My journey to becoming a woman in tech
I used to hate computers.
It was the mid 90s when we got our first home PC, and every day my Dad would ask me to fix something that was wrong with the printer, or remove a virus, or reset the monitor settings he’d fiddled with.
This expectation of being his unpaid 365/24/7 IT support arose from my being within the first cohort in the UK to study IT GCSE. I learnt how to use spreadsheets and a word processor, and write some rudimentary programs in Visual Basic. This, he felt, qualified me to assist with any computing problem — be it software or (especially) hardware related. I’m sure this is a familiar story that has played out in many households for the Millennial generation… I fondly recall lunchtimes spent in the “computer room” instant messaging my friends, who were sitting right next to me on their computers.
At school I went through phases of knowing exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up versus feeling lost and unsure. It started at age seven with wanting to be a vet, a competitive horse rider AND owning my own stables, because I was horse mad. Later on, during the careers sessions held in the last year of GCSEs, I felt inspired with my love of biology and with a grandiose sense of altruism announced that I wanted to be a scientific researcher into disease and medicine. The phrasing of that job title was more important than recognising the hard work and skills that actually went into becoming one! Hey — I was 15, I wanted to fix the world by finding cures for AIDS and cancer. As A Levels commenced and my subjects revealed themselves as not knitting together particularly well (the eclectic mix of Biology, Business Studies and Spanish — chosen because I was “good” at them) I floundered on what to study at university, which of course was the natural and only route considered for Grammar school graduates. All around me my peers were sure in their conviction to become doctors and lawyers. I felt the pressure to choose a career for the next 50+ years paralysing. Because I didn’t know what to do, I drifted at 18 into full time employment at McDonalds.
My grandfather was a key guide in all matters relating to education and work. He had the foresight to see that my career would benefit from learning how to touch type. I sit here tonight tapping out this blog post at 80 words per minute (typing faster than I can think!), after he encouraged me to go to Pitmans Secretarial College. Developing this skill helped me land my first “proper” job covering the Maternity Leave of a typist within the Crown Prosecution Service.
Being around lawyers all day, typing up the case file notes and experiencing the occasional thrill of going to Court inspired me to want to study Law. I went off to De Montfort University in Leicester for a year, and somewhere in between the drinking and rugby playing I learnt about contracts, torts and the legal definition of murder (I can still recite it from memory as my party trick!) However, reality hit me over the Easter holidays, when I felt overwhelmed with the same competitive pressure I’d felt at school. I wasn’t sure I want to be either a barrister or solicitor, but was surrounded with students who had enormous conviction that this was their goal. I felt like an imposter and so bailed on the 2nd year, instead choosing to start a temporary position within a housing association.
This, I believe, is where I really cut my teeth in the world of proper grown-up work. I was an inexperienced but enthusiastic Housing Officer, dealing with all kinds of antisocial behaviour, tenants unable to pay their rent, and managing caretakers and contractors to keep the estates spick and span. The temporary position became permanent. In the office I became the go-to for my more senior colleagues with all their computing woes, as I quickly became a super-user of the housing management software. I liked working in housing, but only dealing with human-related problems all day that didn’t have nice, logical solutions frustrated me. When the opportunity to work in the Development team came up, I jumped at it!
So my career evolved into a project manager working on building new homes. I LOVED it. The projects I managed varied in scale from a handful on the outskirts of villages, to a £250 million development that would take ten years to fully build out! I got to work on a variety of tasks every day that kept my highly analytical brain stimulated: from design elements in approving architecture plans, to costing the build with the project surveyor, to tendering and contracting builders, to visiting site to monitor the progress, to signing off on the finished product — and handing the keys over to a grateful family who just couldn’t wait to move in. I believe this was my first taste of product management. And if it wasn’t for the 2008-10 recession I probably would still be in construction now - but life holds many twists and surprises.
As the new build projects started to dwindle in numbers I realised that I needed to re-train or else face potential redundancy. Luckily for me there was an opportunity to move into another internal team who were tasked with improving processes and making operational efficiencies. I went on a lean six sigma course to learn the basic tools, and read extensively around lean manufacturing to embed the new philosophy. I collaborated with the team on a company-wide transformation programme that was super ambitious, blinking hard work but ultimately taught me loads — about this line of work but also myself — my strengths and my weaknesses.
I left the world of housing and entered local government, starting as a contractor in London. To say this was a baptism of fire is an understatement! Leaving behind the comfort zone of housing that I’d been in for a decade I was exposed to a much more direct approach to getting shit done: even though it was also public sector, there was an urgency about what we were working on, motivated by the cuts in central funding as a result of Tory austerity measures. I learnt how to ruthlessly prioritise, employ laser focus or risk failure (which was not an option, for example, in social care where vulnerable people relied on the service). Of course, this piqued my sense of altruism again! The project I worked on here had the purpose of getting council service users to ‘channel shift’ from an expensive call centre to cheaper online transactions through self-serve. It involved redesigning the website from the ground up, with additional functionality included. We piggy backed off GDS’s learnings a lot!
After my contract ended I considered whether I wanted to continue commuting or find a more local job. I happened upon a role with a local travel company, in their Web team. They were looking for a Product Owner to join their ranks, which was akin to what I was doing during my contract in London. I took a punt and applied, thinking I didn’t have enough experience but what was the harm in trying anyway?, and after two interviews and a meet the teams where the whole C-suite dropped in I was offered the role!
I haven’t looked back. Product is where my heart is — I realised that throughout all of my career the underlying theme is that I love building things that help people solve problems. Every day I get to work alongside designers, engineers, testers, data scientists, agile coaches, delivery managers, content writers, UX researchers and many more to create new products and improve existing ones.
I’ve gone from working on products early on in their lifecycle — doing market and customer research to understand the gaps and needs, and creating prototypes and testing solutions before full market launch — to deep diving into technical product management, which meant I could enjoy a geek fest every day.
My A Level Business Studies sometimes comes in useful with the theoretical background, although I am constantly learning and reading and refining my knowledge base. I’ve taught myself to code a bit, although this is more to help me empathise and communicate with engineers than to actually develop new features for the website.
The job I’m doing now was never an option discussed at school, and in all likelihood didn’t exist — the closest would have been a “business manager”. So thinking about what’s in store for the next generation, what has actually helped me to progress in my career to become a “woman in tech”? I think there are a few key elements (and these probably stand in good stead regardless of industry!):
Having people who supported and encouraged me, like my grandfather steering me in the direction to learn touch typing (recognising that computers were taking over the world).
Having role models and mentors in all my job roles, like the lawyers at the CPS. What’s particularly powerful is if they help you to suss out your strengths, and how to play to them in the careers you choose.
That it’s never too late to switch careers, and in fact, you most likely will several times in your lifetime, having what’s known as a “portfolio career”. What helps here is not necessarily being an expert in a particular field, but having transferable skills like communication, organisation, team work.
Learning is a continuous process — and the #1 skill I think the next generation will benefit from is learning how to learn.
