Epic Women in Tech — Tobi Ajala
Tobi Ajala is the founder of TechTee, a complete lifecycle digital agency that specializes in software development and design within fashion and luxury industries. She has been a software developer-designer hybrid since 2010 and is passionate about design within all aspects of digital.
How did you get into the tech field?
I always had a love for engineering and technology growing up. And I was blessed enough with a mother to notice and encourage that in me. When I was 13 I was a huge Apple fan girl which opened a door to my curiosity to design for a while and made me want to be an electronics engineer. But then there was a time that I randomly started web design, which quickly snowballed into learning some backend software languages via my high street library textbooks. Backend languages such as PHP introduced me to front end development via Wordpress becoming really popular — and the rest is history.
What are the main challenges in this field?
Visibility and being taken seriously. I am aware that the technology industry is very much white male dominated and I don’t fit that image. However, I’ve been very blessed to meet people of all creeds along the way that have either helped me in one way or another, or given me a chance to show off my skills.
What are the things you’ve learned being a woman in tech?
How important it is to be your authentic self. It’s only been very recent that I’ve been able to shake off my shyness and be very bold and proud about what I’ve been able to build my business into. And in doing so, some of my biggest milestones have come about solely from being myself and people gravitating positively towards that.
What advice would you give to women who would like to join the industry?
Be really good. The wonderful thing about technology sometimes, especially as a software developer or designer, is that you can either do it or you can’t. And the most talented people I’ve had the pleasure of working with made sure they became really good at what they do but practising — a lot!
Who are your role models?
There are a couple of women that immediately come to mind in terms of where I found inspiration from.
Juliet Bramwell was the first woman in a position of such power that I had the pleasure of sitting down and speaking to. I was so grateful with how a woman, heading up teams at Google, had the time to sit down with me and offer up nuggets of wisdom. I could only imagine how busy she was, but she took the time and gave me some of the best advice I’ve ever received.
Kerry Shreeve would be the next amazing woman I admire very much. I did a placement with her during my apprenticeship and she taught me so many things about how to handle business that I still use today. I admired how confident she was and she simply took me under her wing and I am forever grateful.
If you could go back in time to your first days in the industry, what would you do differently or tell yourself?
I’d say I shouldn’t have doubted myself so much. I’ve had imposter syndrome from what seems like forever. And with failing university the first time these only got worse. But once I acknowledged that this specified path was the one I was going to take, and I was going to be good at it, everything felt natural after that. It doesn’t mean it was easy, but I definitely enjoyed myself more.
