The Tightrope of ERG work
How Diversity work can make and break your career
A few weeks ago, a colleague wanted advice on whether or not he should take on a leadership role for an Employee Resource Group (ERG). “Early in my career,” he told me, “everyone warned me against getting involved.” The implication was ERG leadership takes away time otherwise spent on your job description. While it can get your name out there, it’s rare for ERG leadership experience to make up for your technical skills when it comes to reviews and promotions. While it can give you a boost, if you take the average engineer spending all their time coding verses the engineer spending 10% of their time running an ERG, the first engineer is more likely to get promoted. Exceptions exist, but ask the average person from a historically excluded group in tech and they will tell you the same thing. Sometimes the best diversity work you can do is get yourself promoted.
In reflecting on that conversation, I laughed to myself thinking “no one ever warned me,” but then I remembered what a force I was my first few years in tech. I would have dared anyone to have prevented me from starting an ERG. Back then, that was my passion.
My ERG Experience
It all began in college when I participated and eventually co-led my college Women in Computer Science (WiCS) group. Through the group I learned about topics like imposter syndrome and intersectionality, received mentorship from upperclassmen, and reached out for support during the daunting job search. The group was my safe space within a department that often made me doubt whether I would become a software engineer. The discussions we had as a group helped me realize I wasn’t alone and gave me the confidence to keep going when times were tough.
My senior year, while running the group, I knew I wanted to start something similar when I started my full time role at Amazon. The previous summer as an intern, I had missed the women in tech community I had in college. Before I accepted my full time offer, I talked to a recruiter about my vision for starting the group and he put me in touch with a senior engineer at the company who answered my questions and encouraged me to do it. It wasn’t until years later that I realized most people were not spending their senior year planning to improve the companies they hadn’t yet joined.
As a new hire, I spent my first two months onboarding to the team, but by November I knew it was time. With my manger’s support, I connected with ERG leaders throughout the company, and by December we had our first meeting of Amazon Women in Engineering Boston. Only a few of us attended that first meeting, but I knew big things would come from it.
Over the next six years, the group grew and we…
partnered with recruiting to host women in engineering meetup groups at our office
organized monthly discussion lunches
hosted office-wide happy hours with trivia that got our coworkers thinking about diversity in tech
traveled to internal and external conferences
hosted workshops on inclusive job description and bias in interviewing
talked about challenges with maternity leave and being a working mom
taught coding workshops in schools and hosted panels for middle school students about choosing careers in tech
hosted fireside chats with senior women about their careers
hosted an intern mentoring program
My proudest accomplishment was probably the year I ran a LeanIn circle for the SDE 1 women of the office. Over the course of that year, half the group earned promotions, several sought out new teams, and everyone took ownership of their career and made progress on their personal goals. It was a wonderful time.
Initially I ran everything for Amazon Women in Engineering Boston myself, but as we grew several people joined the leadership team and many regularly volunteered for events. In 2020, after six years of leading the group I finally handed it over to the next round of leaders. I’ve heard things are going well and I wish them all the best.
The Pros and Cons
When I started the group in 2014, I had so much energy and free time as a new grad that it was easy to dedicate the time, but as I got more responsibility at work and eventually became a manager, time was hard to come by. There were moments where I was burned out and couldn’t dedicate a lot of time and the group stagnated a bit.
As the founder and leader of the group, I reaped a lot of benefits. Even as an entry level engineer, senior leaders would regularly approach me for advice on recruiting more women, improving their organization, and reviewing their job descriptions. Many people who would otherwise not have known who I was had a favorable perception of me. Opportunities like internally transferring teams, serving on committees, and becoming an interview trainer were more readily available to me than they would have been otherwise. I had a strong network and a lot of sponsors, especially for someone so junior.
Later in my career when I wanted to transition to management, my network and leadership experience that I had gained through the ERG made me an easy choice. I was already seen as a leader.
