Navigating the Maze of the Technology Industry as a Woman in the Community

TIANA DAME: Well, welcome, everybody.

AMANDA KINLEY: Hey.

TIANA DAME: Thank you for coming. This is the Navigating the Maze of the Technology Industry as a Woman community panel. So if you think you are in the wrong place--

AMANDA KINLEY: Welcome.

TIANA DAME: --you're stuck here.

[LAUGHTER]

So there's that.

PRESENTER: This is better.

[LAUGHTER]

TIANA DAME: So we're just going to go through and do some quick introductions. My name is Tiana. I've been with Autodesk for about four years now. And I am a community program manager. I almost said the wrong role, but that's OK.

[LAUGTHER]

AMANDA KINLEY: Hey, everyone. I'm Amanda Kinley. I have been at Autodesk for 12 years, when I wandered in the front door. And somehow, just 12 years later, here I still am.

I am a senior program manager in the community team. I've held a variety of different roles within Autodesk, and I'm really eager to talk about all of them. And, yes, it's wonderful that you're here. Thanks for taking the time, and enjoy sitting down for a little bit in a calmer spot, so.

LISA MAGGIO: Welcome, everyone. I'm Lisa Maggio. I've been at Autodesk for five years. And I am the community operations manager, based in San Rafael. I'm super excited to be here to talk with you guys.

ALODIA CANO: Hi. I'm Alodia Cano. I'm the lead senior product manager for a community. I've been at Autodesk for about five years.

Like Amanda, I've had a few different roles within Autodesk, including working with the AU team. And I'm based in California, Southern California. I'm looking forward to meeting everybody.

DEBORAH LILLEY: And I'm Deborah Lilley. I'm the content and communications manager for the community team here at Autodesk. I've been with the team for about a year and three months now, and it's been a fantastic experience, working with these amazing women here. I'm also based in San Francisco, and I'm very excited to be here to talk with you today about being a woman in the technology industry.

AMANDA KINLEY: Awesome. So before we start, I did want to give a quick plug for the community team, mainly because my senior director is here, but also because I designed this. And it took me like three months.

[LAUGHTER]

So if you haven't gotten a brochure, or heard about the community team, seen us on the expo hall, I really recommend that you do. The community team is a lot more than just forums. Although, our forums are fantastic. We have over a million people that visit them each month.

And it's us, so it's a really welcoming place. We want to make sure that you're connected to the help that you need, that you get some cool tips and tricks that help you streamline and do your job a little bit better. We have area communities. If your M&E, if your PD&M, no matter where you are, there's a place for you in the community.

We have Twitter. We have Facebook groups. And we also have industry groups. We'll be talking a lot about industry here, and how we all fit into it, and how we can support you.

And the main thing that I wanted to tell you guys is that we wanted to learn from you, right? So being a woman in tech is a different beast than a lot of people think it is. If you're not being identified and singled out as being a woman, then you're fighting your way to make your voice heard.

So we want to hear from you on the community. We want to hear from you in our industry groups. And we want to make sure that you guys are represented in the community.

And you can always-- plus, you guys, if you can't often find a way to get a hold of Autodesk people, we're there. We're always there, and we're really eager to hear from you. So on your way out, there'll be some of these at the door. I did sprinkle them artfully over some seats.

[LAUGHTER]

If you got one of these on your seat, you're special. You should buy a lottery ticket, definitely. And so make sure to get this.

Hit the QR code on the back. We have a community home page website. And come see us on the expo floor because we're also doing a scavenger hunt.

The other thing that I wanted to say, really quickly, before we actually delve into the meat of this with Tiana, is that we appreciate you speaking up. So this is going to be a back-and-forth kind of panel. And you shouldn't be shy because I'm not.

[LAUGHTER]

And I tend to pull people and make them do things, like you might have seen on the expo hall. So if you do answer a question, I have five of these. They're chargers for when your phone dies because I'm also having problems keeping my phone charged here. I'm sure everybody else is.

[LAUGHTER]

They come precharged, so they're ready to go. And they're really light. So as a thank you, I only have five of them because I took them off of somebody else's desk in the expo Hall.

[LAUGHTER]

And that's all I could sneak away with, so hey. So we appreciate your contributions.

TIANA DAME: At one point, a mic will get moved down here. So the first, I think, five people that get up to the mic to ask questions will get one. So that is incentive to come up and tell us your stories--

[LAUGHS]

AMANDA KINLEY: I know your phone's dead.

TIANA DAME: --ask us your questions, and things like that. So, all right. So this is just a quick agenda. Obviously, we've already kind of gone over the welcome and introduction. We're going to go over just a little bit of analytics, just to paint a picture and give some context to what we're going to be talking about.

And then we are going to go over, basically, ourselves. We're going to talk to you guys about our own journeys to where we ended up and how we made it to where we are now. We're going to talk about our successes, our failures, basically anything that revolves around how we got here.

But that's the time when we really want to hear from you guys, as well. So definitely, if you have a question and the microphone is not up, just shoot your hand up. We'll see you, and we'll talk to you guys. So don't worry about that. And then, yes, it's just going to be an open discussion.

So just to dive in, some of the analytics that we pulled in the architecture, engineering, and construction world. There is about 27%, and that's from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics-- that are in the architecture and engineering world. And then that number drastically falls to about 11% in the construction world, which is a big, drastic difference.

And then in-field drops even further to, basically, 1%, which is very low. And then [LAUGHS] women in leadership within AEC is about 16%. So, again, it's not a lot, guys.

So all of you being here is absolutely wonderful. And we also want to see who here is in the AEC industry. Raise your hands.

PRESENTER: Oh.

TIANA DAME: A lot of you.

PRESENTER: Oh, wow.

TIANA DAME: OK. How many of you are specifically in construction?

PRESENTER: Oh.

TIANA DAME: Oh, wow. Well, give yourselves around of applause.

PRESENTER: Yes, that's fantastic. Yes, yes, that's--

TIANA DAME: You are a part of a very, very small group.

[APPLAUSE]

So while these statistics need to be improved and women are very much underrepresented, in the last five years, the number of women-owned companies have grown 60-- to 64%, which I think is a huge achievement and is a wonderful thing. So we're making strides. And I think that that's wonderful and what we need to be doing.

So in the product design and manufacturing world, there's about 29% of women who are represented there, who are in the-- specifically in manufacturing. In design engineering, the percentage is only about 11.1%. And then aerospace is another one that was often correlated to this, so I put it in there. And that's about 12.5%.

And then, unfortunately, in leadership roles within this industry, it's only 5% of women. And in the past 100 years, there's only been an 8% increase of women coming into this industry, and that says, I think, a lot. But I'm also talking to a group of females, so this is all probably not very shocking for you guys. This is very much, I think, seen throughout what we experience in our day-to-days at our own companies and things like that. So there's still a lot of work to be done.

And then, oh, wait. Hold on. I forgot. Who here is in manufacturing and PDMS?

AMANDA KINLEY: All right.

TIANA DAME: Raise your hands.

AMANDA KINLEY: All right.

TIANA DAME: All right. We got a few.

PRESENTER: Yes.

PRESENTER: [INAUDIBLE]

TIANA DAME: We got a few.

PRESENTER: Yes.

TIANA DAME: And then what about design engineering? OK. And then anyone in aerospace?

TIANA DAME: Aren't you in aerospace?

TIANA DAME: I was.

[LAUGHTER]

AMANDA KINLEY: You were in aerospace, Yes. You got to raise your hand, Tiana. There you go.

TIANA DAME: OK. [LAUGHS] So on to M&E. So the statistics for the M&E industry were a little bit tougher to find because there are a lot of different facets that are in that world. But, in general, the women in the M&E industry are about-- are between 20% and 40%. And about 20% of them are digital animators.

And then women-- this is an interesting thing, though, is that the amount of women who are enrolled in colleges at the moment is at 60% for this field, which I think is wonderful.

PRESENTER: Excellent.

TIANA DAME: It's grown a lot. And then, Amanda, you wanted to speak to this bullet point?

AMANDA KINLEY: Yes. So this is something that I'm going to get a little bit into, in my journey in the tech world, to tell you the truth. And when Tiana showed me this slide, it's one of those things where, in 2017-- so open letters are quite popular at this point. And at this point, the open letters were sent to independent studios, demanding that they do more to stop sexual harassment and discrimination. So it was signed by 217 animation professionals, and as you guys can see, there wasn't actually a ton of follow-up to that letter.

We get into this a little bit. This isn't ending the M&E on a dour note because I am, number one, very excited to see who is actually digital animators and such here. But it's something that we do need to be aware of. Again, I'll get into it a little bit more.

And it is a reality of places in our industry. So it's not just M&E, but it is all across the industry. Yes.

TIANA DAME: Yes, so--

AMANDA KINLEY: How many of you guys are in M&E, actually?

TIANA DAME: Anyone here from the M&E world? No?

AMANDA KINLEY: No.

- Oh.

LISA MAGGIO: Ah.

TIANA DAME: April.

AMANDA KINLEY: April, in the back, here you.

[LAUGHTER]

One hand. Go ahead.

TIANA DAME: [LAUGHS] All right. So, at this point, you can either stare at the wonderful faces on the screen or ours, in person.

[LAUGHTER]

But we're going to just go over our journeys and things like that. And again, this is where we really encourage you guys to ask us questions, speak up, and things like that. Deborah, do you want to start us off?

DEBORAH LILLEY: Sure. Yes.

[LAUGHTER]

I thought we were going to go the other way, but, so, hello again, everyone. I'm going to start by saying that I didn't begin in the design field. I found my way into it during the course of my career. So I started-- I actually started out my career in academia, so teaching in the literature fields, which was really the place where my interest in the issues facing women in all industries really became apparent. Beginning-- starting off studying things like critical theory and understanding the issues of representation at an academic level very quickly became something that I was experiencing, first hand, once I started teaching, as a young woman going into the lecture theater, going up to the lectern, and having students say, so, when's the professor getting here--

[LAUGHTER]

--which was an uncomfortable way to find out the expectations that people had of you, based on your appearance, your gender, and so on. And I'm sure that that's something that everybody here has experienced, too, those moments where somebody judges you, and you get that feeling of imposter syndrome. Like, should I be here? Like, do I belong here?

I mean, should we do a show of hands? Who has had that imposter syndrome feeling in the workplace? And, yes, it's a tough spot, especially when you train for a long time to be in a certain place, and when you get there, you feel like maybe it's not for you.

But there was a lot of positives to that experience, too, because going out to conferences, meeting peers, meeting women who had been working in academia for longer than me, were able to help me, I was able to build networks through that and to find people who could give me the tools, give-- share their experiences with me, so that I could navigate those experiences better and figure out how to be, how to be a person that I wanted to be in that role and with the awareness of the expectations that were on me. And it was through that community-building that I did, in that role-- that I realized that being in the classroom maybe wasn't for me and being out in the world maybe was. So I ended up moving into design media.

So I worked for Places Journal. I don't know if any of you have heard of it, nonprofit design magazine. If you haven't, I'll just give it a quick plug. But that was a fantastic experience because they were really focused on women in architecture And the fact that the contributions of women in architecture historically had been overlooked for far too long.

And we were dialed in to a lot of the professional organizations and academic organizations that I'm sure all of you are familiar with, knowing, now, as I do, how many of you are in the architecture field in the room. And I was able to continue that work of community-building, learning from mentors, becoming part of that network, myself, and really developing that passion for how we can raise up and amplify the contributions of women in the design fields and do better, as women in the design fields, to help the people coming up behind us.

There's-- all too often, I think, especially for people of my generation, there's a feeling that the people above you had a hard time, and you need to have a hard time, too. Because they went through it, you need to go through it, too. And the one thing that I found really empowering in that, meeting those people, building those networks, in that time, was the idea that times are changed. Nobody needs to go through that now. And, as women, we need to be building networks, being mentors, helping people to have a better experience than we did.

And it was really that experience that led me to the community team, so moving away from that kind of academic, tangential side of design and being able to connect with the people who are out there in the firms, in the industries and, again, finding ways to connect people, to help people to have a better experience, to be the women in our industries that we want to be. So amplifying the contributions of women is something that I've always been interested in doing and I feel like, in the community, we have such a fantastic platform to do. And finding ways that we, as a platform, can provide the resources, can provide the connections, the opportunities that are lacking in our fields is something that I feel so passionately about.

And in the community, part of the reason why we're all here is to learn from you. How can we serve you better/ How can we be part of that ecosystem of connections of networks, of mentors to help improve the experiences of women in our fields, going forward? So that's me.

PRESENTER: Thanks Deborah.

[APPLAUSE]

[LAUGHTER]

ALODIA CANO: Hi, again. So I'm Alodia, as I mentioned. Just to build off what Deborah said, with mentorship, so in addition to my role at Autodesk, I'm also an instructional associate at General Assembly, where we have different technology classes. And I coach and mentor aspiring product managers or career transitioners.

And I was a bit of a-- I transitioned careers, as well. I started off in events and experiential marketing. And I thought, how do I have a more long-term career where I'm not having to work all weekends and long days? And I ended up falling into digital marketing.

One of the first projects I worked on was in 2008, for the Obama campaign, and worked with a lot of different groups within the community on how to put together these online experiences to connect people and be able to share their voice. So that was a really inspiring experience. And from there, I continued working in digital marketing and digital advertising.

And I eventually landed a role at THQ. It was a video game company. And I had worked with somebody there who brought me on to lead the development of the redesign of their website. So I took on that project and quickly moved into a leadership role.

I became the director of production for interactive marketing. And, basically, what that meant was I had to oversee teams that were taking in-game experiences and building them online. So we were creating game-to-web experiences, building online communities, figuring out how do we keep players engaged not only in the game, but outside of the game.

And it was probably the hardest jobs I ever had because I wasn't a gamer. I had some experience with a lot of the technology but it was really complicated. So I had to learn on the job.

And I remember we were about to launch one of our biggest video games, and I'm in this boardroom with these high-level leadership professionals, mostly men, at this table. And I was so intimidated, and I just thought, what am I doing here? But I made sure to sit at the table. And I think that was something that I had to coach myself through in a lot of these difficult roles where I was intimidated by some of the folks around, just make sure I have a seat at the table, make sure that I speak up and feel I have a place here, as well, despite, maybe, my insecurity, not saying that.

And so, from there, I actually ended up moving into consulting. I was working with colleges and universities. I also worked with Fox Broadcasting Company on the redesign of fox.com and really focused on mentoring a lot of the teams there. How do we build systems and processes to help be more efficient and work together more collaboratively?

And there was one product manager I worked with at FOX who-- she was just starting out in her career. And she didn't understand the value of agile practices or why we had some of the systems that we had in place. And we worked really closely together. And now she's moved on to director of product at Adobe. So it's really exciting to see a lot of people who I've worked with move on in their careers and continue growing and being part of that.

And I think one of the most important lessons I learned throughout my journey has been how valuable it is to have that support, to have somebody who's cheering you on and who can advocate for you. As much as you have to advocate for yourself, you also want to make sure that you have people around you who can continue to support you and just be there when you're like, what am I doing? This is crazy. What am I--

There's all those moments where you start to second guess what you have or your skills. And just being somebody to help guide and just be there to listen, I think, has been really helpful. So there's more than enough room at the table for everybody, and I think that's something that I want to make sure every-- the women I work with know.

