“Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will.”
Although this was written nearly a century ago by Irish writer and poet James Stephens, its meaning rings true today, as those who are curious continue to break barriers.
For women in tech, barriers abound: the barrier of being a woman in a field dominated by men, the barrier of constant evolution preventing true mastery, even the barrier of stereotyping the role of a true “technologist” (most commonly seen as an engineer or developer).
“If engineering isn’t right for you, know that there are multiple other disciplines and careers you can pursue in the tech industry!” said Anduril Industries Product Designer Tiffany Chen. “The tech space needs any and everyone.”
To navigate the industry — or even just to break into it — Ilana Gershteyn advises letting curiosity lead the way. “In moments when you are questioning your path, be curious,” said the director of SEO for Edmunds.
“In a field like technology that is constantly evolving, no one person knows everything,” explained PureSpectrum VP of Data Science and Analytics Sushma Vasudevan. “It’s about always asking questions, consulting with others and maintaining a constant curiosity that will help us figure out solutions.”
Curious to learn more? Chen, Gershteyn and Vasudevan — along with Pennymac Manager of IT Service Management Wendy Holder and Spartan Senior Radar Systems Engineer Emily Alessio — recount their stories of discovering a passion for tech, and offer advice for women exploring similar career paths.
My career journey thus far:
My first job in the industry was as a UX Designer at Microsoft, working on fleshing out the company’s inclusive design methodology and also developing new assistive technologies to be released with Windows 11 (Voice Access and Live Captions, both of which are public now!).
After three years at Microsoft, I started getting the itch to try working at a smaller-scale, scrappier company — while still pursuing the same level and scale of impact that I found so rewarding in the accessibility space.
This led me to join Anduril two years ago as the company’s third product designer. Since then, I've worked on countless projects and areas within the company, ranging from Ghost to Joint All-Domain Command and Control solutions to Command and Control of any autonomous asset in the air, water, sub-surface and even space.
How I discovered my passion for technology:
My initial passion for technology was spurred by the creativity that the web unlocked; specifically, I had way too much fun customizing my Neopets pet page and user layout back when I was in elementary school. Later in life, the themes of technology as a means to both express creativity and support and help real people concretized my commitment to pursue a career in tech.
Digital illustration is a side hobby of mine, and the most fun I’ve had with it is when I experimented with enhancing my 2D art via different means (i.e. turning my art into an interactive website, creating layered images that pop out of your phone in AR, among other things). I’ve also always been more interested in helping people rather than understanding the latest and greatest advances of technology “just because,” so using tech as a means to support real humans always seemed like the right path for me.
Using tech as a means to support real humans always seemed like the right path for me.”
My advice for women considering a career in tech:
1. If engineering isn’t right for you, know that there are multiple other disciplines and careers you can pursue in the tech industry! Whether you become a product designer, a product manager, a content writer, a researcher, a finance person, a recruiter — the tech space needs any and everyone.
2. Identify your mentors, and nurture those relationships. My career and growth as a designer was exponentially accelerated with the help of people I worked directly with and for, who not only advocated for me but also provided invaluable guidance to me at each step in my journey as a designer.
My career journey thus far:
I grew up in San Francisco where technology brews hot. I jumped on the bandwagon and pursued a degree in computer science. Out of college, I dabbled in web development independently but soon sought more tech stack exposure, so I pursued an opportunity at CBS Interactive. While there, I participated in and won my first internal hackathon, and I loved the experience of developing a full solution and pitching it in just a few days. I learned about organizational change and gained a broader perspective on technology systems.
I then applied for a Java role at Edmunds and secured the opportunity to join the team in Los Angeles. At Edmunds, I’ve spent half of my time as an independent contributor, mostly backend, but have also embraced the edges of the stack when needed. For the last five years, I’ve been working on the SEO team, originally as the technical lead and most recently as the team’s director. As director, I’m responsible for the organic traffic architecture of the company.
How I discovered my passion for technology:
The internet and word processing changed my life. Those tools made me feel like I had superpowers, and I wanted to be a part of their influence.
Also, my mom is a COBOL programmer, and I was exposed to computers and technology from a young age. Although mainframes weren’t my thing, I was fortunate to gain access to the first PCs and Macs on the market. I started tinkering with hardware first, swapping drives, upgrading RAM, and I found that work impactful and fun. Friends and parents needed help with their upgrades, and I would lend a hand.
