|
|
Describe your background, and current position / situation.
I am originally from South-East Asia. I did A-levels in Singapore, and then went to university in the US, where I studied computer engineering and music. I was hired directly out of college into the graduate training programme of an investment bank as a software developer. I spent more than five years in a succession of jobs in that bank before realising that I wasn't cut out for the large company experience. I left to join a hedge fund, still as a software developer, and I am now in another hedge fund.
My A-level college in Singapore was quite an even mix of male and female. The college that I went to in the US had quite a balanced male-female ratio, even in engineering. I now work in a company whose research team is evenly balanced, so yet again I am privileged to work in a very gender-balanced environment. Because of this, I have had a relatively easy ride in terms of being a "woman in technology". I have not experienced many incidents where it was a problem.
What do you like best about working in IT?
IT is a big field, and there are many possible career paths, so I can only comment on my own job as a software developer. The main thing is that it is very creative. Writing software is similar to writing music (I was a student of composition when I was a music student) in that you have recognisable patterns which you must use to build a large system. There is definitely an art to software development if you choose to observe that. It is possible to create something that works but is not elegant- this will then be hard to maintain and extend. If you do it elegantly, it will be easy to maintain and develop further. There is a very strong aesthetic side to it.
I also like how it is possible to create things out of nothing more than pixels on a screen! For that reason, programming is one of the most equal opportunity career choices - before IT, all too often a job was directly dependent on your physical capability. As long as you can operate a computer effectively, you can be a good programmer and nobody ought to care what you look like behind the screen.
Why did you choose a career in IT in the first place?
I'm not very sure. I fell into it as a career of last resort. When I was in college I actually wanted to be a musician. I did computer engineering because I hated all engineering then, and I thought I might as well pick something that I could tolerate, even if I didn't love it, something that I would be able to get a job in later. It was only after I had stumbled through working for a couple of years that I had the realisations I speak about above, about how good software engineering is an art.
I got into IT in finance by sheer luck. An investment bank called me for interview and I was clueless enough to ask "Who are you and why do you think I might be interested in working for a bank?” Even though that worked in getting me an interview, and eventually a place in the graduate programme, I do not recommend that as a strategy!
What have been the highlights of your career so far?
Resigning from my job at the investment bank and then a year later feeling absolutely vindicated in having done the right thing when I realised how much happier I was in a small company.
What are your career aspirations?
- Keep learning both technology and business
- Remain in small companies
- Be respected for what I do
- Be deserving of this respect
What are your tips for success?
The first thing I would say is: Do not have a chip on your shoulder about being a woman in technology. Do not be defensive as there is normally no need to be. If you encounter problems, address them appropriately, but it is not a good idea to start from a defensive position. I have found that most people don't care if you are female or not. If you meet someone who makes a big deal of it, that's the time to handle it, not before.
Success doesn't just mean success at work - it also means success outside of work. Be happy in yourself. If you are feminine, be feminine, but do not force yourself to be "female" in the way that others think you ought to be. I suffered from this for a few years. As I grew up in Asia, I had internalised a whole host of behaviours that Asian women are expected (especially in Asia) to embody. Amongst these are the stereotypical being submissive, quiet, and accepting of authority. But these are my own negative stereotypes that I had to overcome - they won't be everyone's.
If you want to be a geek, then be a geek. People think that it's ‘un-cool’ to be a geek and many women think that if they are too geeky, men will not be interested in them. I can categorically say that the latter is completely untrue. Apologies that I cannot comment on whether this strategy works for gay women as I have no experience there!
What books / websites etc. would you recommend to a woman just starting out in IT?
IT related: The Practice of Programming. Effective Java or Effective C++. These books teach you about the art of programming and how to make full use of the languages.
Non-IT related: Nice Girls Don't Get The Corner Office. This will teach you all of the things that women do unintentionally to sabotage themselves, so you won't do them.
Can you share a few words of wisdom for those people who are thinking about pursuing a career in IT?
Always be exploring the edges of technology. Try things out. Be hands-on and learn to program. Even if you want to eventually be a project manager in IT, a few years of development will give you an edge because you will understand the people that you are managing. My experience with working with project managers has been that hands down, the ones with actual technical experience produced better results.
It is a fallacy that if you are working in IT you can forget about having to deal with humans. Ultimately all systems are to be used by humans at some point. The systems I have worked on that have taken into account human-computer interaction and usability have been much more successful than the ones which haven't.
