Innovation can change lives, yet many barriers to equality still remain. Access to technology and education, that is inclusive, is crucial to the empowerment of women and girls.
This year the United Nations 67th Commission on the Status of Women priority theme is ‘Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls’.
The idea is that by embracing new technologies and advancing women’s skills and knowledge in STEM, we can accelerate our progress towards gender equality.
To mark International Day of Women and Girls in Science Day (11th February), we sat down with Kimberley Michaels, Managing Principal – Banking & Payments Technology; Meera Solanki, Senior Consultant, Technology Delivery and Ineshka De Silva, Senior Design Consultant, Innovation & Design from Capco who share why they believe it’s so important for girls to have access to education and clear pathways into inclusive workplaces.
hello everyone thank you for tuning in I am Kylie batesman the content director at chican code and today we’re
discussing a quality and empowerment in the digital age how Innovation change and education hold the key this year the
United Nations 67th Commission on the status of women priority theme is innovation and technological change and
education in the digital age for achieving gender equality in the empowerment of all women and girls quite
a mouthful but the idea is that by embracing new technologies and advancing women’s skills and knowledge in stem we
can accelerate our progress towards gender equality now today I’m lucky enough to have three wonderful ladies
from Capco joining me to discuss this with me from Capco I have Kimberly Michaels managing principal Banking and
Payments Technology Mira solanki senior consultant technology delivery and
anesca de Silva senior design consultant Innovation and design welcome ladies
thank you for having us thank you thank you so we’ve got so much to cover today
um but can we start with a bit of a background about each of you please uh Kimberly can we start with you
sure um so it’s a pleasure to be here today for such an important conversation
um I started my career a long time ago um in the late 90s and I fell into
technology with Y2K um so I have most of my career I’ve been
in the banking space either through Consulting working for a software company or working for a bank delivering
operational and Technology change and Mira yeah likewise lovely to be here
super excited for this conversation um I have always lived and breathed sem
so I studied maths at school I studied computer science at maths at University and then I’ve worked for about 10 years
all in financial services in technical roles um and then I’m now at Capco also doing
a technical role um and yeah super excited for this conversation wonderful I need to go yourself
yeah so I’ve been in the design and tech industry for about coming up to six
years now um I studied product design I’ve always been a creative thinker with a bit of a
technical side of thinking as well um and I actually only recently got into Finance so I started off my career with
marketing background had a small um career shift and then moved into
product design where I could kind of get my teeth sunk into research product
design and creating Innovative digital experiences fabulous so all slightly
different routes in um but all seem very happy that you’re all working in technology
um so that’s good to hear um so we have so much to cover uh today on this this topic and so I’d like to
kick off with why do you think it’s important for girls to have access to education and clear Roots into diverse
workplaces um Mira shall we start with you yeah I mean I I spoke briefly in my
intro about how how I started with an education a STEM related education
starting in maths and I’ve kept that going as a current through everything I do as an in my professional career as an
adult as well I think that one of the most obvious answers is that we think
about the industry today and the workforce today but education is a great place for us to start preparing for the
workforce tomorrow and of the future if we can ensure that we’re addressing
um you know girls interests and encouraging them at a school level and Early
Education levels it’s one of the easiest and quickest wins to ensure that we can
have a diverse workplace and Workforce in the future as well
um you know education is the start of a lot of people’s careers and the decisions that they go on to make and if
we can have a huge impact at that level it really will reap benefits for the whole
um you know for what for generations to come yeah yeah and you’re absolutely right I think
um sometimes as well you don’t get girls early by the time they’re picking their University topics to study the moment’s
already gone hasn’t it it’s kind of that that opportunity’s gone yeah absolutely and it’s so interesting how different
countries have different paths to education at different ages um but you know being brought up in the
UK and and studying here we had to make those choices quite young I would say so
you know the option to to change trajectory can be that much more daunting if it happens later on in life
and so you know it just puts even more importance on making sure that whatever
age and wherever you are growing up you have access to that information that encourage that encouraging nature you
know that allows you to pursue whatever you’re interested in at the right time to make the best decisions for yourself
yes yeah I do think that’s through education yeah yeah and you’re you’re right I think
having the choice to change past as well is is so important and you’re right you don’t always know at an early age
um anyway what you want to do and let alone you know the actual uh job or job title for instance
um uh anishika is that something that that you you would agree with you know having those clear Roots uh into diverse
workplaces for girls yeah definitely I mean completely agree with um everything mirrors said you know
