International Women's Day at Exizent
At 49.5% of the population, women make up a small percentage of start-ups. 9% of developers, 4.2% of software architects, 11.3% of entrepreneurs.
Company culture makes a huge difference for gender equality, especially in disciplines like engineering where we’re outnumbered and we may need to shout louder to be heard. We need to have an environment that encourages us to support one another, and acknowledges challenges that women might face. Our focus on people is making a difference in this industry and opening doors for other women. These are a handful of the amazing women at Exizent who have shared their experiences to show that women can, and do, make start ups successful.
Katie Walls
Office manager/PA
After a 12 year career managing in hospitality, I knew it was time for a change after I had my daughter. I've always managed people and organised the day-to-day running's of a business- it's what I enjoy - so I started looking for opportunities to do this in an office environment where my hours would be more stable and I wouldn't have to work until 1am anymore. I also wanted to do something "more", something that I could be proud of and make a real difference to the world in some way and to those around me. Exizent was the second job that I've ever applied for and I thank God every day that it found me. It was definitely a case of "right place, right time".
I was brought up by an incredibly hard working father who ran his own business and worked every hour under the sun to provide for me and my brothers. He sacrificed everything to make sure we would be looked after not only when we were young, but for when he was gone. My mother stayed at home but, again, sacrificed everything to ensure we were happy, enrolled in every club and society going to create opportunities for us and kept us entertained and fulfilled. I always knew that I would do a bit of both of these - work hard at my business and look after my family and be "present" to both. I owe everything to my parents, and I aim to do the same for my daughter.
I'm "seen" to be extremely confident and out-going which has brought with it a lot of judgements and assumptions. In my last job, I would fairly regularly be told to "go back in my box" if I expressed my opinion on something or spoke out against what I thought was wrong. In the heavily male culture that dominated the team at the time, there would always be laughter surrounding this and I started to think very carefully before I spoke out, if I spoke out at all. Because of my personality and how I presented myself at the time, I would be targeted for special circumstances - speaking to certain men to sign off on refurbishments etc, being told to "flutter my lashes" and other derogatory remarks. It would be joked about that I was being "rolled out" for these occasions, as though I served no other purpose (despite running one of the most successful restaurants in Scotland). Looking back I now realise that this was completely unacceptable, but my confidence had been worn down and I started to believe that I wasn't worth what I thought I was. Luckily my husband, friends and family noticed this change in me and urged me to find something else and reset myself. When I returned from maternity leave and saw that nothing had really changed, I realised that they were right.
I do lots of walking, reading, cooking, spending time with my family and running around the farm.
Jennifer Macpherson
Head of Service Design
Service design is a human centred approach to designing and delivering intangible services, things people experience rather than own. These services can cross multiple channels, digital or face to face. It has similarities and cross overs in techniques and methods with other design areas, such as User Experience. Service Design looks at how to improve or create the end to end journeys a person has. It considers service experiences across extended periods of time and considers all the processes and people involved in making that service happen, which is the important part and where the collaboration happens.
I went to Art school in London and studied Product Design, when I moved back to Glasgow I wasn't sure how to get started! I speculatively dropped a CV into the Lighthouse, Scotland's Centre for architecture and design and was lucky to get a role there. I worked there for 6 years and was hugely influenced and inspired by the amazing people that I worked with and career progression opportunities I received, special mention to the amazing Exhibition Director and Exhibition Manager, who were both passionate, motivated and talented women that valued family life and work life equally. Although not yet Service Design this role was definitely the stepping stone for me in lots of ways.
After I left the Lighthouse a contact I'd met there suggested Service Design to me, she was in the role and was working in a new team setting up a Service Design and Innovation department.
To me it had similarities with Product Design and my role at The Lighthouse and I jumped at the opportunity. I went as an associate and was supported through ‘in role' training to become one of 4 Service Designers. It was an amazingly supportive company, for example I was pregnant when I interviewed, but didn't know. I was nervous to tell them when I found out, and they couldn't have been more encouraging and welcoming.
At college I remember two quite formative moments.
I was researching for a project and had to get quotes for materials. The manufacturer refused to provide me with a quote and didn't take me seriously, when another student contacted them with the same request he had no problem, and I was advised to get someone else to call on my behalf in future.
Sadly, during a college assessment a male tutor made a joke about the size of the sketch book I was using whilst I was in the process of presenting, 'joking' that a larger one wouldn't have fitted in my handbag.
The reason I mention these is because they seem so small, but experiences are a sum of their parts. These 'little silly moments' add up when you're starting out and trying to build confidence.
Later, there has been comments or actions that have made me question motive, but I've learned to challenge anything I feel uncomfortable with, mainly due to the strong female and male role models I've had in my career. It's important to me that I raise things even if it feels easier to ignore.
Outside of work I enjoy doing anything creative, I've always loved sketching and as my role has become more digital in output I definitely crave activities where there's a tangible result. So cooking, sketching, painting… and making cushions, more of an addiction, I can't make anything else...
I also love being outside, so walking and cycling with friends and my kids.
Linda Brown
Customer Success Analyst
For the last 7 years I've worked as a full-time analyst, prior to that I have over 15 years experience in various roles across the board in customer service and complaints handling.
One of the biggest challenges I've faced as a woman, was trying to maintain a good work life balance. As a mum of two, there was a societal pressure that you couldn't be a 'good mum' and pursue a career too. Although my strengths are as an analyst, historically these roles meant working 9-5 in an office Monday to Friday, which is not something I felt I could do with young children to look after. Also, at the time, there was an assumption that it was the "mum's" responsibility to accommodate childcare. As a result, I had to delay my career and settle for a role where I couldn't reach my full potential. I only felt my career really began when my children were a little older, and better flexible working opportunities for analysts became available (working from home, non-standard hours of work). After that, I didn't look back!
