Hi, everyone. Good afternoon from beautiful Vienna. Uh Welcome to my session. My network is my, I was just briefly off for some reason. Uh, my computer decided to, um, take a break. You know, it's, it's lunchtime. Welcome. I'm really, really happy to see many of you joining.

Um, let's give it a second or two and then we start over. Uh, there's a beautiful chat here so write to us where you're coming from. Uh Kara. Hi, Kara. We, we saw each other last year and maybe even a year before. So, so happy to see you this year as well. So there's many people probably who have been following women tech for years. New Zealand. Wow, cool. I haven't been there but, you know, I'm very much big fan of your prime minister. She's amazing. So we love her. So, uh thank you for sharing. Hi, Ronke. Um, welcome, welcome to my uh session. Um, we will kick off, uh Lila laundry is also exotic, don't, don't say, uh especially for the last years, you know, uh for different reasons. Uh Yes. So let's start it. Um, um, before we started it kind of, uh, I'll tell you a story. I love telling stories and this one is very special one. Hyena from Berlin. This is a special one. So I decided to wear this little necklace today. Uh I hope you can see, uh see it. Um And the reason why I'm wearing this, uh Helena from Stuttgart High, the comment, the reason I'm wearing this necklace and I want to tell you this story uh is because I got it this week from Samara. I don't know if she's here, but Samara, if you're here, let us know. I got it from Samara and Samara is an amazing uh woman uh in tech. Uh She's originally from Egypt.

We met a couple of years back when I was recruiting in my company uh called Mabo. I uh IOT Mao does um the software company, it company is very much focused on the um developing uh the IUT platform for the uh major telecom operators around the world based out here from uh Austria. So, anyhow, so I met Samara at the interview. She was uh she was uh she applied for one of the roles. Unfortunately, it didn't work out because of Corona. So we were changing plans that was beginning in 2020. But we kept in touch and I'm telling this story because it has everything to do with the network and everything to do with Google. What I want to say with this session is that I don't Google thing I asked Google things, whatever things can be, it can be a job, it can be moving to another. Um, it can be moving to relocating and, uh, finding a job across the seas. It can be, you know, going to Berlin and, uh, or whatever anything. Uh, I don't, I don't Google it. I ask people around. So, basically I met Samara and we kept in touch and unfortunately we couldn't hire, we didn't hire anyone back then.

In 2020 it was a tough year and we kept in touch. So, and last year she was at um a year before she was at one of my sessions and we kept in touch with linkedin messages. I love linkedin messages. That is another tip that I want to give you. It's, it's amazing to use it as much as possible for a very simple reason that it keeps all the track with people that you have had a chat. So imagine here today you will meet 1015, 20 hundreds of amazing women. So if you connect to them through emails or uh I don't know other tools but keep it with linkedin messages as well because messages give you a history back. So imagine in six months, you're looking for a job in uh Stuttgart and uh there's Lena that, you know, in Stuttgart you connected in this session. So you write to Lena two messages or you write it today right away. So you connect with her if anyone wants to share their linkedin profile. Uh Go ahead in the chat. So let's connect. That's why we are here. Uh So you asked Lena Sole, I'm coming to Stuttgart. You know, I got this great, amazing offer and I'm settling in Stuttgart. So what do I do? Hi, I'm so happy to see you. Um Thank you for, for joining us. So that was with Tamara. So we kept in touch and she said, look, I don't want to go back to Egypt. She's from Egypt. I want to stay in Vienna.

I want to stay in. Actually, she said I want to stay in Europe. Uh So we kept in touch. And last year when I was a speaker here, I had a complimentary ticket. Uh thanks to, to amazing um team of women tech. Uh I got, I got, I think two complimentary tickets and one tickets and one of them I gave to her because I said, you know, look, come here, I know you're looking for a job. There's a great um job fair. So come and connect with uh women that, you know, or that you, you know, that are in the same uh businesses as yourself. So she did, she was really eager to come and connect and she did, she did and she got two offers and one of them she accepted, she was like, ok, which one do I take? And she accepted one of them from Flix bus. Uh that she met here at this conference last year. And uh long story short, she came this, uh this week to Vienna and she came to see me. So we had a nice walk uh to the playground with my little daughter. Uh and she gave me this beautiful necklace, uh, just as a simple, thank you. It's from Egypt, uh and with, um, Egypt's flower. Uh and I just felt like I need to tell you this, this story because it tells everything in a nutshell. What, what networking is about.

