Q1. Share with us your first meeting with Jana.I met Jana in 2019 when she applied for the She Loves Tech competition under her start-up company, Meiro. We organised an event for all finalists in Singapore that was sponsored by Zalora. Jana and I immediately connected and knew that this friendship would continue even after the event. We had drinks a few weeks after and spent hours talking about all the potential opportunities for collaboration between She Loves Tech and She Loves Data and realised that we have so many things in common. Jana is passionate about growing the women in the tech community, a highly inspiring individual and such a powerful force to reckon with!
Both organizations create opportunities for women in the tech space. She Loves Tech’s grand vision is to encourage more women to step up in technology businesses. Whilst, She Loves Data’s mission is to inspire more women to pursue careers in Data and Tech. In my view, one of the approaches to drive this common goal is through collaboration with key partners like She Loves Data, that is to empower women in technology. Jana has empowered so many women over the years and I have heard stories from volunteers who have grown passionate about data just being part of the movement.
We are still very much at the early stages of our discussion in terms of supporting each other and working through our collaborative plans. We have been invited to speak at Asian Professional Speakers Convention on 31st August, 2020 and it’s our first event together representing She Loves Data and She Loves Tech. This is just a start, to many more things to come.
I have a bookful of advice as I have learned so many things over the years by making so many mistakes in developing technology start-ups and here are a few thoughts: –
Do follow us on social media as we organise competitions in various locations and the women founders would benefit from participating in these events and learn from each other and the supporting partners as well.
I was pitching for my own start up last year with She Loves Tech and I was very impressed with the level of professionalism for the pitching competition, the level of support for female founders and the clear feel of the community’s presence. She Loves Tech has a foot print in more than 30 countries and I thought it would be great to collaborate. Leanne Robers, the Managing Director, of She Loves Tech and I met to explore collaboration between both organizations and both of us felt there were mutual benefits for us to come together and support the wider community, to reach out to more females.
We are announcing the collaboration as we speak.
I met other women founders and Venture Capitalists as part of my interactions with the She Loves Tech community. I met some of the female founders and was so inspired by them and I personally felt that being part of the competition was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I am super excited about supporting women entrepreneurs out there. I believe in collaboration between communities, instead of viewing the groups as separate entities. I hope this is just the beginning. We will find more ways to collaborate and support She Loves Tech. Leanne and I are very passionate and committed, and we will do our best to create and build a meaningful, long lasting partnership.
If you are a female founder, apply here: https://www.shelovestech.org/2020-key-dates
To join the movement and help the cause, subscribe to us at https://shelovesdata.com/ or https://www.shelovestech.org/
It can be a serious struggle to rejoin the workforce after a career break. Divya Gehlot Mishra knows this too well. She left her job to be a stay-at-home mom and later returned to work in the competitive field of data analytics. How did she do it? It took grit and resilience to push past outright bias, but those weren’t the only factors.
Read on!
Most of the time I work on designing and building big data and cloud computing solutions. These are based on business requirements and my conceptual understanding of the technology. You can get training and become certified, but before I knew the role existed, I was in “dark mode”. There was no clear path and I was basically led by my curiosity.
Wherever I went, I was usually the only “big-data person”. It helped me understand people’s perception of big data and I get to explore different tools. When I was with PayPal, I worked as a data engineer. However, I was also the one helping my team understand what big data was, back when it was still a new buzzword. I would attend meetup sessions to learn about how big data technology could fit into different business use cases.
Then I worked for a start-up where we needed to have a product on a big data platform. My role was to help people pick the right infrastructure, whether it meant setting up a data cluster on premise or on cloud. I provided the analysis on the pros and cons of choosing one option over the other. That got me started with doing a comparison of various data tools. When I picked up Apache Spark (a data processing engine), I got exposed to dealing with bigger datasets. I basically learned Apache Spark by digging into the code on its Github repository! I kept learning and applying what I learned to the next organisation, which came to be Johnson and Johnson.
