fields. Dr Doyle-Morris is a popular keynote speaker and more information abut her and her book can be found here.

In her presentation Suzanne covered what it takes to get to the top – with your sense of humour and integrity intact! She discussed the strategies used by successful senior women to advance their careers in traditionally male-dominated fields and her interactive presentation featured inspirational stories and tangible tips - immediate 'take-aways' for the audience to put into practice. In particular Suzanne addressed the art of profile raising and ensuring that you secure the right opportunities that will make a positive difference to your career.

After the keynote presentation there was a panel Q&A session with Suzanne as well as Jill Reid - Senior Legal Counsel at Shell, Jeanette Yuile - Senior Project Manager & Subsurface & Wells DRM Lead Europe at Shell and Maggie Berry, our Managing Director.

Top tips from the evening included:

• Hard work alone won’t get you to the next level.
  
  

• You have to make people aware of your achievements.
  
  
• In the real world, bosses have favourites and projects go to people who’ve been noticed.
  
  
• Spend 10% of your time raising your profile – not having enough time isn’t an excuse! You give time to what’s important to you and your career is very important.
  
  
• Actively seek out speaking/writing opportunities.
  
   
• Get credit for your work and start to get noticed!
  
  
• Keep any thank you emails – share them / forward them to your team and cc your boss.
  
  
• Set up Google alerts for relevant terms – this will help you keep on top of news in your area of business.
  
  
• Speak with credibility – sound like an expert – don’t preface your ideas with the words “this may sound silly but…”.
  
  
• Use lunches and coffee breaks as a way to network several times a week.
  
  
• Nominate yourself and others for awards – women, we’ll never feel that we’re worthy of an award so apply anyway! You don’t have to win to help you raise your profile.
  
  
• Delegate – which can be difficult for high achieving women but it takes a community to raise an executive.
  
  
• Find a good mentor and understand that you will need different mentors at different times in your career.

Agenda for the evening: