Why I need to see more line ups like this
A write up: Women of Silicon Roundabout
The importance of conferences like Women of Silicon Roundabout for women like me working in tech is immeasurable. With around 6000 (mostly female) attendees, it was one of the most motivating tech events I’ve ever attended.
It’s undeniable that diversity and inclusion are essential for any business. Diverse companies are 33% more likely to achieve better than average profits (McKinsey, 2018), as well as having better employee engagement and retention. Yet, within the tech sector in the UK, women still make up only 17% of the workforce (colorintech, 2019). Only 3.9% of programmers and software developers in tech are female, and worryingly, women now hold a lower share of computer science jobs than they did in the 1980s. Events like Women of Silicon Roundabout are vital for improving gender diversity in tech.
There were a huge number of incredible talks and workshops at the conference, but I will sum up some of my favourites.
Nira Goren’s talk ‘How to start a career in AI and Machine Learning’ dove into the significance of AI and Machine Learning for the health industry. A Senior Clinician Strategist at Deepmind, Nira talked about how Deepmind is using AI to help NHS doctors treat head and neck cancers. The NHS’ current use of ‘segmentation’ to identify areas to be targeted/avoided during head or neck radiotherapy takes a lengthy 4 hours; Deepmind believe they might be able to cut this down to 1 hour with the use of machine learning.*
Nira gave clear, helpful insights into the sorts of paths both her and her colleagues have taken to end up working at Deepmind. As an example, a clinician scientist she works with started, grew and sold a wedding planning company before training in paediatrics, completing a PhD in medical imaging and eventually joining Deepmind. Her point was that your career path in AI does not need to be linear.
Rebecca Pope, Head of Data Science and Engineering at KPMG gave a brilliantly witty talk on her ‘Top tips for launching a career in Data Science’. She explored the different areas of Data Science — data visualisation, machine learning, data scientist, and data engineer. She spoke about the importance of being open to a range of languages and tools, in order to become a ‘Swiss Army Knife’ of data science. She also stressed the need for peer networks and female mentors. She gave the example of KPMG’s #Itsherfuture initiative to support the development of women in tech.** A key message was to remember that you as a person (not the code you write) is impactful; employers hire you rather than your coding skills. Although this advice might seem obvious, it’s something I often forget as a software engineer.
In ‘The Chief Diversity Officer, what next?’ a panel of Joyse Adeluwoye-Adams, Kirsty Trafford-Owen, and Ashleigh Ainsley talked about colorintech’s Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) report.*** They spoke about how any CDO should report directly to the CEO, and should not be considered a part of the HR function. Joyse, who is Global Director of D&I at King, spoke about how the media industry is ahead of tech on diversity and inclusion simply by virtue of existing longer, and what we have to learn from it. The panel also spoke about ‘Diversity fatigue’:
‘Many people are frustrated with the idea of D&I; what it is and why it is important. There is a risk that some have started to switch off.’
To combat this, they underlined the importance of feeling empowered to take action on D&I rather than just paying lip service to it.
Catrin Anderson, Chief People Officer at Zoopla spoke about how ‘Not all interviewees are created equal’. An interesting takeaway was that men and women tend to use different language when talking about their contribution to a project in an interview. Men tend to overstate their individual contributions to teamwork, as exemplified by their frequent use of the singular pronoun ‘I’, while women tend to understate theirs, and use ‘we’. The CTO of Zoopla spoke about how he’d interviewed 3 male engineers over the course of 2 days who all said they’d single-handedly executed the same project. This difference in language can bias interviewers who are often taught to specifically to look out for examples of individual work. Catrin recommended that both interviewer and interviewee should be aware of these differences going forward.
It’s disappointingly rare to have the opportunity to meet so many incredible women in tech. In an industry dominated by men, it’s revitalising and refreshing to see so many other women totally smashing it. I would encourage anyone, whatever gender, to go along to Women of Silicon Roundabout next year.
Bryony Watson, Engineer @ Cleo
Links
*https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-deepmind-ai-to-help-doctors-treat-head-and-neck-cancers/
**https://www.kpmgcareers.co.uk/who-we-are/being-inclusive/its-her-future
***https://www.drutherssearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/ColorInTech_Research_Report_Spread.pdf