It’s all a personal choice. When I had my daughter, I could have put her in childcare and then started working again or I could have taken time off to take care of her. My hubby said to me that at least one parent should be there with the kid. This is a special time for bonding with the kid. He asked me for a favour, could I be that parent? I thought, okay, I don’t mind doing it. Even at that point of time, in my subconscious mind, the question was there: If I were to take a break, will I be able to return to work?
But back then, my priority was to take care of my daughter. I put my career goals on hold. I never stopped learning or doing my certifications though. When my daughter was around two and a half years old, I felt she was old enough and I could take time to refresh my career.
I rejoined the workforce in 2015 after a lot of struggles. I started by brainstorming about what to do. Some of my friends took on some random jobs when they returned to work because they wanted to earn some money first. That was not for me, I don’t mind working hard to get a job but I have to do something where I feel satisfied. I wanted to return to IT. I uploaded my resume and started looking for possible jobs.
My hubby supported my decision. He helped me with all his networking efforts, but somehow it didn’t work out. My mum would motivate me, saying that it was all part of the learning for me. I’m from India, where there’s this saying where you are entitled to focus on your karma, but not its fruits. Sometimes you have to wait patiently to taste the fruits of your hard work. That’s how it happened with me. I would say it took me one and a half years to land a job in IT.
Many interviewers told me, “I don’t think you can be a developer or be in the IT industry as you have such a long break in your career”. I disagree. I took on freelance projects. To truly understand how things work, I did things like set up the Hadoop cluster on my own machine. That helped me so much for my interviews.
There’s this misconception that if somebody takes a break, this means they can’t do the work. I believe you should look at the person’s calibre rather than how different their resume may look.
When I was learning about big data such as Hadoop architecture in 2010, there were not many resources beyond white papers. Today, you have many resources, including blogs and youtube channels.
You don’t need to know how to use as many tools as possible, but knowing about the fundamental differences between the tools will help you. You will be able to make informed decisions when you do need to use the tools. For example, you won’t have to worry about the compatibility of Apache Spark with Scala-based (a programming language) solutions if you know that Spark is written in Scala.
I do have some in mind, like blogging or making videos to help people learn, but those are on hold for now. Maybe I’ll start on those when my daughter is more grown up.
It’s about having some work-life balance, and I’m also involved with BigDataX. I currently head the curriculum team. Running whole-day technical workshops does take a lot of effort—you have to consider many angles, including the participants’ mixed backgrounds and how they might understand the material—but for us, it’s about giving back to the community.
Sydney, Australia – She Loves Data is proud to be partnering with WORK180 in order to bring about greater diversity, inclusion and equality at the workplace even before candidates start their job searches.
Together, they offer Australia a one-stop career search platform which builds on the strength of She Loves Data’s growing international community while offering women greater control and decision making in the process.
Headquartered in Singapore, with chapters worldwide including Sydney and Melbourne, She Loves Data is a non-profit organisation which aims to reduce the gender gap in Technology. As Diversity Initiative of the Year at the 2019 inaugural Women in IT Asia Awards, it offers women from all walks
of life and abilities its signature data literacy workshops, supported by strong partners aligned with its vision.
Eva Taase, She Loves Data’s Sydney Chapter Lead says, “We love working with WORK180 because their focus on equality and inclusion is very important for our community. The partnership between She Loves Data and WORK180 is an important milestone. Over 30% of our members are looking for
a career change. With WORK180 our community will be able to directly look for jobs in companies where diversity, equality, and inclusion is practiced.”
WORK180 provides female job applicants with a transparent directory of Endorsed Employers who must meet a minimum set of benchmarks to advertise job opportunities on their site. This means information around pay equity, flexible working hours, paid parental leave and equal opportunities are made known to job seekers to better inform their decisions on which companies can better suit need their needs.
Valeria Ignatieva, WORK180 CEO and Co-founder says, “She Loves Data is a supportive community of over 15,000 women in data and we´re excited about collaborating with the group and our community of WORK180 Endorsed Employers to open up more opportunities for women in STEM.”
For more information, please contact:
eva@shelovesdata.com
valeria@work180.co
WORK180 asked leading women in IT about their top tips and advice for anyone interested in growing a career in technology.
