
Learn more about Our Partners, Sponsors & Speakers
Learn more about our amazing sponsors, partners, and diversity and inclusion award winners! Also, check out some of our speakers' inspiring work and initiatives.
And that's a wrap on the virtual Diversity Reboot Summit 2021! Thank you to everyone who attended! Missing the summit already? Watch this quick recap.
Whether you were able to join us live and engage with our amazing lineup of leaders on such important topics as ageism, trans rights, wellness, supporting formerly incarcerated people, building the Black tech pipeline, the future of the gig economy, and Latinx identity, or you will be watching the recordings of our conversations at a later date, we sincerely thank you for your interest in supporting diversity, inclusion, and belonging in all of its forms. We hope that you were able to walk away feeling empowered with new information, new connections, and new opportunities. Only together can we take the actionable steps towards creating a more diverse and inclusive workplace.
Scroll down to check out our amazing speakers' bios, projects, websites, books, and more—including a free download of the acclaimed book Roots and Wings: Ten Lessons of Motherhood That Helped Me Create and Run a Company by APCO Worldwide Founder & Chairman Margery Kraus.
You can also read more about the summit's amazing sponsors such as Amazon, Guru Technologies, and Facebook, without whom this event would not have been possible.
In case you didn't have time to tune into our Diversity & Inclusion Awards Show, we've also included the list of this year's honorees, all true champions of D&I that don't just talk the talk, but truly walk the walk.
Please take a moment to support these leaders, whether by buying their books, donating to their organizations, or just visiting their sites to learn more about how to get involved with them in the future.
Finally, don't forget to visit our Merch Store and grab yourself some PowerToFly apparel. 100% of the proceeds from our sales will be going to TransTech Social, supporting transgender people in tech.
Our Sponsors
VIP Sponsors
Amazon
"Amazon is a company of builders who bring varying backgrounds, ideas, and points of view to inventing on behalf of all customers. Our diverse perspectives are enriched by many dimensions, including race, ethnicity, gender, age, physical and mental ability, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, culture, language, and education, as well as professional and life experience. We are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and leveraging our unique perspectives to scale our impact and grow."
Guru Technologies
"Guru is a dynamic, fast growing start-up based in Philadelphia and San Francisco. Our mission is to reinvent the way people connect with meaningful information at work. Guru's knowledge management solution provides customer-facing teams access to expert-verified information where they work and when they need it most."
Platinum Sponsor
"Founded in 2004, Facebook's mission is to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. Over 2 billion people use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or Messenger every month to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what's going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them."
Gold Sponsors
MINDBODY
"Mindbody is a health, wellness and fitness company that helps promote healthier and happier lives. Many women already have a strong connection to Mindbody as a result of their use of the app in their daily lives. Working for a wellness company like Mindbody is more than just having a job; it is a way for women to relate to something they are passionate about and can now incorporate into their careers."
Smartsheet
"To thrive amid the pressures of a dynamic environment, companies must simplify and streamline how work is managed. They believe that the most effective way to do that is with technology everyone can use. So they built a platform designed for dynamic work that breaks down barriers, empowering people across the enterprise to work dynamically and achieve more."
VTS
"VTS is commercial real estate's leading leasing and asset management platform, bringing together landlords, brokers, and tenants to make deals happen. VTS software enables office, retail, and industrial landlords and brokers to transform their leasing process and convert leads to leases 41% more efficiently. MarketView™, the industry's first market benchmarking product gives landlords real-time information to inform deal negotiations and leasing strategies."
Pluralsight
"Founded in 2004 and trusted by Fortune 500 companies, Pluralsight is the technology skills platform organizations and individuals in 150+ countries count on to innovate faster and create progress for the world."
Our Partners
Transtech Social Enterprises
TransTech is an incubator for LGBTQ Talent with a focus on economically empowering the T, transgender people, in our community. TransTech is a co-working, co-learning community dedicated to empowering trans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer people and allies with practical, career-ready skills.
Products By Women
Products by Women is on a mission to help women find gaps in the skills and connect them with mentors, professional development and job opportunities to accelerate their careers. Their platform offers a global community for women in technology to develop personally and professionally.
Aviatra Accelerators
Aviatra Accelerators is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2010. Our multi state organization enables women to start and sustain businesses by giving them the resources they need to be successful. Through our expertise in business basics, guidance from mentors and coaches, and access to capital, they continuously encourage our members to move forward, and they embrace them when they return, helping to refuel and reignite their passions.
Female Techpreneur
Female Techpreneur is for female-led tech businesses, founders, Leaders, business owners to connect them to mentors, thought leaders, grants, investors, education, business support and so much more! FeTech has been designed to help tech businesses learn how to launch, scale-up and exit effectively.
Globalx Innovations
GlobalX is an emerging tech leader with a vision is to drive a more diverse, inclusive and competitive digital economy with a focus on emerging technologies, that opens up equal opportunities for all.
