How I Want to Change the World by Jerri Barrett

Continuing to learn new things and evolve our capabilities is a critical part of every employee’s success in their organization.  Many years ago I found myself corporate manager of learning and training at a telephone company.  My primary goal, which aligned with one of three key corporate goals,  was that all 7000 employee had to  have 52 hours of learning in a year.  I expected resistance to this goal but the employees loved it.  I found myself working to find as many ways for the employees to get their learning books, videos, correspondence courses, and traditional classroom training.  I wish we’d had an organization like Global Tech Women then.   

For the past five years I have listened as  technical women have shared what they want from their careers. They want the opportunity to move up in their organizations and make their lives and the lives of their families better, they want support and coaching from mentors, champions, managers and peers and they want to be treated as the highly qualified technologists that they are. 

Global Tech Women is taking a big step towards meeting these needs.  From creating regular opportunities to learn through our webinar series and our upcoming global Voices Conference on International Women’s Day, to our platform which will provide a wide range of resources,  to our creation of a global network of technical women that will provide the support, encouragement and coaching, Global Tech Women is focused on providing what technical women need to succeed.

Why did I join Global Tech Women?  Because I want to make this a reality and know that the many women I’ve met globally will have an organization to help connect them not only to each other but other organizations as well.  We don’t expect to meet our goals by ourselves,  rather we are partnering with individuals and organizations globally.  I encourage everyone to join with us and share our journey.  Please feel free to email me ([email protected]) and let me know what you want from your career and what resources and learning you need to make that happen.