Uh You know, it's a long term process. Uh So I told you I would connected with Samara for quite a few years. We stayed connected through linkedin. She was very active. She responded to different content. I was sharing. She was eager to know what is happening in my company or in general in my business. So she was connected through linkedin as well. So she was um chat, we were chatting uh on and off. Um And she basically, uh so what's networking as well is when you see something? So what in my case was like? OK, I, I listened basically to my network and I knew, OK, there's this great conference that we are attending at the moment and there's a great job there and there's a great opportunity that you will meet amazing women. And maybe today you think, I don't know what to do with it. So I will have hundreds of contacts, but I really don't know what to do with. But, you know, you never know. You see with Samara's story, uh it took a couple of months. Um She's now super happy. Uh She's on her uh next promotion. Uh She's doing an assessment in the coming months. So it's possible. So, in a moment you might think, ok, I don't know what to do with it.

But the first and, and very most important thing about networking is basically to keep giving. You know, if you see something or if you hear something that someone is looking after, be it a simple, you know, uh recommendation on linkedin that people are looking for a speaker or they are looking for a job opportunity and you know, that your company has um is hiring. So why not post that link? You know, you never know where, where this goes to, you know, you never know where this leads. When I met Samara, I didn't know that our journey would be meeting at the in our office uh for an interview. And now she's, you know, having the best time of her life, she's super happy in Berlin. She relocated from Vienna to Berlin. She's having a great time uh having some already some friends. So it's a big, big success and these conferences are placed to have it all at once. So I'm really grateful to be able to speak again and again here. Um when I came, yeah, you see Ronke, we, we uh I know Ronke personally as well, had an opportunity finally to meet her face to face uh last month. And that's very much true.

So when I came to Vienna back in 2013, my husband and I, so we packed basically our things and came uh here from uh Sarajevo where we uh studied um and we have masters degrees in the technical field and we came here and started from scratch. I felt that some mom at some, at some point of my life, I need to, you know, break through, I need to do something, you know, uh bigger than the job that I was. And maybe this resonate, resonates with some of you, maybe you're thinking, OK, I, this job that I'm doing is not living anywhere or this place where I, where I'm living, it's just, it's amazing. It's beautiful. People are so friendly and, you know, it's, it's great for tourists and so on, but it's not living anywhere. I don't feel full. And when I was back in Sarajevo, I felt like I'm in a cage, you know, and I love my country and um home country and I love going back. But I felt like I'm in a cage. I don't see any point of, you know, changing one job to another, from one company to another because I felt like that, that's not me. I needed to do something and I felt I, I wanted and I knew I can do much bigger.

So I came to, we came to Vienna, both of us and we left our jobs over there. We left security, we left our friends and we came here and started from zero. Basically, we didn't know people. We didn't have any network. We didn't have, we didn't knew the language. We realized later on how important the language is because I thought with English, you know, you can uh do a lot of things through in a tech field. So with nowadays especially, and then back in the days, there's like a lot of things that you can do in English and German, it's great to know because you want to socialize as well. You know, and people do prefer socializing and you get so much um nuances of life when you speak the language of the country where you live. And I, we didn't have jobs. So none of us had a job, but we had around, you know, €10,000 in our bank account and we said it's good for six months. Um And so we will be able to cover our expenses and we will be able to, you know, learn the language and meet the people and we, but that's our very best chance to get a job here in um that was back in 2013.

Nowadays, things are changing, I think for better where you have, you can have it on the 1st and 2nd interview online and so on. So this, we have this conference uh today is approved. Uh but back in the days, it was very, very different. And I thought if I meet people, if I really get to know people face to face, if I get that opportunity, I can make it happen, I can really get that job. Um in the company, I can get that foot in the door as, as they say, because when you look at, when I was looking at my CV, I felt desperate because look, I did masters degree and I was one of the top students and then I was like, really having a hard time to find a job. Very first job, which I again, um found through my network, you know, a friend of a friend recommended me and I got my very first job back in Syria. What same was for the second job and, and so on. Um So I was looking at my CV and I was like, what do I do with this? You know, I'm not a software developer. So I'm not. Um even though II, I studied at electrical engineering, it was one of the things that I wasn't really keen about it. And I was like, and everybody was just hiring, you know, this kind of profile and nowadays too as well. I said, I don't speak the language. I have a little bit of experience. So where do I go with it.

And my only chance uh to uh get the job was to meet people in person to tell them my story to, you know, share what I have or, you know, what, where I'm coming from, um as a career wise or what I want to achieve and so on. So that, that's what, what I did with the help again from my network because a friend of a friend asked around in Vienna if there's someone who could, you know, show me a little bit around which Amela did. Um And I took him to one of the job fairs, um career calling is called and some of, you know, uh it's in Austria, it was back then a huge event and we went there. I remember I took three CV S. Uh I remember whom I gave the two of them. I don't remember the third one. The first one that I gave was, you know, such an amazing opportunity to, you know, to meet someone who believes in you who was like very much about, you know, what we are doing and uh leaving everything behind coming here starting from the scratch, it shows a lot about personality, you know, and this is kind of, you know, profile that, uh you know, people are looking at the companies are looking for people who are ready to, you know, uh leave everything behind the old ways kind of and try something new.

