Respect and inclusion are key to a collaborative, healthy work environment, and that’s made harder by the fact that language, especially around gender and sexuality, evolves so quickly. In this talk, we’ll go through some examples of more gender-inclusive language, methods for practicing, and strategies for rolling with the punches when we make mistakes. By the end of the talk, you’ll feel confident in navigating the changing language around gender and sexuality.

If you had the choice of saving money or saving time, what would you pick? Many people start their careers by trying to spend as little as possible, but as you progress it may not make sense to continue doing the same. In this talk, we will discuss how and when to balance these priorities so you can have a happier and healthier relationship with spending money.

Applying for new jobs is not only a process of convincing a new employer to hire you, but also a chance to make sure it’s a happy and healthy place to spend your time. In this talk, we’ll discuss what to ask to determine the kind of employer you’re talking to, what to look out for, and how to close the gap between expectation and reality.

Sometimes apologies don't quite *feel* right, and it can be hard to figure out why. Often, it's because they weren't really apologies; they were performances made to deflect responsibility, excuse away behavior, and with the hopes of calming negative feelings. Whether you've received one of these types or given them yourself, this talk will allow you to recognize what makes a good and authentic apology and how to construct one yourself.

Loving or appreciating your job isn’t a problem on its own. But you’re not obligated to do it. In fact, I’d argue that the pressure to love your job can be dangerous. Using examples from my personal experience and from the tech industry as a whole, I’ll talk about how unconditional job love is used to exploit or mistreat tech workers.

Whether remote or in-person, you should always ensure any meeting you call for is effective. There are three things you can do to make your meetings effective: make sure everyone knows the purpose of meeting, practice being a good host, and ensure everything is well documented. In this talk, we will cover how to nail each of these three cornerstones of effective meetings. As a bonus, we will talk about the playbook for running effective meetings like a C-level.

When change is the only constant, learning is the only future-proof skill. In this talk, using examples from the pioneers of programming education in the 1960s through to the present day, Matthew will show some effective techniques for developing new programming skills. You’ll see how learning how to learn can benefit you through your whole career, and how valuable it can be to share what you’ve learned with others.

For most people, “we’re letting you go” are the words you never want to hear. Being made redundant, or laid off, can be shocking and devastating. Suze Shardlow has faced redundancy three times in her career. It became easier each time because she learnt something new about the process, and knowledge is power. In this talk, she will outline the things you need to know and do before, during and after your job is taken away from you so you can protect your emotional and financial well-being.

You got the job and you crushed it at the negotiating table. For most of us, we stop negotiating and advocating for ourselves after we sign on the dotted line. Internal negotiating for promotions, salary bumps, and benefits is rarely discussed but is critical to internal career advancement. In this talk we’ll discuss how and when to negotiate more benefits after your start date, tools for positioning yourself for great promotions, and the truth behind internal salary negotiations: how, when, and who to approach to bump up your salary.

Impostor syndrome - the belief that you don’t deserve to be where you are, and perfectionism - a need to work to impossibly high standards, are exhausting. Learn how to spot these destructive thought patterns in yourself, how to manage anxiety and procrastination and how to start being kinder to yourself, because you’re awesome and you deserve to be here.

There’s one guarantee in your career: you won’t work the same job forever. Don’t wait until you’re at the end of your patience with your current job or for someone to offer you your dream job on a whim—take control of your future by owning and planning your next move well ahead of sending out your resume. In this talk we’ll go over how to discover what you want next through experimentation at your day job, how to prepare to ace the interview, and then how to weigh your options and compare your Future You’s to make smart bets that take you where you want to go. This talk is intended for people who already have jobs in tech, whether they’re thinking about getting a new one or not!

When you break up with a person, you have pretty common set of steps to follow - returning hoodies, splitting up household goods, eating the ice cream of sadness. But what are you supposed to do when you break up with an employer? In this talk, we'll explore what you need to think about before the hard discussions, what you should be ready to do, and how to leave with as much dignity and good-will as possible. The target audience is people who are trying to get better at this very painful experience without throwing their barista apron.

Asynchronous workflows enable us to get our work done flexibly and quickly, without compromising on what else in important in our lifestyles. In this talk, we’ll learn the key principles that lead to effective asynchronous working, discuss how asynchronicity benefits everyone on the team, and how you can implement asynchronous workflows.

If work has started to feel like a bad horror film, you're not powerless. Danae will cover a simple 5-step process to help you protect yourself at work if something scary is happening.

You didn't get that cool programming job because you're a great programmer. You got it because the company you work for wants to make money and they think you can help. It's easy for us to feel like our worth/value/capitalist expression is tied to our employment, but it's also useful to flip that narrative and talk about how our companies need us, and how we can use that understanding to be more valuable employees and even better humans. What is the value that you bring to your employer? Can you articulate it? Can you expand it? Can you take that value and use it for your own purposes?

In this talk we will cover what's in a code of ethics, and why should you care about it. Go behind the scenes with an ethicist and co-author of the Association of Computing Machinery's (ACM) new code of ethics that affects hundreds of thousands of computing professionals and get some answers to the following: What is a Code of Ethics? Why bother updating the old code, or having one at all? What's the code asking me to do, and why? How can I practically use the code? How did you decide whether something is good or bad, or whether something should be included in the code? What if my boss thinks codes of ethics are for losers? What if I work in the military/security/etc. domain? How is this code different from all the other codes out there? What happens if I break the Code of Ethics?

Over the course of my career I've spent a lot of time either asking for things or being asked for things. After countless collaborations and asks, I've come to understand the nature of relationships and what makes a good ask. As it turns out it's a bit more involved than sliding into someone's DMs with 'hey.' In this talk you'll learn how to get better results from your asks by rethinking the nature of relationships and following the three Rs of asking for things: Recognition, Request, and Reward.

In this talk, we'll cover the different types of equity, how to evaluate/compare equity offers, what questions you can ask to get further clarity, and what to consider as equity vests.

Setting Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) is a common and important part of leading your team - making sure everyone knows what you're working towards. But they can be tricky to get right, and even harder to help others understand. If you're a leader that's ever searched for 'What do OKRs look like?', this talk's for you! We'll start with what OKRs are, how they're measured, and how they should cascade through a business to make sure everyone is on the same page. We'll also cover how to use OKRs to work on what you actually want, not just what others want you to do.