Tali Kaur, from our Data & Insights Practice, recently attended the Code First Girls “CODEFEST 2022” which left quite the impression on her. Code First Girls is the largest provider of free coding courses for women in the UK, teaching three times as many women to code as the entire UK university undergraduate system. A particular segment of “CODEFEST 22”  that resonated with Tali was focussed on the representation (or rather underrepresentation) of women in technology related fields. 

We thought this to be a great opportunity to learn a little more about Tali and her experiences at the recent event, alongside some research on underrepresentation of women in our service fields and small steps we could take to improve any unconscious bias.

Tali, an accomplished PowerBI developer and valued member of our team,  finished a Bachelor’s Degree with a First in Accounting and Finance, a huge accomplishment which should have left her in good stead in the job industry, but rather only led to disappointment. Tali found that she was regarded as overqualified for lower level positions that she applied for, but was underqualified for higher tier positions leaving her in somewhat of a stalemate. It was naturally disheartening after so much hard work finding that every door seemed closed. Even more so, when upon catching up with classmates, she found they had managed to get jobs in the finance sector with relative ease. But as Tali always says:

“Everything happens for a reason”

 Tali eventually landed an admin position where she learnt excel. She recognised this skill was much needed, and so began the process of teaching herself Power BI 4 years ago. Power BI was greatly inspiring for her, and left her more fulfilled than she had previously, with no two days feeling identical.

The speakers at “CODEFEST 22” event were women in leadership roles in some of the country’s biggest businesses such as NatWest, KFC and Vodafone. A wide breadth of topics were discussed regarding female representation in tech, such as what do women bring to the table as well as what they bring to higher management roles.

A study from the Harvard Business Review even shows that companies with more female representation tend to see higher returns, therefore it is crucial that we encourage and support female engineers in finding their voices. Empowering female programmers is the mission behind Code First Girls. This movement is becoming even more impactful as we discover that this industry is disproportionately male, a trend that strengthens the more senior the position. 

It is often misconstrued that the lack of women in tech is solely an issue of personal choice. The reality is not that simple. On top of lacking role models and not being presented with the opportunities available to them, there remains strong biases against women in tech. These biases, unconscious or not, mean that women have to work twice as hard to be taken seriously and earn promotions. In addition, stories of open discrimination remain common in tech workplaces around the world. It is a sad state of affairs that women make up solely 24% of the tech industry. Just 17% of IT specialists are women, whilst just 11% are working as engineers in the UK. This shows that clearly there is a lot more work to be done.

Many female programmers report feeling what is known as “imposter syndrome”, believing that they do not possess the skills to attain a particular role which they would in fact be perfectly qualified for. This is in juxtaposition to studies which have shown that men on the other hand will apply for roles that they meet only some of the requirements for, and therefore stand a higher chance of attaining just by applying. A particular phrase from one of the speakers on this subject stuck out to Tali

“You’re there for a reason so back yourself”. 

Indeed, Tali herself had previously grappled with this feeling, but had worked on overcoming it. Her struggles with confidence had shaped her path in the tech industry – but they never stopped her. Tali went on to be accepted into the First Girls SQL course that will surely only encourage Tali and many more to not shy away from an industry they are crucial to. It is hoped that with more women beginning to achieve success in the tech industry, there will be more role models for other women to look up to.  We wish the best of luck to Tali!