Why we’re partnering with a women-centric programming school
Earlier this year, we partnered with FrauenLoop, a women-centric programming school empowering its students to break into the world of tech. Read on why this was the right move for us from Marissa Mocenigo, Senior Engineering Manager and Taxfix Diversity Ambassador, Dr. Nakeema Stefflbauer, CEO and founder of FrauenLoop, and Olha Danylchenko, Fullstack Engineer and FrauenLoop alumna.
Why are efforts to increase Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) important?
The tech industry is known for its homogeneity. As FrauenLoop notes, today, digitalisation is essential to business growth, and as a result, every company now is effectively a tech company. At Taxfix, we strive to be proactive in making systematic change happen, which makes our teaming up with FrauenLoop a step in the right direction. Along with making our team aware of unconscious bias, we’re addressing the issue at the source by investing in education and offering fair career opportunities to graduates who successfully go through our recruiting process. Learn why.
Senior Engineering Manager Marissa Mocenigo has a lifelong passion for tech. Marissa studied computer science at a women’s college in the United States before starting her career as a software engineer in the field of robotics. While she never doubted her ability as an engineer, she says she was unprepared for the gender imbalance she experienced entering the tech industry. “For the first time, I was the only woman in the room. This wasn’t something I had experienced before.”
“In many such environments, it can sometimes feel like you are representing the work of other women in tech as well. It can be a lot of pressure when you make a mistake.” The effects of implicit bias can have a profound impact on workplace experience, and women are not alone in feeling them.“Experiences of the same workplace can be vastly different. It can often feel like members of the same team could be working in two different companies entirely based on a team member’s gender, race, sexual orientation, nationality, ability, and many other factors.”
It was from working in homogenous environments that Marissa realised the importance of greater Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in tech as a whole, explaining: “I hadn’t set out with the mission of trying to promote diversity topics, but after these first experiences I realised how far most workplaces still have to go.” She argues that it is in the interest of any organisation to embrace diversity; that by opening a company up to a range of different life experiences and perspectives, companies can find diverse solutions to challenges they face, develop a stronger culture, and ensure they are an authentic reflection of the customers they hope to engage.
“Much of the DEI conversation in Europe sinks to the lowest common denominator in terms of effort, because the work is seen as ad hoc, a ‘nice to have’ and not as critical to the health of an organisation’s culture,” says FrauenLoop’s Dr. Nakeema Stefflbauer. “It’s easier to hire a category of person than it is to develop a plan to attract many different types of people, so most companies simply choose a category and consider DEI as done.”
“By contrast, I think that there was considerable awareness of and openness to removing barriers to people of different ages, genders, and backgrounds within the Taxfix talent team. The first step is to identify gaps — where people with diverse characteristics are not well-represented in the organisation — and then to review the communication, recruitment channels and candidate feedback, to see if different DEI outreach efforts are gaining traction and how they are being perceived.”
Why did we choose to join forces with FrauenLoop?
This year we launched a new initiative, reaching out to different organisations and mentoring programs supporting underrepresented groups entering the tech space. “We got in touch with FrauenLoop and saw a lot of potential for us to work together to provide a career path for the next generation of women coders,” says Marissa. “The tech team at Taxfix is always on the lookout for engineers with potential, knowing that we have a great mentoring environment that allows people to grow in their careers.”
“In the past, I’ve heard a lot of companies talk about wanting to have more diversity in tech. Often, this translates into changes to hiring policy. But it means nothing if your team environment is not open and supportive, doesn’t support differences of opinion and different points of view, and doesn’t encourage people of all levels and backgrounds to speak openly and critically. This is crucial, otherwise diverse talent will simply pass through the company in search of an organisation where their views are respected and their needs are met. Companies need to put their money where their mouth is, backing up their words with actions when it comes to investing in diversity, including new ways to support women looking to enter the tech industry and interest women in joining the industry in the first place.”
FrauenLoop x Taxfix
Early on in our partnership, we invited Dr. Stefflbauer to facilitate a workshop with our talent acquisition team and hiring managers. The training highlighted areas where unintended limitations and bias can creep into the hiring process. She recalls: “Our first round of exchanges with the Taxfix team demonstrated that there was a lot of accommodation made for women to apply for technical roles, but somewhat less alignment about the behaviours that constitute a junior role. Finding the time and creating strategies to hire and support junior tech talent is a problem for the tech industry at large, but there are some hacks to get out of the ‘3 years experience for a junior role’ trap. Beyond being open to these tips — and to the feedback from junior developers at FrauenLoop — the team was ready to review their processes and discuss ways to identify talented developers without resorting to experienced hires only.”