Women Techmakers
Google's Women Techmakers program provides visibility, community, and resources for women in technology.
Africa Women in Technology
African Women in Technology event series, a product of IBOM LLC, was born out of a desire to connect, educate and empower women who are determined to advance their tech careers. They are dedicated to providing opportunities and a safe space for women to grow and lead in the tech space.
Skai Blue Media
Skai Blue Media is a full-service public relations agency based in Philadelphia and New York City. They bring together experience from high profile PR firms in New York and Los Angeles in addition to maintaining close relationships with media outlets, business networks, writers, influencers and decision-makers.
Carolina Women in Tech
Their mission is to empower, engage, and educate women in tech. They have a unique opportunity to unite and support each other. They encourage any woman that celebrates technology to join our effort.
Flexable
Flexable is a Pittsburgh based company that offers flexible childcare solutions and virtual babysitting nationwide. The company was started by two moms on a mission to make work and life fit better for professional parents.
Her Product Lab
Her Product Lab was founded by two women, Lina Bedi and Monica Rozenfeld, with the goal to elevate women in their product careers. By building a global community of women in product, their members can form meaningful relationships with those who support them and their goals. Their community provides resources to launch products from concept to market through their learning series, full-day summits, and an intensive 7-week virtual incubator.
tech:NYC
Tech:NYC is an engaged network of tech leaders working to foster a dynamic, diverse, and creative New York. We bring together New Yorkers to support a successful technology ecosystem, attract and retain top-tier talent, and celebrate New York and the companies that call it home. Tech:NYC mobilizes the expertise and resources of the tech sector to work with city and state government on policies that ensure New York's innovation economy thrives.
Women in Tech NJ & NY
Meetup is a platform for finding and building local communities. People use Meetup to meet new people, learn new things, find support, get out of their comfort zones, and pursue their passions, together.
At Your Service
Founded by award-winning journalist and producer Noor Tagouri, At Your Service (AYS) is a production company and consultancy focused on telling stories through a lens of service.
Women In Big Data
Cultivate tangible opportunities for women; unlock latent potential through accessible training, act as a catalyst for advancement with thought leadership promotion, and empower equity allies of any gender with inclusive mentorship programing.
Our Media Sponsors
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is an award-winning news leader whose mission is to connect, inform, and enlighten local, national and global readers with trustworthy reporting, in-depth analysis and engaging opinions. The Post is as much a tech company as it is a media company, combining world-class journalism with the latest technology and tools so readers can interact with The Post anytime, anywhere. Their approach is always the same– shape ideas, redefine speed, take ownership and lead. Every employee, every project, every day.
MMCA
Who owns the story controls who wins and loses. As such, they see a media diversity crisis with serious economic, social and political implications. The Multicultural Media & Correspondents Association (MMCA) is a growing group of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) media stakeholders, advocates and allies resolved to get more content, more ownership, more impact and more control of their story and of where, when and how it's told. The key pillars of their effort are (1) coalition building, (2) awareness and advocacy, (3) constructive engagement, (4) stakeholder assistance, and (5) honoring BIPOC media excellence.
STARZ
Starz (www.starz.com), a Lionsgate company (NYSE: LGF.A, LGF.B), is a leading global media and entertainment company that produces and distributes premium streaming content to worldwide audiences across subscription television platforms. Starz is home to the flagship domestic STARZ® brand, STARZ ENCORE, 17 premium pay TV channels and the associated on-demand and online services, including the highly rated STARZ app. With the launch of the STARZPLAY international premium streaming platform and STARZ PLAY Arabia, Starz is expanding its global footprint in a growing number of territories. Sold through multichannel video distributors, including cable operators, satellite television providers, telecommunications companies, and other online and digital platforms, Starz offers subscribers more than 7,500 distinct premium television episodes and feature films, including STARZ Original series, first-run movies and other popular programming.
2021 Diversity & Inclusion Award Winners
Startup Partner of the Year: Joe Gomez
Joe is a Talent Acquisition Manager at Guru Technologies. At Guru, they believe the knowledge you need to do your job should find you. Guru unifies your internal knowledge, verifies its accuracy, and empowers your revenue teams. Using AI, Guru can even suggest relevant knowledge to you in real-time without you having to search for it.
What his colleagues say about him: "What makes Joe a stand out employee is his dedication and work ethic. He takes his job seriously and is highly results driven, without comprising quality."
Thank you for being an amazing partner Joe!
Community/ ERG Advocate of the Year: Calicia Johnson
While Calicia is a successful strategy and development manager at Chevron, her commitment to diversity and inclusion is unparalleled. She is the founder of the non-profit Student Career Studio, and also supplies scholarships to support underrepresented students in their pursuit of STEM careers.
