Socio-economic background relates to income, occupation and social background. This includes where you were born and raised, your family history, your level of education, and your access to funding or opportunities.
A person’s socio-economic background is a major factor in their career progression. A recent report from CMI found that found that 53% of those in management roles are from a high socio-economic background, compared to just 38% from a low socio-economic background.
Further to this, in the UK tech sector specifically, Inclusive Boards estimates that 19% of workers are from a working-class background compared to 33.3% of the nationwide population (2014 Labour Force Survey). In contrast, those with parents from a professional-managerial background make up 45% of workers in the sector compared to 31.2% of the nationwide population.
The extent of the socio-economic diversity challenge in the tech sector is symbolised by the average class pay gap of £4,736. This means that when individuals from working-class origins enter the sector, they can expect to earn £4,736 less than their peers from more privileged backgrounds with the same education, experience and training. Broadening access to opportunities available is crucial if we are to break down barriers in the workplace and improve social mobility in tech.
But how can we buck this trend? And how do we get the confidence to own our own backgrounds and get ahead in tech?
We catch up with Dr. Tendu Yogurtcu, Chief Technology Officer at Precisely, to give us her thoughts on social mobility and the role that tech businesses can play in driving more a diverse workforce.
We take a look at why social mobility is important in the workplace, what companies can do to improve it, as well as Tendü’s advice on challenging the status quo and having the confidence to get ahead in your career.
hello everyone and thank you for tuning in again I am Kaylee Bateman the content director at chicane code and today we
are discussing why supporting social Mobility could help close the tech skills Gap
socio-economic background relates to income and occupation this includes where you were born and raised your
family history your level of education and your access to funding or opportunities it is a major factor in a
person’s career progression a recent report from CMI have found that 53 of
those in management roles are from a high socioeconomic background compared to just 38 from a low socioeconomic
background now broadening access to Opportunities available is crucial if we are to break down barriers in the
workplace and improve social mobility in Tech but how can we back this trend and
how do we get the confidence to own our own backgrounds to get ahead in Tech now today I have the wonderful Dr tendu
yogutsu with me today who is the chief technology officer at precisely to give
us her thoughts on social mobility and the role that Tech businesses can play in driving a more diverse Workforce
welcome 10 don’t hi Kaylee hi everyone thank you for having me today thank you so much for
joining us and I know it’s early where you are so thank you so much for for uh dialing in today and having a chat um
can you start with a little bit of background about yourself please of course
um as you mentioned I am currently Chief technology officer at precisely precisely is the global leader in data
integrity and I started my career actually as a computer engineer I was
lucky to your point about the socioeconomic background I I am from a
family where pretty much everybody is a educator and teacher my father was a
math teacher so I had this passion about math I really like uh liked and still
like Matt as a child and at the time uh Computer Engineering computer science
Fields were very new and uh one of my my teachers thought that this might be a
good area because it’s going to be the future of the jobs in that area so I had
Computer Engineering degree follow that with the Masters in industrial
engineering with focus on business side and operations research we didn’t have data analytics and data science at the
time so operations research and statistics was the closest and that
actually helped me a lot gaining a little bit more on the economics and financial side of the business how you
can apply technology which I liked and then I came to United States for PhD and
I pursued a PhD in computer science and
I started working during this time I worked during my Master’s I worked during my PhD and after that I joined a
company thinksort where I took several engineering and r d leadership roles and
I pioneered that company is entry to Big Data which was a little bit of stretch
for me going out of my comfort zone and I became general manager during leaving a global business with all aspects not
just r d with sales marketing and business development and all engineering
functions which became a big step for me to go to the sea level and become a CTO
I kind of gave this as a journey because there are many elements so we will probably touch on as we chat today
yes and it’s so good to hear and that somebody was interested in stem and they
studied in Tech and wanted to go into Tech because I’ve had lots of ladies on here so far and it’s something that we
hear a lot in the tech industry they fall into technology after several other careers and so it’s wonderful to hear
that that was the plan from the start um and that you’ve stayed in it um so our discussion today is around
social Mobility so why is social Mobility important in the workplace and
