International Women's Day - Share Your Story!

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Ilkay_Can
VP, Visa Developer

International Women's Day - Share Your Story!

 

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For me, nothing is more empowering than sharing stories of progress, equality or gender inclusion. That is why we hope you use this thread as a platform to share your story in celebration of International Women’s Day.

Think about:

  • What does International Women’s Day mean for you?
  • How do you plan to balance for better?
  • What advice do you have for developers in technology to push for progress in the workplace?
37 REPLIES 37
Manu_Ashok
Helper

Re: International Women's Day - Share Your Story!

Hi Visa Dev Community! My name is Manu Ashok, I am from India and work as a Lead Business Analyst at Loyalty Prime. We provide loyalty platforms that empowers our clients to fulfill their loyalty program strategies. As part of my role, I gather and manage the requirements of my clients and transform it into workable stories (we follow Agile practices). At times, it also means incremental product development or existing product configuration.

 

A typical day in my life is challenging, as it not just includes managing client expectations that span across various geographies (Manu is currently supporting onboarding clients in Europe & US and she manages it from her India office while frequently travelling to client locations), but also means managing the house and my 4-year-old daughter along with my husband 😊.

 

I am a Women in Tech.

 

What does it mean to be a woman in tech, I believe the people in technology have the power to change the course of future. People who build software are not just helping us function in our day to day lives, but they are also defining our lives and building our future. There’s internet, IoT, SaaS, blockchain and what not. It feels empowering to be a woman in Tech (Off course our male allies must feel the same).

 

Needless to say, the gender disparity is huge in the technology industry, but I believe there is a place for all of us – men and women. I get to be part of an industry of problem solvers, and creative thinkers who are inventing and innovating and re-engineering and recreating every day. #BalanceforBetter

 

This year’s theme is balance for better and while going through the main message of the campaign which is balance gender disparity in all walks, I created my own list of stuff I need to balance “for better:”

 

  • Balance Insecurity with Confidence
  • Balance “the extra time spent at work” with “making every second count that I spend with my family”
  • Balance “hurting my productivity with multi-tasking” with “concentering on that one most important thing I need to achieve during the day”.
  • Balance Procrastinating with better planning.
  • Balance stress with exercise and meditation

Any advice for the women in Tech:

 

Not as an advice but as a message, “I encourage women to collaborate”. “Trust me, it works!”, That is how I landed up on the Visa Community. We were starting to develop something fairly new and unexplored and the information (on tokenization and payment security) at hand was sparse. That is when I discovered the community and so many people who are ready to help.

 

One advice that I would give to women especially (because I have seen a couple of my women colleagues with this syndrome) We have a lot of preconceived notions on what we think we can and cannot do. I think we need to step away from that. Don’t be complacent, stay hungry. Keep asking yourself, “how can I further myself”, “what next”. And at the end, I know, a lot of us (including me) are shy from asking, asking questions, asking for a promotion, asking for a new role, asking for a referral. One never knows, there are people out there looking for people like us and unless we speak about us, they would never come to know so take initiatives and create your own opportunities and be confident to be yourself. When I say this, I am reminded of a joke from  Elizabeth Gilbert which I would quote below-

 

“A poor man who goes to church every day and prays before the statue of a great saint, begging, "Dear saint-please, please, please...give me the grace to win the lottery." This lament goes on for months. Finally, the exasperated statue comes to life, looks down at the begging man and says in weary disgust, "My son-please, please, please...buy a ticket."

Manu
blam_pungle
Regular Visitor

Re: International Women's Day - Share Your Story!

What a great topic!  Here at Pungle, we continue to strive to be a more diverse team and welcome people from all backgrounds into our engineering team.  As well, we are proud to say that we have women engineers in the team which we believe makes us better.  It indeed balances the team and brings a different perspective in everything we do and how we approach problem-solving. 

I hire and have hired a lot of people but now more than ever, I make it a priority to hire women into my teams.  Regardless of background, experience or education, all companies and teams should strive to include more women as part of their continued evolution.

Personally, I'm married to a doctor and have a strong little daughter that continues to make me proud of everything they do on a day to day basis.  Women are capable of as much if not more than they are given credit for.  Let's support them always.

sariasf101
Regular Visitor

Re: International Women's Day - Share Your Story!

The International Women's Day is a celebration to remember that women like men can perform the same tasks.
We must understand that if a person is whatever the gender, if it is the most capable to perform the task is who should do it.
I have over 10 years developing systems together with women and I can say that are equally or more capable than a man in all skills

 

Steven, from Costa Rica.

stevenariasf
Regular Visitor

Re: International Women's Day - Share Your Story!

Long live women, they are the true Queens

chrisdadd
Regular Visitor

Re: International Women's Day - Share Your Story!

What does International Women’s Day mean for you?

For me it's a reminder to look out for opportunities to include women in all aspects of product innovation stages. In UX women share preferences like what the "cart" is called in shopping sites or what social sites are listed first with share buttons. Empathy skills are often better from women and this helps with feedback meetings on Lessons Learned. In ideation sessions, you will always get a broader range of ideas if women participate. Women also make men perform sharper as men generally like to impress women with less male banter. Listening and observation skills can be better too.

How do you plan to balance for better?
Simply by ensuring women are in the loop at every stage.

What advice do you have for developers in technology to push for progress in the workplace?
It starts before the workplace. In the UK female developers are rare due to the bias in schools and STEM education. Even lego don't target teenage girls and this sparks imagination and problem solving.
Israr79
Regular Visitor

Re: International Women's Day - Share Your Story!

Woman is the real partners of good atmosphere but the international ration of womenliteracy is not good

Re: International Women's Day - Share Your Story!

At Malesela Samuel Mogale Business Enterprise we have a special ESD (Enterprise Supplier Development) and ED (Enterprise Development) Programme for Women and Youth Empowernment in line with the South African BBBEE (Broad Based Black Economic Empowenment) policy. E-mail ceo@pdca.co.za to learn more.

Mr Malesela Samuel Mogale
Tel: 27829597389
Malesela Samuel Mogale Business Enterprise CC
rohini27
Regular Visitor

Re: International Women's Day - Share Your Story!

 

I am a SharePoint and .net developer with Visa. Currently striving my best to become a ful stack developer. Also, mom to 20 month old toddler.

 

International Womens Day for me is all about equality. Not feminism, not chauvinism but just simple plain equality. No gender is above the other.

Balanceforbetter is all in planning. Balance can be anything. How do you manage your work with personal life? How do you manage multiple projects at work? Its all about planning and being prepared.

Any developer has to follow one mantra - Kepp yourself updated about all the latest trends. Technology changes everyday. Only way you can survive here is update yourself.

jackdom
Regular Visitor

Re: International Women's Day - Share Your Story!

It's really tuff to look after your kids and work... Hats Off to all Mommies out there

Thanks
Jack Dom (Si3 Digital)