Women in Tech

[MaryQueenofSocks]

As promised, a new women in Tech thread!

This is a space to talk about our industry, celebrate our successes without apology and moan about anything we want to!

We can swap stories, ideas or just shoot the breeze.

Guidelines for this thread:

We are supportive
We encourage each other
We celebrate each other
No judgement on what we earn or what we want to earn/achieve.
If we are working mothers, then no judgement.
If we are child free, no judgement.
Ignore any derailing or goady posts

If anyone wants to add to the above list then feel free.

Come on in, grab a virtual coffee and park yourself on a comfy sofa 😊

God love em @Ifeelsuchflutterings !

Makes you want to down tools sometimes doesn't it.

Hello, awesome folks on this thread 😊

Late 40s, programme director in Financial
Services. Wrangled a lot of IT delivery projects without being a specialist in any of the detail - getting deeper into the sharp end of tech and feeling a bit overwhelmed by those that really know their stuff! Imposter syndrome a plenty

Placemarking to introduce myself another time because I'm in a bad mood and I'd just say grumpy things about my job.

Looking forward to joining properly in a better frame of mind :)

Good username.
The fortnight or so twice a year when the US is on daylight savings and the U.K. isn't always causes a remarkable amount of confusion in our group as to what time meetings should be.

https://xkcd.com/1883/

I'm in Financial Services, and have more than once resorted to drawing out offset timelines in Excel to work out exactly how the sequence of events for a fund valuation or a GFD order across timezones and sometimes datelines would line up. ("ok, so the midday price in the US is here, which is technically still the right day for valuation, but the fund is domiciled in Australia so they won't be able to price it until their SOD here, but the max allowed gap between snap and Nav is here..." //breaks down sobbing

It's scars like these that separate Techgirls from Techwomen 💪

Plus trawling through xkcds looking for a thread-appropriate one cheered me up, so win-win 😁

A few runners up:
https://xkcd.com/979/
https://xkcd.com/2730/
https://xkcd.com/327/

I have found my mn people at last.

Just coming back to this thread on the bootcamp topic for those looking to get into a tech career.

Just my opinion of course but I think some of the government funded ones with vendor involvement/investment are better.

The reason for that is the programme that sits behind it and the strategy.

The vendor is invested in getting more scarce skills out into the market because it's this that prevents the actual adoption of whatever SW/HW/solution they are selling.

They are actively working behind the scenes with universities/partners/government and also potential employers. So this is why the exit plan is important when looking for a bootcamp....women need to look at whether interviews are lined up for you but also what the ongoing development plans look like.

Sorry that was quite long

OMG I love xkcd!
Also we had a product that was supposed to carry out maintenance on software in different timezones... cue trying to activate timezone aware settings in various pieces of infrastructure. not to mention team A had people on several shifts and wanted it done in a very small window and team B had a different window blah2.

I use Draw.io and it's marvellous! diagrams FTW

Little Bobby Tables! I remember hearing that one many moons ago.

@LoobyDop - May I ask what is the motivation for you to change from lead BA to product owner, especially given the lower pay grade Why the transitioning is hard?

Thank you.

@ForThisPost1 I feel like I’ve done all I can as a BA. I find it frustrating not being able to make any decisions, especially when I understand the subject and context better than the people I’m making recommendations to. The money is a weird anomaly- POs have more responsibility and accountability than BAs. I’ve done the role on a temporary basis and I find it more satisfying and challenging. But I don’t have enough experience on paper to be able to get more than the standard going rate.

Hi - have you found a new role? We recruit from this company www.fdmgroup.com - who have a return to work programme. We have had some excellent team members from them who have then joined us permanently. If they don't fit in then we can send them back (only done that once).

My company runs a return to work program specifically for executive level women. I'm one of the sponsors!

"Fun" insights: 1. Some 50% of our applicants were men (even though the ad specifically stipulated "women returning to work"). 2. Of the women who applied, a significant chunk had never been out of work or were currently employed in junior positions and looking for a career jump.

It was genuinely disheartening!

Everyone seemed to love the program - everyone except the target audience seemed to want to apply!