I'm really pleased to note that my current role with Exizent fits like a glove, and their flexible working policy is ground breaking along with being remote first. It's so refreshing to work for a company that understand the pressures of being a parent - whether you're a mum or a dad! It makes it so much easier to give your all!
Outside of work, I love travelling and am a bit of a foodie, with Vegas being a favourite destination (I've been 7 times!).
Amy Masterman
Software Engineer
I initially started off as a backend developer working with C# (.Net/.Net Core) and SQL. As a full stack developer at Exizent, I’ve also been working with HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Razor Pages. I’m still working toward improving my frontend skills so I’ve been learning more advanced JavaScript, TypeScript and I’m really interested in learning and using the React framework.
I studied Music Technology at Uni and a couple of modules ended up involving a bit of programming work. One involved creating a website for your hypothetical business, which introduced me to HTML and CSS, and another was centred around creating an application that would react visually to certain audio input, which involved writing some code using the Processing language. My interest in coding stemmed from there and after graduating I decided to switch over to development and applied for a QA Modern Apprenticeship in Software Development – which consisted of a 2-year full time placement at a company along with regular courses at QA offices. After completing the apprenticeship I moved on to my first role as a Junior Software Developer.
Being one of only a handful of women in my cohort at Uni, I definitely remember a few instances of being treated or spoken to differently than the male students in the course, but I’ve been lucky that in my last couple of roles as a developer I don’t think I’ve faced any noticeable challenges because of my gender. I think a good company culture makes a big difference, the last two development teams that I’ve worked on have at one point been majority-female which is great. However there’s definitely a lack of female role models in the tech industry which means it took me a little longer to settle on software development as a career option.
I love reading and video gaming so I try to make time for those when I can. Before Covid-19 was around I really enjoyed indoor bouldering so looking forward to doing that again, and I’ve picked up crocheting as a lockdown hobby which has been really fun!
Aruna Gopalan
Lead QA Engineer
My role is to look at Quality Assurance aspects of the company’s platform and devise strategies, mechanisms and processes that will improve the overall quality and user experience of it. I am also involved in hands on testing , both manual and automation as well as coaching and mentoring QA colleagues to achieve their full potential in the role they are doing. My background with web automation is Selenium and Python. However, in Exizent I am excited to be working on a more sophisticated tool called Cypress with JavaScript as programming language. I have also gained more experience in the use of Git for source control.
I started my job in IT as a Software Engineer Trainee in India 21 years ago. I was trained on technologies like VB6 and Asp with Oracle and SQL Server back end. Few years into my job as a Software Engineer, I developed an interest in test automation and subsequently, other aspects involving testing like test strategy, analysis, execution and metrics. During my journey into test automation, I have worked with various tools like Rational Robot, Test Partner and QTP.
Around 18 years ago test automation was a fairly new concept. Few tools existed then, and even the ones that were popular in the market were complex and difficult to learn and implement. My general inquisitive nature and a decent programming background inspired me to follow this path.
I am personally very protective of my work life balance. When my son was born in 2010 I had to go off on maternity at a time I was doing very well in my career as a QA specialist. My son’s early years were a challenge. Flexible working existed in my organisation but there was a constant need to compete with colleagues who put in long hours. I had to persevere and sometimes fight my corner to get to the next stage in my career. This has paid off well and now I can say I do not have such struggles anymore. My current organisation is very progressive which makes the journey easier.
Presently with the Covid and lock down situation I am not able to pursue things I liked doing before like gym and Zumba. I have however discovered a passion for long walks, be it any weather. Apart from that I am addicted to binge watching on Netflix and Prime Video. I am also interested in cooking, although presently it’s mostly Indian cuisine.
Zoe Gadon
Software Engineer in the Platform Enablement Team
I had my daughter when I was 20 & decided I wanted a stable career to support her. The only thing my qualifications would let me do was a foundation degree in software engineering. I was clueless and intimidated, and a teacher even told me girls tend to struggle more. Ahem. I started going to meetups to learn as much as I could, and it just escalated from there. Amongst the constant pressure to be exclusively a mum, I found an industry that allowed me to thrive. I got my first dev job in an open source company as the first employee. I had an amazing and supportive mentor, and I learned so much about understanding problems, public speaking, empathy, and making mistakes. I mainly worked in Python & PHP on open source projects. I got to learn about distributed systems, containerisation, MVC, data science.
When I moved to Glasgow I worked at the BBC for 6 months before starting at Exizent in May. I had no C# or .NET experience, but I was able to help with basic web dev things (CSS, HTML, JS) and providing some low quality comedy. I started working in the platform team in January & I’m now focusing on devops - helping improve how we do deployments, manage AWS services. I mostly have no clue what I’m doing, but having a good mentor and a supportive team makes a huge difference when you’re trying to build your skills.
I value culture and inclusion above most other things. I can’t work somewhere if I don’t fully support the product I’m helping to make and the environment I work in. I’ve been fortunate to work with companies that have the same values, but there have been times where comments have been made and I’ve been overlooked. Attitudes and opinions I’ve encountered outside work (people in community groups, class mates) have been the worst. Little things like getting things explained to me, being talked over, having opinions dismissed could be attributed to me being more junior in my career. At least that’s why I hope. I’ve heard more harmful opinions like “dealing with sexual harassment is just part of it”, “women are better in non-technical roles”.
I’ve had a couple of key role models who inspired me to be strong in an industry that isn’t always welcoming, and to help others on the same journey. This makes such a massive difference. Life is already hard, and now more than ever we need to build each other up.
During the pannacotta (pandemic) I’m trying to keep myself sane by playing games and crocheting, and sleeping. I aspire to move as little as possible. I also do try and learn tech skill and “code for fun”.