Um And So this one wasn't that successful, but we stayed in touch and I, I recently wrote back to, to Andrea that and thanked him because he was back then, even though there was no job opportunity, but he showed so much interest and so much appreciation about what I was doing that it was a huge booster and we all know how we need those, those people who can cheer us up.

And that's also what is possible to build through your network. Uh The second uh CV. And that was very successful. One was what I gave it to the company called Tele Two. It's a Swedish telecom operator and I went there because I knew the brand from Croatia. So Bosnia and Croatia neighboring countries. So I knew it from there. So I didn't have any single clue what they are doing in Austria or what's their portfolio? How much a employees they have? Uh None zero. So I wasn't that much prepared which I advise people nowadays to uh dig a little bit uh about companies that are coming. So, while I went there, so I said I know your company, I know your brand from Croatia and it's about black sheep. It's about being different, it's about, you know, trying things uh differently and I really loved it and I enjoyed it very much. I watched it over and I knew most of them uh uh Bron is sharing. Uh and you know, they said, well, great, you know, um I didn't check their website as well, so well, they said, well, great. We are trying to, we are starting a training program next year and we are looking for uh people like you your profile. So how about FIVAS CV? I had an opportunity to talk with my uh first team leader.

Back then at the conference, I had the chance to explain them a little bit of my background story, which is not very clear to the CV, even though if you can write the motivation letter, but that's a very, very different story when you meet people in person. Uh So kudos to everyone, you know, going to tech jobs fair or jobs fair in general, it's a great, great opportunity to meet, meet people and it's a great opportunity to stay with these people in touch. So long story short, they invite me for the first interview and it was like with the same people more or less and they were like very super happy about, you know, uh having me or me having interest and it was really good because the team leader was also from the engineering uh industry.

So he also had a, you know, master's degree in engineering. And then you kind of realize that you understand each other, right? You're like, OK, you, you speak the same language. It's not like, you know, in sales and like, oh yes and everything is complicated and this, you just go to the nutshell. You know, that's what engineers do, you know, you're focused on the most important thing. And it's like, ok, we immediately had, uh, the connection Alexander is great. He moved to another company but he was a really, really, uh great team, uh, team leader. After that, I had a second interview with the CEO and, and I came home, I was ok. Well, let's see. And a few, you know, an hour or so later the phone rang and uh they called me and I didn't answer. So I called, I was like, OK, either they have a really, they have a job for me or they would say no at all because who calls right after the interview? Right? Uh So they did and they offered me a job and it led to new opportunities and led me to a field of iot and uh being part of the global team traveling most of the Europe in a lot of things.

Uh But what I want to tell you is like, whatever you are in your career nowadays, you know, or whatever in your life. Let's not just put the career. Maybe you just, maybe you're like exploring, uh maybe you are thinking, OK, I have a great career but I want to do something else. I want to do something more. I want to be part of this, um you know, women in tech, for instance, community or talk more about my career. Story, share more about my career, story uh and so on. So this all is possible through the network. So if you know a couple of people and when I say network, I think, you know, few people, you don't have to have, you know, 10,000 followers or, or a similar uh you need to have a couple of people uh and you have them. So because you have uh studied with a few, you know, you have few great colleagues or, you know, you have a couple of people that um uh you work with and they, they really know you and they can, you know, um you know, word of mouth is very important so they can put you in touch with other people and so on.

So this is what happened to me with the, you know, starting my mission 1000 women, which led me to be invited uh to, to give this talk to Forbes, which led me to be invited to this women tech conference. So I'm very happy about which led me to have uh you know, another job to my uh to my network and so on and so forth. So I hope that gives you a little bit of feeling uh that uh things are possible uh through the network. And if you are looking for an opportunity or like a career or some other um you know, mission that you want to create through your own, I would advise you honestly, to go a little bit through your network, you know, make a list of 1020 people, uh, that would be really helpful for you, for that with the job.

