I wanted to understand why she would leave the Tech/Digital industry. Her main reason was because of Gender inequality and discrimination she had to wake up to each day.
I got curious and decided to probe a little further. And here is what I learned.
She sounded like a proficient project consultant. She talked about the works — the UAT phase, the development lifecycle, the people related skills, etc. I knew immediately that she had to at least be mid management.
It all began when she was telling me about her stocks. She was justifying and insistent that Tech stocks are the way to go. Obviously, I knew this too but wanted to know her reasons for upselling them. Everybody has a story.
I knew that I had to open up about myself first before she would open up to me. It’s basic psychology. The “I’ll share mine, if you share yours” mentality.
She told me that she used to be a developer years ago. Her Tech stacks were, SQL, PHP and Java. Aside from having a kid that made her decide to change her line of work, and because it offered her the flexibility of managing her own time, she uttered the words, “Gender Discrimination and Inequality”.
I told her that I’ve seen movements such as “Women in Tech” these days that hopes to address and change the mindset of people. But the reality is that, the Tech space is still predominantly a “men’s domain”. I knew this is still the case, and I hope, given more time this mindset would change.
Remembering My Past
Back in the day, when I was a developer, my mentors were mostly ladies. I admire them as they invested time and effort to train me to become a decent developer. I will never forget their kind gestures.
The men, on the other hand, mostly offered me advice. But it was the ladies who got down and dirty to train me. I have nothing but respect for them.
I remembered asking a bunch of guys from the development team on something I was stuck on for a while. But none of them, really offered to look at my codes. Instead, they asked me if I had checked this and that. They had this air of arrogance and I felt like they were looking down on a rookie like me.
I did not seek help from the ladies initially, as they were seated further away from me. But upon hearing the commotion and because it was rather small office, they pushed their swivel chairs over to my seating area, sat down beside me, and started looking at my codes.
They analysed my codes, add watches (a .net IDE thing) and showed me where my mistakes were.
From that small gesture, I’ve learned that:
- Support is important — the willingness to get down and dirty with your peers or juniors
- The right support can groom people to be the best they can be
- People can be generally shy to ask for help because they do not want to be seen as incompetent or disturb their other busy peers
They did not fix my problem but pointed out to where my problems were and got me to fix it myself. This builds my confidence over time and I became a System Analyst thanks to them.
Her Story
“A”, started her career as a developer with the Tech stacks mentioned in above. She is familiar with the full SDLC and was doing your typical Requirements Definition, Technical Documentation, User Acceptance Testing and User Training.
She was at the prime of her career but soon realised that she could not climb any higher than her current position because of gender. Most would look at her with judgmental eyes — not knowing that she started out as a developer.
She could not become a Project Manager despite meeting all the criteria in my book.
I’ll admit to having a soft spot for them because it was the same for me. I was a Developer turned Project Manager too.
Both of us shared the same viewpoint that we simply were unable to compete with foreign talents that are much more talented and cost effective for companies to hire, compared to us — locals. I would assume that the journey she would have to struggle to go through would be even tougher than someone like me because of her gender.
And it’s really tough.. for me. I got my fair share of rejections and it hurts just thinking about it. Imagining her going through worse, is just awful.
Based on my talks with her, I could tell that she has the experience and capability of becoming a Project Manager.
What she lacked was the certification to prove that she is capable of a Project Manager role during that day, because back then, it was true that you do need certificates to prove your competency. I personally do not agree with how some organisations would base their potential employee’s competencies on certificates but that’s just how it was in the past and to some degree, the present too.
Her motivation and role model was her aunt who worked at a huge corporation (starting with “P”) as a Project Director.
I asked her if she would want to come back to the industry if the opportunity presented itself to her. She sounded happy and wanted to give it another go. So, I’ll be on the lookout for her.
Conclusion
I sincerely hope that the idea and mindset of Tech, being a male dominated industry that only males would be proficient in it, would change. It is definitely not true.
I’m glad that more and more women are in Tech right now and I hope that mindset would change sooner than later.
For someone who took an IT Diploma, an IT Degree and worked as a Developer like “A”, it clearly shows that she has a passion and interest for that industry. Even when she changed her job to become an Insurance Consultant, she is still fascinated by the Tech space. Hence, why I like this phrase so much — Sometimes the truth isn’t good enough, sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded.
We should all do better as human beings and restore faith to people like “A” in a system we have created.