in the tech industry specifically I will tell a bit of a personal story
here because I think it’s important for everyone to understand
look at myself I am from a mid-class family and only one parent was working and as
we all know Educators teachers I’m at the like highest paid people even though they bring a lot
of value to society and one of my strengths have come from
I was able to have sponsorship scholarship
so during my undergrad I had full scholarship from coach foundation in
Turkey during my Master’s I had I worked in parallel with my masters in the
department as well as outside so I stretched myself to taking two jobs uh
at once I had full scholarship coming to United States for my PhD
now when we look at tech jobs in particular actually we have a bigger opportunity especially now with the
remote working environments and ton of ton of free online resources
so uh one why is it important in tech industry
because we are already starting with uh many underrepresented groups in tech
industry let’s look at the numbers we had 18 of computer science majors
three decades ago as a woman we still have 18 percent
so we haven’t really moved a bit over these multiple decades let’s look at the
jobs of Tomorrow emerging roles with cloud computing with the data and AI in
cloud computing women make up 14 of the workforce this is according to World economic Forum data in engineering 20 in
data and AI 32 percent so we are already starting underrepresented and kovid if anything
accelerated Automation and digitization if we don’t invest and make stem fields
and in particular technology a priority for these underrepresented groups in
this case women because we are talking about women in particularly here
we have a risk of actually even going into less representation in
the workforce we will be less skilled and we will be in the lower pay grades as opposed to
other so we have an opportunity so that’s one and then two we are seeing
that again a world economic Forum data an estimated 70 percent of new value
created in the economy over the next decade will be based on digitally
enabled platforms and business models however 47 47 of the world’s population
doesn’t have uh internet connectivity it’s hard to believe that right so we
have an opportunity uh with industry with uh organizations technology
organizations and non-profit organizations and government
partnering to have these initiatives so we can actually close this Gap and
actually contribute to economy this is going to impact the economy and then the third is
idea occupations in general are associated this is a uk-based data point
actually from one of the research institutes in UK with high level of long-range social
Mobility so people who are coming into I.T are likely to have a little bit
higher paid higher Social Status than their parents and the IT offers more
opportunities with that yes a lot of companies um they I think they think outside the
box when it comes to candidates sometimes um and you’re right if we if there’s still a skill storage all these years
later then you know we really do need to make change there and I was only speaking to a tech recruiter yesterday
who said to me they’ve stopped looking at education on CVS and they start looking more into soft skills and
experience um because you’re right you you we’re forever going around in circles and not
finding the the talent that we need um to push forward do you think it is often overlooked when it comes to dni
practices dni has many dimensions right diversity
Equity inclusion and then the dimensions what’s the diversity we are talking
about ethnicity gender race age disability so many dimensions uh I often
see that e in the Dei is overlooked Equity uh I think uh that’s a really
tough one and we see an opportunity because the environmental social and
governance EST initiatives are going to be really important for investors for
customers for partners and going to push organizations to look into these data
points and metrics however Equity is often the overlooked one and then I also
had experience with precisely we have grown significantly 10 times within the
last 10 years and vote through organic as well as through Acquisitions we had
20 plus Acquisitions in six years so the talent became Global Talent uh 2500 plus
people and when we look at that one part that I see where the dni is overlooked during
the acquisitions and we noticed that and we actually made that part of our due diligence because
you you have these due diligence practices you are going to do something and it happens
we were in a room after a very large acquisition where we doubled the size of the company
and I was running a workshop so we learned about each other practices and
this was a cross-functional one r d uh press sales all engineering functions as
well as marketing and product management in the room we had 60 people only five
women who came from one side of the house and I was thinking what happened here yes we overlooked something like uh
did we just acquire uh White Men what happened here which actually led to
the uh founding the precise Libyan technology network with a wonderful Ally
of mine from sales and start doing something a little bit more programmatically so the E and I often
see that during the Acquisitions be Overlook yes that’s that’s incredibly interesting actually to know to know
Acquisitions because I think a lot of companies they always think of their dni efforts as you you know said just in
terms of their everyday recruiting but suddenly when you find yourself with a couple of hundred employees that have