What her colleagues say about her: "Calicia exhibits everything a D&I Champion stands for. She continues to pave the way for underrepresented employees to be successful by leading by example, providing mentorship and being resourceful."
Thank you, Calicia, for all your hard work!
Mid-Market Partner of the Year: Morgan Puravet
Morgan is a talent acquisition program manager at Smartsheet. In 2005, Smartsheet was founded on the idea that teams and millions of people worldwide deserve a better way to deliver their very best work. Today, the company delivers a leading cloud-based platform for work execution, empowering organizations to plan, capture, track, automate, and report on work at scale, resulting in more efficient processes and better business outcomes.
Thank you Morgan for being committed to a progressive DEI strategy and understanding why fostering inclusion and belonging is important when building a thriving business.
Engineering Champion of the Year: Jossie Haines
Jossie is the Sr Director of Platform & Web Engineering and Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) at Tile. Beyond her myriad accomplishments in tech, she was also nominated as Best Tech Manager in the Bay Area for the Timmy Awards, and Best Speaker for the WomenTech Network.
What her colleagues say about her: "Jossie is a leader with a diverse background. She consistently solves problems and prevents issues before the arise by analyzing and working with all levels of the company. She mentors and leads diversity and inclusion teams, and runs events to improve morale."
Jossie, thank you for all you do for the engineering and women in STEM community!
Enterprise Partner of the Year: Anto Megerdichian
Anto is a recruitment partner at American Express and a longtime partner of the PowerToFly. As a global company, Anto and American Express understand that it is vital to their success that their employees are as diverse as the customers and communities they serve. American Express has built a diverse workforce and an inclusive workplace— a culture they are committed to continuing.
What her colleagues say about him: "Anto is simply put, one of the most talented, passionate, skilledand tenacious staffing and consulting professionals I've ever worked with."
Anto, thank you for always going above and beyond!
Women Leadership Advocate of the Year: Dr. Anjali Nigam, CEO & Founder Director/WhiteSwan Consulting Group
Dr. Anjali Nigam is a Ph.D in Management, UGC N.E.T in Economics and holds a Business Enterprise Management (B.E.M.) from Manchester, U.K. She has conducted more than 35,000 mandays of behavioral & organizational effectiveness training, in India, UK Europe & Japan. She was honored with Certificate of Merit at IFTDO Global HRD Award 2013 for "Improving Quality of Working Life" by the President of India- Shri Pranab Mukherjee, from amongst 25 countries.
What her colleagues say about her: "I admire the dedication and vision that Dr. Anjali Nigam brings to creating a value revolution that aims to ensures we deliver great service to ourselves, both personally & professionally, so we can enhance our contribution to society on a national and global scale."
Dr. Nigam - we applaud you for your tireless efforts and passion in the DEI field.
Speaker Spotlight: DEI Book Club Picks!
Roots and Wings: Ten Lessons of Motherhood That Helped Me Create and Run a Company
by Margery Kraus
DOWNLOAD A FREE PDF OF "ROOTS AND WINGS"!
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Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward
By Valerie Jarrett
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The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a Changing America
By Ai-jen Poo
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Strategize to Win: The New Way to Start Out, Step Up, or Start Over in Your Career
By Carla Harris
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by Joanne Wilson
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Ok Boomer, Let's Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind
By Jill Filipovic
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Say It Louder! Black Voters, White Narratives, and Saving Our Democracy
By Tiffany D. Cross
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Fit Nation: How America Embraced Exercise as the Government Abandoned It
By Dr. Natalia Mehlman Petrzela
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Black Quotidian: Everyday History in African-American Newspapers
By Dr. Matthew F. Delmont
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The Educator's Guide to LGBT+ Inclusion
By Kryss Shane
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Perspective: It's Time To Get Serious About Saving Diverse and Local Media
By David Morgan
Speaker Spotlight: Amazing Initiatives
Help MMCA Save Diverse and Local Media
Global Workplace Equality Campaign
Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement
Speakers
- Valerie Jarett: President, Obama Foundation
- Ai-jen Poo: Co-Founder & Executive Director, National Domestic Workers Alliance
- Carla Harris: Vice Chairman of Wealth Management and Senior Client Advisor, Morgan Stanley
- Angelica Ross: Founder & CEO, TransTech & Actress, "Pose"
- Rep. Val Demings: United States Representative, State of Florida
- Geraldine Laybourne: Co-Founder of Katapult and Oxygen Media
- Margery Kraus: Founder and Executive Chairman, APCO Worldwide
- Joanne Wilson: Angel Investor, Blogger, Co-Founder of Gotham Gal Ventures
- Aida Rodriguez: Comedian, Actress, Writer & Advocate
- Charles F. Coleman Jr: Diversity Consultant, Civil Rights Attorney, Legal Analyst & Podcast Host
- Noor Tagouri: Journalist, Producer, & Podcaster
- Licy Do Canto: Managing Director, Washington D.C., APCO Worldwide
- Dr. Naomi Wolf: Author & CEO, DailyClout.io
- Jill Filipovic: Columnist for The New York Times, The Guardian, Cosmopolitan and CNN
- Dr. Esther Choo: Co-Founder, Equity Quotient
- Dr. Jane Van Dis M.D.: CEO, Equity Quotient
- David Morgan: Managing Partner, D. Morgan & Partners and Co-Founder & President, MMCA
- Sue Marcus: Regional President, Randstad Sourceright
- Avra Siegel: Former Advisor to President Obama
- Heather Long: Economics Correspondent, The Washington Post
- Tracy Jan: Race and Economy Reporter, The Washington Post
- Jacqueline Alemany : Author, "Power Up", The Washington Post
- Ruth Umoh, Editor-The-Chief, The Filament
- Frida Polli : CEO & Co-Founder, pymetrics
- Erin L. Thomas, Ph.D.: Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging and Talent Acquisition at Upwork
- Jeff Wald : Founder, WorkMarket, an ADP company
- DeShuna Spencer: Founder & CEO of kweliTV.