So, you want to get into tech? Well, now’s the right time. With new innovations impacting just about every aspect of our lives, tech-based companies are experiencing massive growth, and that’s creating some really amazing opportunities. But there’s another reason to be thinking about a career in tech. More than ever, smart organisations are recognising that a combination of transferable skills and life experience often delivers better outcomes than qualifications alone. WORK180 asked women in the industry to share their advice on entering the tech sector and succeeding when you get there. They come from some of the most progressive organisations in the WORK180 network, so make sure you check out their workplace initiatives and job opportunities.
With new innovations impacting just about every aspect of our lives, tech-based companies are experiencing massive growth, and that’s creating some really amazing opportunities.
But there’s another reason to be thinking about a career in tech. More than ever, smart organisations are recognising that a combination of transferable skills and life experience often delivers better outcomes than qualifications alone.
Ask yourself … Are you a great problem solver? Do you have high emotional intelligence? Maybe your strength is communication or time management.
WORK180 is a jobs board with a difference! We pre-screen employers on paid-parent leave, pay equity, flexible working arrangements and more. Find your dream job here.
Whatever it is, companies are committed to building diverse and inclusive teams, and to attract great people, they’re offering employee benefits that go above and beyond industry standards.
So where to start? First you need to identify the companies that know how to look after employees and their careers. You can find this information in our Endorsed Employer pages.
Next, it’s worth listening to what women who work in tech have to say.
To facilitate this, we asked some inspiring women to share their advice on entering the tech sector and succeeding when you get there. They come from some of the most progressive organisations in our network, so make sure you check out their workplace initiatives and job opportunities.
And lastly, just go for it. Who knows what opportunities are waiting for someone just like you!
ind a sponsor – Sponsoring is very personal. Build relationships with leaders that you respect and are influential, ideally in your direct team who know your ambition and can support your development.
Ask for feedback – It may feel awkward at first, but once you’re in the habit, you can take it for the constructive development it is.
Trust your intuition – Don’t be afraid to challenge (respectfully) things you believe in or disagree on, hold yourself accountable too and don’t dwell on outcomes. A supportive team is one that collaborates and nurtures each other. And at a more senior point in your career, make it your mission to curate great culture in your teams!
Noel Williams, Partner – Technology Risk & Cyber Security, KPMG
If you find that you have to pretend to be someone that you are not, in order to fit in at an organisation – then walk away and find a better place to work! Be your own authentic self, and don’t apologise for it. We are all different and bring different skills and experience to the table. However, there is nothing wrong with selectively adopting successful behaviours, habits or traits from people you admire – constantly adapting to a changing environment means we are growing each and every day.
Ila Lessing, Director – Technology Business Management (acting), NSW Roads & Maritime Services (RMS)
Find a number of mentors. I’m fortunate to have trusted mentors, some managers and some peers. While no two career paths are going to be the same, a great mentor will give you opportunities to learn. It’s up to you to be willing to accept these opportunities and step outside of your comfort zone. There will be others around to help you, make sure you utilise the help!
Fleur Wiley, Senior Manager in Technology Consulting, PwC
Understand your strengths and challenges, both from a technical and interpersonal skills – do I like coding more than designing? Do I like selling more than solving? Once you have identified your strengths, pursue it, as you are more likely to be successful in the area that you are already good at.
Set a 1-3-5-10 year plan, remember it’s a plan to set the goal post, not a mandate. Don’t forget to take calculated risks, take on challenges, learn new technology, and change architecture if you feel that it’s right for you and that trends have shifted.
Sora Cho, Manager Customer Success Specialist, Customer Experience, Cisco
The tech industry can offer an incredibly rewarding career, and it’s important for women to get involved and put themselves out there. A great first step is to present your work on a public platform like GitHub and show the world what you’re capable of. Technology is constantly evolving, and by remaining hungry to learn new languages and technology stacks, there is no limit to what you can achieve.
