25th March 2021
Women at Adaptive share their advice to students and fellow women in the industry
International Women’s Day Webinar
On Tuesday, we commemorated Women’s History Month and, belatedly, International Women’s Day, with an astonishing internal webinar titled “Careers & Bias Against Women in the Workplace”, presented by six of our female colleagues in different roles at the company, all from different backgrounds and nationalities. In this webinar, they shared their career journeys in the tech industry, their challenges and also their achievements.
The aim was to raise awareness about why we can’t yet yell ‘hurray!’ when we talk about gender equality in the industry and to also help us become aware of and dismantle any of our own bias. The best part of this initiative is that, since we are collaborating with the Tower Hamlets Enterprise Business Partnership (THEBP) mentoring program, we have offered them the possibility to access the recording and share it with their female students so they can watch it and hopefully be inspired by first-hand stories.
No external articles or social media posts were planned; as many other activities we organise internally we just keep them as non-public. However, we asked our panellists to wrap up the event with some tips for young students and fellow women in the industry, and the pieces of advice they gave are so powerful, we just don’t want to keep them to ourselves.
If there is one piece of advice you would give to young students and fellow women in the industry, what would it be?
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You don’t need to decide on day one or out of uni your whole career path but it is important to continue to build your skills. You’ll be able to reuse them in other ways and ultimately keep pushing forward. Amanda Harrison, Senior Sales Executive. |
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My advice would be to take care of yourself, there is only 100% of you. I’m also a mom and I had to learn that I cannot be a 100% mother and a 100% Head of QA, I have to make choices. You will have to make choices and they will not be easy to make, so be proud of them. Lidia Sinitsyna, Head of QA. |
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Enjoy your path and work really hard in what you’re doing, acknowledge your capabilities and also your weak points, so you can work on them. Don’t let society’s beliefs get into your head, because it will convince you that you can’t do something that you can actually do. Francelice Sarda, Frontend Developer. |
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Believe in yourself and be bold enough to go for decisions that you are sure of and, obviously, try to learn new things because eventually it will help. Foluke Bakare, Support Engineer. |
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Work out what you love and do it really well. The people who appreciate your efforts are your allies. Work with them to show the others that what matters is the quality of the work that you do, and nothing else. Claire Tripp, Business Analyst & Project Manager. |
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You can do anything you want. Just prepare yourself well and keep learning. Jessie Han, Senior Java Developer. |
Acknowledgements
We would like to give a special thank you to the people who made this webinar possible, all the panellists quoted above and the organisers Ingrid Orel, Office Manager and HR Analyst, and Marie Downes, Chief Talent Officer.
Tower Hamlets Enterprise Business Partnership mentoring program
Tower Hamlets Education Business Partnership (Tower Hamlets EBP) is a leading education charity that bridges the gap between students and the world of work, providing fair and equal opportunities that enable students to broaden their horizons, igniting a determination to fulfil their aspirations.
Their goal is to end poverty of opportunity through education and partnerships with businesses. They work with employers to help students build confidence and skills. They want all young people to learn more, do more, and become more, because it is their firm belief that an educated community will become a thriving community.
They are uniquely located at the heart of some of the most important business hubs, such as the City of London, Canary Wharf and Shoreditch and with 25 years of experience they have built up a reputation as a trusted partner to some of the world’s leading FTSE 100 companies. They understand how to deliver effective programming to engage students, meet curriculum requirements and deliver measurable value for their corporate sponsors.