Tech is the New Creative
Dear Glow Getters!
I'm Dimple, the Founder of Glow Up Tech, and I can't wait to fill you in on our virtual party with Jennifer DeLorenzo from Hopin last week, who was the startup's sixty-fifth employee about a year ago and the startup now has just about 500 people over 42 countries. Yes, that is one FAST-GROWING startup, a "double-unicorn" title in fact, for this online hybrid conference platform that is taking the world by storm. They now have over $400 Million of funding from the most respected Venture Capitalists. What is even more neat is that Hopin is a "remote-first" company which means their team started out working remotely and there will never be a central office they must to go everyday. That's right no office - ever!
Jennifer is an Ohio-native and still proud to call it home. She is a wonderful example of a female tech leader from the Midwest of the United States who proves that you don't have to live in California or New York to work in tech and grow into a tech leader. What I love about Jen's story is that she is creatively-minded and learned in her first year of college that she really was oriented towards fashion and design and eventually took this passion and brought it to tech and leveraged it! How? Well keep reading to find out!
When Jen realized her college didn’t cater well to those types of majors, she was gutsy enough to showcase her interest in drawing and designing, created a portfolio of sketches, and quickly applied to a local design college as a transfer student and got in! It's so important to go with what feels right to you and give it your all! Following her instinct, Jen worked on such fulfilling assignments like designing a wedding dress and a full line of clothing! Technology was used in designing these lines which was her first practical use of software programs. One downside though of her program was that they didn't really offer contacts or internships in fashion so upon graduation it was recommended that she join the Retail world to stay around the fashion industry, given she chose to stay in Ohio.
Those positions improved her understanding of customers, honed her communication skills and confidence that she first gained in high school playing on various sports teams like volleyball and basketball and girls support group she led that dealt with issues like bullying. Jen didn’t enjoy high school very much but found these outlets integral in her getting through those four years. One would think Jen is an extrovert, but she stressed in our conversation that she was and still is very much of an introvert. She admitted to being a bit nervous to be the featured speaker at our event, but she loves connecting with people, especially young females, and helping them so she knew that had to be part of her career going forward, for sure. She has her guidance counselor from school to thank for this who was especially important in her life during high school in having empathy for the struggles she went through and is still friends with her today. You never know who is going to become your mentor and how they become a part of your life going forward!
It quickly became clear to Jen that Retail wouldn't be a sustainable career track for her, even though it was in an arena she was passionate about, so through her network, she landed a job at a staffing agency which is a third-party firm that aids other companies in searching for people to hire. It was very much a startup where she helped design its logos, found their first clients using her sales skills she had developed in retail, and even began interviewing candidates that would be great for their clients looking to fill positions. Jen realized that she really loved matching people to jobs they fit into well. She also saw the bigger picture…that it takes a creative mind to fully understand someone to best match them to the right job. It also became clear that to help build a company's workforce is like creating a piece of art! At this point, Jennifer was digging Human Resources, or how it is more commonly known these days, People Operations (People Ops).
The tech arena was becoming increasingly important and she also desired to construct a firm’s team from scratch and the most fitting way to do that was at a tech startup. She headed back to school again to get certified in agile recruitment software and learned basic coding. Fun fact: She really enjoyed coding and was thinking if she should be a Software Engineer for a hot minute, but she had a heart-to-heart conversation with herself and knew deep down she needed people interaction to be happy at work. She coupled the classes with a job at a tech-focused staffing agency to gain more knowledge about the types of tech jobs out there and the skills needed, tech jargon, and more. She knew it would be important to take this with her to be competitive when she joins a tech startup since she didn’t major in at STEM field. She really doubled-down once she knew exactly where she wanted to take her career and how to channel her creative flare.
What’s so cool about all of this is that Jen was successfully able to pivot her career into something totally different from what she studied as she discovered what she enjoyed through her career journey and the best part is, all those skills she picked up on the way were transferable. Like all of us, she does get imposter syndrome because she’s got such an amazing role at a beyond cool company, but then she quickly picks herself up, chats with other female leaders she works with and they remind themselves that they are experts at what they do and they’ve got it! YESSS!
A couple of tech startup jobs later where Jen headed up recruitment, she was offered to be the third member of the People Ops team at a new and fairly unheard of company called Hopin where she is today! She began by recruiting for positions across the company from Engineering to Design to Sales which is often the case when a company is small - you do a little of everything but now that they are bigger, she focuses in on hiring Marketing and Business Operations in the Americas with plenty of side projects such has forming a strategy around what tech software tools they are going to integrate to do their jobs more efficiently.
When asked how she kept up with her tech learnings given her role as Talent Acquisition Partner is time-consuming, she stressed that she is never afraid of asking questions from her peers and leadership at work when she doesn't understand a tech concept or what a position she may be interviewing people for really does! She also paid close attention to customer demos. to better understand the technology and she says it is so much more fun when working for a company with a product she can understand and a mission she admires.
So these are things to look out for girls, when you consider a company. Also note that colleagues in tech are so open to helping their peers learn because everyone has a vested interest in making the company succeed. There are no egos around this in technology because it’s a pretty laid back industry, or at least very little compared to other industries like investment banking for example. She absolutely loves her role in tech and it definitely fulfills her creative interests as she not only builds a company's team from the start but also helps form and promote fulfilling careers for individuals who join the company and move up the ranks. This is a super important point - there is so much a creative minded person can do in technology and Jennifer proves that you don’t have to be an extrovert to be a part of People Ops. I asked Jen if she misses her fashion days and she happily responded that she funnels that focus on her own outfits and makeup as she dresses up for her virtual work day! She also has the most artsy backgrounds in her home office and enjoys switching up props when a long weekend comes around. In her free time, she loves strolling through antique shops and finding new and intriguing items to do up her office that tells a story!
Jen went on to divulge secrets about what People Operations departments cover from hiring to compensation ranges in technology to diversity initiatives. Hopin hopes to have an internship program in place next year but this year they are super busy "building and flying a rocketship at the same time" and want to make sure they build a supportive and enriching internship program where students will gain multiple ways.
To get more details about this part of the virtual party, tune into our TikTok where we will post videos sharing more and while you are there, review the 5-part LinkedIn series we recently did to start learning how to position yourself to recruiters so you could be on top of your career options as early as sixteen years old. We’d love your comments there! Here are Glow Up Tech, we are all about helping you all rise so we would love for you to stay tuned and encourage all your BFF’s to subscribe and follow us as well!