Lavanya Gowri, Software Developer, Liberty Financial
Don’t listen to the word “no”. Throughout my career, I’ve had countless people tell me I wasn’t suited to work in IT, saying things like, “Why would you want to do that? That’s not the role for you.” Don’t listen to it. Follow your passions.
You don’t need every qualification to apply for a role in IT, it’s more about having the right attitude, mindset, and willingness to learn to succeed in this industry.
Get rid of the imposter syndrome, the psychological experience of feeling like you don’t deserve your success. By overcoming these fears and doubts, you’ll be able to pursue opportunities outside your comfort zone – and that’s where the magic happens.
Don’t try to be one of the boys – be yourself.
Estelle Ivory, Client Delivery Director, Optus
You don’t have to be the smartest person in the room. I wish someone had told me that earlier in my career. At high school and university, I spent a lot of energy on competing with the crowd and being hard on myself because of challenges with dyslexia. But it didn’t take me too long to realise and play to my strengths of data and coding in SQL. I found that with these skills as my foundations, I can work through any changes faced in this scary fast technology changing world. Foundations are FUNdamental!
Tamzyn Bielecka, Information and Data Manager, BP
My advice is to grasp opportunities as they arise and be flexible in the roles you take. Technology is extremely broad and there are many roles that don’t require deep technical expertise. Key skills are stakeholder management, the ability to communicate technical solutions to non-technical people and being able to influence and negotiate well. Soft skills, such as communication, teamwork and problem solving are equally as important as technical skills. Key skills that are transferable across any technology area include business analysis, project management and change management, which covers training and communications.
Sara Braund, VP Digital Operations, South32
What can folks do to be successful in tech? The secret to success is to learn how to learn, to develop empathy, and to learn how to communicate. Mastering these skills is a lifelong pursuit; at every stage of your career, you’ll revisit these core abilities and adapt them to your new role.
Mentorship is critical to growth. No one is born ready to be a Product Manager or Designer or Engineer. We all need role models, people who trust us, give us the feedback we need, and push us, sometimes even before we feel we are ready. And then we need to remember to honor the generosity of our mentors by stepping up to coach others.
Sadie Stoumen, VP, Product, Redbubble
It was a big decision for me to move from professional services into tech, but it has been one that I’ve never regretted! Three things were key for me, firstly asking myself “why tech”? I could see the increasing role that tech was playing in driving business strategy and I wanted to get involved. Next, having the opportunity to “do the doing” on the client side, I knew this would add to my learning and experience for the future. Lastly, by being able to leverage my consulting network, I was able to find the right opportunity for me. That was 4 years ago now, I’m so pleased I had the courage then, because I’ve never looked back.
Aimee Lindfield, IT Business Delivery Partner, Lion
Be brave! In my experience, women tend to shy away from asking specifically what they want or need. Ask! Don’t expect that things will just happen – they won’t.
Tech is a fun space. At Infosys we’re doing it all — from transforming enterprises with 5G technology to reimagining the game of Tennis — who knows what’s next.
Surround yourself with inspiring people every day – mentors, role models – it helps a lot. And remember, you are only limited by your own barriers.
Semra Barutchu, Vice-President Infosys & Head, Engineering Services Asia, Infosys
My first piece of advice is to connect with someone who works in tech and watch what they do. If you can find a mentor, even better. This will give you insights into how IT roles work and what opportunities are available to you. I’d also suggest doing your homework before applying for jobs. I’m lucky to enjoy flexible working arrangements with a really supportive organisation, and that has allowed me to juggle my career and the demands of a growing family. I started out as a developer, but now lead a team of 30 developers, analysts and project managers. The opportunity to solve problems, both creatively and analytically is really rewarding.
Rinat Perry doesn’t smile, she beams. Beneath that head of generous brown curls is someone who knows what she wants and has been working hard at it. As a former fashion designer and stylist, the Israeli businesswoman chats enthusiastically about how attending a She Loves Data workshop has helped with her start-up StyleClueless.