[APPLAUSE]

LISA MAGGIO: So, again, I'm Lisa. I, like Alodia, had a previous life in a job with no work-life balance. [LAUGHS] I had a retail career for over 15 years, 10 of those as a store director. And when it was time for me to look at-- take a deep look at what my balance looked like, it was time for me to move from that. So I started looking at companies that met my values, my goals, had a culture that I really wanted to thrive in.

I grew up in San Rafael, so I was very lucky to already know [LAUGHS], Autodesk's reputation. And when I saw a job posting for Autodesk, I thought, this is great for me. It was actually in customer loyalty support, and Amanda actually hired me. [LAUGHS] Of all the things, full circle.

And I joined. And I was really excited about it. And I've held several roles within Autodesk since then, including program management, and readiness and enablement, learning the ropes of technology, moving through those different areas, and really focusing my skills on what am I good at and what do I like doing. And that's what really brought me to the community team, where I'm getting the best of both worlds. I get to engage with customers in what I love, and I get to work on those foundational programs and platforms that drive our programs.

I think I have a different perspective because I came from a female-dominated industry in retail. I mean, it's like 95% women. I would say that, when I came to technology, I noticed a lot more overt ways that we diminish women. But it really made me think about, in that female-dominated industry, we do it in a really covert way. It's the same thing, but we still do it.

We do it to each other, right? And we don't even know that we're doing it. And I think that it really opened my eyes to see these things exist in an overt way, but we have to make space in the room for the other women, right?

Like Alodia was saying, mentorships are so important. I mean, I can personally say that mentorship works, right? My previous manager is right here. And I think that's really, really important.

I always tell people my biggest piece of advice is really get to know yourself. Get to know your skills. I think that your manager determines your performance, but you determine your potential. I think that's a really, really important lesson that we should all take away from that because it's my job to talk about what I can do, how I can help, and what I want to do with my managers and my mentors, so that I can get to those places. That was very quick. [LAUGHS]

PRESENTER: [INAUDIBLE]

[APPLAUSE]

AMANDA KINLEY: So, again, I'm Amanda Kinley. Some of you might have seen me on the expo hall, definitely chasing after you to take a community pin or a brochure. But it is so great to be here, to tell you the truth. And I am one of those people who took a very untraditional path to where I am now, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

I was a veterinary technician. I don't know if any of you guys have dogs and cats, but I definitely run a halfway house with four dogs and four cats of varying abilities and number of legs that they have.

But when something that I have been really passionate from the beginning when I stumbled in the door thinking that I was applying for a receptionist job and got put and said teach them how to download products, be technical support, essentially. And that was 12 years ago almost. And from then, just climbing the ranks and learning and believing in myself.

I am a huge proponent-- and what I try to tell everybody that I hire, that I interact with, or that I get a chance to mentor is I live by my life by the motto do no harm but take no shit. And I think that's something that everybody should think about in their day-to-day life. It's not our job to make people feel more comfortable because we are the only women in the room.

It is not our job to make people feel better. It is our job to be true to ourselves, dovetailing off of what Lisa said. And what Alodia has said and what Deborah said to make room at the table for each other and to make sure that we're staying true to ourselves.

I was watching a ton of Ted Talks in preparation for this. And thinking about how cool everybody was. I'm not going to I'm not going to lie, I normally sit behind a computer and I get to think out my thoughts and everything. But I was watching Ted Talks obsessively, and one of the things that I stumbled upon was this very inspirational leader whose name is escaping me at the moment said, how often do you say sorry in an email?

How often do you start an email saying, apologies but-- or sorry? I say apologies because I switched. I knew that I wasn't supposed to say sorry. I'm sorry, but.

Excusing what I'm about to say before I say it, it's not valuable. I am a huge person that has imposter syndrome. Being up on this stage right now is just one of those things that I don't think that I'm deserving of.

Being at Autodesk for 12 years is something that I don't think that I'm deserving of. So last night when I was watching the Ted Talks-- not going to lie, it was last night, 4 AM this morning --I thought about itself, and I said, how many times did I say sorry or apologies in my emails in the last month, preparing for this conference actually? And I looked, and it over 300 times.