At the same time, I was being exposed to the possibilities of software, like Hypercard, which still influences my thoughts about human-computer interfaces. In college, I started developing my love-hate relationship with object-oriented programming until it finally clicked. The challenge alone was enough for me to know that there would always be more evolution and that we were at the beginning of monumental change. This inspiration continues to spur my interest in new technologies like blockchain and what their underlying impact will be on our culture and society.
In college, I started developing my love-hate relationships with object-oriented programming; I knew there would always be more evolution, and this inspiration continues to spur my interest in new technologies.”
My advice for women considering a career in tech:
Embrace curiosity. Navigating a predominantly male-dominated field can occasionally feel like an uphill battle, but let curiosity be your guiding star. Curiosity provides a novel lens when there is uncertainty. It will lead you, safeguard you and provide you extra resources to persevere in those challenging moments and ultimately foster growth opportunities. In moments when you are questioning your path, be curious.
My career journey thus far:
I began my career in technology as a data entry operator, and from there I transitioned to the help desk in operations development and analysis.
I joined Pennymac as a senior systems analyst in 2015, and was later promoted to a management position in 2019. Currently, I am the manager of the IT service management team. We use the ServiceNow platform for the automation of workflow and processes throughout Pennymac. Additionally, I work with stakeholders to prioritize the work requested, along with issue resolution and customer satisfaction.
How I discovered my passion for technology:
When I was in school, my parents encouraged me to take different courses to help figure out what I wanted to do. One of those courses was in technology, and I was immediately hooked from the start; the logic made sense and it was appealing to my “math-brain.” I took multiple courses related to technology and ultimately determined this was what I wanted to do. I landed my first job out of school in tech, as a data entry operator.
Another life-changing course was jewelry making, but that is a conversation for another day.
I took a technology course in school, and was immediately hooked; the logic made sense and it was appealing to my ‘math brain.’”
My advice for women considering a career in tech:
My advice for women with an interest in technology would be to go for it, and to do the research on company values to ensure wherever you land will be supportive of your career growth.
For example, some of the values that align with my interests at Pennymac are the multiple business resource groups, specifically the one that supports women. There are women on our board of directors and in key leadership positions, and there’s multiple mentorship programs specifically geared towards supporting professional growth. Pennymac also encourages education, internships and promotions within the company, which are all values I looked for when searching for a company to grow within. I am fortunate to work with a wonderful team, provide day-to-day mentorship to our System Admin team and support their growth into new positions such as engineers and analysts.
Lastly, one important value I looked for in a company was giving back to the community, research initiatives and being involved in the betterment of society.
My career journey thus far:
My career journey has been an exciting adventure. I have always been fascinated with working with data, predicting scenarios and telling stories with a bunch of numbers. With an MBA in finance and strategy, I started my career as a business analyst at GE Capital, mostly involved in financial analysis for corporate strategy. A year later, IBM set up a new concept of globally integrated enterprise and I joined as an analyst and assumed various roles in financial forensics, opportunity analysis and data product development.
As technology and computing power evolved, so did analytics. These changes prompted me to go back to school and acquire another master’s degree in quantitative economics to formalize myself as a data scientist.
During my 14 years at IBM, I was also a senior advisor for the market development and insights organization, managing teams of analysts and data scientists across geographies — and I played a major role in integrating multiple acquisitions and product releases.
Today, I’m part of PureSpectrum, a market research technology company. As the vice president of analytics and data science, I am responsible for data quality and the suite of AI/ML-driven pure assets.
How I discovered my passion for technology:
My passion for technology was not something that I always had, but evolved with time. Growing up in a big Indian family, math and academia were integral to my life. Both my parents were in finance, and my uncles were physics/math professors. Our dinner conversations often revolved around numbers and strategy. I used to enjoy those conversations and always dreamed of being a part of it.
It was during my MBA that I found statistical analysis. Analytics at the time was in its infancy and Excel was the go-to tool. Creating pivots and Vlookups were a skill set.
As I progressed, Excel started to prove quite limiting and I had to start programming my own solutions. My first VBA macro in Excel was to create an automated dashboard. My first Python program was to run a regression analysis on 2 million rows of data that Excel couldn’t handle. My first tech product took four engineers, two data scientists and a product manager, all using different tools.