How important do think your education or background has been in influencing your career choices?
I went to a very technical engineering college in the US, so it was a very easy path to follow because we were exposed so much to technology.
Do you think it might have been a different story, of "how you got to where you are now", if you'd been a man?
I haven't conformed to female stereotypes very well, so I probably act more like a man than most women. Therefore, I'd have to say "probably not". Oddly enough, when I was born, a fortune-teller was consulted, as is customary in my part of the world - and I remember that one of the things said was "this child would have an easier life if she had been born male". It's hard to say really because I can't imagine what I'd be like if I wasn't myself.
I haven't had many incidents at work or school where I was treated negatively because I was a woman, but crucially a couple of them have been by other women, because I was "letting the side down" by not being female enough (in their eyes). I think it is important to mention this - often sexism is seen as being perpetuated by the opposite gender and that is sometimes untrue. Obviously, I can't speak for others' experiences.
Tell us a little about your life outside of work.
I read a lot, go for LSO concerts every now and then, and try to spend as much time outside during the summer. I wish I could say that it is more interesting than it is, but it isn't! I spend my weekends with my partner, or doing all the things that I don't have time to do during the week, like laundry and grocery shopping. I told you it was boring.
Do you think that there are obvious differences between what men and women have to offer an IT department?
Men and women are IN GENERAL different, so yes. You will get men who are less stereotypically male and women who are less stereotypically female, but it's a distribution so I need to add this qualifier. I've never understood why there was such a big fuss being made about men and women being "equal" where "equal" means identical. To me, equal does not mean identical, it means that for the work you do if you make the same contribution, you ought to be treated equally. It means that you can contribute to a company with equal effectiveness regardless of your gender (or other physical characteristics). Men and women may on the whole contribute different things which are equally important.
My observation - and this is totally based on anecdotal observation, so I freely admit it is a small sample size - is that men do tend to be able to focus on one task and cut to the chase, while women tend to multitask. Men tend to be more direct, women more inclusive.
Crucially, one approach is not superior to the other. I think that you need both. You also need to know when to apply which strategy, and this will change depending on who you are working with.
I have learnt to adapt my working style to whom I have to work with. I have worked with parties where I have had to be direct (even though I felt uncomfortable) because otherwise I would have been walked all over. Yet I have also had to work with people whom I had to be less assertive with.
Are you aware of any preconceptions or stereotypes of women in IT, and if so what do you think of them?
That female programmers are ugly and boring; It's total rubbish. Also that women have the "queen bee syndrome" and will not tolerate more than one in a group. The only women I've not been able to work with were the ones who felt the need to treat me differently for being unwilling to participate in female social rituals and by extension, not being female enough.
What do you think could be done to actively encourage more women to join the technology market place in general?
Promote flexible working in jobs which it is appropriate for. Technology is ideal for this as often you do not need a physical presence. However, I think that not every job is able to be done flexibly. I don't take "equal opportunity" to mean equal opportunity for every job. I take it to mean equal opportunity for a fulfilling career. People (men and women both) must accept that there are some jobs which will not be compatible with flexible working, and look for similarly fulfilling alternatives. Employers in turn ought to be willing to work with the employee to find such alternatives that permit flexible working.
Also, permit maternity leave to be shared between parents (I guess it ought to be called parental rather than maternity leave then). I have known at least one couple in which the male partner wanted to stay at home for a year to look after the baby, but couldn't as only women get maternity leave of that length. His wife earned more than he did, so for her to take a year off would have meant a large financial hit to the family.
Do you think enough is currently being done to counterbalance what has become an obvious lack of women in technology?
I'm not up to speed on what is being done, so I can't comment in great depth. However, I do not want to see positive discrimination happening where men are barred from roles because the company feels they want to hire more women. As a woman I hate the idea that people think I got where I am because I am female.
I have always thought that diversity needs to be promoted by encouraging the minority to join the field from the very beginning. In this specific case - get more women to study engineering, not hire more women if they are less qualified. If you produce qualified female technologists the imbalance will take care of itself.
I'd like to see the day when the answer to "what's it like being a woman in technology" is "Who cares?" then I'll feel that we've won. However I'm under no illusions that just because my experiences have been mostly positive, that everyone else has had an easy ride.
If you could give young women looking for a position in the IT market place a single piece of advice what would it be?
If you haven't yet figured out what you want, figure out what you don't want because then you can't be pushed into doing it because you don't know any better. |
