Join co-founders of Geek Girl Careers Sundar Vanchinathan and Sandhya Iyer ’19 for a LaunchPad Fireside Chat this Friday, September 25 at 3 p.m. at http://bit.ly/launchpad-fall-fireside-chat
Having been in the Silicon Valley tech industry for almost three decades and seeing the lack of career guidance resources for young women, Sundar launched Geek Girl Careers. “When I graduated many years ago with an engineering degree, I had no understanding of how to discover a career that would suit my personality and passions,” says Sundar, who pivoted to success in technical sales and marketing as he discovered his own strengths. That was his inspiration for starting Geek Girls
Fast forward, and his daughter Sandhya graduated from Syracuse University in 2020 with degrees in public relations and marketing and has gone on to become the CEO of the company that her dad started. “When she was in high school, Geek Girl Careers helped her understand how to tie her skills and passions into a potential career in marketing communications,” says Sundar. “We built this platform to provide guidance and inspiration to millions of girls like her worldwide. There is nothing better than helping individuals discover careers where they can blossom for who they truly are.”
Sandhya is passionate about female empowerment, sustainability and most importantly, helping those in need. Sandhya leads the outreach, recruitment and partnership development for GGC, as well as managing the growth of the company. Read more about Sandhya in this profile by LaunchPad Global Fellow Claire Howard ’23.
Her dad, who helped build the technology platform, is now Chief Career Counselor and calls himself a passionate do-gooder who has always found the most happiness in helping people find jobs, guiding careers and seeing people flourish in their personal and professional lives. In his spare time, he loves to dabble in art, music and fashion. He has always said “Everybody has something great to offer to the world. It’s just the question of finding out what it is.”
About 74 percent of young girls express interest in STEM fields. However, women represent just 28 percent of computer science graduates, and 11 percent of executive leaders in Silicon Valley, and that number is in decline. Together, the father and daughter entrepreneurs are building Geek Girls Careers to help close that gap. They are committed to helping young women discover their ideal career path in tech and also help professionals and recruiters find talent and bring more women into tech fields. Learn more about the venture here and their two-sided platform that allows young women to JOIN AS A GEEK GIRL and recruiters to JOIN AS A PROFESSIONAL.
LaunchPad Fireside Chats are 3 p.m. on Fridays and are open to the community. Dates this fall are September 4, 11, 18, 25, October 2, 9, 23, 30, and November 6, 20. Each chat is a conversation with a dynamic innovator with a powerful message, unique perspective and insight into the minds of great entrepreneurs.
We invite you to join us over a cup of tea for up-close and personal chats in partnership with The Republic of Tea, a generous supporter of the LaunchPad at Syracuse University.
Attend any chat in the series: http://bit.ly/launchpad-fall-fireside-chat.