education it’s obviously something that shapes students opinions their thoughts
as they like prepare for society it influences children on all kinds of
things you know poverty Innovation ethnic racial inequalities
um it really is a crossroad in a way where students start to you know interact learn dissect different ideas
and Forge their own opinions um but as much as access to education is
really important I think there’s also importance in acknowledging that the education system is broken in a lot of
ways um you know I think schools are still teaching in ways that are standardized
and I guess the negative around that is that you know we have 20 to 30 kids in a class meaning you know we can’t cater as
well for um specific needs around children and their sort of individualistic
um personalities and traits their background and that in turn affects you
know um creating those future diverse workplaces you know so I think there’s a
lot you know I can appreciate the importance of access to education 100 but also I think there needs to be a lot
of a lot more acknowledgment and action I think in improving the education system
um and I think a couple of examples of that are around you know even subjects like history the curriculum doesn’t you
know sometimes it’s it’s kind of known at the moment at least in the UK for covering certain groups for example
um you know a lot of the education system is around um memorizing a repetition regurgitation
we teach kids how to answer questions but not how to find them so I think
there’s a lot of things that we can change in education to kind of not only help access but also to improve our
prospects for diverse workplaces in the future yeah definitely working in technology that is a question that that
comes up so often isn’t it just yeah finding those those questions and and
always having that mindset of learning and moving forward and you’re right that’s something that you’re not really
taught at school currently it’s why would you know why would you be expected to follow that through into the
workplace yeah yeah exactly and I think like growing up as well just on a on a
personal note I think even Concepts around having a role model that looks
like me who is someone of an ethnic background I never really understood the um sort of the value of a role model
until I really started my career um so you know role models are obviously people that can influence that can
motivate and I guess there’s less um opportunity for Role Models at least
in my education my Early Education um and you know there’s plenty of
reports that show that having a lack of a role model or a lack of someone that represents you and the tech industry or
the industry that you’re interested in can be detrimental in deciding whether you even want to consider a career in
Tech you know so yeah just seeing somebody you’re absolutely right somebody coming into your school or
seeing somebody on TV I wanted to be k-80 the news reporter because she was
on TV and I said that’s how you see and you know your job isn’t it you kind of
if you don’t have access to those technology of our models how do you know what what you want to be exactly Mira
what benefits do you think diverse workplaces have are they they’re good for business good for the team both all
of the above I think um I think there are some some really
obvious answers to that question you know they are good for the workplace they’re good for the team companies who
focus on diversity have been shown to have you know above average returns in terms
of a financial sense um but but we talk about the benefits we
can also maybe controversially talk about the detrimental impact of not doing it so there are some really clear
examples in like in the modern world not just not even just in technology where if you don’t consider diversity it
really is limiting how Innovative the products that we create are or how well
they meet the market needs um a really good example there isn’t a new example is
Crash Test Dummies so we know that when cars are manufactured they go through
rigorous testing and with Crash Test Dummies to ensure that they meet certain safety guidelines but historically Crash
Test Dummies have always been modeled off of middle-aged men of a certain stature and so we automatically take
something as important as health safety risk in I mean driving for a lot of
people is an everyday thing so so you’re exposed to it quite frequently and we’ve automatically not considered
implications for anyone that doesn’t align with what that crash test dummy looks like and there are lots of
examples of this that pervade through Society in our Everyday Use famously most recently Apple created a health app
that was created once again just by a team of men and completely neglected the
needs of women or less able-bodied individuals and I think it’s fair to say
you know all of us especially in the western world are using a mobile phone are likely to be using that
functionality and so to to have left a huge chunk of potential users out of
consideration um is just it’s nonsensical when you discuss it in retrospective you know
um so so there are definitely benefits but the cost of not doing it is is significant and it it shouldn’t really
be optional any all I also think that companies can talk about what is the
business case for having diverse teams of diverse environments but once again maybe controversially the
black and white of it is that they shouldn’t really need to be a business case is this the right thing to do is
this best for society and progression and the future and if so well maybe
Finance or money isn’t the only motivator for Us increasing or introducing change it should be about
how do we install that we are ethically conducting ourselves that we’re
as employers we are taking on our social responsibility outside of just looking
at profitable profitability and you know even when employers don’t prioritize profitability the talent that
