Vanessa Slavich likes to tackle her life with eyes wide open.
After spending her senior year studying abroad in Copenhagen, Vanessa realized, “The world was big, and I needed to go see it.” So, after coming back home to the States, she was itching to leave again. This time that itch took her to London for a year. Through a work abroad opportunity she discovered before graduating, Vanessa was placed at Deutsche Bank.
With little job flexibility, the world of financial banking proved to be less than the kind of fit Vanessa was. After coming back to the States again she heard about a job opportunity at Apple through an old college friend. Vanessa worked at Apple in recruiting for iOS for nearly two years before an opportunity opened up at her current company, Square.
“My boss had left for Square and pinged me saying I should check out the company,” Vanessa says. “I did and they were doing something cool I wanted to be a part of.”
Now as diversity and inclusion manager at Square, Vanessa oversees Code Camp, a program that helps women learn more about computer science and has helped more than 100 women to date.
When she’s not working on her mission to get more women involved in CS, you can find her on her bike (a love she found while studying abroad) or training for her next triathlon.