Women in Tech – Interviews
March 8, 2023
In light of International Women’s Day, March 8, and Girls in Information and Communications Technology Day, April 27, we listened to some of our teammates about their experiences and views working in the field as women. With this, we hope to offer diverse perspectives to girls and women soon to be a Women in Tech.
Every Thursday, from 8 March to 27 April, we’ll update this blog post with a new interview and you’ll learn more about different tech jobs, how a regular work day looks like, the motivation to work in tech and much more.
- Chuon Hee Tan, system & support engineer – Interview published on 8 March, 2023
- Sanae El Fassi, R&D Engineer – Interview published on 16 March, 2023
- Claudia Mendonça, Program Manager – Interview published on 23 March, 2023
Can you share a little bit about what it is that you do and what a regular day for you is like?
Chuon Hee Tan: My typical day starts with checking customers’ email and handling them in order of priority in terms of operational impact. Otherwise, I work on project deployment tasks, such as installation, configuration, testing, and customer training.
Sanae El Fassi: I am a developer on the Analytics team, my regular day has different tasks: development of new features, bug corrections, issues investigation, meetings and exchanges with my colleagues and so on…
Claudia Mendonça: I’m working as a Program Manager with multiple Costumers and projects. I’m ensuring the coordination of each plan, monitoring its progress, resolving issues, and initiate appropriate corrective action. My day by day is making sure we are following the plan, anticipating any constrains, verifying if customer and internal engineers have what they need to work, if not, finding who can help, normally a pre-sale or R&I support. I’m always in contact with the customer providing him feedback on where we are, the next steps and understand what we can do to help with his TV service.
Did you always know that working in technology was what you wanted to do? How did you decide to go into technology?
Chuon Hee Tan: I didn’t know much about computers in my school days, but my first part-time job was mainly computer data-entry. From there, I was intrigued and wanted to learn more about computers. Subsequently, I enrolled in a course in Information Technology.
Sanae El Fassi: As a child, I wanted to be a journalist. It is so far from what I do today. Indeed, the discovery of this field came gradually in time. I think it started at high school, I liked logics, algorithms and also how technology made life easier on different levels.
Claudia Mendonça: Yes, but I didn’t know how to get there. I always knew I would like to work with video streaming but never found any university studies to do it. So, I graduated in Telecommunications Engineering and as soon as I finished, I applied for the biggest operator in my country, and it just happened. I entered in video streaming area.
Are there any challenges that you have faced as a woman working in this field? Do you think there are enough opportunities for women in the tech field?
Chuon Hee Tan: I am and was lucky to work in companies that promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace. They do offer sufficient opportunities for women in their career progression.
Sanae El Fassi: I lived in Morocco before moving to France. I have noticed that women are less present in this field in France. I don’t know the reason ( I hope because they are having more different choices). Based on my own experience, I don’t see problems based on gender difference. In my point of view, women can face challenges especially if they aim motherhood. In this case, they need support from their families but also from their companies in order to continue to grow on both professional and personal aspects.
Claudia Mendonça: In my opinion, the challenges are equal for woman and men in this field. You need to be passionate about what you do in technology and delivery your work with the best quality you can give, and you will get any opportunity you are looking for. So, I’m sure there are a lot of opportunities in tech for women.
What advice would you give to a woman considering a career in the tech industry? What do you wish you had known?
Chuon Hee Tan: Before considering if a career in the tech industry is suitable, seek others who can guide you, provide support and advice. Build your network and be willing to take up work challenges, as these are opportunities for learning and accumulating work experiences.
Sanae El Fassi: If you are passionate about this field, don’t think about any kind of barriers, go for it! You need just to keep your motivation high.
Claudia Mendonça: My advice is to not be afraid of working in tech. You should always keep your curiosity, to know how that technology works, do questions, understand it end-to-end. I wish I had known before how to communicate for different cultures. This is a big key in Tech area. To know how a technology works is 50% to have success. But to communicate is other 50%. Sometimes can be learning a new language to improve the communication, other times just a simple call or to take a flight to the customer office, other times is to take the initiative to keep the costumer informed. To know how to communicate in different cultures is very important to success on career.
What have been some of the most rewarding aspects of your job?
Chuon Hee Tan: The most rewarding aspects are the opportunity to learn new knowledge to improve my skills for system troubleshooting, and helping customers by providing feasible solutions.
Sanae El Fassi: I like especially how there is no routine in my job. It is continuous process of discovering and learning.
Claudia Mendonça: For me there are always some enthusiasms to see the new services working in the final costumers. I fell that in some way we deliver a new platform were kids or families can use to have happy time. Also, my job is very rewarding because allow me to know more people from different cultures and to travel to meet them.
How do you stay up-to-date with the latest trends in technology?
Chuon Hee Tan: Mainly, I follow websites that provide up-to-date news and analysis on OTT streaming technology.
Sanae El Fassi: The information is almost easy to access and communities often share a lot. There is different manners to keep be informed, official documentation, platforms, forums, online courses…
Claudia Mendonça: I’m following up tech news, big brands on social media, conferences, and events in tech area to keep me up-to-date of new solutions.