- Milagros Chirinos: Associate Director, Global Workplace Equality Program, Human Rights Campaign
- Juan Señor: President, INNOVATION Media Consulting Group
- Steven Waldman: President and Co-Founder of Report for America
- Tracie Powell: Program Officer, Racial Equality in Journalism Fund at Borealis Philanthropy
- David Chavern: President & CEO, News Media Alliance
- Carrie Fox: Founder & CEO, Mission Partners
- Tirrell D. Whittley: CEO of Liquid Soul and Member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences
- Claudia Romo Edelman :Founder & CEO, We Are All Human Foundation
- Regina Wallace-Jones : Senior Vice President, MINDBODY
- Claire Wasserman: Founder, Ladies Get Paid
- Sian Morson : CEO, Kollective Mobile
- Korin Reid:CEO, Ellison Laboratories
- Candace Mitchell Harris: Co-Founder & CEO, MYAVANA
- Kate Zernike :National Correspondent, The New York Times
- Shirley Carswell:Executive Director, Dow Jones News Fund
- DeAnna Hoskins: President & CEO, JustLeadershipUSA
- Patricia Moto: CEO, Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement
- Jenny Freshwater: Vice President Forecasting, Amazon
- Brianne Lovette: Director of Product Management, Amazon Fulfillment Technologies
- Dovie Majors: General Manager, WHS World Wide Retail, Amazon
- Kristen Pucheck: Diversity Equity and Inclusion Director, Amazon Worldwide Consumer
- Julie Mitchell: Solutions Design and Innovation Manager, Amazon Robotics
- Kelly Riedel: Director of Supply Chain and Operations for Amazon Robotics
- Jovonia (Jo) Thibert: Director – Robotics Strategy, Amazon
- Julia Soffa: Senior Manager, Revenue Empowerment, Guru Technologies
- Stephanie Cwynar: Global Learning & Enablement Team Lead, Facebook
- Kristen Murdock: Global Head of the Community Risk Assessment, Facebook
- Arlene Pierret: Product Design Recruiting Manager, Facebook
- Giuliana McCracken Garcia: Program Manager, Facebook
- Pariss Athena: Founder & CEO, Black Tech Pipeline
- Jacqueline E. Kalk: Shareholder, Littler
- Serena Marshall: Journalist & Podcast Host
- Nekpen Osuan Wilson: CEO & Co-Founder, WomenWerk
- Gil Allouche: CEO, Metadata.io
- Sabina Rajasundaram: Founder, Codefy
- Kyra Reed: Founder, Women Empowered in Cannabis
- Whitney Beatty : CEO - Apothecarry Brands, Inc. and Josephine & Billie's
- Urvashi Tyagi: Chief Technology Officer, ADP
- Jonah Paquette: Psy.D - Author, Psychologist, and Clinical Training Director, Kaiser Permanente
- Devi B. Dillard-Wright: PhD - Author & Professor
- Naimeesha Murthy : Founder, Products by Women
- Jessica Popp: VP of Engineering, Twilio
- Yael Gutman :Senior Director, Digital Products, ASCAP
- Maira Iqbal: Lead Product Manager, VTS
- Wes Novack:Director of Platform Engineering, Pluralsight
- Lauren Guilbeaux: Head of Growth, ThinkHuman
- Sam Guilbeaux, Client Advocate, ThinkHuman
- Candelario Cervantez: MBA - National Senior Managing Director, Latinx Alliances, Teach for America
- Dr. Natalia Mehlman Petrzela: Historian, Author, Podcaster, Associate Professor of History at The New School
- Dr. Matthew Delmont: Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor of History, Dartmouth College
- Dionna Smith: Global Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Thumbtack
- Ronit Bohrer Hillel: Sr. Director of Engineering at Smartsheet.
