So, hello everyone. Good to meet you. Um We are going to briefly talk about how women specifically can thrive in it and I'm really happy to have you all here.Um The intention of the next now nine minutes approximately is to go through my five key learnings um throughout my career to give you some inspiration of what I considered the most relevant parts. And I'm looking forward to also probably kind of a discussion afterwards and please feel free to reach out to me afterwards in case you're interested. So as you can see, the title is from Tropical Islands to Tech because this is kind of my career journey. And I want to tell you more about it to give you some inspiration for your own um path forward. My first recommendation is to invest early and specifically in your social skills. So you've seen, I mentioned starting from tropical islands and this is indeed the first career position you would say that I took over. So I was working on this beautiful, beautiful island in the Maldives right after school. And um I was not making a lot of money, but I learned some invaluable skills you deal with.

I don't know how many customers, how many clients, how many guests I dealt with whilst working in this um in this hospitality industry and it learns you so much, it teaches you how to really read people, how to react to people, how they perceive you. Um All of that is crucial when thinking of how you want to advance your career and how you want to in the future be communicating because communication skills are essential. They will always get you places. Um Everything else can be learned as well. But if I would need to pick one soft skill, it would always be communication, meet people where they are and that will always help you going forward in your career. The second point embrace failures. Um And you might ask, why is there a picture of, yeah, there's me on the left um in front of a plane. When I was younger, I um wanted to become a pilot and as you have probably seen, I did not succeed. So instead of becoming a pilot, um I choose a completely different career, I was devastated when I learned that I am or back at the days, at least too small. Um There is a certain high criteria you need to fulfill. If you want to become a pilot, I was already in the uh selection uh programs from in this case, from Lufthansa. And so looking forward to fulfilling my dream. But then I learned about this requirement not happening. So I was devastated.

But now looking back, I think, hey, this was exactly the best thing for me to happen. I was able to completely switch to something new, um sort myself out. Think about what is it that else I want to do? And it created so many new opportunities for me that in the end led to me working for what I perceive as the coolest company ever, best employer, I'm working for Google. Um Would I be happy if I would still be become a pilot maybe? Um But this perceived failure of mine really led to me reevaluating what I want to do and how I can get there. So really um when something is not going the way you plan to don't get discouraged, just think about, hey, what can I learn from that? And what other opportunities is it opening up to me? Third advice, be ready to say yes and flexibility is really key. Um Here another brief story, what you see on the left um me, slightly greasy hair, not the best lightning is my application video in K indeed for a scholarship. Um I was already submitting a proper video for this, but in the end, the company told me, I'm sorry, we lost it. You have less than 20 hours to resubmit. Please do so immediately.

So back at the days I was at an airport lounge and this is where I took this video and I thought, hey, I can still do it. I don't have my notes of the, the story that I was telling, but I do not want to leave this chance on the floor and not take it. So as you can see, I was flexible and I was able to turn around matters and quickly come up with something new um de prioritize other tasks and then really focus on what is at hand. And in the end, I got the scholarship as well as you can see on the right hand side, now I'm better prepared having a full set up of uh good equipment, good talks whenever I'm doing something online. But my key message here is really that if you are faced with a challenge, be ready to say yes, however intimidating it might be. Um and however difficult it might be, you will never feel fully ready for it, but rather go forward and make sure um that you embrace the chance that it gives you. And even if you fail, you learn, I think we've heard that all before.

Next one is to never underestimate the role of others um closely related to my first point, learn how to work with people. It's also learn how to work with people on yourself. Um So as you can see here, um some very inspiring people from my past. Um on the right hand side, a former manager who became a close friend and even invited me to her wedding. And on the left hand side, two of the role models um here Google and especially as women. I think it's so important to have um role models and inspiring leaders to look forward to. So whenever you can just approach these, um I'm super certain that they would be more than happy and welcome to support you to give you advice. They know once they are at a certain level of their career that they want to give to others as well, and they want to make sure that the hard way they fought is worth it and they are a role model to others. And nonetheless, you also see a man here. Um This is my mentor, um current mentor here at Google and he's an ally. So support is not limited only to women. Um Yes, of course, you will more easily find a woman to support you in many cases if she made it up the ranks. Um But there's also the importance of others um from all different areas.

So you will be surprised if you just try to speak to people about what's challenging and how you want to grow and how they can potential, what if they are and last but not least, remember to have fun. This is probably the most fundamental advice I can always give you. So personally, I feel that as long as you're having fun and as long as you're doing something that you're really passionate about. You're willing to give it 100 and 80%. Um, there's not a dull day if you do have those, ask yourself, why is that the case and what you can change about it? Um, and that really brings so much of motivation and gets you out of the bed in the morning and, um, brings you the joy of going through the hard times as well. Um It gets you through that, whether it is doing fun activities and you can see a selection of what I did here um or working with inspiring people um learning about what they do, what they draw uh what they um what drove them to be where they are, all of these are topics um find out what motivates you and what really is your passion and what gets you out of the bed and that will be making things a lot easier for you.

So just to summarize my five key lessons, it's invest early in your social skills that's invaluable and will get you places um embrace failures. They do lead to new opportunities, although you might not see them in the moment, be ready to say yes, always flexibility is the key, embrace opportunities and never underestimate the role of others. Most important. Of course, for everything is to remember to have fun. Um This is the key driver for going through tough times and going through also challenging moments in your career. So thanks everyone for listening. Um As said, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to me. I'm more than happy to um answer those. I do not see any questions in the chat. Um But if you do have, um, please put them in and otherwise, uh we have, we are on time. So, um, thanks for your interest and looking forward to seeing where your careers are taking you. Thanks everyone.