you attract becomes considerably better you know you reap benefits in other ways so yes diversity has great benefits for
the workplace it’s wonderful for teams it’s wonderful for collaboration but my two main points are the cost of not
having diverse teams can be significantly detrimental and also
we kind of need to take the the money element out of it and remember that we’re talking about humans in a
workplace as well and really consider as a society how we want to portray ourselves what thoughts we want to
encourage and once again shaping the future what we want to go forward looking like and being proud of what
we’ve achieved and and the inclusive aspect yeah I remember years ago
um when uh the conversation about diversity it was just just coming to light diversity in the workplace and um
you’re absolutely right at the time it was it seemed like a no-brainer but it
wasn’t until companies started releasing reports about how much more you can make
if you have you know just one female on your border directors and your bottom line increases then suddenly you know
companies there is pricked up and if why was this you know not listened to before because as you say it is it’s just kind
of a non-brainer anyway the benefits that a diverse team brings but I mean once those reports came out companies
kind of started to see the light and changes is starting to to happen
um which is quite a shame because it is just down to a a human level to be fair
not the financial yeah and we know these things take time to trickle in we know the if we say it today every single ftse
100 company isn’t going to change tomorrow but um there was an article written in the
guardian maybe maybe a few years ago about how there are amongst ftse 100 companies there are more men named John
than women across the board when it came to these companies and there’s there’s
some element of Being Human you know just to look at that and say well whether it we benefit from it in a
profit perspective or not that is something we should look to address that’s an embarrassing statistic you
know yes um and and so I completely agree business cases help and they can
often you know get the ball rolling for companies but part of the work around
diversity and inclusion needs to involve the attitude toward and the openness towards it and actually the motivation
for it yes yes and and these in terms of what pacco are doing uh what what is
Captain catco doing to create a more diverse Workforce yeah so I think there’s a couple of
things around this and I think it really starts from attracting talent and the
recruitment process so you know I can definitely draw from personal experience when I interviewed at Capco
um simply having someone represented from ethnic minority background in my
interview process through the panel interviews it was really refreshing um you know it made me a lot more
comfortable to be able to speak about diversity and ask questions about it
um so yeah I think it starts from attracting Talent recruitment process and making sure that you embed diversity
in that process itself and also in terms of um attracting Talent as well when it
comes to things like job postings um I think it’s really important to be mentioning
um things around diversity and inclusion you know and that’s something that Capco does
um as well um and then obviously since I’ve been at Capco um I definitely feel like
knowledge is power here um you know we have plenty of training around important topics like unconscious
bias ethnicity bias and discrimination it’s not just around knowledge and training it’s also about recognition
um and providing people recognition around culturally significant events I
think that’s really important um Capco as an employer celebrates diversity through plenty of events talks
clubs and you know this podcast is a perfect example of being part of the women in Tech group and having
opportunities like this to be able to speak and share my opinion is is great you know
um there’s plenty of employee-led networks which again I think just it’s
it’s simple but it provides a platform where um you know different groups of people
from different backgrounds can actually have a safe space to be able to speak up share their opinions and their
experiences um and then I guess the final two that I wanted to mention as well is around
um providing a platform so catco does make the effort to you know organize
these groups um to have a diversity and inclusion committee um but also it’s about giving employees
and empowering them to be able to have the freedom to educate others on what
their passions are no matter what they are um so you know whether that’s work or personal related being able to share
your passions um your culture and things like that I think is really important it shouldn’t
just be employer-led employees should feel empowered and able to be able to share
their opinions and to be able to drive the kind of diversity and inclusion that they’d like to see
um and then finally one thing that I feel Cap Code does really well is um
especially for me I’m I’m senior at the moment but I’m looking to progress in my career of course there’s as many people
are and one of the things I found really beneficial here is having different
types of mentors I have a coach as well and having those types of leadership
relationships helps me to be able to push myself and understand what’s
expected of me so that I can progress and I think transparency as well is is
another really important factor when it comes to progression as an employee I really want to know what is expected of
everyone in order to progress and I’d like to see a clear pathway that’s
defined for me and that’s something that Capco does really well so we have specific levels
um you know there’s guidance of what type of achievements or Milestones or goals that you should be setting
yourself so there’s there’s plenty of support here which is something that I really value and again by providing that