I was brainstorming this with a colleague the other day. We potentially have a couple of part time entry level roles coming up. Genuine entry level for cyber sec as the focus is administrative/audit activity but all the activities will be Cyber Security/GRC themed so they will gain knowledge over time.

Traditionally we get loads of middle aged white men apply for any job we advertise, whether it's suitable for their skill set or not (security guard who has a black belt in karate, wants to be a "security superhero and kick some butt" and has no job or personal experience with computers, I'm looking at you!).

We were trying to work out where the best places to advertise the roles would be, there are a few online women's networking groups for women in cybersecurity that I'm in contact with for recruitment opportunities but it's going to be a very small audience of people who already know about the sector and are active within it and I'd like to make the opportunities as available as possible. My team are 100% WFH so the roles would be ideal for someone who needs to work flexibly for childcare or who has a disability that makes office working difficult or impossible.

@CyberCritical - I wonder if Mumsnet ever allows advertising of these types of positions anywhere on the site? It might just be worth you reporting your post to inquire, no harm in asking.

@CyberCritical, after some experience (see my post on the subject), I'd second the suggestion of targeting women's forums/groups specifically.

We ran our advertising primarily via LinkedIn, roping in a bunch of "professional women" type influencers.

Results: not recommended - see my original post on the matter. Furthermore, what it also led to was a lot of pointless extra work for our recruiters, seeing as - again, see my previous post - we got a lot of mismatched applications.

As for security blackbelt guy: I'm pretty sure he applies to every opening I'm ever involved in. As does "I've heard one makes a lot of money - yes, I'm an expert on 'storage'? bloke with a background in warehouse management.

Presales for a Martech company over here! I've always worked fully remotely (and have to, given where I live) do it's a constant worry if I ever lose my job

No, I haven't. Thank you so much for this tip/link!

I would love to be a data analyst. I absolutely love data! And working alone 😂
Oh women of tech what course or what do I need to become useful in this field. Or am I barking up the wrong tree?
I really need to change jobs to give me a purpose in my working life
@MaryQueenofSocks can you advise me please!?

Me too!

I would love some advice for getting into Data Analysis. I have looked at level 4 course but it ranges from 2k to 15k. My kids are grown up and I have time to study and maybe do an apprenticeship if the wage is not too bad

@FireflyJar Data Analytics isn't my thing but based on what the folks at work are doing and the articles I've read PowerBI is an important tool to understand.

Microsoft are really good at providing free training so if you're not familiar with that system then I'd start with the Microsoft Website.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/training/browse/?products=power-bi&WT.mcid=sitertznnlearntabmslearn-banner-powerbi

At my firm, entry level data folks typically have degrees in a STEM subject and a knack for numbers. Depends on what you want to do exactly, though!

For something such as GenAI prompt engineering, very strong analytical thinking as well as strong language skills are necessary. For some of the "more advanced than simply clicking reports together" stuff, Python is the language to get into. It's actually one of the easier ones. Snowflake, next to PowerBI, is also very hot around these parts just now.

I can personally recommend udemy courses. Had a BA on one of my teams who really wanted to get more technical and code. She managed the Pivot all based on Udemy-based education (not data, though, she's now a Java engineer).

40s QA Engineer here, career changed a couple of years ago from PMO type roles. I love it.

For those looking to get in to tech in a remote role, yes learning remotely is hard but if you and the company have the right mindset it’s totally possible. I started a junior role during covid. Spent a lot of time pair testing remotely both with other QAs and with devs. All meetings were online as everyone was remote. I learnt a lot and it was enough contact to build relationships. We now have a new junior and they also seem to be doing fine.

My main tip from career changing is to capture any research, practice projects you do etc somewhere you can share with potential employers. I had a blog for example. Also if there is a community out there for the role you want try and engage with them too. The software testing “community” was a huge support for me.

Hello!

I did a front end bootcamp last year but couldn’t get a job because dh got cancer & now he’s gone I’ve got a career break on my resume which worries me.

Seem to have forgotten a lot of my React too. So, I’m going back over that this week. Got as far as useState today. useEffect is Thursdays project.

Applied for 3 jobs last week but will hopefully see more I think I’m a good match for this week.