So I did an email search, and it was over 300 times, somewhere in my emails. And that's not threaded emails counting. That's individual things. I said sorry or apologies 300 times.

And what am I sorry for? What am I apologizing for? I'm not being rude.

Do no harm, that's number one. Do no harm but take no shit. And even though I'm pretending to live by that motto, it's not reflective in the communications that I'm sending that represent myself and my ideas.

So I encourage you guys-- it was really eye opening to me. I didn't realize how many times I excused myself for being myself. And actually my director is right over there. So that is going to do it.

So that is going to change starting there, starting tomorrow. Another thing that I wanted to say is that mentorship, mentorship is extremely important. I know that most people have not probably heard about the student group hub.

Most of us are out of college. It's been many years for me. But when I first started at tech-- and I've only been at Autodesk in my high tech company job --there was a senior director that no longer works at the company.

And at the time Autodesk was-- we didn't have a culture code. And I'm going to talk about culture code in one more second. And at that time, that senior director was actually at an AU came up to me and said, hey, if you were a little bit blonder, I can think of some ideas that you could do for me. And I can think of a way to get you higher up in the company.

You've been here for nine months. Don't you want-- don't you want an office kind of a thing? And at the time, I was fresh out of being a veterinary tech.

I was giving toenail trims and your dog's rabies vaccines, that kind of a thing. And I didn't have the self-awareness. I didn't have my motto do no harm but take no shit.

And I let it go because it was easier. And I'm sure that every single person here has an easier story. It was easier to not say anything.

And since then, tech companies, as Tiana was saying in her previous slides, the amount of women that have joined us in tech is rising and rising. And I am the-- I'm a founder of the student group hub here at Autodesk. And it is so inspiring to see everybody joining our ranks and getting excited and designing and making the world a better place.

And that's one of the things where mentorship comes in. I'm starting a mentorship program. We've piloted it, we're starting it.

And just by being here in this room and listening, I want every single one of you to just join my student group hub and inspire a student. Because let me tell you, I am not one to cry-- don't tell them, but I am not one to cry, but I got a letter the other day about being a mentorship. And the feeling that you get when you really set somebody on the right path is just phenomenal.

So in those brochures, you can find me or reach out to me on the forums. And I'd love to see at least a couple of you guys join my students and just say something nice to the students, like untraditional paths, fantastic in tech. There's a place for everybody.

If you're a woman, there's always going to be a place in Autodesk for you and in the community for you. And I hope that we all get to meet again. And I hope that you look for companies that have culture codes that protect you, because I can say that Autodesk since the time that has happened in the last 12 years. Seek out places that benefit you, do no harm and take no shit, like I said, and don't say sorry or apologies, because you are a valuable to tell you the truth.

[APPLAUSE]

TIANA DAME: Well, I don't want to follow up. That was really good. OK, so I'm Tiana.

A little bit about my background, I started my career back in college. And I went to school for mechanical engineering. And then right out of school, I got hired by a Lockheed Martin company.

And I started doing design engineering for them. And I was there for about two years before I stumbled my way through the door at Autodesk. And basically from there, I became a technical support specialist.

And then the community team for some awesome but curious reason decided that they would hire me, so I made the shift over there. And I've got to tell you, when I made the shift over to being not so technical, a lot of things really clicked in my brain that I didn't think about before when I was in the industry just with, my head down trying to make a career for myself. And one of the things that I really learned is I feel like as women we always are trying to make a name for ourselves.

So we're always trying to make sure that we're taking on the projects, the hard projects, saying yes to things. It's OK to volunteer but don't become the yes person. If you become the yes person, it's almost like-- what have we been saying? It's the curse of the competence-- of the competent.

AMANDA KINLEY: Yeah, curse of the competent.

