Women Who Know How to Code
Hello, everyone!!! Just like the title, I am gonna share about women in GITS who know how to “code”. :) Yeah, not “women code”, but really … they type a script or code create application in front of their laptop. By the way, I planned to write this story for Kartini day, April 21st, but I missed it, yet I still want to share it to all of you guys. Hopefully it is not too late.
If you see in many IT companies, men still dominate the population. And girls … maybe at some companies still can be count with finger (exclude the non-technical role). The recruiter also find difficulties when they try to find female developer even for junior level.
So, why company should hire women who know how to code? Because, the difference between men and women will actually make a great team. Man has a strong logical thinking and focus on their goals, while woman have a great sense and good in managing their tasks so that is why they are good in multitasking.
Let’s hear opinion from some of our girls in GITS about women in IT industry!
- Dhiyaan Sabilala Ramadhani — member of our Quality Assurance division. Back then she was a programmer and now she try to challenge herself for a new role. In her opinion, not only men who should understand the world of IT but women too. Sometimes, she had hard times when trying to solve logical problem in her code, then she sought help from men and felt impressed from their various solutions of that problem. But on the other side, sometimes that could be a problem for women; they will feel so small or clueless at that moment. Lala’s role model is her lovely mom and her motto right now is “It doesn’t matter how slowly you go as long as you don’t stop. worry less, live more.”.
- Shinta Dwi Handayani — our head of human resource development. She thinks that IT industry will always have high demand based on many job opportunities spread in online job search platform. She is amazed and proud with woman who can write code and create application from it. Her obstacle is when bigger companies searching for developer too, so it feels like a real competition between tech recruiter. A Scrum Master, Mrs. Najla Seff, is her role model for now. Also she had this motto in her life — “Be a girl with mind, a woman with attitude, and a lady with class.”.
- Tri Rejeki — very senior iOS developer in GITS. She has IT background from college and is interested to explore more about problem solving in software application. From her point of view, in programming, not only logical thinking that is needed but also feeling (women specialty) to create an application. She has been a developer for years and she share her up-and-down when she works in this area. When the project gets hectic she has to continue to code it at home, and you know … women had different energies with men so she has to do overtime work and keep her body stays healthy. She has same role model with Lala and her quotes in life is — “Don’t stop learning and appreciate others.”.
- Setiawati Hudari — part of Eudeka, one of GITS subsidiary. She choose IT because she wants to advance the technology for Muslims. Many events or IT workshops that are filled by male, so some of the women participants feel afraid and shy to ask. She hope there will be more female speaker or facilitator in IT field so they will gain more courage to ask or share about their obstacles with other women. Because in Islam, woman is so important, as the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam said, “Woman is the pillar of the country. If the woman is good, then the country will be good. And if the woman is damaged, the country will be damaged.”. Setia’s role model are Ummul Mukminin Aisyah radhiallahu‘an and Khadijah radhiallahu’an because both of them were women who obeyed God’s commands, but still can spread goodness and knowledge for human life. Her life motto forever is — “La Ilaha Illallah.”.
- Inne Prinusantari — author of this Medium’s story. :) I studied mathematics and focusing in computer science field, that is why I can relate with programming and algorithm. Women have good communication skill so that they can do programming and chit-chat with client to make sure the application meet the requirement. As the rumor, programmers identical with people who hate public speaking or maybe introvert, so women can break that rumor since they love to talk. For obstacle…, hmm, my obstacle is speed of learning. Men can explore new framework or technology faster than women. Sometimes, I try to catch up by pairing up with them so I can know the rule and the basic concept of it. My role model is my father, he is my best teacher in life and he is the first one who introduced me to IT field. I like one complete formula in life as my motto if you want to succeed in life— “Learn, work, and pray!”.
That’s it! As a conclusion, diversity is a good thing. When men and women work together, they will become a great team to create best application. They can complement each other as a team or as a good friend. Remember, from this story I am not telling everyone to stop hiring male developer. :) Yet women still need help from men in any aspect.
Before we close this story, there is a beautiful quote from Richard Twiss
“You cannot have unity without diversity.”
— Happy Kartini Day for all Indonesian women out there!!! —
Inne Prinusantari, a back-end developer at GITS Indonesia, had herself challenged on used new framework right away and in big scope enterprise app. She successfully overcame it. In the future, she sets eyes on managing developers.