transparency when it comes to progression um and promotions Etc that in itself
provides everyone a better platform in terms of diversity and inclusion to
progress together um so yeah I think I think that summarizes it in a nutshell yeah
going on at Capco um yeah but one thing you said uh uh yeah I completely agree with um I love
the fact that you pointed out that when you interviewed there was somebody on the panel that reminded you of you and somebody that you could connect with and
yeah and that’s you hear that so often that you don’t get that technology and
when I started uh in Tech I remember my boss uh I’ve shared this story before
but she was drunk at a Christmas party and she said I hired because you reminded me of me and I thought Fab
um because uh she’d had quite a few to drink um but I remember thinking at the time we can’t move forward as an
industry if you just coincidentally happen to have somebody on the hiring panel that you remind them of them and
how hard that must be for some people to be able to connect with somebody in that
way and um do you do you think that’s one of the things that’s putting women off from the
tech sector and lots of other things definitely I think I think the sort of
that lack of representation sometimes um can definitely sway women around
um joining you know joining a new company I think for me the recruitment process is so vital because it really is
um not only the applicant’s chance to have a first impression but also the
employer’s opportunity to make a first impression you know and for me I was
surprised honestly um during my interview process to immediately feel like a sense of
belonging already and I hadn’t even started just simply having someone who
represented an ethnic minority was so important for me and I was actually able to identify that like wow you know I
haven’t had many interviews where there’s been someone who represented me
you know um so so that was really important for me and definitely influenced my decision
to to join catco 100 yeah um and mirror yourself where do you
think girls uh are turned off by STEM subjects is that school University first
job you mentioned a little bit about that earlier about you know getting girls uh nice and early to to ensure
that they’re encouraged and into Tech uh but would you agree that more needs to be done earlier in that stage yeah I
think the harsh truth of it is that you know we’re failing girls at every at
every level I do think that it can it can if we consider the journey that
somebody who ends up in a technology role might go through throughout their lifetime right from the beginning the
the kind of toys the the young children are gifted you know uh uh a boy might
get a dentist or a doctor set or you know something like that whereas girls
toys are often geared around a kitchen or something that might be yeah
something that might traditionally be seen as you know like a pink toy and the whole pink and blue bias comes in at
such an early age if we then talk about you know during schools
um the the in the UK obviously we have key stages and so key stage four is
around 15 16 and and surveys have been conducted where girls are far less
interested in stem subjects compared to their male counterparts but then the
same group when asked what they think high paid jobs are they they all
acknowledge men and all girls and boys acknowledge that we believe stem jobs is where you
can have the most earning potential yet that’s not reflected in what their
desire is in terms of okay what are you going on to study in further education so it’s not that girls don’t know it’s
that they are stifled at some point very early on they’re at the ages of 15 16 so
young they already have these Impressions that actually that’s not for me me and they’ve conducted
um further further quick like surveys further studies to understand okay well what is that is there actually a
difference in the way that girls and boys think and so maybe they’re not tailored well for a stem environment but
um I think I think gals at that in those developmental years experience
like like The Stereotype fear which is essentially when
um a group of people are told actually The Stereotype is that you’re not going to be good at this and then the fear
sits it affects their confidence and then it goes on to affect their ability and then they perform in line with those
stereotypes so then they end up actually not being great at those things what I’m trying to get at is this is a hugely
confidence related issue we know that girls that go through education in a
single sex environment so like girls schools develop much more confidence they don’t have the experience of a
glass ceiling they don’t have the experience of people saying why would you study engineering that’s typically a
boy’s subject they they don’t face any of those confidence shattering commentary and also beliefs and it
allows them to build themselves as their most natural and authentic selves to
then proceed into whatever career choice that they’ve made we know that girls who
aren’t stifled at school levels and in their developmental years can go on into those careers with much
more confidence and they can make the most of their natural ability but it is about ensuring at every stage we’re
removing some of those bias that they’re taught and they’re and they’re pushed on them because you know the statistics
show that more girls actually do a levels than boys more girls perform well
when they do choose stem a levels compared to boys so it’s not that they’re not capable we obviously
acknowledge every individual has different skills but on maths girls are incapable they’re not differently wired
they’re not advantage in terms of their capabilities it’s the environment around
them that influences them and so we can do so much about that I personally
mentioned I studied maths all the way through my education and all of the stem subjects except maths were taught by a
man at my school it’s because I had a female teacher who was so passionate