been acquired into your business and suddenly you take a look back and a step back and think actually you know what we
really we really need to do something about and that diversity that is now coming into our company and and work
from the inside out and is also a really great Point um you’ve obviously you’ve had a very
successful career um uh what’s been your experience as a female leader in Tech have you found it
positive have you you know what what has been your experience so far so I worked in technology industry more
than 25 years now and over this time I’ve seen the challenges that human
faced firsthand that’s why we are here talking about women in technology otherwise I’m a big
believer of diverse and inclusion for all dimensions of diversity it really is
a business impedance and we have been talking about these challenges and the low rates of women representation for
decades now um I think there are always challenges the
challenges change as you grow in your career and take leadership roles it’s a
different challenge when you are early in your career career if it’s a different
challenge when you are coming back from a parental leave it’s a different challenge when you are a VP level and up
uh I I would say how do we turn those into opportunities becomes critical
because I was reading a study by Accenture and
girls who called in the U.S and 50 of women who take a technology role uh drop
it by the age of 35. that was like shocking numbers right wow 50 percent
that’s very high we are I wonder why we are underrepresented and number one
contributor to that was is the difficulty in advancing to management and Leadership roles
then I started looking at data in our company which was consistent with the industry actually like at some point
I’m proud to say that we have about uh 30 women representation we are not there
yet but we have goals and we are moving forward our leadership again is about 29
women when we look at the sea level leadership which is uh I think uh great
for precisely and it does impact the success of the business but when we look
at lower level management there are challenges and I think for me I will say perhaps
the pivoting point was once I became VP and once I became
higher level in the organization I had the courage and the confidence to
basically say I have to use my platform now
and create more awareness start advocating this as a business
imperative and also share our data at that point we were
about I think 40 in RND leadership because look at these other companies
Google Twitter uh publishing their numbers 17 18 representation so we have
something that we can be proud of and we should be also aware that we should aim
for 50 representation right so I think these barriers do still exist partly
down to company cultures uh partly down to education system I
think Early Education is key introducing the stem careers technology coding kudos
to chican code Early Education becomes key and and then
um giving back becomes key I participate in
a actually a stem education opportunities I’m part of a organization
called bridge to turkier and we focus on the poorest underrepresented
areas in Turkey to bring technology labs to bring stem labs and sponsor in
particular students and with the 50 representation with girls so we can
change that Dynamics so I think it is really important to think about what I
as an individual can do in my organization and in my community to
start doing something small that’s gonna have a Ripple impact at some point yeah yeah
well that’s great and so you you mentioned there um basically not pulling up the ladder behind you
um and that when you got into a position where you could make an impact you you um took the reins and definitely uh
tried to do that what do you think um tech companies should be doing to
encourage um social mobility and improve diversity across the board you mentioned
a couple of things there that you’re doing yourself is it is there anything that you think tech companies should
should be doing as a whole absolutely so first I think begin with the data
and look at assess the current situation in the organization in terms of the
current percentages race representation gender representation
uh at this representation start with the data and then set
practices in precisely actually across the diversity and inclusion
committee precisely feminine technology Network and HR we partnered to ensure
that we have a diverse hiring practices and we monitor the talent pipeline so
what are the uh representation of people applying for certain roles
and how many of them actually become employees and get hired right it’s not
just the application you may have 38 applicants women and only 10 percent are
hired you need to understand what’s happening there what’s the dynamic leading to that and monitor their career
progression after they are hired showcase uh diverse Role Models but also
see voluntary and involuntary attrition so monitoring setting some metrics and
monitoring them and improving them setting goals becomes important that’s
one second what we are doing is becoming an active partner and this is important
for organizations we partnered with the in the US with girls who caught as a
corporate sponsor they are similar to she can quote they are actually
dedicated to Bringing coding and technology early to girls and I really
liked what she can code is doing I see there’s a lot of focus in terms of
Technology blocks and now the podcast series uh Deep dive into certain
technology topics and enablement not just for early education but also for women in anywhere
