If You Think It’s Difficult to Develop Soft Skills in IT, Our Mentors Will Prove You Wrong.
On the supportive role of mentors in pursuing — or throughout — your career path.
At Brainly, we do not have our minds set only on educational tools. Many of our female teammates actively engage in mentoring within the Dare IT program and other similar initiatives to lead the way, support, and encourage other women entering the technology sector.
The career trajectories of these women follow a familiar narrative. Initially, there is an eagerness to explore new opportunities, followed by a bold vision for the future. However, self-doubt creeps in, fueled by the fear of failure and the questioning of one’s talents and abilities. Fortunately, perseverance and determination ultimately triumph, leading them to achieve their aspirations and goals.
It’s fair to say that this pattern is something that many women seeking careers in IT encounter. This is why our Brainly mentors want to help them change their narrative and write the chapters of their careers according to their own terms.
So who are our mentors? What is the common denominator that has allowed them to grow into the roles they hold now? And most importantly, for every person who’d like to upskill, change their career path altogether, or simply start in the right direction, gaining invaluable support from a mentor helps to make the journey more straightforward and fruitful!
Here are some words of advice from our Brainly mentors.
Anna Niwa-Bargieł, Senior CX Product Designer — Tutoring
Anna’s past seems like a scene from “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” For as long as she can remember, she’s always been a restless spirit, a curious and creative person, constantly looking for challenges and trying all possible paths towards her future. Perhaps that’s why she could fill her CV’s hobby section with modeling, shooting sports, horseback riding, dancing, painting murals, or even performance art. Although she was raised to respect and pursue her education, she also felt the need to express herself artistically. Anna worked briefly as an art gallery director in Kraków but soon realized she was not in the right place. She discovered User Experience (UX), which inspired her to change the course of her career, moved to the US, and began exploring this field. She participated in meetups and mentoring programs and quickly realized that UX was everything she was looking for. In her words: “UX is about looking for a better version of the product, but also about improving oneself.”
What would Anna tell her younger self?
No matter what you do professionally, what really matters is how you feel about it: whether it makes you feel fulfilled, satisfied, or pumped. And she adds that small obstacles we encounter along the way do not define us.
Anna’s recommendations:
👉 UX Design, best practices, case studies: https://medium.com/ https://www.nngroup.com, Growth Design
👉 Learning resources from Interaction Design Foundation,
👉 Self-development, inspiration: Finding Mastery Podcast, Rich Roll Podcast, TED Talks Daily
Michalina, Anna’s Mentee:
“Meeting my wonderful mentor — Ania, an extraordinary specialist in the UX field, confirmed my sense of agency and helped give me the confidence to talk about substantive topics and to grow into the professional I am today.
I’m grateful to be part of such an excellent mentoring program, where I could meet many talented, ambitious women who inspire and motivate others to act. They share their successes but also show the human face of failure.”
Anna Piosik, Product Design & Strategy Manager
Anna is a Warsaw School of Economics alumni who majored in strategic consulting. Her dream was to build bold strategies and implement business innovations. This dream came true as she’s been leading projects in IT, research, digital marketing, product development, customer support, and e-commerce. Digital seems to be her sweet spot, as she has developed new skills in design thinking, service design, and UX. What Anna loves about her job is that she can combine her business expertise, UX design background, and coaching experience.
In her free time, she also enjoys many different activities, including tennis, yoga, cycling, skiing, and ceramics.
What were Anna’s early professional years like?
She struggled with impostor syndrome when she started working in the IT industry. This is why she focused on learning and growing her technical skills in design areas. What helped her early in her career was networking with other professionals, listening to the stories of their professional transitions, and learning that one’s career path may unfold in many different ways.
Anna’s recommendations for great sources of knowledge:
👉 Podcasts: Design Practice, Design in Biznes and Sięgaj po więcej
👉 Stories on UX and design: https://medium.com/ https://www.nngroup.com
👉 Books: The Umami Strategy, Sprint. How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just 5 Days, This is service design doing, Mapping Experiences
👉 Self-development: Czuła przewodniczka, Dare to Lead
Małgorzata, Anna’s Mentee:
“The mentoring program turned out to be the best decision in my professional development. Thanks to support from my Mentor, Ania Piosik, I developed my UX design skills and planned further career development. Mentoring sessions provided me with the knowledge and energy to move forward. Thanks to my Mentor’s support, I did not give up in moments of doubt, and now I am at a different level of my career and am very happy with this change. The mentoring program influenced not only positive professional changes but also personal ones.”
Anula Sternicka, Product Manager
Anula entered IT somewhat by chance, not yet knowing what she wanted to do in particular. She was studying power engineering at MEiL in Warsaw, and thanks to a professor in her department, she came across a company providing IT services for the energy sector. She jumped at the chance to enter the field! Anula had business knowledge, spoke the technical language, knew how to communicate with clients, and understood their needs. She took the opportunity to work on designing a software application and became instantly passionate about IT, and moved forward into the world of technology.
In her free time, she enjoys many hobbies — she creates pottery, climbs, skis, and leads cooking workshops. Anula also graduated from piano music school, took a paragliding course, and participated in several voluntary work activities. And it is worth mentioning that while she was a student, she held some unusual jobs, like house painting, driving a digger, and… delivering pigs while working on a farm.
What did Anula’s early career look like?