- Tracey Trewin: General Manager, Microsoft
- Sara Spalding: Principal Engineering Manager, Microsoft
- Meera Raikundalia: Co-founder & Head of Partnerships, BYP Network
- Janna Meyrowitz Turner: Founder & President, Style House
- Liza Wisner: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Talent Development Expert
- Emily Hoang: VP of Engineering, Metadata.io
- Patrice Peck: Journalist & Founder, Coronavirus News for Black Folks
- Marie Roker-Jones: Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Essteem
- Rekha Venkatakrishnan: Senior Manager, Group Product Management, Walmart Labs
- Lisa S. Jones: Chief EyeMail Officer (CEO) & Founder of EyeMail Inc.
- Leang Chung: Founder & CEO, Pelora Stack
- Kay Miles: Co-Founder, Mindful Use of Technology
- Yi-Hsaian Godfrey: Co-Founder and CEO of Apiari
- Jana Lee: Director of Product, Kinship Labs
- Landy Simpson: Software Engineer, Quantum Mob
- DoctorJonPaul Higgins, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Specialist, Writer & Speaker
- Ada Westfall: Writer, Composer, Performer
- Kaley Young: Female Diversity Program Manager, Raytheon Technologies
- Helen Sanchez: Founder, Tanagui Career Consultants
- Joan Smith : HR Consultant
- Desiree Booker: Principal Consultant & Career Strategist, ColorVizion Lab
- Dr. Mandeep K. Virk-Baker PhD, MPH, MSc, RD, FAND: Founder & CEO, National Origin Alliance
- Chris Bostic: Senior Advisor, National Origin Alliance
- Kristina Anguelakieva: Founder & CEO, trueblu
- Amelia Roberts: Founder, Solutions by Amelia
- Audrey Genevieve Daniels: Founder, Amplify LLC
- Kryss Shane: Author, Teacher & Speaker
- Mira Stern: Equity + Impact Consultant & Antiracism Educator, Mira Stern Consulting
- Chriss Nelson: President, Trans Minor Rights
- Angelina Nordstrom: Lyricist, Poet and Advocate
- Kelly Kugler: Founder & President - Allora Collective
- Hillary Black: AIR | Allies in Recruiting Member, WPP | VP, Global Talent & Leadership Dev, Career Happy | Coach
- Janice S. Lintz: CEO, Hearing Access & Innovations
- Marti Allen-Cummings: Drag Artist, Television Personality, NYC Council Candidate
Thank you again for supporting Diversity Reboot 2021 and PowerToFly!
Want to join the engineering teams at Workiva? Learn more about them!
💎Want to know what engineering teams are like at Workiva? Watch the video to the end to find out!
📼 Engineering teams at Workiva are constantly hiring. Marie Yue, Senior Engineering Manager at the company, tells you what they look for in a candidate and what the dynamics of teamwork are like.
📼 The typical path in the engineering teams at Workiva is that you grow into a senior, and then you move into a lead role. From there, there are a few different tracks that you can take depending on your interest. You can become a staff engineer, an architect, or even an engineering manager. What are you waiting for to apply?
📼In the engineering teams at Workiva every member should feel empowered to do their job effectively. For this, each has to understand how the work they do day to day solves customers’ problems. Managers will always seek to be aware of members’ career path aspirations so that they can look for opportunities and projects to help each person reach the next step in their career.
Engineering Teams At Workiva: A Safe Space
Marie Yue’s team is a safe space for people to make mistakes and ask for help, and each member feels a sense of belonging and inclusion. She wants to make sure that everyone is individually empowered to lead and make decisions. For this, the team has regular meetings where they do fun things like play virtual games or eat lunch together, and they also like to re-review and add to their team working agreement once a quarter.
🧑💼 Are you interested in joining Workiva? They have open positions! To learn more, click here.
Get to Know Marie Yue
If you are interested in a career at Workiva, you can connect with Marie Yue on LinkedIn. Don’t forget to mention this video!
More About Workiva
Workiva was founded to transform the way people manage and report business data with various collaborators, data sources, documents, and spreadsheets. Today, people all over the world use their platform to seamlessly orchestrate data among their systems and applications for transparent and trusted connected reporting and compliance. At Workiva, they are innovative in everything they do—from how they build their software, to how they serve their customers, to how they treat their employees.
Careers in Web Development: Which One's For You?
We all have our favorite websites– the ones we frequent, bookmark, and recommend to others. You might even enjoy some website features so much that you’ve found yourself wondering why they aren’t more popular. Or maybe you’ve experienced times where you were frustrated with a website and wished you could add features or even design your own!
If you’ve ever found yourself intrigued at the prospect of designing and developing your own websites, then a career as a web developer might be just for you!
