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Why attend a Women's Conference, why attend a conference, women's conference, womans conference, benefits of attending a leadership conference

I’ve attended a few women’s professional development conferences in the past and have wondered, does anything really change after attending a women’s conference? It turns out, it does. Your odds of increasing your salary are higher and on average you’ll feel more optimistic about the future if you attend a women’s conference.

Professional Development Women’s Conference: What To Expect

There are many benefits of attending a leadership conference. I’ve attended both the Simmon’s Leadership Conference and the MA Conference for Women in the past. Both are absolutely amazing. I’ve attended in years when they’ve had speakers such as Michelle Obama, Billie Jean King and Tory Burch.

Main Stage Speakers

Every main stage speaker is so inspirational and you leave in awe of what they’ve accomplished. The dialogue tends to focus on the challenges they had to overcome and you leave feeling if they could overcome those obstacles you too can accomplish your goals.

Women’s Professional Development Breakout Sessions

The breakout sessions you attend give you more tangible knowledge on what to change to be more successful. One I participated in during the Boston Women’s Leadership Conference was about Ego in the Workplace, led by CY Wakeman, and it shared data on how drama in the workplace wastes over 800 hours/ year. Isn’t that crazy? Think of how much time you can get back by reducing this even by 10%.

Networking With Other Women

Throughout the women’s conference it’s also a great opportunity to network with other women. Typically, there are a lot of women from the companies that are sponsoring the program. If you’re trying to get your foot in the door at one of these companies it’s a great opportunity to network with the women that work there. Additionally, many companies have an employee referral program. If you make a strong enough connection, having that referral can increase your odds of landing that interview and will also help the referrer get a bonus.

Women’s Professional Development Conference Exhibit Floor

Women’s conferences usually have an exhibit floor which includes booths from the sponsorship companies, book signings and more. I really like the recent additions of professional photo opportunities for free. It’s important to have a professional photo for LinkedIn and it’s great the conference brings this directly to you. Usually it takes a few weeks for the photographer to email you the picture.

Post Women’s Conference

After a women’s professional development conference, we usually bring back what we learned to our teams, sharing a few things we’ve vowed to do differently. But then fast forward a few weeks and things return to normal. That initial excitement has died down and it seems like not much has changed. Was all that time spent and money invested by your company thrown out the window? What does the data tell us about the impact Women’s Conferences make? It turns out there has been at least one study done on this, and positive outcomes were observed.

Study: Outcomes of Attending a Women’s Conference

Shawn Anchor wrote in the Harvard Business Review about a study he partner on of 2,600 women to observe financial outcomes and intellectual outcomes that occurred in the year after the women attended the conference. They also studied this for the research group and the control group to account for any changes in the larger economic landscape across the same time period.

They found that there were positive outcomes with only 5% of women in the control group receiving a pay increase of more than 10% compared with the 15% of women who attended the conference. Additionally 78% of women who attended the conference reported feeling “more optimistic about the future” and 71% of attendees said they “feel more connected to others” after attending.

Personal Outcome of Attending Women’s Conferences

Looking back, I have attended at least one leadership conference for women every year of my career, with possibly one exception. Every year after attending I have received a bonus. In the last 9 years I’ve also been promoted 4 times. What I learned by attending these conferences around negotiation, leadership attributes and networking definitely helped me get where I am today. I also learned about the importance of sponsors and how it’s not enough to have a mentor.

At the conference, it’s also nice to be around so many women in the same industry. Often at work I’m still one of only a few women. I also love running into ladies I’ve worked with in previous roles and staying connected with my network.

Personally, I haven’t taken a new job after reconnecting with my network at one of these conferences. While at a women’s conference though I learned of new job opportunities that I could apply for through running into a former colleague. These conferences also motivated me to start thinking bigger, including looking into how to invest in startups. I’m always excited to attend these conferences and I hope everyone that attends next week has an amazing experience!

See Also: Why You Need a Career Sponsor

Best Conferences for Women

There are a ton of great conferences for women globally! Here is a list I’ve compiled on the best conferences for women.

Have you ever attended a Women’s Conference? What results have you noticed for your career or you personally after attending?

Make Money Referring Jobs To Someone You Know

Do you already know who you want to refer to your company? Help them narrow which job they should apply to. If the job candidate only knows they are interested in the company, it’s hard to refer them and help them. Share information about different departments, certain roles you’d recommend and give them the link to search all open jobs at the company. Check in with them a couple days later and ask what jobs they are interested in. Then, submit their resume for that specific job opening.

If you know of an open position, but an immediate candidate doesn’t come to mind use social media to promote the job.

Leverage Social Media To Promote Open Jobs At Your Company

Use social media to promote open positions at your company. LinkedIn is a great platform to post job opportunities. Sometimes companies have example social posts to promote jobs to make it easy to share an open role. When a potential candidate reaches out, set up a meeting with them. Be available to answer their questions. Provide the potential job candidate background about the company and the job. If they’re still interested, refer them to the open job.

Refer A Candidate Following The Employee Referral Program Instructions

How do you make money referring jobs? First, confirm that your company offers an employee referral bonus. Next, know the terms of this program. Do you need to submit a referral following a specific process? Does the candidate need to stay with the company for a certain amount of time? In all cases, the person you refer needs to get the job. You must ensure that your company knows you referred that candidate.

Large companies likely have a portal for you to refer a candidate. If your company doesn’t have a portal, ask your manager or HR how to refer a candidate. Submit their resume through this portal and also reached out to the hiring manager or recruiter.

Employee Referral Bonus Amounts

How much money should you make referring jobs? Many companies tie incentives to employee referrals. Average employee referral bonuses amounts are typically in the $1,000-3,000 range. Of those companies that offer employee referral bonuses Meritage Talent Solutions found that 69% offered between $1,000 and $5,000. At one point the tech industry was offering up to $20,000.

Companies That Offer Employee Referral Bonuses

Many companies offer employee referral bonuses. Below are a few examples of companies that pay an employee referral bonus:

Dell has a global employee referral program and shares the exact payout amount by level of position and location in a central location.

In 2015 Intel announced the employee referral bonus would be double for women, veteran and minority candidates that are hired. Employees were able to get $4,000 per hired referral, up from the standard $2,000.

At eBay, employees may receive up to $1,000 if their referral is hired.

Digital Ocean launched an employee referral bonus program in 2017. Digital Ocean offered $3,500 and a $1,500 charitable contribution paid on the employees behalf.

Employee Referral Programs Summary

Many companies ask their employees to help recruit new talent and offer an employee referral bonus if they get hired. Minimal effort is required to make money referring jobs. If you’re looking for a quick way to make cash and your company is hiring see if this is a benefit your company offers. Employee referral bonus amounts vary company to company so check with your company first to confirm what bonus amount they offer.

Have you ever taken advantage of the employee referral program offered by your employer?