My Experience at Grace Hopper Celebration 2023 as a Man - Part 2 (The Conference)

Namaste🙏...

Hope you guys read part 1 and if not then please find the part 1 link here: My Experience at Grace Hopper Celebration 2023 as a Man - Part 1 (GHC Open Source Day)

This article talks about my story, my experience, my learning, some tips for first-timers, and how to maximize your opportunities at GHC - Part 2. Let's continue with the movie-style writing and let me share some Behind the Scenes Moments (BTS) now.

Behind The Scenes:

GHC 2023 Live Painting and Theme

Now after the GHC Open Source Day (OSD) was finished, I had a weekend to prepare for the conference. The following are the accessories that I kept with me before heading to the conference (Note: For the first timers): 

• Clothing Accessory
• Blazer
• Formal Shoes
• Matching Tie
• New Shirt for each Day (As I did not want to do laundry after a tiring day)
• Pants * 2 (Slim Fit)
• Men's Grooming Products (Example: Toothbrush set, Comb, Moisturizer, Sunscreen, Hair Styling Gel, etc.)

I had not packed accessories like Iron, Towels, and Soaps since they would be provided by the hotel itself. Personal Advice: I would definitely recommend taking a hotel that has a complimentary breakfast included as that's the ONLY meal you can have peacefully and that's what gave me the required strength for the entire day. I also recommend carrying a packet of Nuts inside your bag and a protein bar as that's what I had for lunch at the conference for ALL the days. Although the conference has a lot of options for eating, when you arrive at the conference, you will eventually forget about time and your only concentration will be maximizing your interaction with all the companies present.

Back to the Movie: Part -2 

I caught the early morning flight and touched Orlando at Noon. I landed on the 27th, as on the 26th there is only a badge collection. I and my friend took a cab and went straight to the hotel. The cab driver said that it is the season of exhibitions and it gets pretty busy for them as well. So, after a conference, you might want to pre-book a cab earlier. 

We went to the hotel, I ate my protein bar and headed straight to the Convention Center with proper formal attire. It was around 2:30 pm and the connection zone had already started. It is like a huge waiting lounge outside the convention center with thousands of students just networking with each other. We went ahead and printed our badge at the center and we were set to go. 

When I enter the waiting lounge, I see in front of me, just a sea of people. A crazy number of people. Post-COVID-19, this was the maximum number of people I had seen in my life in one place. I met people from other universities, and sometimes I was lucky enough to meet people from my university as well. All had come with one thing in common: HOPE. A hope to change career path, a hope to find the dream company, a hope to find a job, a hope to meet the recruiter, and a hope to yield something promising from this conference. 

Tip: A lot of company representatives were outside and spending time with us. They were talking about company values, structures, departments present, and what to expect inside. This is a good place to start networking whether it be students from various universities or company representatives as well. This might be the correct time to ask them for interview slots if available as once you go inside the convention center to meet the same representative, it would be hour long wait time. Literally hours!

At 4:30 pm, the Gates opened to the lounge, and everyone rushed inside. It was pure chaos and a total stampede-like situation. People shouting and pushing each other, trying to go inside the narrow doors of the convention center. I was even a part of it and felt crushed and churned while trying to reach inside the convention center. My experience of going inside the seminar hall brought back my memories of hoarding a local train in Mumbai. Nostalgia triggered in! 😂

A video from the waiting lounge outside the conference:

Waiting Lounge at the GHC 23 (Loud Volume Disclaimer)

Reference: Mumbai Local Pic

Once I went inside, I was shocked to see the scale and magnitude of this conference. It was nearly like 2-3 football fields and 100+ companies with their booths. A few with higher sponsorships had bigger booths and similarly were companies with smaller booths as well. This experience was nothing short of once-in-a-lifetime. The company's booths were made to look attractive, and huge, and designed to draw the crowd to them. I can bet that the on-campus recruitment fair booths are nothing when compared to this. As soon as I stepped inside, I got the realization that spending money to come here, going through all the infinite stress, to visit this beautiful conference was worth it.

Since it was an expo preview, it was just a small teaser of the entire career expo, a handful of the companies were taking applications while some were just telling students to come tomorrow to meet the entire team. 

Tip: Several companies were giving tickets to the first 100-200 people who came to their booth each day for an interview slot for the next few days (An opportunity I still regret as I missed it). Also, try to ask companies whether any special recruiter or interviewer is going to come in the next few days for the department or the role that you are highly passionate about and make a note of it and be sure to meet them at their respective time.

After the expo ended at 6:30 pm, they were starting to wrap things up, and that's when I went to different stalls and took some goodies. How can one leave GHC without the Goodies right😁! One thing to remember is that goodies are just for attracting candidates; the real value lies in the company's values, policies & payroll. There were amazing goodies available like Customized T-shirts, Customized bags, bottles, toys, notebooks, pens, Bluetooth speakers, photo booth but be sure in your mind to have the GOAL that what is the purpose of coming here and what's important at the moment. 

Nevertheless, the happy time in the movie is done, you are the main character and now is the time to find your love interest (here I want to refer to the dream organization you want to work at). 

GHC gives you the location of the company and their booth position beforehand at the conference on their website. Make sure to have it and make a list of all dream companies to visit first, then later the other ones.