A few years ago, while watching the American coming-of-age romantic comedy, Clueless, Perry had an epiphany. She realised no one was yet offering a comprehensive tool which fashion brands can use to help their customers understand their collections. For example, if they had bought an item or two, they may not necessarily know how best to maximise their purchase by creating different combinations of outfits they liked based on their styling preferences. More often than not, the case was that someone saw their favourite Instagram influencer wearing an incredible outfit and loved it but it just did not match her body type. As Perry explained, “You hear this all the time: I love the jacket, so how do I wear that?”
Rinat Perry, Founder of StyleClueless and a fan of machine learning.
While the idea is to offer consumers the possibility of visualising themselves in a complete look by creating outfit suggestions, StyleClueless also helps brands be more sustainable as many are stuck in inventories -items that are not bought simply because people do not know how to wear them or combine them with what they already own. Most ordinary folks certainly do not have personal stylists. Ecologically, StyleClueless makes sense as well. Now, each purchase can be worn much more often and even more purposefully.
At the end of the day, Perry loves it that machine learning teaches the retail business so much more about the purchased item journey when what was offered not too long ago online were just basic shopper demographics. The potential for different fashion brands to cross promote is also endless.
The big challenge for Perry was learning to communicate with the data scientists she works with. She shares her experience after the free She Loves Data workshop on data analytics, “When you haven’t learnt Computer Science and you don’t come from that world, it’s very intimidating. Most of the time the people in this industry are not so keen about explaining and they are not patient at all. So when you come to this event and instructor Quinn Pham gives the right explanations and compares it to things we can relate to, it’s easier to understand. Suddenly, it makes sense.”
Whatever your background, wherever you are on your career journey, you too can reap the benefits of data and machine learning. Join us for our next She Loves Data event in Singapore on 30 July: Machine Learning and you.
Soo Sien gets a high talking to strangers and enjoys being exposed to new voices.
Her jet fuel includes spin, hot yoga and stand-up paddling.
At She Loves Data, she is doing what she loves with people she loves.
Ever doubted a career decision you’ve made in the past? Anila Federicks’ experience shows how the idea of a right or wrong career move can be a fallacy, it’s what you make out of your decisions. By defying conventions, first by joining a grad program as a mature candidate and then applying for a role others thought was too senior for her, Anila is now leading teams to achieve customer service excellence at Telstra.
Read on!
I was a very young mom, and I had to go back into work—my first daughter was eight months old then. Back then, all I wanted to do was stay at home with her. So even though I had an MBA and I was a pharmacist, what I wanted was a part-time job to support my family. Maybe it was the worst career decision to just pick the first job that I got, which was at a call center as a sales and service consultant. But in hindsight, it was fantastic training.
There was a five-week training program where they took you through everything that you needed in Telstra. Then for three months, we were part of a kindy, where they train you to take calls and you learn customer service 101. I worked for about a year, then I had my second daughter.
When I went back, I saw in an email that Telstra introduced a grad program for internal staff who had completed a degree. I applied, got in, and topped the grad program. I was a mature-age grad, because I was 31 when I joined. It’s unheard of, right? All the other grads were just straight out of university.
As soon as I finished the program, I applied for a service director role. There were a lot of naysayers. Even some of my grad mentors said, “No, you can’t.” People told me that after a grad program, you have to get into a starting role and then work your way up. Well, I feel I can do it. I’m passionate about service. I’ve got 10 years of work experience, I can do it.
I got the role. So it’s really about believing in yourself and pushing through. Don’t ever think that any job is too small or too big, because in every role you can learn. You can learn from every single person. Sometimes you can get bogged down thinking, did I make the right decision? But I think from a family as well as career perspective, now I feel rewarded.
Authenticity is a big one for me. It’s about being true to what I believe in. Whatever you do, you check against that value system. Is it right for me? I would always speak up and explain why I think I will do it. That’s very important to me.
Paying it forward is a big principle in my life as well. In the last six or seven years with Telstra, I never had to ask for a role. It’s always been a tap on the shoulder and someone saying, hey, would you like to do this? I’m very grateful. I feel that as people are giving me opportunities, I have to pay it forward. I think the more you share, the more you encourage people to come up, it gives immense satisfaction. It’s like the legacy you leave behind.