If you're looking for a job, it's always really good to have a little bit of an idea where, where do you want to go so that people who are, you know, supporting you along the way can do it really, really good. And what else? You know, it's, it's very important, you know, to have also very much to, to have fun with it, right? Because you want to come through as a, as a um you know, not as a person that's like, like um pushing through, but you allowing things that happen in your life, you're inviting things to happen to happen in your life and that's a very different uh different energy. So it's very good to have this, you know, fun moment uh within your network and it's very good. You can create that two different ways, but one of the ways is also, you know, helping other people. So if you see that someone is like struggling with finding a work and you see something, you, why doesn't, why don't you, you know, share with that person or you see a conference is happening around the corner and it would uh would very be good for this person and so on. So it's really, so it's really, really important to keep keep that in mind uh that, you know, as I told the networking is, is a long term process. Uh It's about meeting people, it's about giving back.

And um it's about, you know, creating this environment where you feel like you people understand you, you're very much supported and so on and so forth. So I will leave it here. Uh And I will um leave this moment uh to thank you and answer one of the other questions you have. In the meantime, if you go to my linkedin profiles, if we're not connected, please send me a, a connection invite on my linkedin profile. If you go there in the about section, there's a, there are two free checklist. One of them is about networking. So it's all about what I do around networking. Every single thing that I use to uh such as virtual coffees and so on. It's written there. And there's another great thing that you can use it called another um linkedin uh content challenge that Rke participated. And that's how we got to know one another even better is to start creating, to create this visibility for yourself, you know, to, you know, to create the visibility for yourself and start sharing your expertise and your leadership uh through linkedin, which is now that's super, super important.

Uh That's how I got most of my, you know, invites uh to give talks and, and uh moderate different sessions and so on is to being very uh visible and very open about what I'm doing and what I'm standing for. So that, that's also waiting for you if you go into the balcony section. Um Thank you so much. Um If there's any question, I will just uh in the meantime, look into this Branca said every single job she got was through the network. I once told a woman who gave a talk at the in person conference that I liked her talk. We chatted over lunch. Two years later, she called me to offer me a job. Wow, this is amazing. Um That's, that's how it works. I stayed in touch with all the companies that I, you know, we kind of partnered and I saw my future over there. So that's how I got my um recent job as well, got a book contract after meeting someone at the conference and many months later following up with them about the Twitter post. Great. Thank you, Ron. Thank you so much, everyone for joining. Um I wish you a great, great uh conference. Um Keep in touch, let's connect on linkedin and let's continue this um uh this conversation. Amazing. Thank you so much. Um Yes.

So there are, there are thousands and thousands of stories that you ladies are sharing your car on that. I know uh I recently met for Kaya. She's one of the, I believe she's one of the speakers. Uh If not, she was there. Um recently. Thank you, Ron. This is network. This is networking basically where, where people are supporting you along the way. So a little bit, um a little bit goes along the way. Um And I read uh f can also wrote a book about the diversity and inclusion. And she says at the beginning of this book, you know, she had everything written and she couldn't find a publisher. Uh the one airport, she met the lady uh from one of the publishing company and that's uh uh that's where it's all. Um that's where, where it happened, where she got the contract. So may the main message around that is to be open and to share is uh to share what you're looking after. So if people don't know what you're after, be it in a speaking engagement, be it, you know, writing a book or be it, you know, you're looking for another job. It's really hard to read the mind. Uh I hope that happens in the future. But nowadays it's really hard to um you know, so be, please be open and share one another and support one another because um a little bit today goes a long way. Um Rebecca says she liked the linkedin Post from summer. Two weeks later, we had coffee.

She told me she made it a year ago to talk to stranger months and do this. We now cheer each one each other on wonderful Rebecca. Yeah, that's the spirit. That's, that's amazing. I did last year, the uh brief uh linkedin content challenge where I told you I met Tron who was sharing here and we created a little um whatsapp group. And throughout that group, we shared millions of ideas really. So like job openings, we cheered one another when people are looking for jobs. It's a small group. We have like kind of uh maybe 15 of us, probably 10 of us are uh active uh day in and out. So we keep sharing everything and anything is cheer one another and support one another and coach one another. So please find that kind of environment. It will, it is a life changer. It is really life changer when you have someone that you can uh you know, share everything that's happening in your life, good things and also bad things and have someone that can, you know, help you steer around and uh find that, you know, great job or create a great career or do whatever you, you know, want to do in your life.

Thank you. Thank you ladies for sharing. My time is my time is up. Uh So let's continue this conversation over there on linkedin. Um Let's connect and I hope to read from some of you. Yeah, let me know how I can. Uh Yeah, and one more thing if you're looking for whatever you're looking for, just, you know, send me a link message. I really looking forward to read from you. Maybe I know someone who knows someone who knows someone and uh we can help each other. I can help you a little bit and, and so on. So, thank you everyone. Uh have a wonderful, wonderful day. Um, keep in touch and see you soon if you're around in Vienna, uh if you're in Vienna anytime soon, just drop me a message and uh let's chat. Cheers. Bye bye.