Women in tech
1. Challenge yourself: It’s better than others challenging you.
It’s as inevitable as death and taxes. People are going to challenge you throughout your life and career whether you like it or not, and you’re definitely not going to like it if you haven’t challenged yourself. A woman in tech knows that going the extra mile always pays off. It is not selfish of her to want success. She does the work to receive the reward she deserves. She keeps in mind whyshe’s doing it and gives herself a specific reason to succeed. A woman in tech fails because that is what happens when you challenge yourself. She recognizes that learning as much as she can wouldn’t be possible without failing a few times along the way. She works hard, and she might fail. So, she works harder. Eventually, she will succeed.
2. Engineering is collaborative: Build your team.
If we are to inspire the next generation of female software engineers, we need to debunk the myth of competitiveness in the tech industry. Nobody pursuing a STEM career, no matter who they are or where they come from, should ever feel like they are the only one looking out for themselves. Being a woman in tech means building a strong network of supporters. Her team is diverse, with men and women of all colors and backgrounds and all interests. She and her teammates make mistakes together and learn from each other through collaboration. A woman in tech celebrates the successes of her teammates because it doesn’t make her less successful. She is grateful to her team for their respect and support, and she expresses her gratitude.
3. Find a problem. Solve a problem.
No matter what a little girl wants to be when she grows up, we should encourage her to be a problem solver. Learning how to efficiently solve problems might be the most useful skill a person can have. A woman in tech solves problems big and small. The twenty-first century is far from perfect. Every aspect of our society is flawed in some way. But the goal of my generation and those to come should be to make our world more perfect; as perfect as it can be. A woman in tech serves. She thinks not only of what a career in tech can do for her, but what skills she can use to make an impact on her community, country and world. Once she finds what her passion is, a woman in tech thinks about what she can do to make it better for others. Just like a journalist’s big story consumes them and they hunt down every last detail to tell it right, a woman in tech finds her story, her muse. She thinks, “if I was given a mission to help a group of people, I would help people affected by…” A woman in tech lives to make change. When she solves the problem, she pulls all the stops to make her creation not only achieve but perform betterthan anything before.