Many people think it’s very uncool being in post-sales, because pre-sales is what brings the revenue, then you deliver the service, and then it goes into assurance. One of the questions that people have asked is, your work is in post-sales or it’s purely just break-fix, how come you get involved in continuous improvement, data analytics or design thinking?
I think what you’re dealing with in post-sales gives you credibility, you really understand what the business needs. The misconception is that people in post-sales may not be able to contribute to strategy and transformation. But that’s not true. You need representation from every area of the company if you want to succeed.
What I really like about my job with the company is a culture of flexibility. As a mother, as a family member, as a senior member in the organization, I value that flexibility. I’m in a job where I’m on call 24/7. I can be called anytime of the day.
For me, what works is I’m at home with the family, I have breakfast with them and send them off to school. Then I come to work after the peak hour. I’m there till about seven or eight o’clock because I’ve got support at home in the evening. That works really well for me. But for some others, they start at seven or eight in the morning and they finish up at four. It’s about embracing that flexibility and making it work.
The other thing that works really well for me, is taking time off. When I have time off, I’m usually just dead to the world. Yes, I can take emergency calls, but I make a conscious effort not to be looking at my phone all the time. I role model that for my staff as well. You give your staff time to breathe and enjoy their earned leave. I think that makes a huge difference. I think if you firmly believe in something, you’ve got to role model it.
Another thing is prioritizing, because I get over 1,000 emails a day. How do you let go of things so you can focus? How do you delegate better? Delegation is building the next-generation leaders. I now have such a good structure and strong leaders that I could walk away and hand things over to someone in the team. Also, one thing I learned through a program I implemented, is about never touching something twice. Whether its email management or any work, I try to deal with it once. I hate repetitive tasks, I don’t like doing things over and over again.
I took this role as the head of international service centers three years ago. What I found was, there was very little information. First, we didn’t have any data, because we combined two systems of two companies together. There was no baseline. Second, we weren’t measuring what mattered. The metrics were all over the shop.
One of the first things I did within the first two months was to create a jeopardy report. We used Tableau and got the metrics that mattered into a report. If I look back at our first report, it’s so basic, but it was the start of what we do today.
Today, everything is underpinned by quality data. We have a service operations team that provides us with the analytics, whether it’s on workforce management, daily performance management, or even picking up recurring faults. It helps us prevent future outages. It’s about reducing volume into our center so we can manage the work more efficiently and reduce cost.
We share a daily report every morning at 10 to all our stakeholders, so they know exactly where their issues stand and which customers are impacted. The other thing we’ve done is to have dashboards on our ticketing system, and we have data available at multiple levels—the consultant level, the manager level or senior management level.
The people who built the dashboards came from the grassroots, from the team itself, so they know what they’re measuring. As we digitalize and automate, a lot of the roles that they did previously is now redundant. You don’t have to have go hunting through lines and lines of Excel sheets, the information is all there at your fingertips. What we’ve had to do is up-skill people, so we have people with inherent capabilities or interest go for free Tableau training that anyone can do. If they show promise, we spend the money and get them to learn, challenge the status quo, and ask questions. It’s about continuous improvement as well.
For me, you don’t need to be a data expert with certificates. It’s about curiosity, interest, and passion. You may not have all of the skills yet, but that can be taught. But some people shy away from it, saying, it’s too tough or there are too many numbers. It’s about peeling through the data and asking, how does that impact your organization?
I tell the story of my duty manager, who was an escalation specialist. He saw me one day and said, have you looked at my resume? I told him, yeah, I hired you, I know what you do. He shared his interest to do something different and we gave him opportunities. Today, he heads all our improvement/digitization and automation initiatives. It’s just quite amazing.
The responsibility is also on the individual, isn’t it? You have to take ownership of where you want to lead your career. You have to be able to share what you want to do. But as leaders, I think we need to be approachable and create an atmosphere where people can actually share, hey, I’d like to try this.
I remember when I was doing the grad program, one of the senior mentors at that stage said, you’ve got to say what you want to do. You might want to become a future CEO one day, but if you never talk about it, people won’t know and encourage you. But under some forms of leadership, you just feel you can’t share. I think as leaders, we need to encourage openness.