But there were many downsides
It took me nearly three years to earn my first promotion despite being a high performer. My leadership experience couldn’t outweigh my lack of experience writing a design document or working on a complex project end-to-end and I don’t blame my managers, that’s how promotions work. ERG leadership cannot replace the technical and problem solving skills you need to be a successful senior engineer and the time I was putting into the group took away time that I might have spent studying design patterns or deep diving into databases. At one point a manager recommend I take some time off from speaking at recruiting events and spend more time on team projects. I was frustrated, but he had a point.
Eventually my brand was so tied up in the ERG that it was hard for people to see my other skills and I felt boxed into the “diversity” role on many occasions.
It was also a lot of event planning and office housework. Ordering food, reserving rooms, coordinating with AV, submitting budgets, and hanging up posters.
How to succeed as an ERG Leader
But let’s say against all odds you want the role. Maybe you’re the passionate new grad like me, maybe you’re a senior engineer or manager who is ready to give back, or maybe two and a half years into a pandemic you are looking to find your purpose at work again. If that’s you, your company is lucky to have you in the role.
Here’s how you can make the role work for you
Follow your passion — Unless you work for a company like LinkedIn that compensates their ERG leaders with a stipend, this is a volunteer position. Spend your energy on the events and activities that excite you, seek out volunteers for the other activities or give yourself permission to drop them. Just because you organized an event one year, doesn’t mean you have to do it forever. If you are more interested in a certain type of event, people will sense the passion and enthusiasm you bring to the process and be more likely to go. You have too much on your plate to waste time on tasks that don’t interest you.
Accept Help — Anytime someone reaches out and suggests an idea, enthusiastically agree. Give them a budget and encourage them to organize the event with your support. If people are passionate about something, even if it’s not something you are personally interested in, supporting them takes work off your plate and grows the group.
Establish Partnerships — Recruiting teams have budgets and event planners. They want to hire candidates underrepresented at your company. Partnering with the recruiting team takes a lot of work off your plate, gives group members an event to attend, and helps the recruiting team achieve their goals. It’s a win/win. Partner with other ERGs or social groups at your company. More people will attend and you’ll only need to contribute half the budget or planning work.
Record your wins + share with your manager —In your 1x1s with your manager and in your end of year self evaluation, highlight your wins. Quantify the number of events, size of the group, audience reached, etc. Include any quotes or feedback you receive about the group. Your manager may not realize the impact of your work so it is important that you highlight it for them. (Here’s a template for recording these wins). If possible make recognizing ERG leaders the default at your company through having executive sponsors of ERGs write formal feedback, highlighting the accomplishments of ERG leaders as part of performance reviews.
Cross train before burnout — Establish a leadership team well before you need the help. Hand off the group to new leaders well before you burn out and stop participating. Document what you’ve learned so it’s easy to train new folks and consider pairing an experienced volunteer with a new volunteer to run a specific event. Then next time, have the newer volunteer train the next volunteer.
Check in on your brand and pivot — If your goal is to grow towards senior engineer, make sure you are known for more than just your ERG work. Spend time on activities that will grow your influence/network in your chosen role: giving tech talks, answering the difficult engineering questions in the org slack channel, providing technical mentorship to junior engineers, volunteering to build out the new service, researching the new technology, earning a technical certification, etc. If you find your ERG work is negatively affecting your brand, preventing you from getting promoted, or putting you at risk of performance issues, take a step back and say no to diversity work until things are in better shape for you. It’s easy to feel like you are the only person who can do this or to feel burdened with this giant responsibility, but give yourself permission to pause or stop entirely when needed. This is your career.
Looking back, there’s nothing I would change about my choices. I’m glad I invested in the group when I did and I know I made a difference in many people’s careers because of my role. Along the way, the purpose and mission of the group helped me grow and change for the better.
Still, I can’t say I’d recommend it to everyone. It’s a personal choice and a time-based choice. Certain parts of your career will be the right time to invest in this leadership role and other times your focus should be on your team. You should never pressure a coworker to take on this role, especially if they are one of the only women, LGBTQ, or BIPOC engineers in your office.
Though there were short-term setbacks, starting an ERG forever changed my experience in tech and in following my passion, so many opportunities opened up. Personally I’m grateful no one warned me against taking up the role.