I started as a tech user, using technology to make my life easier, and now am a tech creator who, as we say in PureSpectrum, wants to “make life easier” for our clients. As I grow and learn and build, my passion for technology has grown over the years.
I started as a tech user, using technology to make my life easier, and now am a tech creator who, as we say in PureSpectrum, wants to ‘make life easier’ for our clients.”
My advice for women considering a career in tech:
Get over the imposter syndrome: As a woman, the pressure of “having it all” is immense. We hold ourselves to a very high standard and anything less than perfect is unacceptable. But, the secret to “having it all” is to realize it’s OK to figure things out and accept help. In a field like technology that is constantly evolving, no one person knows everything. It’s about always asking questions, consulting others and maintaining a constant curiosity that will help us figure out solutions. Be confident and seek feedback, don’t be scared of being corrected.
VASUDEVAN’S TIPS FOR WOMEN IN TECH
Knowledge is power: Focus on acquiring knowledge. Knowledge has no barriers, no gender or race, and always commands respect. Pick an area and build your knowledge base. Keep up with the changing, evolving landscape and keep yourself updated with developments in the field.
Find your allies: Connect with other professionals in the field. Seek mentors, and work on building a strong network who can support your aspirations. Allies can come in the form of a significant other, a boss, a friend — anyone.
Be resilient: Tech can be challenging, and is of course male dominated. Stay resilient, and accumulate experience one day at a time.
My career journey thus far:
I graduated with my electrical engineering degree and entered a rotation program at Northrop Grumman. I started out doing circuit design, then moved into systems engineering modeling and simulation. For my third rotation, I moved to California to escape the snow and landed in a group where I got to work on modeling and simulating radars — and I likely would’ve stayed longer if I hadn’t received a message from Spartan’s recruiter! I filled a variety of roles at the beginning of the startup — I continued learning about radar, this time for autonomous vehicles, and did plenty of mod and sim and testing.
Spartan felt like a great fit for another reason. When I was a kid, I was in a bad car crash caused by a distracted driver. We were fortunate to walk away from that, thanks in no small part to my EMT/firefighter dad making sure we always wore our seatbelts and having a vehicle with excellent safety ratings. What bothered me so much all these years is that the accident was completely avoidable, as are so many accidents that claim lives every day. I’ve always wanted to contribute to saving lives but struggled to find the best way to do that with my skill set. Finally, I feel like I’ve found a perfect fit.
How I discovered my passion for technology:
During my freshman engineering orientation, our dean showed us a montage video of a dozen of my classmates being interviewed with the question, “Why did you choose to major in engineering?” All of them answered with some variation of, “I always liked math and science.” This is a simple truth for most of us who select engineering from limited high school knowledge.
I enjoyed the structure of math and physics especially; you learn the basic rules and then apply them like a puzzle to reach an answer. But the dean went on to say, “Engineering is so much more than math and science. It’s about solving problems to make the world a better place.” And now, I couldn’t agree more.
When I chose to pursue engineering, I didn’t understand that it would essentially be limitless problem solving. And I mean that in the best way. My work is always challenging me to think outside the box and use the technical skills I’ve developed to arrive at a solution. Earning an engineering degree isn’t all about the skills you acquire – it’s how you learn to learn. If you embrace this mindset and find your way to a field you like, you will always be learning and never be bored.
When I chose to pursue engineering, I didn’t understand that it would essentially be limitless problem solving. And I mean that in the best way.”
My advice for women considering a career in tech:
Follow your passion! Tech needs more women to bring diverse viewpoints to solving problems. But it can be tough to be the only one, especially if you’re young and working with men who are set in old ways. (This is rare! But it does exist.) I felt like I had to suffer through that in an earlier role.
Everything improved when I found a mentor in a more experienced woman engineer. She understood and had the confidence and vocabulary to talk to the managers about what was going on. I’m so thankful to her and strive to do this for women engineers in the future. This mentorship made me appreciate the importance of female representation in tech — I needed a role model, a mentor and an advocate at the time. I highly recommend young women in tech forge these relationships early on.
Six years later, with much more confidence, I hardly notice when I’m the only woman in a room. However, it does help immensely to have others around. I like to use a strategy publicized by female Obama staffers: the “amplification” strategy. They would repeat points that other women made and give credit to make sure their voices were heard. We are strong individually, but more effective together.