Another thing I always say is, if you attend a meeting, contribute. You’ve been called to the meeting for a purpose and if you don’t do that, then you miss the opportunity. One of the things I’ve noticed while working in Asia, after having worked in Australia, is that people aren’t as outspoken or upfront about what they think. You really got to encourage it, sometimes it’s like pulling teeth. Now my team’s great, everyone’s contributing and sharing. But initially, it wasn’t like that. People were a bit wary. Maybe it’s their schooling, I’m not sure what it is.
The other big thing for me is communication. I’m very grateful to my parents. I grew up in India. My dad would take me to debates, and he would coach me and push me forward. When I moved to Australia, people told me I spoke good English. What I find with my team in Malaysia is, a lot of my leaders are technically skilled. They are data-savvy, but they lack the communication skills or their English is not as smooth. When you put them in a meeting together with our Australian counterparts, people will assume that the person who speaks well is more intelligent or a better leader. It’s unconscious bias but it affects whether people respond to what you’re saying. We are rolling out communications training for the team.
I love mentoring people. I’m constantly speaking at schools, like with my daughters. One just finished her ‘O’ Levels, and the second one is in secondary three. So I pick up opportunities to go and speak—get people together. I love working with people, it energizes me.
The other thing is needle craft. I attend conventions, and I collect a lot of yarn. When I finished a full day’s work, I go back and I’m crocheting or stitching. My daughters are very interested as well. Everywhere we travel, we try and go and find some local craft. I think creativity is a big part of who you are, as well. It inspires you to do things and push boundaries.
Soo Sien Tay writes about insights from female corporate leaders in Singapore who shared about their journey in data and diversity, at the She Loves Data “Introduction to Data Analytics” Workshop in May 2019.
Love tech but not sure if you should switch careers? For Toh Hui Min, what started out as a side interest in coding eventually led to a new career. She shares why she made the jump from finance to front-end engineering and how she picked up the skills needed. (Hint: Don’t self-learn alone)
Read on!
I was not anywhere near the industry five years back. I studied Economics and Philosophy in college. During the last semester in my final year, I took a course in programming for one of my electives. That was how I got exposed to programming.
I came out of that intrigued and interested, as I liked the challenge of picking up something completely new and foreign. Post-graduation, I decided to continue with programming on the side. At that point in time, I wasn’t thinking I was going to become a developer. It was more about exploring my interests, like solving simple algorithms and building simple websites.
I was learning on my own and attended meetups, workshops to get a feel of the tech landscape. In 2016, I got exposed to TechLadies, an organisation similar to She Loves Data. I attended one of their meetups where they were advertising for a three-month part-time bootcamp. In the bootcamp, learners get paired with coaches to develop projects for NGOs. I thought it was really cool, because it was like a win-win-win situation, for the NGOs, the ladies, and the coaches. I applied and got accepted into the bootcamp.
On Mondays and Fridays, I would be doing my usual work as a portfolio management analyst. Then on Saturdays from 1-6pm, I would be at the bootcamp. Our project was to build a web application on Ruby on Rails to streamline the TechLadies bootcamp application process. Even though the learning curve was hard, I came out of the experience a little bit more confident, knowing that it was doable. So I started practising with more complicated projects.
Late last year, I found the Thoughtworks Jumpstart! Programme. This one was a full-time bootcamp, and it took me a little bit of consideration to get into that because I had to leave my job of four years. I thought, should I really just quit and dive into tech without fully knowing what’s ahead? In the end, I decided to take the plunge as I knew I would regret the time lost if I passed on the opportunity. In hindsight, I’m so glad to have taken that step of faith.
I’m now in my first job after the bootcamp. It’s been challenging but very exciting. I focus on front-end development where I get to build the user interfaces that our clients see and interact with. Having worked with our design and content teams to build a product together has helped me better understand the human/user aspect to a tech product. A good product is not just about its features. It is equally, if not more important, that the product is designed in a way that is clean, intuitive, and empathetic towards the user.