She struggled with impostor syndrome for a long time. Now when she reflects on her early career, she understands the value of advice from a more experienced person, the way she mentors today. Having someone to encourage her when dealing with difficulties, to reaffirm her knowledge, and reassure her that she would succeed, was critical to her success
At the beginning of her career, Anula used the following resources to look for answers to many of her questions:
👉 Product Vision blog — my go-to place whenever I have any product-related questions. Also, they created a great community on the Product Management Facebook group
👉 Teresa Torres, Product Talk — my Product Guru. I recommend all her educational materials and YouTube videos. She writes a lot about working with opportunities and how to focus on users. Also, if you have any follow-up questions after reading her articles, check the “comments” section. Someone has probably already asked that question, and she’s provided the answer.
Oliwia, Anula’s mentee:
“Taking part in a mentorship program was one of the best things that happened to me at the end of 2022. I had a very helpful, inspiring, and experienced mentor. Anula was supportive and present at each step of getting my first job in IT. Her experience and knowledge guided me through the recruitment process and increased my product management skills. Without her kind words and gentle motivation, I don’t know if I would’ve found my first job so smoothly.”
Magda Faszczewska, Lead CX Product Designer
As bold as it may sound, she has always thought of herself as a Renaissance (wo)man. While choosing a major in her final year of high school, she had a huge dilemma, since she was interested in various subjects: English, marketing, economics, psychology, and computer science. Ultimately, she chose the latter as it was the most practical, and pursued a career in UX. At first, she thought a career in this field was only possible in the United States, but she came across a job ad for a UX position in Poland, and the rest is history. Three-time Dare IT mentor, Magda also hosts a podcast titled Female Element, in which she talks to women who inspire her.
In her spare time, she practices yoga, lithography, tarot, and participates in writing workshops of all sorts. Fun fact: She almost became a TV star, as she was invited to the BBC afternoon program to serve her mulled beer recipe!
What were Magda’s early professional years like?
The hardest thing at first was not believing in her own skills. If Magda had opened up to someone — a mentor, maybe — she would have saved a lot of time and energy that she had to put into fighting her self-doubt, repeatedly checking solutions and answers, and she would probably have heard that her knowledge was solid. That’s why she believes so much in mentoring.
Magda’s recommendations:
👉 Brene Brown’s podcasts “Unlocking Us” and “Dare to Lead” — huge inspirations on how to find oneself, build wholesome relationships, and understand others. A favorite episode — the one with Adam Grant, titled: “The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know”.
Małgorzata, Magda’s mentee:
“Dare IT was an ideal way to take my first steps in the IT world. Working with my mentor gave me a huge boost of practical knowledge, motivation, and encouragement, which led to landing my first job in UX. I highly encourage every woman who dares to change her career path to join and meet so many inspiring, hardworking, and determined women.”
Weronika Lebiedowska, UX Researcher
Ever since she can remember, she’s been interested in design and combining practicality with aesthetics. So Weronika chose to study architecture. She enjoyed designing but didn’t see a future as an architect. While studying, she explored different design fields during various events like the Service Jam workshop, for example. At this 48-hour workshop, she discovered UX and that was the first step toward her future career in the IT world. Already in her final year of architecture, she pivoted and started her postgraduate studies in UX & Product Design at AGH in Krakow. That’s how she discovered her love of UX research and that it was her calling. A long road led her to Brainly: through student exchanges in Spain and Italy, and her first UX job in Slovakia.
She’s the most relaxed when she’s actually active — rollerblading, doing acrobatics on an aerial hoop, and going for long walks. Recently, she’s rekindled her passion for drawing.
What were the early steps she took in her career?
Weronika learned the hard way about the importance of stakeholder management when she worked on a project developing a mobile app for corporate employees. During the course of the project, it turned out that many of the team members she worked with didn’t quite understand the value of research and wanted to skip this phase of the process. When she finally conveyed the importance of doing this, the team decided not to incorporate her recommendations due to lack of time. This experience taught her how important a thorough understanding of the stakeholders’ needs are, as well as the importance of setting expectations at the very beginning of each project. Moreover, she realized how a company’s UX maturity level impacts the comfort of work and its effectiveness.
Weronika recommends the following podcasts that highlight interviews with experts on various UX research topics:
👉 Podcasts: ”Mixed Methods” and „Awkward Silences”
Anna Miler, Program Manager at Dare IT:
“The Dare IT Mentoring Program aims to support women looking for their first job in IT. Mentees develop their skills, build their network in a new professional context, and increase their self-confidence. Many of them have already found their dream job during the mentoring! As one mentee wrote: participation in the Program is membership in a group of determined, motivated, and eager-to-learn women!”
As you can see, at the beginning of any professional career, one’s aptitude and willingness to learn, overcome barriers, fight patterns, and or explore new things are crucial, but also meeting the right people, early on, help in overcoming fears and boosting one’s self-esteem. The Dare IT program, in which our Brainly colleagues are mentors, and many other similar initiatives open to the female audience, have been created precisely for women who want to enter the technological career path but need support during the process.
If you are one of them — dare to go to the program website and apply for the next edition!
Subscribe to the DARE IT newsletter here.
Some other initiatives also worth considering are:
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The article came together thanks to a collaboration with Anna Niwa-Bargieł, Anna Piosik, Anna Sternicka, Magda Faszczewska, and Weronika Lebiedowska.
