Farrah Campbell from Chasing Grace Episode One opens up about how the project impacted her life and career

How sharing your story can transform you and change culture 

Q: Farrah! You were featured in the premiere episode of the Chasing Grace Project: Eighty Twenty. The episode explored the pay gap for women in the tech industry and you shared a very intimate story about your own experience being paid less than your male counterparts. How did the experience of telling your story impact you?

Farrah: This was a very rough time in my life. I was going through a bad breakup and had barely slept the week before filming. I had struggled with the decision of how I wanted to tell my story, was incredibly scared about how I would be viewed and created all types of negative responses in my head. Ultimately, as scary as it was, it had a huge impact on my life for the better. It helped me to find my voice, to trust myself, provided me with a new network of successful and supportive women and helped me to gain trust with my peers. 

I remember when Jennifer and I were first discussing my experience, and I realized that it might be important for me to share details. But I was struggling with the idea that I might offend someone on my team, that others would look at me in a negative light, that people would consider me bossy or emotional and how hard that was. I knew it was important to share but did not want to burn any bridges, didn’t want anyone to think I was carrying a grudge - and most of all, I did not want to affect my team in a negative way. So I decided to talk to them and tell them why I thought it was important to discuss what happened to me and how I dealt with it. I was shocked that they were 100% supportive, encouraged me to share, and even attended the premiere to support that decision. I assumed I would feel alone and looked down on, but that was not the case at all. I felt empowered, supported and like a weight had been removed from my shoulders. I felt validated and even hopeful that maybe my experience could help others.

Q: What did being a part of the Chasing Grace Project mean to you and how has it impacted your career trajectory? 

Farrah: It’s pretty hard to describe how the Chasing Grace Project affected my career because it impacted it in so many different ways. New connections, new mentors, visibility into how I handle tough situations, how I would gain trust with others due to how I handled the experience with my team. A much broader network, and a better understanding of what others were facing. Connections to new jobs, new events and opportunities… the list goes on and on. 

My experience in the project definitely helped me with where I am at today. Meeting Jennifer Cloer and having exposure to her network. Meeting her friends Lauren, Nithya and Abby during a transitional part of my career and life. These connections and friendships have helped at different steps in my path. Lauren and Abby helped me to better understand what I wanted to do with my career and where I could go. Helping to craft a better story on my resume and connecting me with their networks, introducing me to new roles. Meeting Alex and Judy Williams during the premiere and running into them at different events provided me with a contact, a friend, and helped me not feel alone as I was expanding the role I was in.

Today, Lauren is one of my closest friends. I work with Nithya at AWS, and I reach out to Jennifer for insight into the OSS community. It's safe to say that the Project means a great deal to me.

Farrah Campbell

Q: What’s your favorite memory about that time in your life and career?

Farrah: My favorite memory during that time has to be when Lauren, Nithya and Abby came up to me after the event (Chasing Grace Project Episode 1 premiere) to introduce themselves and to thank me for telling my story. I had no idea why they would reach out or why they offered to help and mentor me but I was incredibly grateful that they did. As mentioned, this was a new point in my life and I had a couple of doors that opened up for me and I had decisions that I needed to make. Having a new network of successful women helped me to be more confident, and provided me with career advice and insight into how to craft a better resume and position myself, etc. I had all these women that could be sounding boards, confidants and sponsors in some ways.

“Having a new network of successful women helped me to be more confident, and provided me with career advice and insight into how to craft a better resume and position myself, etc.”

Q: How did your community expand and work for you as a result of coming together with other women in tech in a real and vulnerable way?

Farrah: My community expanded in many ways at different stages in my career. I still see the effects of my participation today. I had no exposure to the open source world prior to meeting Jennifer, other than wanting to meet Linus Torvalds. And now I work with project maintainers, contributors, foundations and communities that I was introduced to at the time of filming. 

I was able to get an interview for my CEO and myself on The Cube through Stu McMinniman, who I met through the Project, partnered with The New Stack on events that I was hosting after meeting them at the premiere, had better relationships with the teams at Puppet after Abby joined, have connections with the Linux Foundation through women that I met at the premiere or women that watched the documentary and reached out to support me. Again, the benefits go on and on.

Q: Tell us all about what you’re doing and working on today. What’s keeping you up at night and what’s got you fired up?

Farrah: I have an amazing job at AWS as the Head of the Modern Application Community. I get to work with amazing people from all around the world who are lifelong learners, innovators, and people that give back through mentorship and learning. They ask questions and answer them for others. I get to learn more about different communities and cultures, amplify the work of others and support different people and groups globally. 

I also get to work with the Product teams at AWS, to help them to validate product ideas, gain feedback on roadmaps, to anticipate questions, validate decisions and connect them with the broader community. It really is a win-win. Through my work at AWS, I also have friends from all over the world, which is exciting. How I can continue to find ways to help others and the communities that they are part of is definitely what lights my soul. 

What keeps me up at night other than my cat or my sons is all the inputs I see on a daily basis. Maybe I met a new team that I might be able to help, found a new person or community that I think I can help to support, heard a discussion that I might be able to help with, learned something new that I want to incorporate into the work that I am doing, or wondering if I missed an email or message that needs to be responded to. There is always something new to learn in this industry, and always new people to meet and support. I want to ensure that I am supporting others, as that support was provided to me.

“There is always something new to learn in this industry, and always new people to meet and support. I want to ensure that I am supporting others, as that support was provided to me.”

Q: You made a career switch to move into tech. What advice do you have for anyone who is interested in getting involved in tech?

Farrah: My advice would be to get involved, network and meet others. Find meetups, user groups and conferences that are interesting to you to attend or volunteer at. Find ways to engage and participate in events or communities that interest you. This will provide you a better understanding of the different opportunities in the industry and where you can find alignment with your current skill set. I sent over 30 applications and resumes for tech roles for a year with no response other than “not interested” when I was transitioning from healthcare to the tech industry. Once I started volunteering at events like TechFest NW and meeting others in the industry, different roles started to present themselves and I began to create a network that I could reach out to for advice, guidance and help. A few more: 

Trust yourself and your abilities. Stop allowing that voice inside your head to question your ability to take the next step. 

Don’t be afraid to use your voice, to speak your truth and to take a leap of faith when a door opens. 

Keep relationships in mind and not the current transaction you are dealing with. 

Find ways to remain positive in difficult situations, as you only have so much energy to give in one day, make sure that energy is spent on something that benefits you and does not feed into the negativity that may try to knock you off your path. 

And always remember you help yourself by helping others.

Lastly, a huge thank you to Jennifer for all that she has done to help myself and others. Providing me with the opportunity to tell my story changed my life personally and professionally in the best way. I am eternally grateful to her for the opportunities, the mentorship, new friendships and the doors that opened due to my participation.