Working in Tech: Going beyond coding
Anneli Seppola is an experienced software engineer. She shared with us this talk about the insights of being a woman in tech.
Truth is that working in the tech field can be easily mystified as people tend to think that the hard skills that you use in the workplace are the most important or the only necessaries to have. Also, for people who are entering this field from different backgrounds, team organisation and project workflow can be foggy and confusing at the beginning. That’s why this talk was a great opportunity to get to know more about what it is like working in tech, about the organisation of the different teams and the times within a project.
After introducing herself, Anneli highlighted some useful concepts to keep in mind at the developer journey:
- Mistakes are normal. Developers work with mistakes and so will you. There will be mistakes, so it is better not to be afraid of them.
- Mentors are everywhere. That means not only within your team or your workplace. In any environment, you can find people that are open to share and from whom you can find something useful to learn. Get close to those people that are open to sharing their knowledge with you.
- Impostor syndrome is also normal and you are not alone facing it. Listening to that can be kind of a relief for someone who has experienced that feeling. And it is really encouraging to see that there are a lot of people within the dev community that are open not only to share their experiences around that but also their tips and advice to the beginners who are facing it.
- Keep up the good work and to do that don’t be afraid to ask for feedback. Most of the time people can find something to improve, but also things that you have done well at your work, so be open to share your work with others and take advantage of the advice you get.
As a short resume of the content related to the team organisation and the project workflow we can separate the different phases of a project in three main groups. The final structure of each department will depend on several conditions such as the size of the project, but in general, it can be divided as:
Product design team, composed by a Product Manager who identifies the customer need and articulates with the rest of the team a solution for that need. A Data Analyst or more who works around the information about the business. And UX/UI designers, who brings forward the user’s point of view for this solution.
Implementation team, where a Teach Lead coordinates a Developers team and a Data Scientist team to work in the implementation and develop the solution required.
Delivery team, conformed by Quality Assurance team who test the implementation of the solution and a DevOps team who monitor the solution once it is at its production stage.
All these teams are not working alone and most of the time the work of one team relies on the previous work of another team. That is why in tech industry, it is not only important to know the technical tools you use, but also the soft skill you have, that will allow you to successfully communicate, to contribute and to be aligned with the goals of your team.
Let’s mention other valuable skills to have for a developer:
- Communication: as a developer, you will be coding and constantly needing to explain your code to your teammates and to other teams with various technical knowledge. So it is important to be able to explain your line of thoughts and your decisions while working on your code.
- Collaboration: projects are the result of many people’s work, so people with a sense of teamwork are more likely to have success working in that environment.
- Self-awareness: it is important to know where your weaknesses are and to be conscious of them. You don’t have to be perfect, nobody is, but knowing which are your weak points will help you and your team.
- Take feedback: it is crucial to be open to the feedback and to implement the suggestions and advice you receive.
- Curiosity: you will face lots of new things and being curious about them is the best way. You don’t have to know everything, but being open to learn new things and enjoy this process is a must for a developer.
- Problem solving and critical thought: in the same way, you will face new problems and it is important to have the capacity to think about new possible solutions.
- Networking: being open to know and collaborate with people within your sector will open opportunities.
As we had seen, working in tech is not coding all the time. The image of a super smart person coding and solving all the problems alone can’t be more cut off from reality. While coding is obviously one of the main tasks in the day of a software engineer, there are also other tasks as important as this one, and also there are more skills to have to be capable of contributing within a project. While you can more easily learn a new tech stack, it is more difficult to change the way you are or your personality so it is important to recognise which are your soft skills and the value they have.
To conclude, the talk went into the situation of women in tech. As part of a research around the still huge gender salary gap, an infographic from the Scottish Parliament illustrates that causes as “casual sexism” and a lack of female role models, workplace pregnancy and maternity discrimination, or a lack of flexibles and part-time opportunities for those ones that are trying to conciliate familiar life, are reasons for women to leave this industry. Even though there is a great growth of the presence and representation of women in tech that we can celebrate, there is still a lot to do and improve in that area.