in their career I like that kind of focus we also at precisely
partner with televerde our one of our VP of sales Brenda K she leads that program
it’s a rehabilitation a program from Correction Facility so
bringing women back to Workforce that has been also part of our uh being
active partner and then the third one is cradle potenties right and how do we
create opportunities as organizations uh we can do
Financial donations uh corporate sponsored fundraisers in a giving
Tuesday events so we can actually directly channel uh
funds into sponsorships for underrepresented areas and we have a lot
in the United States as well and we can also do create internship opportunities
with focus on uh bringing people from underrepresented groups
um we we do try and share a range of tech stories
um because it is about that visibility as you said and sharing and what people are doing and why it’s important
um there has been a recent report that found one in four and have their accent
mocked at work um I am so obviously I have to present
this podcast um and I am from uh East London a part of East London um called newham and a
lot of people in East London in that area moved out to Essex and so when I was young I became an Essex girl and
there was a certain stereotype attached to it and a cockney accent obviously that comes with it now every workplace I
go into um it’s usually pointed out about my accent I can dial it up and down
um for who I’m talking to obviously these podcasts I have to try and remain as clear as possible and pronounce as
many words as possible um but I am one of those people that has you know always entered the workplace
and somebody has always mentioned something about my accent but do you
think that there is um you know an accent buyer so have you you know know and how do we counteract this
if anything there’s an accent bias everybody loves English accent
it’s okay like we are we alternated with it then
um so that’s why I like working in an international company I think it’s very different now compared
to 20 years ago compared to 30 years ago because if we look at the tech industry
and the leaders like even the CEOs of the Silicon Valley companies
it’s hard to find someone without an accent and that sets the tone because we have
so many role models with an accent when I came to United States uh our
people were asking me like are you from here are you from there all the countries trying to understand but I
remember something uh we were acquired by investors investors
basically and we were in a room and I was doing a lot of presentations
one of the very senior leaders retired from IBM and part of that investor
committee made a comment to the rest of the team said or in tech industry you have to have an
accent to be successful and and then he said one should not mix
having an accent and Clarity of thought yes you have Clarity of thought that
comes through your communication an accent is just a kind of good it’s like an accessory that you have it brings
that was a great uh I would say
confidence booster for me someone that I respect and so senior in the room
coming from respectful background making that statement he almost set the tone in
the room for me I would say I think now it’s it’s quite different I I really see
everybody has an accent yes and it’s something as well that you you know I
can’t change my accent as I mentioned I can dial it up and down as to who I’m talking to
um but it is something that you can’t change and like we mentioned you know right at the beginning of this conversation it’s something that you you
realize later into your career that you have to own where you’re from how you
speak um and you know people know as well if you’re if you’re um trying to be to
trying to be different you know you come across as quite fake um and I think people they they can spot
that straight away so once you start to calm down and think you know what there are certain things about myself that I
can’t change um and I wouldn’t want to change them either um and as you said as long as you’re
you’re um clear um in the way that you communicate then why does it matter in terms of accent
um or as you said um internationally people do like British accents so if not join an
international company I worked at an American company I had the same reaction when I was the only Brit they they never
really um commented on my accent other than positive things about my accent
um because Americans just love love the English accent yes you’ll love it
um how can we challenge uh preconceived assumptions people make about ourselves
I liked what you just said Caleb and
being authentic is important right now we cannot change people’s perceptions
the only way we change people’s perceptions is by bringing consistently bringing value
right we have to do our jobs well at the end of the day we have to bring value to
the organization whether it’s a non-profit organization or a commercial organization it doesn’t matter
and keep our authenticity and bring that individuality to the table individuality
is actually is one of our values at uh precisely we say what makes us different
makes us stronger now one thing that I will say for confidence everybody has
the obstacle their presentation skills and there’s no like end to that even
today I work on my presentation skills because how you present as an engineer
how you present as a manager how you present as a c-level hub you present as a board member
is different because your audience uh changes and you have to really keep your
