Women In STEM — Embracing New Opportunities

Alison O’Connor, Data Scientist, Huong Nguyen, Front End Engineer, Valentina Sartori, Partner, QuantumBlack

In this second article in a series exploring the various ways colleagues pursued a career in STEM, we examine the role that chance plays in determining careers. It is often useful to assess how significant luck has been in our own key career moves — and whether we have remained open to new opportunities or watched potentially decisive moments pass us by without consideration.

Many women join a STEM path later in education or career, having been put off initially or interested in other areas, and turning your hand to something new is often challenging and intimidating. However, decisive individual choices are set to become a more common experience in our jobs market. The COVID-19 crisis has led many to reassess their career trajectory and search for new opportunities, and this is set to continue for some time. Recent McKinsey research found that at least 100 million people around the world will need to switch careers by 2030 due to COVID-related disruption.

Events outside our control can often lead us to new — if initially daunting — opportunities, and identifying which of these could lead to life changing results is rarely easy. We’ve included a selection of experiences from our colleagues which highlight how significant chance can be in career trajectories — and how crucial it is to embrace new opportunities when they present themselves.

Alison O’Connor — Data Scientist

I was the sixth member of my family to attend Winchester High School in Massachusetts, so initially I had no traditional first day nerves. This quickly changed. I’d mistakenly registered for Honours Computer Graphics and soon discovered that I would be the class’s only freshman and only female in the room. However, the subject interested me, the teacher inspired me and nobody cared that I wasn’t male or a senior.

Despite signing up for this class by accident, I somehow knew it would have a great impact on me and I was soon devoting additional time before, during, and after school hours to increase my skills to the level that would allow me to produce a high-quality project. It would often take hours to capture the movement of each image and complete a simple frame. Finding the right music and then coordinating it with each frame to elicit maximum effect challenged me. My experience compelled me to return to the lab the following year for an independent study, where I created a community service animation highlighting the dangers of drinking and driving.

Discovering my passion for this subject was well-timed with my college search. With the help of my parents, I sought programmes that offered exposure to the broader field of computational science. I was particularly drawn to UPenn’s cognitive science program because of its interdisciplinary nature, which required candidates to take courses in Computer Science, Maths, Psychology, Biology, and Philosophy. The thought of spending the next four years studying intelligent systems, both human and technology, was perfectly aligned with my interests. I am very thankful for this educational experience as it granted me a well-rounded set of skills that balanced both the needs of people and the power of analytics. My initial high school ‘mistake’ led me to an extremely rewarding career which offers the opportunity to apply and strengthen these skills each day.

Huong Nguyen — Front End Engineer

I never thought I’d work as a software engineer. Growing up in Vietnam, studying engineering or sciences was not really an option for girls. When choosing a university subject, I was advised to go with marketing or business analysis and applied to study International Business at the University of Gloucestershire. I graduated and began working in the advertising industry.

My life and career path changed massively after attending an event hosted by CodeFirst Girls, an organisation that provides free courses for girls to learn to code. I’d signed up out of curiosity, interested to see whether there was a reason why so few girls learn to code. I was soon hooked, spending hours solving problems, studying the logic behind those lines of code and excited by the feeling using technology to bring ideas to life. I decided to quit my job and learn to code full time at home. A year went by and my dream of being a software engineer actually came true.

If I could give my younger self advice, I would say that you have the power to become whoever you want to be as long as you work hard enough. Pursuing a career in STEM remains one of the best decisions of my life and I love my day-to-day work.

Valentina Sartori — Leader of QuantumBlack Switzerland

Throughout my studies and my career, I made some decisions based on what I found interesting and exciting, rather than as part of any long-term plan. There was some serendipity and I also learned to follow my gut.

I had a natural affinity for Maths and Chemistry at school and chose to undertake a Chemical Engineering degree at university. During my final year we were brought to a refinery, where I saw distillation columns, burners, pipelines — all these things I knew from books — for the first time. That visit made me realise that I liked what I was studying but didn’t want to be a Chemical Engineer.

I was teaching in parallel to my studies, so decided I could still stay close to the field but in a different role. I opted to pursue a PhD in order to become a university professor, which sounded like a dream career path.

For my PhD thesis, I switched from chemical to electrical engineering and ended up working on modelling and simulation for applying optimal doses of anaesthesia in surgeries. The topic interested me but I soon realised it entailed a lot of coding, which I had no experience in, and left me alone with the problem without a team to speak to. It was a tough journey and I learned much about myself throughout. It also led me to realise that being a professor would be different to what I’d imagined.

Upon finishing my PhD, friends recommended that I try consulting in order to marry my scientific skills with managerial ones and broaden my horizons. I decided to join McKinsey, where I remain fourteen years later. I could have taken many other paths and would have ended up in different places. But I’m happy with where I have found myself.

I took some risks and succeeded in some cases while failing in others. It’s ok to be wrong, while overthinking often means you will never try. I would advise everyone to keep their options open and avoid over-focusing on one area too early. I always thought that pharma was the coolest field to work in and I did not consider another industry for some time. Upon returning from maternity leave last year, I began working more broadly across sectors such as public health and healthcare systems and realised how much I’d missed out by not experimenting earlier in my career. Establishing QuantumBlack’s Switzerland hub has also introduced me to industries such as Banking and the Social sector — and while it has been scary to step outside my comfort zone, it is also exciting to have all these options new adventures available to me.

We hope this article highlights how chance encounters can often lay the foundations for tremendous careers. Making these decisions is often down to the individual — however a supportive network can play a crucial role in helping us make informed decisions, or at the very least reassuring us that we’ve made the right choice. Our next article in this series will explore the importance of these supportive networks, whether they involve parents, mentors or friends.