TIANA DAME: And that becomes the thing. So then unfortunately, a lot of times I feel like as women, we just have a hard time setting our boundaries, especially in the tech industry, because it's hard for us to get ahead. So one thing that I really learned coming over into a company with a good culture code and things like that is don't be the yes person. Pick and choose what you're going to work on. And it's OK to say no.

I also, going off of what Amanda said, have really bad imposter syndrome. I did throughout my whole career. I still do to this day.

And I feel like a lot of times, if you feel that way as a female-- or anyone to be honest --you start just taking on a lot of things because you feel like you have to, because you feel like you need to put in all this extra effort. And really to get your name out there. So that is one thing that I would say is a piece of advice from myself I'm also not nearly as seasoned as some of our wonderful other panelists in the career path of mine.

But one thing that has really helped me, and I think I can speak to it from almost the other side, is I have always tried to align myself with a mentor of some way, shape, or form. It doesn't have to be in your specific line of work. Because one thing that this industry does too is I feel like they try and pigeonhole you as a woman almost.

They try and say you know hey, this is the roles that you should be having, this is the roles that you should work on. And that's not true. That's not true at all.

You guys can do anything if you put your minds to it. And if you find someone who's a mentor outside of your typical roles whatever it might be, you learn a lot. You learn how to grow. You learn how to have conversations that you didn't think that you'd be having.

You-- I don't know, you just learn a lot. So it's really important to align yourself with a mentor that is going to push you and push you in the right direction. But I think Lisa alluded to this though, you're only going to get as far as you push yourself.

So just make sure that you know what your goals are. And just make sure that you're trying to strive to get to those goals. But yeah, that's my pieces of advice. Amanda took all my other bullet points.

AMANDA KINLEY: That's how you stay for 12 years, yeah. That's--

TIANA DAME: Yeah that's-- yeah, that's what it is. But I also want to open it up to hear from you guys. So hopefully, we can get the mic stand down in front, hopefully? Thank you, you're the best.

[APPLAUSE]

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] the chargers.

TIANA DAME: Yes, the chargers.

AMANDA KINLEY: Everybody wants the chargers.

TIANA DAME: Don't forget about the chargers.

AUDIENCE: Hey, great stories. Thank you for sharing. I was wondering what's the percentage of women now because for the longest time, it seemed like there is one woman working for Autodesk [INAUDIBLE], and now it seems like more and more women coming to stage and the general session as well. So what is the percentage, women versus men?

TIANA DAME: Oh, I actually know that percentage. So-- I do.

AMANDA KINLEY: Thank you that's a great question.

TIANA DAME: That was a great question. Where is her charger? She should get one.

AMANDA KINLEY: Yes, I will grab it afterwards. You come see me. We're already best friends. You were the first one there, so.

TIANA DAME: So it is 35%. So 35% of the people that make up Autodesk globally are women. So we are a little bit above the standard.

So 46% of women are in the workforce in general. So Autodesk is pretty good, actually. They've made a lot of strides, I think.

AMANDA KINLEY: And not only that, but women in leadership positions, in my idea, it's incredibly important to have something to strive for. It's hard to make sure-- it's hard to attempt to rise up when you don't have anybody to compare yourself to or to benchmark yourself to. And, for example, standing in the back of the room who's probably snuck out by now but April Robinson is a woman in leadership who is here who we all admire.

And it's amazing that for Autodesk in general to see that we are there, in the future, with how many students are going through-- you guys have got to join the student group. It's so inspiring. I think that it's going to be totally flipped in the next 15 to 20 years, just give them time.

ALODIA CANO: I just want to add with the leadership, I think what's interesting is 35% of leadership are women. So even if-- with a smaller group of folks in that role, to see women in that role, I think, is really inspiring. I think it's giving us a lot of-- it's giving us a really good direction.

DEBORAH LILLEY: And I just wanted to add one more thing off of that, which is that because I know so many of you in the room are in architecture, one thing that really stood out to me in research that I conducted when I was working at the architecture magazine was the percentages of students in architecture schools that were women compared to the percentages of women that worked in architecture firms. And the attrition rate was huge. So going back to the comments, we've been going on about the whole time here about mentorship and being people who can help the younger generations to rise up and rise through.

