Laughter, applause and cheers of support filled the Student Union Ballroom on Friday as a panel of female Silicon Valley leaders shared professional and personal stories with a large crowd.
The sixth annual Women in Leadership League Conference was held in person for the first time in four years.
San Jose State President Cynthia Teniente-Matson moderated the event.
Teniente-Matson started the panel by asking each speaker to share their journey and how they got to where they are today.
Gabrielle Capolupo works for the engineering office of the chief technology officer at Juniper Networks, a software development company.
She said she didn’t know what she wanted to do going into college, but decided to major in theater at the University of Massachusetts.
Capolupo said she loved her time in the theater department and decided to pursue a film degree in Los Angeles after obtaining her bachelor’s degree.
“I drove 3,000 miles with everything I owned in my car and drove from Boston until I hit water on the other side of the country,” Capolupo said. “When I got here, I didn't have any money, I didn't have a job, didn't have a place to stay.”
Capolupo said a random job she found through a temp agency is what started the path to her current career.
She said the temp agency placed her with a networking company, and she enjoyed it so much she decided to get a master’s in business administration at SJSU.
Capolupo said after getting her master’s, she worked in engineering management for Cisco Systems, Inc., before moving on to work in the same field for Juniper Networks, where she has been for over 16 years.
Cisco is an IT and networking brand headquartered in San Jose that manufactures and sells telecommunications equipment and networking hardware and software, according to its website.
“I had no plans, didn't even know this kind of life existed,” Capolupo said. “I knew nothing about it and I absolutely love what I do.”
Lucia Soares, chief information officer for a global investment firm, The Carlyle Group, said she had a plan going into college that changed along the way.
She said during her undergrad at SJSU she majored in Spanish and planned to use her degree to teach literature in foreign languages.
Soares said she became set on her career path while she was on the job cleaning someone’s house.
She said her employer at the time found her to be a hard worker and a good learner, and offered her a job as a website development contractor at Fujitsu, a Japanese global information and communication technology company, according to its LinkedIn webpage.
“That one door that opened completely changed the trajectory of where I went,” Soares said.
She said she ended up enjoying the work and decided to get her master’s in business administration at SJSU.
Soares said she is very happy with where her path has taken her.
Marketing junior Julia Liu, who attended the event, said she particularly enjoyed the portion when the women told their stories.
“It was just very cool to hear their stories,” Liu said. “For a lot of them, where they ended up was very different from where they thought they were gonna end up so it was cool to hear how much they were able to climb the ladder.”
Teniente-Matson next asked the panelists how they make themselves visible in the workplace.
Monique Edmondson, senior director of employee experiences at Cisco Systems, Inc., said her advice to students is to be confident and speak up when they have something to add.
“If you don't speak up and you just wait for someone to say ‘Well, I’d love to hear from you,’ it does not always happen,” she said. “Know that you were hired for a reason. You were hired because they want to have your personal perspective.”
Teniente-Matson wrapped up the panel by opening the floor to student questions.
Sonal Sinha, a partner at PwC Consulting, said a challenge in her career has been a lack of support, usually from people in leadership roles.
PwC Consulting is a collection of firms providing professional services, primarily consulting, to businesses in 152 countries, according to its LinkedIn page.
Sinha said support is an easy thing for people to promise, but words mean little if they are not backed up by actual resources.
“Everyone's gonna say ‘Yes we support diversity and inclusion – yes we want more females and ethnic minorities in senior leadership positions,’ but, again, the challenge has been to translate that into actual dollars and cents and building programs,” Sinha said.
Capolupo said her biggest challenges have been those she has inflicted on herself.
“I doubt myself, I challenge myself, I think I’m not doing well enough.” Capolupo said. “Imposter syndrome never goes away, it does not matter how old you are.”
She said although she believes she will always face challenges of self-doubt and performance anxiety, she has learned how to handle them and would give the same advice to students.
“Trust yourself, trust your gut and do what you love,” Capolupo said. “Get out of your own way. Don't make it harder, because people are already gonna make it hard for you, you don't have to add to that.”