As a web developer you would be responsible for coding, designing, optimizing, and maintaining websites. Today, there are over 1.7 billion websites in the world and, in turn, the demand for web developers is on the rise. In order to figure out what kind of web development work best suits you let’s start with an introduction to the three main roles in web development that you can choose from.
The Three Types of Web Development Jobs
Front-End Web Development: The Creative Side
Think of front-end development as the décor of a house. The color scheme, furniture, manicured lawns, and overall aesthetic. In terms of a website, front-end development is laser-focused on the appearance of a website and its presentation on different devices. If you’re considering a role in front-end development, it’s important to learn programming languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These three languages go hand-in-hand. HTML allows you to create user interface elements, CSS helps you with stylistic elements, and JavaScript allows you to incorporate online tools and connect your website to back-end functions.
In addition to programming skills, front-end developers need to be detail oriented, creative, willing to keep up with the latest trends in web development, cyber security conscious, and geared toward user-friendly designs. The median salary for a front-end developer can reach well into the $90,000 to $100,000 range.
Back-End Web Development: The Logical Counterpart
While a house can be beautifully decorated, it’s incomplete without a solid foundation and efficient infrastructure. Similarly, a well-designed website depends on logical and functional code to power the features of that website. Back-end web development is code-heavy and focused on the specifics of how a website works. If you enjoy the analytical challenge of creating the behind-the-scenes code that powers a website, then back-end development is for you.
Since this role is more code-heavy, it’s important that you learn numerous programming languages and understand algorithms and data structures. Some languages that are essential to back-end development are Ruby, Python, SQL, and JavaScript. Back-end developers also ensure that users can successfully retrieve and access data. This requires creating and using APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) which act as messengers that relay data related requests. Additionally, developing the code for the inner workings of a website also requires back-end developers to be conscious of the user interface features designed by front-end developers and to internally mitigate potential security risks. Due to the increased technical aspect of this position, back-end developers normally earn higher salaries than front-end developers. The average median salary for this role is around $118,000 per year.
Full-Stack Web Development: A Little Bit of Everything
A full-stack developer is essentially the Jack (or Jill)-of-all-trades in web development. Full-stack developers need to be knowledgeable about both front-end and back-end roles. This does not necessarily imply that you would need to be an expert in both roles, but you should fully understand the different applications and synergies they each imply. In order to work in this position, you will need to know the programming languages used by front-end and back-end developers. In addition to these languages, full-stack developers also specialize in databases, storage, HTTP, REST, and web architecture.
Full-stack developers are often required to act as liaisons between front-end and back-end developers. Full-stack developers need to be both problem solvers and great communicators. The end goal for a full-stack developer is to ensure that the user’s experience is seamless, both on the front-end and on the back-end. In return, you can expect to earn a median salary of $100,000 – $115,000 a year for this role.
Taking the Next Step
Web development is both in-demand and lucrative! All three roles described above contribute to specific aspects of web development and the scope of each one can be customized to the industries and positions you feel best suit you. Regardless of which role you choose, all of them need a foundation in programming.
To gain the programming skills needed in each role, you can enroll in courses or learn independently. Coding bootcamps are a great way to boost your skillset quickly and efficiently.
Click here for some of our highly rated programming bootcamp options! Make sure to check out the discounts available to PowerToFly members.
Clyde’s Joseph Arquillo on the 6 Things Leaders Need to Do to Build Inclusive Spaces
Joseph Arquillo doesn’t work in Human Resources — he works in People Operations. And the distinction matters.
“It was named ‘human resources’ because it saw humans as resources, utilized for certain tasks or behaviors. But that’s not really what it’s about,” says Joseph, who is a Senior Manager of People Ops at Clyde.
“Calling it ‘people ops’ adds back what you lose with ‘HR.’ My philosophy is that I am there to support you. I am there to work with you, empower you, and enable you so you can be your best self.”
For Joseph, a key element of helping employees become their best selves is making sure that the workplace, whether in-person or virtual, is an inclusive space for all. That doesn’t happen by accident — it requires a dedicated DEIB strategy and leaders who are committed to asking hard questions of themselves and others.
We sat down with Joseph to hear more about his professional journey, and the practices of leaders who create environments where everyone feels included.
More Than Just a Number
As a college freshman, Joseph planned on sticking with liberal arts when it came to choosing a major. But then he took a class in Boston College’s School of Education, and loved its holistic approach to applied psychology.
This inspired him to switch his major to psychology and human development, and select minors in political science, and management and leadership, where he enjoyed learning about organizational psychology.
After graduation, he explored the consulting space to put theory into practice, but found out during an internship at a multinational consulting firm that finance or accounting weren’t the places he wanted to build his career.
“Since Big Four companies have 250,000 employees, you become just a number,” he says of the experience. “It wasn’t my cup of tea. Too corporatized.”
That kicked off Joseph’s interest in startups.