I think that I'd love to hear some more from all of you about the experiences that you've had in your firms and the ways that you've helped the students who are coming through to stay. Because I know that architecture is such a-- it's a hard place to be a woman. And these issues that we've all talked about in terms of burnout and work life balance are huge there. So I wanted to throw that in.

AUDIENCE: Hello, I work in the architectural field with an architectural group. And I've been there for seven years. For the first four years, I was the only woman.

Now we have nine. We've actually added four to our team over the past couple of months, which is amazing. But being that I've been there so long and I've dealt with really the stigma being a woman in the field and the "this should be your role", I try to take these young girls-- a lot of them are straight out of school, too --and mentor them. So what is the best advice that I could give them to help them understand that they don't have to be the yes man, and they can do more, they can work towards that leadership position when historically, we've been taught that we can't?

AMANDA KINLEY: The teacher?

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

AMANDA KINLEY: Alodia, you are the teacher.

ALODIA CANO: Yeah, that's a great question. It's difficult I think because there's advice and there's empowerment. Because I can until I am blue in the face with really great ideas and advice, but I think really it's also leading by example, showing them how to do that, making sure that you're establishing those boundaries as well.

I think women have this perception that I have to work twice as hard to be able to have value at the table. And just continuing to support and validate that they're heading in the right direction. But in terms of advice, I think the biggest thing is know the value of your time and protect it.

Your skills and what you bring to the table are really important. That's why you're here. So don't feel like you have to do so much more than everybody else. But I think it's great that you're doing that. And hopefully, they're able to see how you've led them.

TIANA DAME: Just-- sorry, just to add on to that a little bit, boundaries. Try and teach them boundaries. That was one thing that I at least really struggled with getting into this career of mine is not understanding.

And It goes to Alodia's his point of knowing the value of your time. I also had a hard time being that yes person because I didn't understand how to set boundaries well with people, especially when it was people who were higher up. And it's OK to say no to people and set those boundaries, so it's important to learn that.

AMANDA KINLEY: My last really quick one is acknowledge imposter syndrome. Acknowledge how you feel because everybody feels it and nobody talks about it. And I just feel like putting it out there that we're all just essentially big kids putting on fancy shoes in the morning and going and talking to people. And then we all go home, and we do the same thing. We're all incredibly valued but acknowledging that it's uncomfortable and that it's weird is incredibly important, yeah.

AUDIENCE: Hi, I was an electrician. And now I'm a BIM designer. We have about three dozen people in my department. Two of us are women, so practically everybody that I have to interact with is men.

Most of their advice for making me more effective, I end up resenting it because it seems like they want me to be different from who I am. They want me to take up space in this way that I find obnoxious, antisocial, just toxic, the ways that I don't want to be. You're talking about-- I think you were talking about advocating for yourself. Do you have anything that you can say about what does that really mean, advocating for yourself?

ALODIA CANO: It gets difficult to find a balance between being assertive but making it feel natural. I've watched so many of these videos where like, don't say sorry, and take up space, and do all these things that is also not me. So I think when it comes to advocating yourself, I think there's a lot of-- you can still be confident and humble.

So even if you don't necessarily take up space, being able to communicate confidently trying to eliminate, as I say, things like-- but you know-- you're an expert at what you do. Just have faith and trust in that. And make sure that as you're communicating with your leadership or your managers that you're clear about what your goals are and what you need from them. And if you can at least say those things and how they can continue to support you, that's probably the most effective way to be able to keep moving forward.

LISA MAGGIO: I think this goes to what I was saying too about your manager determines your performance, but you determine your potential. And I make it a point to really get to know the people around me, get to know what motivates and demotivates my team, my manager. And I want my manager to know that about me. And that's my job to make that happen, because then the relationship becomes more comfortable to be able to have those sort of open discussions about where you feel comfortable and where you don't.