My first job after college was at Magic Quest, an educational software startup company where I was responsible for writing the content. I found that job somewhat accidentally but after working there a few weeks and loving my job, I decided to pursue a career in technology.
My smartest move was joining Google. It wasn't obvious at the time that it would be a good decision. A lot of people, many of my friends, advised me against it.
Girls are being left out of the conversation when it comes to technology, led to think of tech as insular and antisocial without ever being given a chance to correct those perceptions.
Employing more women at all levels of a company, from new hires to senior leaders, creates a virtuous cycle. Companies become more attuned to the needs of their female employees, improving workplace culture while lowering attrition.
First there's my role just as an executive being responsible for advertising, regardless of gender. I think that's a position that I take seriously. That's the first role. But I think for my role as a woman at Google, you try to set a good example and be a role model for the other women in the organization.
I think I've always been able to see what's coming, and when I was joining Google, people always said, 'Why are you joining this company?' It was so small at the time. I could see the importance of Google. I could see the way it was going to grow; it was going to become a big company.
At the end of the day, both men and women who become CEOs have showed tenacity and hard work to succeed in their careers. It takes not just skills but also extreme dedication and commitment. And regardless of gender, CEOs are measured by the same criteria - the growth and success of the business.
Even though it was a start-up with fewer than 20 people, and I was pregnant with my first child, the best decision I've ever made was to join Google in 1999. Worst decision? Deciding to get a puppy and a bunny right when the baby came.
Google is fascinating, and the book isn't finished. I'm creating, living, building, and writing those chapters.
I think we have to recognize as an industry that users have a lot more choices and can click away to a lot more media. As a result, the advertising we create really needs to be something users want to see.
Coding is like writing, and we live in a time of the new industrial revolution. What's happened is that maybe everybody knows how to use computers, like they know how to read, but they don't know how to write.
If everybody has to take biology and chemistry, they can take computer science. Computer science is a more useful skill right now than a lot of other things that people are learning at school.
Unless we make computer science a priority, we risk making gender, class, and racial disparities worse as jobs flow to those with a computer science background.
I don't feel like I'm a perfect mom, and then there are times at work where I feel like maybe I wasn't perfect here because of constraints on my time. But having the sum of both of those things going on in my life makes me a better mom at the end of the day, and I think gives me really important perspectives in the workplace as well.
People at different stages of their lives are doing different things, and they're all using Google.
Underrepresented employees already have to overcome discriminatory barriers in their careers; they shouldn't be expected to volunteer their time to help their companies do the same.
There are lots of people in the Silicon Valley who are interested in working at a fast-moving, dynamic company like Google. Not just my family members.
Mobile is an incredibly fast-growing market and will continue to be.
In the old world, people used to have to go to focus groups and ask people what they thought. Now, people are writing all over the Web what they think about things.
As someone who's been lucky to have a great career in tech, I know how creative and fulfilling a career in this industry can be for women. And I want to make sure we continue to recruit and retain great female hires.
