Growing a Community of Women in Tech
A supportive environment makes simple ideas blossom
The day I interviewed at Jobcase, I was nervous yet excited. It felt like the day that would change my entire life. Looking back, I think I knew that my future would be there in that office in Cambridge. Despite having received a different offer the day before, I somehow knew that I would build my life around this job.
That day, I got to meet with several incredibly smart people, all of whom I would get to work with directly. Though I’ll never forget any of the people who interviewed me, one person in particular stands out. Her name is Lauren. At the time, she was a product and engineering leader. She was also my “cultural fit” interviewer of the day.
During our time together she asked me if I had any questions. We’d been seated in this room with floor to ceiling glass panels so I could see the entire engineering department behind her. I scanned the rows of men at their desks and then asked, “Do any women work here in engineering?” Bringing my attention back to her, she replied, “I’m a woman and I work here” with a big smile. She was obviously a woman that worked in engineering, but she wasn’t a female engineer coding every day like I would be. Still, the other offer I had received was from a company with no women at all, in engineering or elsewhere.
I chose Jobcase. It’s possible this had something to do with Lauren. Research on gender disparity in offices has shown that people feel most comfortable with mentors who look like them. I decided there would be more mentors for me at Jobcase, and that’s what I felt I needed fresh out of college.
Why are people excited about an entry level employee?
My first week of working was a whirlwind of on-boarding and meeting new people. One thing that stuck out and became very obvious was how excited they were for me to start. My initial thought was: why are these people so excited about an entry level employee? I was fresh out of college, totally green to the world with absolutely zero idea what I was doing. In fact, I hadn’t even gotten the software engineering role I had applied for — they had made up a role for me in QA. To put it in perspective — I didn’t even know what QA was when I accepted this job.
To this day people still remind me that I was a very exciting hire. Recently, while reflecting on the past couple years, I did some research. What does a woman mean to an engineering department? Or really, any department that is male dominated. A lot of people will tell you that it changes the culture of a workplace. But why? The answer: A more diverse workforce leads to a more inclusive culture. A more comfortable place to work. You know what happens when people are more comfortable at work? They’re more likely to share ideas. Which leads to innovation! And not to state the obvious, but profit! From that point of view, diversity at work is a no-brainer.
He reflected on a time in the company history when not one engineer was a woman.
In a recent all-company meeting, my CEO, Fred Goff, had some words to say about the recent happenings across the world, especially relating to gender and racial inequalities. He reflected on the past and mentioned a time in the company history when not one engineer was a woman. It was a real problem the company wanted to solve. There are so many different types of diversity and for a company like ours to really help all people, it’s important to have diversity of all different kinds. It’s hard to find good people in life and in work. It’s harder to find good people with the passion to drive change and work at the mission you’re on. Yet, despite the uphill battle, it’s incredibly important for companies like ours to grow and succeed.
Now, when people ask about the diversity mix of engineering we can proudly point to many women.
In the two years since I started here, my role — like many others at Jobcase — has evolved a lot. As the engineering department scaled, I helped with a project that would eventually get me transitioned to the growth engineering team. It was just a few months after I’d started, but that didn’t matter because there was a need and I could fulfill that need. As the department continued to grow, we searched for people to fill a variety of roles. I was pulled into a lot of interviews. Between working in QA and growth, I’ve helped hire several other female engineers across multiple teams. Now, when people ask about the diversity mix of engineering we can proudly point to many women.
Not only did I help make that happen through my presence in the interview process, I also had an idea to foster more of a community of women across the organization. I wanted to get all the women together more regularly for events and have a dedicated Slack channel to discuss women in the workplace or gender equality. I found that I didn’t interact regularly with a lot of them and it was hard to seek them out individually, especially when you’re introverted like me.
Jobcase is the type of company where you could comfortably sit down with anyone in the cafe over lunch. All it takes is a little bravery, or in my case, joining the same club. Fortunately, one of our many clubs — knitting club — meets every Wednesday for lunch and is an easy way to meet new people. I helped start the knitting club after a woman at Jobcase offered to teach me how to knit during lunch. Over the years this club has grown and welcomed a large variety of people from the company. During a casual chat one day with our director of people and culture, the idea came to me. “What if we had events just for women?”, I asked. Her response: “Plan one.”
So, I did. The women of Jobcase really appreciated this effort. At the first event, some women came up to me saying they’d never felt comfortable at the co-ed happy hours. It’s cliche — but they were really grateful for the safe space to network and connect with other ladies. Unsurprisingly, the feedback was unanimous — people wanted to do this every quarter!
Given the success of the women of Jobcase initiative, I decided to see if I could get interest and support for a women’s engineering group. We had hired quite a few women in engineering since I started, but we were spread out across multiple teams where we barely interacted. I pitched this idea: a catered monthly lunch with a guest who the women might not get a lot of time with normally. Again, I got the support and buy-in needed to make this happen and we’ve had a series of successful lunches. Since the pandemic, we’ve adapted to a bi-weekly Zoom hangout with the guests. We also try to connect every week on Zoom. It’s a lot more casual, but the women really seem to value the time together.
So in sum, I’ve learned a lot along my journey. I’m grateful for incredible managers, mentors and peer mentors. People who’ve encouraged and supported me as I’ve come into my own as a coder and in various other pursuits. I believe success can be heavily attributed to the environment you’re in and my company has provided a space where I can flourish. I’m proud of Jobcase and I’m proud that I’m helping to build something special. If you’re a kickass female engineer — hit me up!