about her subject and taught us that it’s okay to be passionate about maths it’s like if you love this go and do it
run with it so it’s the role model thing that anishka’s been talking about and I completely agree with it’s starting that
off very young we know that in school everyone is
largely subjected to the same information or can get the same foundations whereas at home you might
have different experiences between you know the four of us all of our mums
versus our dads might do very different jobs so so we we kind of have a responsibility through our education to
lay that even groundwork and that even foundation so that even when we go out of the school place when we’re around
our peers when we subscribe to popular culture all of those influences don’t
detrimentally impact us because we have this strong Foundation where someone has repeatedly told us
consistently women can do whatever they want to do and that’s for me it’s that kind of messaging that just needs to
continually exist in order to stop failing women I think there are some other aspects to
it so we’ve talked about you know making sure that they can feel confident or authentic wherever they go
um something initially spoke about which I feel really passionate about is ensuring there’s that Network as well so ensuring there are people around you who
you can see okay well when I want to progress in my career there is a woman there who’s already done it it’s worked
out for her she has some learning she has some knowledge to share with me um it’s also about
things that often happen in the workplace for women around their voice
and their purpose so you know I have a very good friend who works and I’ve seen
inclusion and she said when she started out her career she noticed that she was on a grad scheme where men were being
given projects and opportunities that were much more data related much more what we would consider traditionally
stem encouraging projects whereas she was given projects more associated with
like the human touch or you know working with um
you know other skills which are equally as important don’t get me wrong but opportunities were stripped from her
because of her gender she felt like um and then you know continuing on that
trajectory even in the workplace we obviously recently went through a pandemic and there was some time when
like PPE wasn’t hijab friendly initially and had to be adjusted so it’s it’s
every step there is always a hurdle for anybody and that hurdle was slightly
larger for women or for anyone who might identify within
um you know a a trait of diversity so we just need to
make sure that the people making these decisions represent if we’re represented
by a diverse decision-making group they’re much more likely to be considerate and that helps ensure that
at every at every stage at every decision um women have have you know Fair
opportunity and we’re not failing them at every one of those steps yes yeah they’re still into everything
um a diversity should be built into everything along the way and everybody wins
um every stage instead of having you know that that embarrassing PR moment um you mentioned Apple earlier you know if
you just naturally build that into your processes anyway you can avoid things like that absolutely I just I just
wanted to mention as well Mira like um I completely relate to everything that you’re saying especially when it comes
to early age and that confidence level and stuff like that then that then translates into when women
um go into their careers so sorry I’m bringing it back to you know what’s putting women off the tech sector I
think it comes down to three things you know low pay low position and then the lack of inclusion as well
um so again the confidence the role models from an early age having having that lack of those really important
things then kind of makes women kind of start on a sort of a less advantaged
position in a way and then when they start in those Tech careers they’re facing things like you know a lack of
representation Etc um you know some some statistics
um have been saying that you know 77 of tech leaders are men which is just you
know crazy um and then you know being a woman itself you know they’re not only having
to deal with the fact that they’re simply a woman but then also dealing with the fact that they’re a woman of color as well and then there’s things
around gender pay Gap even at this day and age you know the wage Gap is larger
um for marginalized populations and there’s plenty of reports that say that women are being paid less than their
male counterparts the senior positions um so for me when it comes to looking at
employers um salary transparency equal pay
um you know not being penalized for being a mother those types of things is what I I would want to hear from an
employer you know yes yeah and I think just to add on to your comments around
the workplace I completely agree with you that all these measurables and these
you know these things that we look for in prospective employers us are are far
more attractive when they’re visible and when they’re transparent I also think employers can go that one step further
um from a cultural perspective so you know the first role I had since graduating in in finance I
um was in an environment where there was one woman in leadership in this company and great we there was a woman in leadership
and and that was good to see there’s obviously lots more work to be done but they’ve got the ball rolling but they
had a cultural problem of how people talked about that one woman in leadership so I completely agree with
you that there’s lots to be done in terms of getting women there there’s lots to be addressed in terms of culture
and ensuring that as a young naive first role within my career very
impressionable I want to be hearing people saying the right things and talking about women in leadership in the
right way I I think that they were very discouraging or discrediting things being said purely because this person