presentation skills up to date that helps with that confidence and you have
to stand up for you for yourself nobody is gonna hand anything to you on a plate
you have to raise your hand stand up for yourself and articulate how what you are
doing articulate what you are doing and how that brings value to the business
that’s great for confidence and change the perception I think yeah and I think that’s something when and and that comes
with experiencing as I think when you’re first in work you you don’t realize that you’re allowed to do that and I think um
being able to to even put your hand up and to clarify a point I think when you
first start um you you’re not very clear about you know even your own roles sometimes you
don’t even know what your own job is when when you first start um I think you’re absolutely right as you as you um gain that experience it’s
gaining that confidence to put to put your hand up and say you know this is me and this is what I do and and um to be
able to communicate that um do you have any advice for our listeners um on how they can increase
their confidence and and be proud of their background
um post stay current stay current and pay attention to what’s happening in the
emerging Technologies what is happening in your related
industry or skill set so you can kind of uh upskill yourself
on a continuous basis because we are seeing change at the speed that we have never seen
before right there’s a lot of transformation is happening with the businesses with the digitization with
data-driven decision making so always stay current with some of the skill sets
that will complement that second the quicker you tie yourself
into the business of the organization the quicker quicker you tie what you are
doing either to the optimizations efficiencies Revenue growth uh
Partnerships you are likely to grow
because at the end of the day you have to understand how your contribution impacts the goals of the organization
and you have to kind of make that link and the third
give back to your community get involved support women in Tech while being in
women in tech support being people of color while being people of color so
giving back is important and always remember your background your accent
your ethnicity your gender your authentic yourself creates value for the
organization because there are several studies by Deloitte by Mackenzie that
shows that diversity and bringing diverse
perspectives creates value for the organization
increases Innovation because we are bringing different perspectives
and it increases the companies actually likelihood of
attracting a better talent because we want to join companies aligned with our values and retention of talent as well
as it increases value with the ESG initiators and everything investors so your authenticity and individuality is a
value for your organization always remember that yes yeah and and you’re right I don’t
pointing that out there I think a lot of people don’t realize their value in terms of their diversity and why you
know why they were hired not necessarily uh hired to to tick a box you know it might necessarily be somebody with an
accent um and you think just just your um background and your story and if you
don’t ever share that with anybody um within the company uh or you know at
a time obviously if you’re working on a project and it becomes relevant um if you don’t share that then it is very
hard to to show your own value and the opportunities is completely missed
um you mentioned there about women in Tech networks um obviously uh and you’re involved in a
few yourself are there any particular resources that that you would recommend to our listeners and that are you know
looking to get ahead in their career any training courses or um there are actually a couple of like
General resources uh of course you have to really immerse
yourself been the resources that are related to your field however
we are seeing a transformation where coding and data-driven decision making
is going to be important for every industry every single industry we are seeing Telco
companies becoming almost technology companies we are seeing a
coffee chains your favorite coffee chains
analyzing data so coding and data-driven decision making is going to be important
no matter which area that you go and start your career or advise your career
I will recommend resources there’s a great blog in career
Foundry and that blog actually lists several free online resources
including data analytics and data science but also in general have do
you make data driven decisions and Cloud vendors like Amazon Azure Google has a
great free online training Amazon uh skills actually has a wonderful training
options she can code podcasts and blogs I went through them they are actually
great because you are focusing on different areas of technology and
bringing that at a level that any audience can understand and relate and
then there are chapters like Anita bork chapter women in its Summit Series they
provide resources that will be helpful as well lovely thank you so much for sharing
Nintendo I’m so sorry we were already out of time um the conversation uh has been super
interesting today so thank you so much for for taking the time to to chat with us it’s really appreciated
thank you so much and uh thank you for having me thank you we would love to have you back
another time so um be sure to hear for another invite from us
um for another update wonderful and to everybody listening as always thank you so much for joining us and we hope to
see you again next time