“It’s always fun to get in the weeds! One thing that’s very interesting to me is a challenge,” he says. “When you’re helping a company like Clyde grow and scale, joining when they’re at a Series B and helping them get to the next level, you really get to focus on the interaction between people, process, and product,” explains Joseph. “You need to hire the right people to work towards increasing efficiencies in all areas, but also make sure that we’re enabling them to create a strong product.”
6 Keys To Building Inclusive Spaces as a Leader
Across the different industries and companies that Joseph has worked in, he’s identified the behaviors that create truly inclusive environments — as well as those that discourage them.
Here’s what he’s seen:
- First, recognize your own privilege. “If you’re a man, you have privilege, even if you’re a gay male. If you are a white woman, you have racial privilege. It’s really important that you’re cognizant while you interact with somebody how they might interpret the interaction based on your identity.”
- Leaders should always speak last. This is important always, but especially in in-person spaces, where it might seem even more nerve-wracking to speak up in a crowd, says Joseph. “You want to make sure you’re creating that space for employees who aren’t as senior to feel comfortable voicing their thoughts.”
- And, leaders should use check-ins liberally. “You need to ask yourself how you’re supporting your employees. Are you checking in on them as people before you ask about certain tasks? You want to foster a workplace where employees from all walks of life can feel supported,” he says.
- DEIB isn’t just about adding new initiatives — sometimes it’s about removing barriers. “You need to remove unnecessary bias,” explains Joseph. “That can mean making sure you have appropriate policies and practices that don’t hinder people depending on who they are or where they live.”
- Maximizing participation requires planning with a diversity lens. Joseph has helped the Clyde team gather together and bond as a group. Along the way, he’s been careful to consider physical and psychological safety for everyone involved. “For instance, if you’re doing an event, do you have someone who’s not drinking? Have you set up the environment for people who might have a physical disability, or carefully planned the flow of activities for people who might be neurodivergent?”
- Saying you want to be better isn’t enough — articulate actions you will take. “Pride is a great example,” explains Joseph. “Yes, June is a time to celebrate. But it’s also a time to march. And beyond that, how do you show up and celebrate with the LGBTQIA+ community throughout the year?”
Embracing the Unknown
If you visit Joseph’s LinkedIn profile, you’ll see his personal motto: “Without challenge, change, and a bunch of unknowns, it’s no fun.”
That belief has led him to study what he’s passionate about, to take on new and exciting roles at growing startups, and now, at Clyde, to help formalize what world-class people operations looks like at a fast-growing company.
“I view myself as a connector that really empowers people, challenges teams, and helps drive us towards what I consider to be an improved future,” he says. “I feel like it’s my responsibility to be the chief advocate for each of our employees, and remove any barriers in the way of their growth.”
Want to learn more about what opportunities Clyde offers? Check out their open roles!
Navigating Mid-Career Pivots and Finding a Company Where You Can Show Up Authentically
Insight from SoftwareONE’s Jeff Cannon and Chris Lecosia
SoftwareONE’s Jeff Cannon Business Development Executive US) and Christopher Lecosia (Senior Consultant) share a similar adventurous and brave spirit, which has led to a long trajectory of creative experiences for both of them. From taking care of two new puppies to backpacking across Europe — neither of them back down from a challenge.
As members of the LGBTQIA+ community, Jeff and Chris spent a large portion of their careers fighting for inclusive workplaces where they feel a sense of belonging, and opportunities to use their experiences to serve people, no matter what career stage they’re in. And they’ve both recently found that in the global provider of end-to-end software and cloud technology solutions SoftwareONE.
We sat down with Jeff and Chris to hear their stories on how they navigated mid and late career changes and their journey to finding a company where they felt valued. Keep reading to the end for four major tips on how to successfully pivot careers.
The Journey to SoftwareONE
Jeff Cannon was born in Tacoma, Washington, but considers both Texas and Georgeia his home. After graduating from college with a bachelor's degree in English and History, “I wanted to go to graduate school for history,” he explains. But upon arrival, he realized graduate school was not the right path for him, so he packed his backpack and set out for a trip through Europe instead.
This adventurous spirit led him back home to pursue exciting challenges, such as opening a hotel in Austin, working as a flight attendant in New York and Hawaii, and eventually pursuing a sales career at Dell. “I was an account executive for large university systems and large K-12 systems providing information technology to students to be able to further their education. It really fit in with my mantra around how important education is in society,” Jeff explains.”It's kind of my thing.” But after nearly 20 years at the company, he decided to look for new opportunities. “I was tired of doing the same thing all the time.” Enter SoftwareONE.
“This was an opportunity to do something completely different and take the information that I learned and use it to help build a practice that can accomplish some of the same things,” Jeff explains. He joined the company as a Business Development Executive Executive where he works to build the company’s education practice within the public sector in the United States.
SoftwareONE is a company where Jeff can thrive professionally and personally. He specifically cites the company to be people-first, which his coworker Christopher Lecosia agrees with. “SoftwareONE is a place where you can thrive as an employee, and where your creativity can flourish,” says Chris.