was a woman and it it’s really unfair and like dehumanizing to be like oh well
well let’s discredit everything she could have possibly achieved and only attribute it to her gender or to her
ethnicity and I think there really needs to be cultural work done where you know across many sectors and how we talk
about women and their successes as well yes and and exactly how we talk about
that and and um Kimberly I wanted to ask you about the the small steps that individuals can take to to Champion uh
women in Tech what what do you think they are so there’s there’s three things um that
you know when I was reflecting on this and listening to these young women here and it’s really focusing on mentoring
programs so I’m I’m joining today on this podcast on the United States so your perspective that you shared around
education and um how you have you’re kind of locked into your career path at a certain point
is very different than my experience on the other side of the pond um it’s much more entrepreneurial in
terms of how you um determine your path in life and if you decide that you want to go in
engineering you’re not stuck there you can switch to healthcare um it’s it’s not so predetermined
um so mentoring programs they help um young girls and young women who are
in school to identify that they can make a change they may have thought that they want to be a teacher and there’s nothing
wrong with being a teacher but when you give them the heart of the possible of hey you know get that that iPad that
you’re using these are the cool things you can do with it there’s after school programs that we can invest in it it
Sparks a thought and that spark then gives them an opportunity to kind of explore something new so mentoring
programs are huge um I would also say like in the workplace giving individuals stretch
assignments meaning that you may not have a technical background but you have a technical Acumen which in many cases
is way more important because you can study to learn something but if you
don’t have the Acumen to know what to listen for in your clients in your day-to-day life
um you’re not as relatable to you know in our world we’re dealing with clients so you can’t just talk all code you have
to relate that to a business kind of perspective um and then lastly it’s really making
sure that we are hiring people for their skills not the job titles that they had in the past so many times when people
apply for a job you know there have been studies where women read the details of
the job requirements and a man reads it and um you know perhaps when a man sees it
he thinks oh I can do half of this I’m applying we’re women we have a tendency where we feel like it’s all or nothing
and it goes the same as somebody that’s looking to interview someone you don’t just look at
um you know if you are interested in delivering technology and you did project management and something not
entirely technology related but you have all of the core project management skills you probably could do a very
introductory levels that you learn kind of the the nuances of technology and not just not give that person an opportunity
because they don’t have the title there yes and some of us as well were not great at selling ourselves on our CV
anyway so you know if you don’t need your job titles um and they’re only going by that then
you know obviously you’re not going to get um uh chosen for jobs that you think you can do um but as you said it’s uh it’s
making sure that you dig a little bit further um into that and yeah and the one other
thing I wanted to add is um there’s a book that I read by Alexandra Carter which I recommend any
woman to read it’s called ask for more and something that I really learned through this was the concept of
amplification an amplification is when you know when you’re in a room and
um speaking from a predominantly male dominated industry that my whole career has been in women have a tendency to
wait their turn and even though you may have been very critical in solving for
um a challenge for a particular project or you did a lot of the research you’re kind of waiting for your turn to speak
and the concept of amplification is let’s say that um I’m working with Mira
or nesca on a project and we’re all in the same room working with a group of people and I know that they did a lot of
research it’s say her name give her credit and basically the concept is I
would call out and say well you know and ashka did a lot of research on this particular segment of the business in
Australia you had some great ideas why don’t you share that with the group you’re basically elevating someone and
giving them a platform so that you have a voice because a lot of times
um you know you you can look around a meeting room and when we used to be more in person the body language is even
different sometimes with how women take up space versus men and this isn’t
negative towards men I think it’s just um unfortunately how women subconsciously we carry ourselves we
kind of make ourselves smaller and you have to remember that you need to speak up you can you know be used body
language and all those other things that show that you’re there yeah which can be harder remotely as
well yeah on there with lots of guys how do you show that body language
um when when you’re not in a room with everybody Kimberly how how has the industry
changed for women um since you started in Tech do you think yeah it has changed
um very much it changed so much so um like I said earlier I started
um in the finance industry in 1995 which probably makes me sound ancient and I
fell into technology with Y2K planning um kind of uh I guess you could say a
stereotype the whole reason why I fell into it is because the men that I worked with said I was really organized and I
should get involved in planning out how we prep for Y2K so just didn’t want to deal with it
um since that time I could say happily that there are definitely way more women that