Video of Inside the Conference (Loud Volume Disclaimer)

I still can remember the number of hours that I had stood in front of the company's line. For example, in front of the Apple line, I stood for about 4 hrs. 1 hour for Amex,  Bloomberg, Tesla, etc. The line at Google DeepMind, Ford Motors, and Citadel was apparently short due to the presence of a lot of employees around the booth.

At times when I got too tired, I used to go to the university booth as well. Not only do they have cool goodies but also if you are really interested in a master's or Ph.D. program at that university, then it was a good place to exchange information and know more about the university. My University (University of Texas at Dallas) also had a booth there and I used to visit it often. The people at my university booth were kind enough to let me come there for a break, keep my belongings, and just talk me out about this whole experience. 

Tip: Networking should never stop. Even when you are waiting in line. Try to speak with people in front and back of you. Create a small network there; share LinkedIn and you might know you might be talking to your future employee referral, your future colleague, or nothing more than a future friend at least. 

Here another important thing is to be AWARE. As my parents always say, "Keep your eyes and ears open", this saying was absolutely correct here. Before coming to GHC, make sure that you are at least in 3-4 WhatsApp, Facebook, discord, slack group, or whatever app is famous at the time you are reading it. People are sometimes helpful, for example, if a company is taking an in-person interview, then they make announcements in these groups, so it's good to be a part of these discussion forums as it helps. When someone is selected for another round, they often message in the app and exchange questions and experiences with others.

The Black Site (Area 51):

As in the movie, the main part, or the climax is when the protagonist enters the black site wherein the dark experimentation is performed. Similar is the situation here. Attending the career expo is a good deal but 30k+ students also enter it with you. The main deciding part of the conference is whether you get a chance to enter the Black Site. For black sites, you need permission to enter like a confirmation email or phone call interview. You don't need to break in as shown in movies😅! 

My experience of entering the black site. The reason I call it a black site as these are large compartments that have all been covered in black and the companies are doing their experimentation (by experimentation I mean: Hiring rounds 😆). The rounds may be coding, technical, behavioral, case study, or final HR rounds as well. Depending on the company, and your previous communications, you might be entitled to any rounds. 

I think this is the place that is a game-changer and makes the conference worth coming to. I think just getting a chance to enter the black site and trying to interview at a company made all the efforts worth it for me again.

Climax:

The final day of the conference (29th Sept) was kind of slow, I could feel that the representatives, employers, and recruiters were kind of done. Most of the companies had wrapped their interviews and collected resumes and few of the employees had already left the venue. Till the time noon came, we could see representatives and students wrapping up, some students were happy as they got a chance, and a few students in tense and anxious as they might be in a race against the time to find a job. In the end, even though I was tired but happy and thankful to god for giving me this opportunity to be a part of this wonderful conference. 

Closing Ceremony

I later attended the Closing Ceremony of the conference and called it off the day. Since it was raining heavily each evening, I and my friends didn't get a chance to visit any place in Orlando but on the 29th,  the weather was on our side. We went to a restaurant, had a tasty dinner, and left for the airport and back to the pavilion i.e. Dallas! 

As in the world of movies, controversies often stir up the plot, and it's no different in real life. Just like those cinematic moments, GHC 2023 had its own share of eyebrow-raising moments and discussions.

GHC 2023 Attendees Feedback

Due to COVID-19, many students couldn't get jobs due to hiring freeze, layoffs, and delayed graduation. Hence, there was a lot of pool of people who went to GHC just in the hope that they could get an interview call at least and make the most use of it. There was a lot of negative feedback regarding the high number of people attending the GHC 2023.

I think hence most of the crowd was in the Career Fair but that's the only thing I regret it the most. GHC had a lot of other events as well such as BrainDates, Workshops, Seminars, and Online Company Events, which I missed due to attending the Career Expo. I genuinely wish to return to this conference and spend my time in the other activity a lot more which had an abundance of knowledge to intake as well. 

Reference: Click here

The Movie Review!

A great amount of learning from this conference which I have accumulated here:

• Never Be Afraid to be a minority in an event: In this event, attending as a man was considered a minority as nearly 80% of the crowd was women and non-binary people. 
• Reality Check: Initially when I entered I was anxious to go as I thought that it would be all women and what would I do at the conference. But if I retrospect this feeling, then women and other identities individuals would be feeling the same when they enter a workspace dominated by men.
• Never Be Intimated: There were a lot of instances when someone else elevator speech was better than mine, someone else attire was better suited than mine, someone else experiences and academics were better than mine but just take a breath, remove the anxious feeling, and put your face forward. Look at the other person in the eye and give it your best shot.
• Diversity is the Need of Society: It is extremely important to have diversity in your life. Whether it is our home, your friend's group, your community, or your company, it is always the best practice to have diversity in them. Embracing individuals of diverse colors, genders, races, and religions not only broadens your horizons but also fosters personal and organizational growth.."Diversity is the Way Forward", was also the conclusion statement at the conference. 
• Take the Leap: For me, deciding whether to apply or not for the scholarship to successfully attending the conference in Orlando, was a dream come true. Hence, one should definitely take the leap. 

Finally, by ending the article if you stayed till this long and read both parts of the article then Dhanyavaad 🙏

Please feel free to use the comments to give your suggestions about the article. 

If you haven't read Part 1 then I would suggest that you read it as well: My Experience at Grace Hopper Celebration 2023 as a Man - Part 1 (GHC Open Source Day)

Until Next Time, Ujwal signing off! Hope you had Fun learning with Ujwal!