Correspondences: On Being a Woman Who Architects
Susannah St-Germain and Karishma Lalwani
More women are interested in getting a job as a Salesforce Architect than ever before — thanks to community initiatives like Ladies Be Architects. But what is it really like to be a woman in a field mostly dominated by men? How much have things changed — or not?
Susannah: I know that I’m biased — as I’m a co-lead of Ladies Be Architects — but I truly do think that so much progress has been made in raising awareness and interest in the Architect career path in the last few years. I think it’s important for women to see that this is a career that is challenging but attainable. Especially because it’s another option for people entering the Salesforce community. Having more choices isn’t always better, but when it comes to careers, I think that they most definitely help!
That said, on a more regular basis than I’d care to admit, I do see barriers to success for women pursuing a more “technical” role. While there are so many more opportunities to learn about the architect path, and there is tons of support for more folks growing new skills, once you get more senior as an architect, things aren’t always so rosy. I’m sure we will cover this in our discussion, so I won’t off on a tangent yet. But I suppose my first observation is that while the barriers to entry in learning about becoming an architect — and even getting that first job — are better today, there are still barriers and landmines when in it comes to working in this industry at a more senior level. What do you think, Karishma?
Karishma: Sigh! I have so much to say on this topic. I often meet two kinds of people. The first kind feel the need to ask: “do you understand technical stuff?” The second kind say (in a good way): “It’s so good to see a woman talk architecture.” But in both cases, the underlying truth is that there are not many of us in the industry — women who can architect, women who can lead, and especially women who can do both.
The statistics are skewed right from school age. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, women accounted for only 18% of all computer science degrees earned in 2015, and even fewer were women of color. For most of my meetings in the architect role at a customer site, I’d be in a room filled with 12–15 men and one or two women. The ratio was similar during any architect conferences, and this was 2015 or 2016 we’re talking about — which isn’t too far back in the past. We need to hire more women, and raise the visibility of women in architecture, engineering, and technology in general.
Susannah, do you remember the hashtag #ILookLikeAnEngineercampaign that took over Twitter? How powerful was that!
Susannah: Yes! I definitely remember the #ILookLikeAnEngineer campaign. The story of how it evolved is quite interesting: it first started as an ad campaign on San Francisco public transit by OneLogin, a SF-based tech company. The ad featured photos of some of OneLogin’s engineers. One of the engineers featured happened to be a woman. And like people do, they took pictures of this ad on the subway, and posted their opinions about it. Soon strangers were posting back and forth about whether this woman was an accurate representation of what “female engineers look like.” As you can imagine, backlash to this blew up all over the internet and evolved into something very different.
I remember how quickly this “ad-hoc” campaign and hashtag spread — and how it sparked a really beautiful outpouring from women sharing their faces and their stories about working in or pursuing STEM careers. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes: “You can’t be what you can’t see.” It gets at something inherently human: the more people can see others doing something, the more likely they will want to pursue the same thing too. And when that thing happens to be a well–paid, mentally stimulating job — I think spreading it is good.
While I absolutely think that campaigns like this are moving us in the right direction, we still have so much work to do. Harvard Business School highlighted how men will apply for a job when they meet only 60% of the qualifications — but women will only apply if they meet 100% of them. Karishma — have you seen this statistic hold true in the Salesforce ecosystem in years past, or even still today? If so, should we — or can we — change it?
Karishma: Guilty! I am definitely one of the many who apply to a job only if I meet over 90% of required qualifications — but that only means we lose the chance of getting the job even before making an attempt! Hiring is such a huge part of getting more people like us into the workforce. I have many friends who are great developers but the thought of becoming an architect never even crossed their mind. We certainly need to break such stereotypes. Another trend is women dropping out of technical tracks due to young kids at home — or avoiding jobs that require a lot of travel.
I strongly believe the first step is mentoring and sponsoring more women to retain their jobs and grow in their career. You would be surprised on how many men are willing to sponsor and mentor too! Secondly, a travel-heavy or demanding leadership role combined with kids at home is a balancing act, and you need to gather all the support at home you can. That way you won’t need to feel guilty when you need to make a quick work trip. Trust me — I am a mom of a 2 year old, and I know it’s hard, but it’s not impossible. It takes is a lot of planning, and we all know architects are brilliant at planning.
I would say for each and every one of you out there: pick a mentor and a sponsor (whether man or woman), have a professional goal, and work towards it. Talk to someone who is already in that position and ask them about how they got there. Once you make it, turn back and help someone else — #payitforward.
Another important aspect is changing our own mindset. Have the courage to speak up and do the right thing by yourself, because a lot of companies — including Salesforce — are actively looking to put women in leadership opportunities so that they can grow. You need to take the first step of letting your environment know what your aspirations are, and the Trailblazer community will send help to get you there.
Finally, it is important to know who you are, be proud of who you are and believe in your ambitions. So ladies: get your heels (or flats) on, and take the first step. Reach out, ask for help — and own your career and your success.
Susannah: I agree completely with what you said about mindset, and doing the right thing by yourself. Each and every one of us is our own best advocate. And remember that you are not alone! It may feel like you are sometimes — especially if you’re the only woman in the room or in your role at your company — but there are plenty of brilliant people building their architect careers in the Salesforce ecosystem. Reach out for help when you need it! And if you need help finding a group of like-minded folks, I encourage you to check Ladies Be Architects (@ArchLadies on twitter). We’re a virtual community waiting to cheer you on during you architect journey. You don’t need to identify as a “lady” to participate, either — we welcome all genders and all identities to join us!
You can join the conversation here or on Twitter (we’re @SalesforceArchs ), and find out more about becoming a Certified Technical Architect on Trailhead.
About the Correspondents:
Susannah St-Germain is a 19x certified Colombian-American Salesforce Architect. She was one of the first graduates of the RAD Women Code program and since then, her career has skyrocketed. She has gone from being a solo admin/dev at a nonprofit to a Salesforce Architect at Fortune 500 company. Susannah is currently a Technical Architect at Odaseva, a Salesforce Partner that provides data protection for Salesforce’s largest customers. Susannah is actively involved in the Trailblazer Community, serving as a co-lead of the Boston Salesforce Admin User Group, RAD Women Code coach, and Director of Ladies Be Architects, a community group that helps to build confidence for all on their Salesforce Architect journey.
Karishma Lalwani is a mom to a toddler, lives in Los Angeles and has 16+ years of implementation and architecture experience with Enterprise customers. She is one of the first 5 women globally to attain the Certified Technical Architect (CTA) credential and is a 5X Dreamforce speaker. Karishma’s journey started with being an Integration and Data developer on Oracle products in Accenture and Capgemini Mumbai, India before joining the Salesforce team in 2013 as a Technical Architect in California. She has expertise in building enterprise applications in various industries such as Financial Services, Media, Telco, Healthcare and Public Sector. Currently she is a Director of Product Management within the Salesforce Tech & Prod group helping some of the largest Salesforce customers across the globe to proactively address and mitigate challenges related to enterprise scale. She is a coach on Ladies Be Architects and is passionate about educating girls.
