10 Questions with Ada Tagoe
Cloud Technical Program Manager
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Ada Tagoe (she/her) moved to the United Kingdom with her family as a teenager. After studying Electronic and Electrical Engineering at Imperial College London, she spent 15 years working in the Investment Banking industry, starting first on the operation team, then moving to engineering and eventually landing in management as a technical program and people manager.
1. How did you get into tech?
I moved to the UK from Hong Kong when I was young. When I started school here, I really struggled with subjects that involved writing or reading a lot of English so naturally, I focused more on the STEM subjects and did really well in them.
When choosing what to study for university, I decided on Electronic and Electrical Engineering since I enjoyed Maths and Physics and wanted to study something more practical than a pure science. I wanted to get a job where I could either build robots or get into the electronic medical field.
After finishing my second year, I did an internship at a research lab to work on building a prototype of TV set top boxes (which might tell you how old I am!) I enjoyed the project but hated the working environment. I was on a team of almost ten other engineers, but they were all white men and there was an inappropriate calendar hung up in the kitchen.
The experience really put me off looking for any engineering jobs, so I started looking into Computing- and Information Technology-related roles and got an internship at an investment bank the following year. I really enjoyed my work, writing code to solve problems, as well as the working environment, which was diverse and fast paced. I received a returned offer to join their graduate program and have been in a technical role ever since!
2. Who is one person you looked up to when you were younger?
My dad.
3. Where’s your hometown?
Hong Kong.
4. What’s a time you faced a struggle? How did you deal with it?
When I first arrived in the UK, I really struggled to fit into school. My English wasn’t great, so I couldn’t join in on conversations with my classmates. I didn’t have any friends at school for two years. I was really lonely.
During my A-level [a school leaving qualification in the UK], I moved to a different class and met a group of girls who were very welcoming and tried their best to include me in their group. They would ask me questions about my culture and background, even learning how to sing my favorite Cantonese songs. They also tried to introduce me to the culture here, including all the different boy bands and Nandos!
I started to speak up more, and my English improved significantly. I am forever grateful to these girls for making me feel at home, and this is one of the reasons I dedicate so much time outside my day job to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives. I have first-hand experience of how an inclusive environment can make a significant impact on someone’s mental health and overall performance.
5. What’s a time you did something you were immensely proud of?
I lacked confidence when I first started working. For the first few years, I barely spoke up and kept my head down to get my work done.
One day, we had a severe outage at work, and it just so happened that many of my teammates were not available, so I had to jump on the outage call and lead resolution of the incident with a few other newbies on the team. I was under immense pressure; there were so many senior directors on the call waiting for me to provide updates. I had to manage the team to work on a resolution, provide regular updates on the call, and answer any questions. It was an intense few hours, but eventually, we managed to stabilize the platform.
At the end of the day, the senior director of my team came over to give me the best compliment I have ever received at work: that I did such an amazing job and demonstrated exceptional leadership. I was really proud of myself.
Although I have handled much more complicated incidents and achieved so much more since then, that day means a lot to me. It was the day I finally started to believe in myself.
6. What’s something that’s been on your mind a lot lately?
Racial injustice on the Black+ community around the world. The lack of representation of people of color for young kids to look up to.
7. Favorite food?
Any seafood.
8. Favorite book?
The Bible.
9. If you could try another job for a day, what would it be?
A teacher.
10. If you could give your 18-year-old self a piece of advice, what would it be?
Don’t stay at home during your university years. Stay on campus and make more friends!
