This time last year, I was making plans to leave the tech industry for good.
It may sound drastic, but the reason I wanted to walk away was also my reason for wanting to staying: I couldn’t see many (any?) people like me doing what I do (more on this later).
Spoiler alert: I stuck around
Trying to find a part-time job within cyber security was like looking for a diamond at the bottom of the ocean – I’d bet there is one somewhere that someone has lost at some point in time, but even getting eyes on it felt like an almost impossible task. Trying to find one without an on-call rotation, however, did seem impossible (responding to an incident at 2am, having stolen 28 minutes of sleep after finally getting a little one down for the 11th time that evening has its challenges).
Whilst contemplating my next steps, I attended BSides Bristol – for those of you who don’t know, it’s a community-led tech conference with a genuinely inclusive atmosphere—one where I felt completely comfortable being myself. I didn’t have to be anyone, it wasn’t exclusively focused on women and most importantly I could just enjoy the talks for what they were. Two great things came about from this:
- It reminded me why I love tech – the applications it can have and what staying (or leaving) for the right reasons looked like;
- An opportunity at Hexiosec that I just couldn’t resist exploring.
Fast forward ten months, I’m Chief of Staff at Hexiosec, and I know I’ve made the right decision for me. I get to work with an incredibly talented group of people trying to make businesses safer online and I get to do an interesting mix of work ranging from writing code to managing projects.
Where are all the women?
As a woman in the tech sector, I’ve been asked many times “why aren’t there more women in our industry?” or “why do they leave?” - I can’t answer these questions on behalf of all the women in the industry, but I can at least tell you why I am still here.
Women are often asked to participate in the STEM outreach programs to encourage more young women to join the sector. It can be tiring being the “token woman” and I often wondered if I was making a difference. I assumed that I wasn’t, until one day a junior team member told me that she was inspired by the fact that I was a senior developer who was also a mum. Just the act of showing up was making a difference to someone, even if I didn’t realise it.
I live by the “be the change I want to see” ethos, which is why I felt I should stay – if I left tech, there would be one less woman here, one less role model for the next generation of coders, one less person to inspire people like me. I believe this pressure is felt by many women in the sector, and certainly a reason to stay, but should not be the reason.
What really matters to me most is how I spend my time. I want to spend it solving hard problems, and if I can inspire someone to do something they didn’t think possible along the way, then that’s a bonus. I enjoy the challenges and the satisfaction of solving a problem through code, and I get to use a different part of my brain to my otherwise hectic life. Becoming a mother has improved my efficiency and ability to prioritise, as well as increased my levels of empathy and patience. Many companies say they want to support a diverse workforce; Hexiosec recognises the value of my skillset through action: here, I get to solve interesting problems with the flexibility I need at this time in my life.
How do you show your team that you appreciate and support them? Who has inspired you in your career – and have you told them?
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