How Girl Power Talk fires up young tech workers and IT teams

For small- and medium-sized businesses, meeting the demand for up-and-coming skills can put a strain on resources, causing delays on digital transformation projects vital to company growth. Girl Power Talk aims to help solve this by offering unique services that can help businesses meet target goals for projects, while empowering and uplifting young women in tech in the process.

The organization is split into two halves: a non-profit side called Girl Power USA and a corporation side called Girl Power Talk. The two work in tandem, with Girl Power USA focused on philanthropic work, and Girl Power Talk on being a “social enterprise,” providing a litany of services.

Girl Power Talk, specifically, offers services around client engagement, community management, digital marketing, custom software development, website and application design, system integration and optimization, and risk mitigation. But what makes it a true force is it’s on a mission to galvanize women in tech — while helping businesses grow — by giving them the chance to work directly for organizations partnered with Girl Power Talk, and gain experience, opportunities, and skills for a future career in tech.

While open positions at Girl Power Talk are advertised as internships, co-founder Sameer Somal hesitates to use the word “interns” due to the working for free implications as these young workers are not only paid, they’re also given true responsibilities, rather than being relegated to busy work or left underutilized by a company that doesn’t trust them.

Dona Das, a 26-year-old quality assurance (QA) senior associate, started at Girl Power Talk as an intern in the social media department. Three months later, she moved into a full-time role as an associate in marketing and PR, and eventually found herself in a manual testing role.

“Initially, I was hesitant about entering the tech world due to my non-technical background,” she says. “But with the belief in myself and the mentorship I received, I excelled. A few months into this role, I was promoted to lead the testing team and train new members.”

Das applied because she was intrigued by the culture and excited to work for a company that genuinely values young minds, unlike others where age and experience are primary factors for recognition. She says she’s gained not only the hard-skills to advance in her tech career, but also self-confidence, which she attributes to a strong focus on mentorship and the freedom provided by the company to learn and grow.

“Joining as a fresher, I never felt that my lack of experience was a barrier to growth,” she says. “I truly feel valued as an individual here.”

It’s a similar story for 24-year-old web developer, Betelhem Getachew, who says she’s had the opportunity to grow beyond web development to learn about digital marketing, SEO, email marketing, data scraping, and testing applications. Within six months after joining the company, Girl Power Talk flew her from her home in Ethiopia to its headquarters in Punjab, India, for two months. There, she says, she was able to gain valuable hands-on experience, network with colleagues and mentors, and gain confidence in her communication skills.

“This experience was exhilarating and life-changing, and provided me with invaluable learning and growth opportunities,” she says. “I’ve become more confident in expressing myself and communicating with people, and now have skills I never thought I’d learn.”

And while the organization focuses on uplifting women in tech, men are not excluded. Daniel Chettiar, a 22-year-old game developer at Girl Power Talk, has a similar story of growth in the company, noting that he appreciates he’s not given mundane work as an intern. He says he’s been given the opportunity to do things that matter to the company, and has responsibilities that have helped him learn valuable skills.

Chettiar says through Girl Power Talk, he’s also been able to gain skills in shader work, game development, 3D modeling and animation, Python email scraping and web scraping, lead generation, integrating AI solutions using ChatGPT-4, and more.

“I’ve been able to manage and operate in different departments during my time at Girl Power Talk,” he says. “No two days are the same, as I’ve worked on projects involving programming, marketing, communicating with external team members, and even participating in business development.”

A catalyst for growth

One of the more specialized services offered through Girl Power Talk is staff augmentation for IT teams, allowing small- and medium-sized businesses to take on larger-scale IT projects without having to hire staff in the organization. Through Girl Power Talk, these companies gain access to teams that help them work through pivotal projects, whether it’s building custom software, assisting with website and application design, providing support for system integration and optimization, or implementing cybersecurity measures and risk mitigation.

“We can help you build a technology team that’s more malleable and complimentary,” says Somal.

The organization also offers services around public relations, branding and online reputation management, client engagement, community management, and digital marketing. This business model not only has the benefit of providing team support, but also gives the young workers at Girl Power Talk the chance to try new things, develop unique skills, and gain hands-on experience they might not be able to get in a more basic job setting.

A win-win situation

Companies that partner with Girl Power Talk can augment their IT staff to bring on new skills or roles they can’t hire for, or to gain more support for specific projects and initiatives. And for the interns at Girl Power Talk, they’re gaining the start of their careers as well as getting opportunities not easily found at every company.

Partners are also given access to workers dedicated to that company’s particular initiative. For small businesses that have specific IT and tech projects, but don’t have the budget to hire more staff to meet those goals, Girl Power Talk can offer a unique solution that gives these companies access to emerging talent. Whatever the project, the goal of Girl Power Talk is to give its interns and young employees opportunities.

“We’re very selective in that because we don’t want to just do a project for the sake of it,” says Somal. “We want to believe it and we want it to have impact. We’re also a relatively small company so we can’t afford to do projects that aren’t going to work just because we’re going to make money from it.”

Getachew adds that since joining the organization, she’s had the chance to work on three different projects including one where she was able to learn Next.js and redux, a QA and testing project for an ATS, and a project where she was the lead on a team working on building responsive websites to ensure they work and look right across every internet-enabled device and platform. In her downtime between project assignments, she’s also been able to hone her skills around digital marketing and SEO.

“The trust placed in me to handle these responsibilities was empowering and contributed greatly to my professional growth,” she says.