By partnering with FrauenLoop, we hope to move further towards building a tech environment that fosters diversity. This allows us not only to identify talented people with the potential to become the next generation of programmers, but also to help challenge the tech industry’s gender imbalance at the source through supporting women’s education.
FrauenLoop: a self-driven crash course
Fullstack engineer Olha Danylchenko was originally trained as an English-Ukrainian translator before turning her attention to visual design. Then, when she happened to chance upon an online Python course, her career path changed dramatically. “Python is a puzzle-solving language, similar to maths and logic, which really interested me at school. I also realized that Python would allow me to fulfill my visual design dreams, though with the added dimension of responsiveness. I picked it up again when I relocated to Berlin, teaching myself from home for eight months. Berlin has lots of meet ups and learning groups where I could share my work; it’s a real hub of programming creativity. But teaching yourself from home takes a lot of determination, and I eventually came to a point where I didn’t know how to progress further. I started to look for courses, and this is when I came across FrauenLoop.”
Olha’s FrauenLoop journey began with weekly classes. She recalls: “I took two cycles: the basics of web development using HTML and styling, and a second cycle learning to use React, which was a more complicated course, culminating in coding our own blog from scratch.” The school also offers courses in data analytics and machine learning. “We weren’t spoon-fed but provided with the necessary information to make progress in our own individual projects,” Olha adds. “You code at home, and then come to class to discuss your work and receive direction. It takes self-motivation.”
FrauenLoop also runs women-centric workshops in CV writing and salary negotiation, which Olha says were eye-opening experiences. “Nakeema’s main motivation is to give women the confidence we may lack, and to fight for the value we know we are worth in the tech environment. Where I come from, salary negotiation is not a thing: you’re just expected to gratefully accept the salary that is offered. It was a new concept for me.”
In the negotiation workshops, students write down mock salary requests, and are then asked to prove to experts that they are worth what they are asking for. “A big part of the workshop is providing us with the framework to discuss our skills, including transferable skills from other roles so that our value is not simply based on our experience within a particular role,” Olha says. “Learning about negotiation was a breakthrough for me: you should always be ready to negotiate — in fact, hiring teams expect it. We were also taught about how and when to request a raise within a role.”
The CV writing workshops are equally valuable, and again involve experts providing students with inside knowledge of what recruiters are looking for. “They spend just 30 seconds looking at your CV, which is how long it takes recruiters to make a decision about an applicant!” Olha reveals. “Their instant feedback is invaluable. Knowing you’ll emerge from the course with all these new skills as well as improved programming knowledge makes you feel like a badass.”
Olha rounded off her learning with FrauenLoop: “The experience pulled together all the learnings I had made in the previous eight months. I would recommend the course to anyone. FrauenLoop gave me a sense of community, which I didn’t have studying alone, and confidence that, prior to the course, remained untapped. Many of the teachers are fresh graduates, which means teachers understand their students’ experiences. And if you decide to enroll, you might get the chance to be taught by me!”
An open working culture
Our goals to improve gender balance are also an expression of the company’s ‘open’ work culture, something which Marissa noted early on. “During my interview process, I learned about the company culture and realised that it would be a really good fit for my management style,” she explains. “I’ve always valued a work culture where there is no such thing as a stupid question. We should all be encouraged to show our vulnerabilities: that is how we grow. And it is much more beneficial to the business than having people remain in the dark.”
Marissa also believes that Taxfix’s international team — made up of people from more than 45 countries — is to the company’s benefit. “It’s giving us fresh perspectives to expand our business into new markets and has allowed us to grow into a stronger and more resilient company. Our relationship with FrauenLoop is one of the initiatives that has proven to me that diversity is a topic the company genuinely cares about,” Marissa says. “Taxfix is mindfully hiring through programs that work to close the privilege gap by championing people who have been consistently excluded from the tech industry. There is still a lot of work to be done there, and my job as a manager is to ensure that the right environment is here for candidates when they join. What has made a difference for me is seeing how many people care about this topic, and how many people want to be involved in discussing diversity across the organisation. Change is happening.”
Want to know more about Taxfix and our culture? Explore our career site.
Special thanks to Samuel Flannagan for helping us put this story together.