I don’t think I was ever 100% certain, and there are definitely risks (time, finances, etc.) involved with doing a mid-career switch. I was fortunate to have had favorable circumstances where I was willing and able to take the opportunity cost.
If circumstances allow and fear is the only thing that’s stopping you, I’d say take a year and try it out. The worst-case scenario is that you lose a year off your previous career path. The best-case scenario is that you make the right decision and never look back.
The tech industry might come across as intimidating for various reasons. It will continue to be until we start stepping in and changing perceptions. By stepping in, you have a part in changing those perceptions. In time, your story might just encourage another career-switcher who is at the same crossroads as you were, to take that plunge.
My personal learning style is to get dive in head first and find people to work with. While I think self-learning is important to build knowledge, I find that building things and discussing them with others not only helps refine and solidify my knowledge, I could also pick up soft skills like collaboration and teamwork. That’s part of the reason why I chose to do bootcamps. I would definitely recommend bootcamps over self-learning.
I’m a visual person so when I’m self-learning, I prefer to semi-hack my way to a working prototype first, then find ways to refine and improve. I always have a side-project that I am working on that acts as a sandbox for me to play with new ideas and technologies I have picked up from reading.
I think people might think—and I also thought the same in the past—that to be a developer, you must know everything. This is not true and unless you have a photographic memory, it is impossible to know and remember everything. Personally, I find that the true skill of a developer is to know how to problem solve (with lots of Googling!) with the right tools.
The more I learn about software development, the more I notice the things I don’t know. When I first started coding, I thought there was one ‘right’ way to a solution. Now, when I see a problem, I know there is no one right way to solve it, and that each solution comes with their own pros and tradeoffs. It’s like the more I know, the more I’m aware of what I don’t know.
In hindsight, the confidence that came with the ignorance pushed me to find a job. Now that I’m in software development, I am just in the beginning of an upward journey of learning.
I think it’s a very humbling thing to start out without any traditional Computer Science training as I’m constantly learning and being challenged. I have to constantly tell myself, that I don’t know everything but I can get better. That’s the personal part.
The tech industry has predominantly been male. Although the gender scales are slowly but surely balancing, perceptions are still catching up. It’s a struggle we have to overcome and I try my best to bring more awareness that our input, opinions, and contributions are equally important.
Outside of work, my main interest is coffee. It’s such a beautiful craft, fluid and creative, yet logical and systematic at the same time. I feel the same way about coding. To me, coding is a creative pursuit. While math and logic set the framework, creativity gives me the freedom to build solutions that are designed well and fit for purpose. This is exciting because there are multiple solutions to a problem. It is also empowering because (within the defined structures, of course) we all have creative freedom to build anything we want, in any way we want.
On May 2nd we launched the first workshop in Malaysia – our signature “Intro to data” session for women.
And it was quite a special day at Asia Pacific University that hosted us. You can see the whole photo gallery here.
We had the largest number of attendees on the Intro to Data –112 ladies who registered plus a few others who got in to listen to Quinn and Steve – the total number was at 115!
At the same time, we had the lowest no-show rate ever – 11%. To put this is a context, at other locations we usually see 20-40% no-shows for our workshops. In KL we had to bring in extra chairs to squeeze everyone in!
We were humbled by many words of appraisal for the workshop quality and gratitude for bringing the She Loves Data community to Malaysia: “… the session exceeded my expectations and I left feeling positive and energized, …loved the flow of the workshop and appreciate the experience sharing session”, “…thank you for a great learning experience.”
This workshop would not have happened without one of my #DataTribe sisters, Anila Fredericks from Telstra. One more sincere thank you to Anila, her Telstra team, amazing SG & MY team from JetBrains, Steve from Minerra, APU and last, but not least my colleagues at Meiro for supporting this incredible data-loving community!
A special hug to Nelya Shakirova for keeping this all under control.
We are busy to prepare for the next session in Malaysia. Stay tuned while we are setting up the local volunteering group. Contact Arpita Chopra in KL if you want to help out.
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Save the Date – 12.12.2020!