SoftwareONE is a leading global provider of end-to-end software and cloud technology solutions, with headquarters in Switzerland. The company itself prioritizes people as their “greatest asset” and advocates for life-work harmony. Their company’s core values are Employee Satisfaction, Customer Focused, Speed, Passionate, Integrity, Humble and Discipline, to name a few, and they ensure that they have “a welcoming – and constantly evolving – work environment for all”, no matter the racial, ethnic, religious, sexual or other preferences.
Christopher works as Senior Consultant for SoftwareONE. He entered the field of IT in 1974. “Back then it was called data processing,” he jokes. “But I kind of fell into IT consulting.” He enrolled in college as an accounting major, but quickly realized that was not the path for him. “I drove into the parking lot of this college for the first day and I got very scared,” explains Chris. “I turned around and went home and I found a job.” And he was able to pursue jobs that allowed him room to change and grow with the market. He began as a systems programer and, progressively, he scaled to managerial data processing roles at multiple software companies, including IBM. He played a key role in leading and growing software asset management programs, directing support for configuration and asset management, and serving as a senior project manager for multiple teams in his previous companies.
His successful 40+ year-long career led to the start of a well-deserved retirement. “I turned 65 last October, and I thought, ‘okay, I think I’ve had enough,’ and I decided to retire in full.” But his retirement was short-lived. “A few months before I retired, [my company] had put out an RFP to the street, which SoftwareONE responded to, and I'll never forget,” says Chris. “I was hearing them respond to me and I thought, ‘Wow, these people know what they're talking about. They're really sharp and I really believed in the value that they could bring.’” So when he was offered a position as a Senior Consultant, he didn’t think twice about coming out of retirement. “In November, a recruiter from SoftwareONE called, and I started in January of 2022.”
All-Around Authenticity
Changing jobs after working for a company long-term can be risky, especially later in your career. But both Jeff and Chris agree that the benefits of working at a company like SoftwareONE are well worth the risk. And for the first time, they’ve felt like they can show up as their full, authentic selves at work.
Jeff recalls past workplaces that, when push came to shove, “had an undercurrent of non-acceptance.” This undercurrent brought many challenges, but he credits them for his confidence today. “I have no issues whatsoever showing up originally as myself. And at SoftwareONE, everybody's been really lovely.” Even remotely, he finds ways to connect with his coworkers, and he feels like he can do so authentically.
Chris reiterates this in his own trajectory at SoftwareONE. “When I started, my Regional VP asked me for a bio. In my bio, I talked about my husband and my two dogs and how long we've been together. That got sent out to everybody in the organization. So when I onboarded, everybody already knew,” he explains. “It was the first time in 65 years that, right from the get go, there was no pretense at all as to being something different than I am. And that's how I came out at SoftwareONE. It was good to do that. I feel truly authentic.”
Advice for Mid-Career Pivoters
Both Jeff and Chris have successfully pivoted roles and companies later in their careers. They offer four tips to consider before making the jump to a new role or joining a new company.
1. Find a place that values service to the client. “Have the mindset of service,” says Chris. “ I'm a service oriented person and part of being of service is to share my experience, strengths, and hope with other people. Whether that's on a, social, spiritual, mental level, or on a professional technical level, this helps bring growth to you, and to the company you’ll work for.” Jeff shares that, “with this mindset, we see the challenges that customers face, so we're able to better articulate to customers what our value proposition is. We can help clients achieve their goals, and everything comes a lot more easily and naturally.”
2. Believe in what you have to offer. Chris and Jeff share that aligning with the company’s mission is another key aspect to consider before changing companies. “I never thought that anybody would want to hire me at 65 years old,” Chris shares. “I had been in my former job where I saw many opportunities that I thought I was perfect for, in terms of advancement, but I wasn't given those opportunities because of my age. I started to feel dried up a little bit. When I got the offer at SoftwareONE, I felt I really wanted to come back, be of service, keep my brain sharp, and do something. I do believe I have something to offer to many clients, as well as colleagues. And that's what made me make the move.”
3. Think of the experiences you bring to the table. Jeff shares how he transferred his knowledge to his new role. “I was able to take everything that I had learned about building an organization and bring it over to a company that needed that expertise specific to the United States. Being able to have the opportunity to do some of that background work and build on alliances has been, and continues to be, a great opportunity.”
4. Find a workplace that prioritizes diversity. “Each one of us brings a certain set of characteristics with us that sit well with our clients,” explains Chris. “The diversity we bring to the company — whether it be age, gender, color, educational background, intellectual capacity — all of that color makes us more relatable to our clients and our customers.” This leads to the company’s overall success.
SoftwareONE is constantly looking for dynamic employees like Chris and Jeff. Check out their company page to find out more about their roles!