Interview TY Chang: How Woman Enter the World of Data
Learn From the Best: Crescendo Lab’s Senior Data Engineer’s view on gender in the engineering field and her advice for fresh graduates.
TY Chang graduated from National Taiwan University with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Atmospheric Sciences. She originally set out to pursue an academic path in Atmospheric Science, but later decided to enter the workforce instead. After an hour-long interview, here is her journey as a data engineer:
Unwritten Rules of Gender in School
According to studies, the ratio of males to females in the IT sector in Taiwan is 4:1, which is a phenomenon that is observed worldwide, and an issue that we are all very familiar with. But why? And why in Taiwan? TY believes that it is not the individuals who are sexist, but the society. An example can be seen when a Taiwanese student is faced with their first crossroad in life: the Arts Stream or Science Stream.
In Taiwanese high schools, students have to choose either the Arts Stream or Science Stream. Yet, it is expected that boys would choose the Science Stream and girls would the Arts Stream, because this is the cultural norm.
TY has never heard guys question themselves whether their math is good enough to be in the Science Stream. Yet, if a girl were to choose the Science Stream, her maths and science abilities would be questioned by her friends, family, and teachers, asking her if her grades are really good enough, and why doesn’t she just choose the Arts Stream. Those girls would begin to have self-doubts because there are so few girls in STEM, that they don’t think they are good enough to be among the few. As a result, even from a young age, the threshold for girls to enter the science field is much higher compared to boys.
Unwritten Rules of Gender in the Workplace
One of the most popular topics in tech conferences is Women in Tech, where women share the hardships and perseverance that they have faced because of their gender. However, do all women in tech face discrimination to that extent? Or do conferences invite women who face the most discrimination? TY said that from her observation, everyone is very good at hiding it, no one is going to say it or do it directly. On the other hand, it’s also hard to admit to yourself that you are faced with discrimination since gender is something that you cannot change easily. Therefore, gender discrimination is not the first reason that she automatically points to when faced with certain situations. Instead, she tries to look at it from a more constructive standpoint, such as her performance, etc, to rule out all the other possibilities first.
Another phenomenon that is observed in the workplace is that people at the top of the corporate hierarchy are usually men. TY suggested two possible reasons. First is that people already have an image in their mind of how a superior should look like, so those who “look the part” get promoted. Or, it may also be the fact that engineering is a traditionally male-dominated job so it makes sense statistically that more male supervisors got promoted due to their extensive experience.
Of course, not all companies and everyone are perpetrators of gender discrimination. Yet, it is also rare for people to actually talk about this issue openly. TY recalled that Poga, the data team lead in Crescendo Lab, once stopped her from writing the meeting minutes because he thought that people were too used to asking women to be the notetaker. Since the note-takers often miss out on sharing their thoughts in the meetings as they are busy typing, he doesn’t want this job to always fall on women. This kind of awareness is exactly what is missing from many workplaces as gender discrimination often occurs unnoticed.
Biggest Takeaway from a Master’s Degree in Atmospheric Sciences
Doing a master’s requires students to undergo extensive research, if you are faced with a problem, you look at past papers, ask professors, or multiple professors if you still can’t find the answer, and learn to solve a scientific question using scientific methods and systemic thinking. After this academic journey, TY realized that the research they’ve done in the 2 years is not going to make a big advancement in the scientific community, the biggest beneficiary of doing a master’s is actually yourself. Her academic journey has not been easy either, with doubts coming from every direction, and the expectations she placed on herself after graduating top of her class for her bachelor’s degree, she still made it after 2 long years. Her biggest takeaway is the confidence she now has in herself as she knows she has what it takes to achieve anything.
Advice for Fresh Graduates
TY shared with me a speech she once heard, highlighting the 3 main factors that decide how much money you make—location, industry, and company. For example, the salary of an engineer in Taiwan is drastically different from an engineer in the United States, and the highest salary you can make in a domestic company is different from Microsoft. TY emphasized that everything depends on your choice, skills are not the main determinant as people usually assume.
Advice on Finding the First Job
When she first looked for a job, she applied to every and all positions, like sales, human resources, etc. Her turning point came when she went in for an interview for a sales position. The CEO asked her if she knew what the role requires. Since she already memorized the job description, she just repeated the list she saw on the website. The CEO replied, “Umm you really don’t know what the job is huh”. Then, he gave her two choices, either become a consultant or an engineer. So that’s what she did.
When she graduated, there was a boom in the market for data analysts. Since she had a lot of experience organizing large amounts of data when she was doing her master’s, she applied for every job that had the word, “analyst”, in it.
She didn’t graduate with an engineering-related major, so when she first entered the workplace as an analyst, she had to do EVERYTHING. People would give tasks that they didn’t want to do to her as “practice” since she’d never done it before. Through this experience, she started to discover which area she wanted to pursue.
Her advice is: you don’t have to be the best at that field to enter that field, you will naturally become better once you enter. Then how you choose to utilize those skills you’ve acquired is something that you can decide later on.
Advice for People who want to enter the Field of Engineering
If you stick to it, you will make it. Those who are experts in a field have also dedicated an unimaginable amount of time and hard work to get there, don’t give up. Of course, some were born with it, but this world consists of ordinary people, anything can be achieved through hard work.
The End.