are in the technology field um when I went to college I didn’t even know that it was an option to
study technology there were no like speakers that came to my high school I didn’t know that that was an option
um now you know one of the biggest changes I would say is that with women and University levels and also having
Outreach programs to let girls know about these opportunities there’s a wide variety of disciplines so before technology they’ve been very focused on
the engineering aspect where now it’s a more broader umbrella from UI ux you
know you could do testing like there’s all these little nuances of Technology on what types of roles you can have I
also think that some of the additional responsibilities that women May predominantly take on in their personal
life as they advance in their careers you know things like having children caring for aging parents
um technology typically even perform covid was more remote friendly so if
you’re trying to balance you know being a mother or taking care of someone you
could navigate your personal analyte and the demands a little easier because of
that flexibility in your career um so I would say there’s still a long way
to go but we have definitely made significant strides and even with these uh two young women that have joined here
today from Capco like that’s proof of that yes and would you say do you have any
advice for women considering a career in the industry
um I would say that you have to never stop learning so the one
um negative and positive of going to technology is you always have to stay on top of the latest thing
um you are always a student and it’s very important that you have to balance
don’t try and learn every new thing you want to focus on something that gives you expertise so that you’re a subject
matter expert in a certain theme um of technology so there’s a saying
someone once told me you want to be the Purple Cow so when you’re driving down the road and you see the brown cows and the white cows like you want to be the
cow that really stands out because you really have you have proven that you know what you’re doing in your craft you
have the right certifications to stand behind it and you also have like empathy and good people skills so I would say
all of those things are are very very important and most importantly if you have those skills if you aren’t working
on not only just building the relation relationships but knowing how to
leverage them um that that will be an impediment to your career my past 15 years
um you know when I’ve had various roles it was all through people that I knew or I was introduced to and your your
network is your gold mine yes yeah yes I completely agree with with um growing your network I love that
that’s going to stay with me you want to be the Purple Cow though with me
um is there any advice that you you would give women a career in Tech yeah
so definitely I think I think I completely agree with the things that Kimberly has said you know around
um you know kind of employing a beginner’s mindset I think that’s really important always having the willingness
to learn um if you do have an interest in technology then really kind of get to
know yourself practice self-awareness you know um and and start to ask yourself honest
questions and answer them honestly you know what is it that you love about the tech industry what do you not love I
guess what are your um kind of affinities within Tech um I guess just trying to enrich your
understanding of the tech industry and then trying to find again you know what’s unique to you what do you feel
you have more of a Affinity towards um I think passion is like the most
important thing as well as long as you’re passionate about what you’re doing within the tech center I think you
can go really far you know I I think for me personally design and doing creative
work has has been an absolute passionate passion of mine it’s really and truly an extension of my hobby and that’s why I
feel like I’ve been successful so far in my career you know um and then again I think I think it’s
also around Community there’s lots of opportunities out there and and I think
sometimes it’s just a case of trying to you know as Kimberly said trying to leverage the right people trying to
leverage and build a network trying to um make use of the communities that are
available to you and the opportunities that are available to you um I think that’s really important as
well um and also being able to again find mentors I think mentoring is it’s always
something that I wish I did earlier because I only really started doing it once I was already in a Tech Career I do
feel like having a mentor earlier would have really helped me would have sort of
helped guide so many different kind of decisions that I was going through even
when I was deciding um what exactly I wanted to do within the tech industry and then also once I’m
actually in the tech industry all kinds of things around you know what sort of companies to apply to
um you know what sort of um subjects are really at the Forefront in terms of
Trends um staying up to date you know people who are mentors are highly influential
people and obviously they’re people who have experience you know a number of
years of experience much like Kimberly does so me being able to learn from someone like her is really going to be
beneficial whether I’m considering a career in Tech or whether you’re already in a career in Tech
um so yeah that that would be my kind of three key points yeah yeah and and actually I’m just you know growing that
work Network and finding those mentors um it’s a lovely place to leave it on today because ladies were already out of
time um but Kimberly Mira Anusha thank you so much for joining us today it’s been an
absolute pleasure to have you all thank you for having us this is great thank you so much yes it’s been brilliant
great combo thank you and to everybody listening as always thank you for joining us and we hope to see you again
next time
